Art Classes

Maine Art Educators Spring Conference

Posted by on May 3, 2023 in Art Classes, Book: Skywatcher, Illustration, Maine Art Education Association, Maine College of Art, Zines | 3 comments

What could be finer than meeting up with Maine art educators at the Ecology School at River Bend Farm? I was delighted to speak this past weekend at the MAEA awards ceremony and lead two zine making workshops. Bonus: my former MECA student, Liz Long, was my ride! She’s now in her second year teaching Commercial Art at PATHS. After finding our dorm room, we strolled to the river. We walked past other teachers painting en plein air, the Ecology School farm, and this row of trees. All the workshops were held in these yurts, which looked like stubby pencils to me. I brought a batch of...

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Art Camp

Posted by on Aug 27, 2020 in Art Classes, Drawing, Maine College of Art, Pastels, Peaks Island | 9 comments

My island neighbor, dear friend, and author Nicole d’Entremont, has taken up drawing with a passion. She began creating what she called Trumpoons back in 2017 as expressions of satire fueled by outrage. This led to drawing more, taking sketchbooks on her travels to Vietnam and New York. She took her first drawing class this January with the legendary artist, Martha Miller, at Maine College of Art, and was transformed. Nicole enrolled in a portraiture class with Martha in June but it was cancelled because of Covid-19. She approached me about teaching her, and I was honored yet unsure I...

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Patterns pre-pandemic

Posted by on May 7, 2020 in Art Classes, Collage, Illustration, Maine College of Art, Surface Design | 19 comments

Are you as upside down as I am? These past two months have been deeply unsettling. As a freelance artist for almost 40 years, it’s not the working from home that’s an adjustment. It’s everything else. The global deaths, economic fallout, social distancing, mask-wearing, and swabbing of surfaces are overwhelming. Although it’s often hard to concentrate, finding a daily creative moment has kept me grounded. Back in January, before all this hit my world, I had eagerly signed up for a Maine College of Art Continuing Studies course, Pattern and Surface Design, taught by...

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Fashion Illustration Week

Posted by on Sep 17, 2019 in Art Classes, Collage, Drawing, Fashion Illustration, Illustration Institute, Maine College of Art | 4 comments

Thanks to the Illustration Institute and sponsorship from the Roxanne Quimby Foundation, I was immersed in Fashion Illustration Week, held at the venerable Mechanics Hall in Portland, Maine. On Monday our class received a swag bag of treats including an Uppercase Magazine! Alex Rheault, a former colleague at Maine College of Art, demonstrated the croquis, a fashion sketch figure upon which any garment can be drawn. Our class of 20 included painters, designers, textile artists, actors, writers, retired art teachers, illustrators, and fashion thinkers. We worked in the spacious ballroom with...

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Jumpin’ July

Posted by on Aug 2, 2019 in Art Classes, Book: Ana and the Sea Star, Book: What Makes an Opossum Tick?, Children's Book Illustration, Collage, Drawing, Illustration, Illustration Institute, Maine College of Art, Pastels, Peaks Island, Portland Public Library, Publisher: Tilbury House, School Visits, Travels | 1 comment

A friend recently called July the “ADHD of months” and I agree. So. Much. Going. ON. Normally I make blog posts about individual events, but they have been coming at me too dang fast. Here is the whole jam of July: kids books, talks, classes, travels, friends, family. A bounty of sun and color and amazing humans. I was off to the Friends School for their Story in the Forest program on July 9. I read Ana and the Sea Star and then eager campers played a lively game of Ocean Locomotion. They tried moving like sea stars! They also drew sea creatures in pastel, with gusto. I’m...

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Illustration Feast

Posted by on Jul 12, 2019 in Art Classes, Drawing, Illustration, Illustration Institute, Peaks Island | 0 comments

Thanks to the Illustration Institute, my summer is off to a bountiful beginning. A little jet-lagged from our Ireland travels, we still made it to the first lecture on June 24 by Chris Raschka who was a Faison resident two summers ago. This time he shared wisdom on keeping travel journals, such a timely topic! His hand-lettered agenda covered all the bases at the Portland Public Library’s event. He discussed the need to work fast, as travel companions may not want to linger for the long looking that sketching or painting requires. With a pot of ink in his pocket, he captures moments...

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