The Joy of Artists Workshops, Painting with Robert Burridge

"Painting at Cheap Joe's" ©Olen Sikes

Every year I try to take an artist workshop away from home, often in another state. I have especially enjoyed those taught at Cheap Joe's in Boone NC. Not only are the workshops top notch, but being there is like having a child lost in a candy store. After all, the classroom door leads directly into the main Cheap Joe Art Store with almost every art supply imaginable  on display in a fascinating artful setting. It's like Christmas morning every time you push open the entryway.

Recently, the Robert Burridge Workshop I attended was completely full-25 students. Although the room was crowded with artists, we each had our own painting table and enough room to spread out work as we created it. Also, there was a seating area for everyone to gather at the front of the classroom for demonstrations and to watch Bob work via a large video monitor. At noon each day, lunch was served, and we could take it outside either to picnic tables or to the sprawling porch with its large, comfortable rocking chairs.

What could be more ideal? A week painting among other artists!

Robert Burridge is an amazing instructor. His demos are not only informative, but they are flavored with colorful stories that have happened to him along the way. A few years ago, he was the teacher in the first workshop I ever took at Cheap Joe's. I learned about creating an intense orange background over my gesso paint. I also discovered how to paint subjects more loosely. Eventually I created a popular series of work, "Monti, Just for Fun", using the techniques Bob taught.

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

Last week, I didn't anticipate learning much that was new. But I did. I learned more about making texture and about painting "carrot" figures. What I found will surely wind up somewhere deep inside a mysterious cold wax painting or even on a sheet of Yupo in midst of Robert Doak watercolors.

Besides all that, things I knew from long ago were reinforced. Thank you, Robert Burridge, for what you brought to us. Traveling all over the country to teach is really hard. Thank you, too, for all the miles you travel from your great California studio.

Standing in the Studio I Study the Paintings on the Wall

Art Studio ©Mary Montague Sikes

Sometimes when I visit Crossroads Art Center in Richmond on a quiet summer's day, I enjoy the serene setting filled with more art than I can hope to take in during one visit. For a few minutes, I go to my studio space and study the paintings on the walls.

My work there is a bit of a cross-section of the many loves I have--color both subdued and bright. Work created on Yupo with all the aspects of color movement and appeal driven by experimentation. It is on the Yupo that I most enjoy using the Robert Doak watercolors filled with intensity and power. A work on canvas also features the Doak paints, but that gessoed surface dulls and softens the look of the work. I enjoy the softness that speaks to me in a spiritual way.

The acrylic painting at the top of the center wall both haunts and attracts me. The strength of the iris reaching toward the sky in "Upreach" depicts nature forever pulling and leading us to a better understanding of the world in which we live. Perhaps it represents the spirits we cannot see.

An acrylic painting on the right wall takes me back to Sedona, Arizona, one of my favorite destinations in all the world. "Rhapsody in Red" on the lower right, center wall conveys both the motion and the sound of music. It takes me to a happy place.

There are two encaustic oil paintings in my studio now. I want to touch and polish them. Occasionally, I do use a soft cotton cloth to brighten and shine the wax in these paintings.

Visiting the studio I have there and going into my studio at home bring me joy. I respond to the artwork I've done, and I hope others will find happiness visiting them as well.

What do you see and feel when you visit art galleries and museums? Do you understand what the artist is saying with their work?


Upcoming Workshops with Mary Montague Sikes

Gloucester VA Arts on Main
August 20 - 22, 1 to 4 p.m.
"Bringing in the Magic"

Hilton Head SC Art Academy
September 10 - 12, 1 to 4 p.m.
Oil/Cold Wax Painting

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.

"U" is for Universe - A to Z Challenge

Painting in progress detail ©Mary Montague Sikes

"U" is for the Universe. What a vast meaning that covers.

"All space-time, matter, and energy, including the solar system, all stars and galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space, regarded as a whole" is a dictionary definition of universe.


"A sphere of interest, activity, or understanding" is another segment of the definition. That's the definition that pertains to Farrah Ferand, heroine of my novel, Evening of the Dragonfly. For her, at the moment, the universe is her studio where she creates new paintings and parts of new paintings everyday. 

Farrah's painting for today is a detail from the larger painting (24" x 36") that she started yesterday. As she paints and sprays Robert Doak watercolors, her past and her extended universe become clearer. Also, her relationship with her family and with Dirk Lawrence, the mysterious stranger she has grown to love grow clearer as well. 

Tomorrow the entire new painting will be revealed. I don't know yet how the colors and imagery will change, but they will. It will be an artwork in tribute to and memory of the Vanished.

"T" is for Trials and Tribulations - A to Z Challenge

Painting Detail ©Mary Montague Sikes

"The road of life is never without trials and tribulations." This is a quote from an unknown source. People can face trials and tribulations and learn from them or they can let the unfortunate episodes of life get them down. Some people choose happiness; others fall into despair. Attitude makes all the difference.

Farrah Ferand, the heroine of Evening of the Dragonfly, has faced many trials and tribulations during her lifetime. She is learning from her trials and tribulations as she paints the work for her one person art show. The piece for today is a detail from her current painting that will be one of the largest in the show, 24" x 36". It's another watercolor on canvas using Robert Doak intense watercolors. The plan is for this painting to be completed by Saturday. So far, there is no name for the finished work, but creating it is helping Farrah overcome her trials and tribulations.

"S" is for Sunrise - A to Z Challenge

"Sunrise" ©Mary Montague Sikes

Today's painting is a change of page for Farrah Ferand, the heroine of Evening of the Dragonfly. Sunrise represents new beginnings for her. The dark of night is gone, and anything is possible with a new day. Farrah has brought lots of baggage with her for her new life in Virginia. As she paints her one-person exhibition work, she is creating the opportunity for new beginnings.

"Sunrise" is acrylic on a 20" x 16" stretched canvas. I have found that traveling between watercolor and acrylics for my mediums is more difficult than I expected. The two painting processes are quite different for me. I love the feel and the smell of my thick, juicy acrylic Golden fluid acrylics. I also enjoy the development of compositions as I spray the beautiful and intense colors of the Robert Doak watercolors. It's easier for me to work in one style for a period of time. Two years ago, I painted an animal a day, all working with acrylics except for one pastel painting on paper that I didn't like as well and later recreated in acrylic on canvas. That was an easier process.

For those of you who have just joined this blog journey:
Evening of the Dragonfly is a novel set in the 1980s, a time less complicated than today. Farrah Ferand has a high school art teaching job in a small Virginia town. She meets Dirk Lawrence, a businessman from the city, who takes an interest in her and in her painting and is helping her build a studio over the garage in her rented home. Farrah is thrilled to have the studio because she has a one-person art exhibition scheduled. As she works on new paintings, Farrah realizes things about herself, her relationships, and the tragic loss of her mother. We encounter some of her realizations as new paintings and parts of painting are unveiled each day during the A to Z Challenge. My book is available in trade paperback and as an e-book.

"R" is for Repressed Memories

"Repressed Memories" ©Mary Montague Sikes

The letter "R" was especially difficult for Farrah and me. I went through many different words while deciding what would work best for today's painting. I considered and discarded restoration, resolution, realistic, and many other possibilities. Eventually, I settled on "repressed memories" which is a theme difficult to convey in a painting. The darkest part of the story of Farrah Ferand, the heroine of Evening of the Dragonfly, is her journey to deal with repressed memories. Therefore, this is the darkest painting thus far in the series created for her one-person exhibition.

"Repressed Memories" features Robert Doak intense watercolors on canvas. It is 16 x 20 inches.