YOUR AH HAA MOMENT: VISITING ARTIST PROGRAM

23 Apr YOUR AH HAA MOMENT: VISITING ARTIST PROGRAM

Program brings encaustic painting, printmaking, mixed media and more to Telluride this summer

Shawna Moore at work

Online registration has begun for Ah Haa’s 2013 summer visiting artist courses offering students a wide variety of high caliber art explorations from June through September. Each summer Ah Haa brings a dynamic selection of visiting artists to share their creative expertise and this year is no exception. Take advantage of the opportunity to try something new or develop existing skills while learning from talented and successful individuals from across the country.

Montana painter and encaustic artist Shawna Moore kicks off the program with “Encaustic and Pigment Stick,” Sat.-Sun., June 15-16. Using thin coats of wax and resin, students will “trap” marks and drawings under layers of wax to create rich and dynamic images, whether abstract or real.

Jennifer Ghormley, from Colorado’s Front Range, teaches “Relief Woodcut: Printmaking Sampler.” to for three evenings, Mon.-Thurs., June 24-27. Students will create bold, full color graphics by carving images into wood blocks and transferring the images onto paper with ink. Capable of making multiple images of the same design, the original wood grain texture is transferred onto the final prints.

Returning to Ah Haa this summer is Florida mixed-media artist Lynn Whipple, Sat.-Sun., July 13-14. Lynn will teach “Exploring Collage.” Based the premise of visual storytelling, students will work with found papers, photographs, altered images, drawing, painting, writing and sewing to create finished collage works of art.

Also in July, master pastel painter and Colorado resident Doug Dawson teaches “Pastel Painting: Studio Landscapes,” Sat.-Sun., July 27-28. Through both group and individual instruction, Dawson will help students discover and develop their own personal style when applying heavily pigmented pastel sticks to paper, an intoxicating process.

Telluride landscape by Jeanne Mackenzie

Another Colorado artist, Jeanne Mackenzie, brings two classes to the Ah Haa in August. “Color Confidence,” Mon.-Wed., Aug. 5-7, and “Plein Air Oil Painting,” Fri.-Sun.,  Aug. 9-11, (with an optional drop-in class on Mon., Aug. 12.)

“Color Confidence” is an acrylic painting class where students designed to unleash some of the mysteries of color mixing and make sense of color theory. “Plein Air Oil Painting” will bring students out in the field to learn how to put light and life into their outdoor landscape paintings.

From California comes mixed media painter Lauren Mantecón, back at Ah Haa after teaching a semester of the Telluride Painting Academy last fall. Lauren will teach “Reclaiming the Spontaneous Image: A Mixed Media Painting Process,” Fri.-Sun., Aug. 9-15. Devoted as much to the students’ personal process as image making, this class will explore a variety of mixed-media processes using glues, glazes, paint, collage to create a series of small paintings.

Another encaustic painter, Wisconsin’s Rebecca Crowell, teaches her popular class,” Oil & Wax: Abstract Painting with Cold Wax Medium,” Fri.-Mon., Sept. 6-9. Students will explore methods of building up abstract paintings in layers, using cold wax medium, tube paint, powdered pigments, and other materials.

Photographer Bill Ellzey on the job

Former Tellurider Bill Ellzey, of Crestone, Colo., wraps up the season with his popular fall landscape photography class, “Telluride Autumn: Through the Lens, “Fri.-Sun., Sept. 27-29. Using digital SLR cameras, students will capture the Telluride region’s spectacular autumn color extravaganza in early morning and evening location shooting, using the afternoons for critiques and lessons on exposure technique.

For full course descriptions, visiting artist biographies, and online registration, go to www.ahhaa.org.