Loving Artist Workshops - Taking and Teaching Them

"Gloucester Arts on Main 2018" ©Mary Montague Sikes

More than two decades ago, I took my first artist workshop. Mary Alice Braukmann was the instructor. Traveling from Florida to Williamsburg, Virginia, she brought with her a wealth of knowledge and a lifetime of enthusiasm. Besides the excitement of painting in a week-long workshop, she opened a new world for me for interacting with other artists.

After I earned my MFA in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, I retreated to my home studio and painted alone. Developing my ideas on canvas was rewarding, but something was missing. I needed to be around other artists. At VCU, I had my own large studio room in a big, deserted school building near the campus. There were 11 other artists, all MFA candidates, painting inside that massive structure. During those two years of intensive learning, visiting artists from New York and California also used the studio space there. We spent time together. I missed that.

The artist workshops filled the interaction void. I found more and more of them. Some, such as a watercolor workshop with Patricia Tobacco Forrester in the Washington DC area. I loved her large expressive paintings and was sad to see that she died in 2011. Creatives are especially missed when they are gone.

I've taken many workshops at Cheap Joe's in Boone NC. That's where I found my hero artist, Mary Ann Beckwith who brought Robert Doak watercolors and Yupo into my life. Janet Rogers is another exceptional watercolor artist I found there. And I will never forget the Robert Burridge workshops where I fell in love with using orange under-paintings on my acrylic canvasses.

Sedona AZ is filled with seduction and energy. Each year, Jan Sitts teaches her workshops there that are filled with color and texture.

Besides taking workshops, I enjoy teaching them. I've had the opportunity to give classes in San Diego CA, Denver CO, Hilton Head SC, Richmond VA, Williamsburg VA, Gloucester VA and more.
For me, art teaching is as much a learning experience for the instructor as it is for the student.

As artists we must continue to grow and make our lives meaningful. The "messy" minds of creatives are filled with all sorts of ideas that cry to evolve.

I love artist workshops. Thanks to all my teachers and to my students.

Learning More About Yupo - A Different Painting Process

"Tangled on Xanadu" (right) ©Mary Montague Sikes

When I work on Yupo, I get lots of questions about the process. After all, Yupo has a slick synthetic surface completely different from the usual look and feel of watercolor papers such as Arches.

The painting on the right in the photo, taken of one of my gallery walls in Crossroads Art Center in Richmond, Virginia, features Yupo attached with matte acrylic medium to a gallery-wrapped canvas. It is an experimental painting in many ways because of my methods of applying intense Robert Doak watercolors to the Yupo and because it is on canvas and not under glass.

I discovered Yupo in the mid-1990s while taking a workshop with Mary Alice Braukman in Williamsburg. At the time, we experimented briefly with alcohol inks dripped on the surface and moved around with alcohol sprays. The color shifted and moved as it dried, making it fun to watch. I was hooked on the paper that wasn't. I did some research and found that Yupo, used for printing, was manufactured in Chesapeake, Virginia. Since it was not far away, I went to the plant and was given a variety of samples of some very large sheets of Yupo in all the different weights they made at the time. I was thrilled. The experimentation continued.

It was not until I discovered Mary Ann Beckwith in 2004 that I uncovered the most exciting aspects of working with Yupo. She introduced me to the amazing and intense Robert Doak paints that he created in his Brooklyn, New York studio. Playing and spraying paint on heavyweight sheets of Yupo produced art pieces like nothing I had ever seen before. I loved it. Mary Ann used her background in chemistry, inspired by her chemist father, to lead her students to the discovery of exciting creative results using a variety of materials.

Thanks to the wonderful teachers I have encountered along the way and the growth of the Yupo market, my journey in experimental work has grown and expanded. The more I learn about working on Yupo, the more my joy increases.

"I Love Yupo" is the title of the demonstration I plan to give at Crossroads Art Center in Richmond during the Open House on May 18.

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

Where Is Your Happy Place?

"Sunset Over Sugar Mountain, Banner Elk NC" ©Mary Montague Sikes

One of my favorite songs in Zumba class is "Happy." The vivacious lyrics and rhythm make me smile. The song reminds me of the wonderful week I just spent in my "happy" place with 14 other artists making art all week long.

I love going to Cheap Joe's in Boone NC where I paint and learn something new in a workshop every year. I especially enjoy the workshops that Mary Ann Beckwith teaches. This year was special. Many of the class participants are also workshop presenters, so the expansive classroom at Cheap Joe's was alive with creativity and energy.

One important thing I got from the workshop this year was Mary Ann's suggestion to take a piece of art you're working on around the house with you. Yesterday I took two paintings with me and placed them on a tabletop by the television where I added details while I watched my St. Louis Cardinals baseball game. It was amazing how different the paintings looked outside my studio where I work beneath three large skylights.

"Workshop at Cheap Joe's" ©Mary Montague Sikes

 From April through October, Cheap Joe's offers a different workshop every week. Some people take several classes throughout the summer. An artist can present a workshop no more than once every two years. (The exception is Joe Miller - Cheap Joe who does his extremely popular workshop once or twice each year.) Mary Ann Beckwith will return in the summer of 2016.

I realized as we unpacked the car in Boone that I had failed to bring any books with me. In the past, I have scheduled book signings to coincide with my workshops. One year I signed books at Waldenbooks which has long since closed. While I was at that signing, Leonard Cosmo who owned Highland Newstand invited me for an event at his store. I signed there for several years, but it is gone now as well. There are no Barnes and Noble stores in the vicinity, so scheduling book signings now is difficult.

While I still enjoy writing and will never give that up, my happy place is wherever I can make art. Where is yours?

Creativity is Contagious. Pass it On. Albert Einstein

Gloucester Art Center Mixed Media Workshop ©Dick Welton

Albert Einstein was truly a genius. He believed that imagination is more important than knowledge and he believed in the importance of creativity. He said, "Creativity is Contagious. Pass it on." I love that quote.

A few years ago, I met Mary Ann Beckwith and heard her tell about a friend who had worked hard and finally discovered the art-making method she'd been seeking over the years. Instead of keeping what she learned to herself, the artist shared her discovery with anyone who would listen and watch.

"If you don't teach it, it can't go on," Beckwith said. "Don't hesitate to share your knowledge. Teach anyone you can anything you know."

What extraordinary words of wisdom. Because of her creative and sharing spirit, I loved every moment of Beckwith's classes. I wish she lived nearby instead of in the far north of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

It was with Beckwith that I took a journey into experimental mixed media art. I learned new and exciting techniques that I continue to explore and expand inside my own studio. Many of the things I learned from her and from other artists since then, I am including in the workshops I'm teaching now. My next workshop will be in Williamsburg next week at This Century Art Gallery in the Education Center. The class is Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.

What a wonderful contagion to have--creativity. How exciting to have the opportunity to pass it on!

Please visit my web site to see some of my paintings using experimental water media.

Teaching Artist Workshops - Mixed Water Media

This autumn, I'm teaching mixed water media workshops in different locations. Getting my materials together is exciting because it reminds me of all the amazing possibilities that exist for artists like me who love to experiment.

A few years ago, I took a workshop in Williamsburg with artist Mary Alice Braukman. Her approach thrilled and inspired me. She also introduced me to Yupo, a synthetic "paper" that allows paints to shift and flow in many unusual ways. Mary Alice made me realize that although I held a MFA in painting, I still had lots to learn. Because of my enlightening experience with her, I decided to take a different workshop every year.

In 2006, I first met Mary Ann Beckwith, and she introduced me to the Robert Doak pigments. Through Mary Ann, I learned that Doak creates these intense colors in his Brooklyn studio and that they are the most amazing colors ever. Since then I have worked in awe of the unique effects that develop when I use his paints in combination with Yupo. Not only is Mary Ann a gifted artist but she is a dedicated and caring teacher. She introduced me to fractals and to the photo a day astronomy web site. Those pictures from NASA have greatly influenced my work.

"Peace Anywhere?" ©Mary Montague Sikes

Other workshops over the years have inspired me. Robert Burridge showed me the way to orange underpainting, and my work grew brighter. Jan Sitts demonstrated the use of a variety of materials and mediums to build up a more sculptural surface on canvas. With layering, she reignited my love of the three-dimension.

A bit of learning from all of my teachers, including Thomas Thorne and Carl Roseburg from the College of William and Mary, shows through in every piece of my work. I suspect it shows through in my teaching as well.

Anyone who is interested in taking one of my workshops can let me know in comments or e-mail, and I will contact you individually. I can promise excitement and new experiences with art. Like me, you will never paint in the same way again once you experience these materials and techniques.

--Mary Montague Sikes

Fractal Energy and the Beauty of Art

Polka Dot Explosion Fractal Art by AsaLegault

Several years ago, a wonderful artist by the name of Mary Ann Beckwith introduced me to fractal art. She used fractals as inspiration for some of her paintings.

I was intrigued and found great inspiration in them for my own art work. I also introduced fractal art in the classroom for my elementary art students. Using fractals I found on the Internet, I placed prints around the art room for the children to use as reference materials. Studying these beautiful fractals, they created wonderful imaginative pieces of art.

Now, I've made another fractal discovery. This is of fractal mandalas. Here is a link to an absolutely awesome Fractal Mandala.

Thank you, Mary Ann.

Are you familiar with fractals? I would love to know your experiences.

--Mary Montague Sikes

Around the World in 30 Days --Eagle Harbor, Michigan

Eagle Harbor, MI - MMSikes

Continuing Around the World in 30 Days, the Passenger to Paradise fell in love with Eagle Harbor, Michigan while visiting there last summer. She had never been to Upper Peninsula before but had heard lots about it from artist Mary Ann Beckwith. Passenger was amazed by the remoteness of the area and the beauty of the landscape. However, the thought of spending a winter there hidden beneath the snow was not very appealing.

Eagle Harbor sits on the edge of Lake Superior, the largest fresh water lake in the world. Passenger couldn't put her camera down, she was so captured by the beauty of the lake and so many other things, including a 1915 bridge over Eagle River.

The end of her journey was in Houghton where Passenger met her artist friend Beckwith, sipped wine on her porch and enjoyed a tour of the art hanging in her home. She also visited the construction of Beckwith's new studio over her garage. It was a trip filled with excitement, and although the Passenger has no plans to return, it was a powerful experience for her.

Have you ever visited the Upper Peninsula? Would you like to live there?