There's Something About Being with "Creatives"

Mary Ann Beckwith talks about art ©Mary Montague Sikes

I just returned from a week-long visit to Boone NC where I spent five days with nine other "creatives" in Mary Ann Beckwith's experimental painting class. Since I first met Mary Ann in 2005, I have loved her. The atmosphere around her overflows with excitement and positive energy. I listened to her and watched her painting demos, and I just wanted to paint, paint, paint. Sadly, Beckwith plans to retire from teaching workshops and concentrate on her own work. This was her next to last workshop. The last one will be in October 2017 in Austin TX.

Being with other "creatives" in this class was special. I didn't feel the jealousy or competition that sometimes develops in art workshop classes. Instead, there was high energy focus that led me to new ideas and thoughts about making and finishing art. Much of Mary Ann's direction is toward developing design in paintings.

I remembered my early painting classes with Thomas Thorne at the College of William and Mary. He talked about design in artwork then, but it didn't make the impression on me that it should have. I was too enthralled by the intense color of my newly-discovered tubes of acrylic paint to care about anything else. I wanted to be a colorist. I had started out with oil paints that dulled with my overuse of turpentine. I didn't like the smell or the slow drying of the oil materials. Acrylics cleaned with soap and water. I loved them.

Now Mary Ann has taught me to like watercolor paints, especially those manufactured by Robert Doak in his studio in Brooklyn NY. I first painted with those intense watercolors 11 years ago and have been excited by them every since. Because both watercolors and acrylics are water media, I can mix them.

I hated to come home and leave the wonderful intense atmosphere of Mary Ann's workshop at Cheap Joe's in Boone. But I am inspired and thankful for the opportunity to have been with other "creatives". There is just something about them...

Workshop Class at Cheap Joe's ©Mary Montague Sikes

"I" is for Indigo Blue Heart #atozchallenge

"Indigo Heart" ©Mary Montague Sikes

"I" is for Indigo Blue Heart in the A to Z Blog Challenge.

Sometimes artists mention the color "indigo blue" when talking about a work of art. Sir Isaac Newton included indigo in his rainbow color wheel. Besides indigo, his color wheel had red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet--the primary and secondary colors of a standard color wheel.

The word "indigo" refers to the plant used for thousands of years all over the world to dye fabrics blue. While the color violet (or purple) is created by mixing equal parts of blue and red paint, indigo contains a higher amount of blue in its mixture.

An indigo heart, painted with acrylics and gloss gel, seemed appropriate for the many hearts dancing on canvas project. Are you familiar with indigo blue? I probably use that color in my paintings more often than I realize.