FLUID ACRYLIC WORKSHOP THIS SATURDAY JAN 16, 2016

FLUID ACRYLIC WORKSHOP WITH SHARON LYNN WILLIAMS
Saturday January 16, 2016 from 10-4pm at Swinton’s Art Supply, 7160 Fisher Street, SE, Calgary 

 Come and join me to learn about the benefits of using fluid acrylics in a watercolour manner. Some of these include the ability to move into translucent and opaque effects, superior glazing ability without the possibility of making mud, and outstanding clarity of colour in the final result, not to mention no glass is required when framing.

Class size is limited to 10 students
Cost: $110 plus GST. Call Swinton’s at 403-258-3500 to register, or contact me at 403 238 4744

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"Beside The River", fluid acrylic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Beside The River", 12x12" fluid acrylic painting on paper
SOLD

I recently taught a "Acrylics As Watercolour" workshop in Grande Prairie to an absolutely wonderful group of women from the Peace River Chapter of the Federation Of Canadian Artists. This is the demo I did for them -focusing on repainting one of our successful paintings using a colour scheme (to keep their minds off the fact that they were using an unfamiliar medium!!). Below is my original watercolour that I did at another workshop. The colour scheme for this painting was a triad of yellow-green, red-violet and red-orange. So much fun to mix things up!!

If you are interested in taking this workshop from me, I will be teaching one in Canmore March 23 & 24, and one in Edmonton on April 6 & 7. Let me know if you want more information!!
Enjoy!

To commission your own painting or contact me to do a workshop in your area, please email me at williamsdotsharonatshawdotca (insert characters for the dot and at!)

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"Winter Sun" acrylic painting demonstration by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter Sun", acrylic on canvas, 14 x 14"
$695.00 framed

I did this painting over the holidays, trying to bring some life into this winter cold we are having. I have been tremendously impressed and inspired by the watercolours and acrylics of Scottish artist Chris Forsey. They touch on a way of painting that I explored several years ago, and had forgotten all about. I thought I would show you the steps so that you can see how it was done.

Step 1: First of all, I need to tell you that I had no idea how this was going to turn out -I love the challenge of working from chaos!! The painting begins with a random mess of fluid acrylics, quin gold, quin burnt orange, and Perm Violet dark with a touch of dioxazine violet. The paint was put on wet-on-wet and dry brushed, with splattering, stamping with hand carved stamps and scraping. While this underpainting is warm in colour temperature, the final painting will have a cool dominance, bringing attention to these lovely warm colours.

Step 2: Some translucent and opaque blues were begun to get the feeling of snow and sky. I was careful to keep all the edges soft at this stage, as I wasn't sure where I was going.

Step 3: More stamping was done with transparent and opaque colours, and hints of trunks laid in. The edges of the stamped patterns began to suggest a tangle of branches.

Step 4: Tinted opaque white mixed with modeling paste was added to the bottom area with a palette knife in a loose fashion to begin to model the snow.

Step 5: Splatter was added to the bottom snow as were some suggestions of cast shadows. Trunks and branches were added in darks and lights weaving throughout the brush. A suggestion of the warm sun breaking into the coldness was added. Also at this stage the tree tops were further suggested by negatively painting them with the sky colour. Some faint distant trees were added and the sun was softened further to suggest a haziness that I felt expressed the frostiness of the morning.

Step 6: I needed to change the size of the trees on the left, so I sponged in some white paint and let that dry with the intention of glazing all of it with the warm 'brush' colours. In the end, I only glazed some of the white and kept the rest as I thought it looked like snow caught in the branches amongst some yellowed leaves which remained on the trees.

Enjoy!

PS: I will post another clearance sale painting tomorrow. Please note that Poppy Surprise and Iris Garden have been sold. Glad that this clearance sale is working!!!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

"Rundle Ridge Spring ii", acrylic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Rundle Ridge Spring ii", acrylic painting, 8 x 11"
$110 matted in double archival mats, FREE S&H

In my mixed media class we are learning how to use fluid acrylics in some of their many possible ways. This week, we looked at using them in a watercolour fashion: transparently. The benefit of using the fluids really pays off this way -the paint dries just as nicely as it looks while it is wet (no dulling as with watercolours) and you can use all of your watercolour techniques with the exception of lifting dry paint. Lifting while wet as well as puddling colour together works exactly the same way, but the end result is gloriously brilliant colour. This painting was done from a plein air oil painting I did this spring -see below. I tried to keep the colour the same, but for the acrylic I only used 3 colours for the entire painting: darilyde yellow, ultramarine blue and quin. crimson.


"Rundle Ridge Spring", plein air oil painting, 8 x 10"
$495 framed, FREE S&H

This is the photo of the location that I did the plein air painting from. It is wonderful to interpret a scene en plein air, and then use that study for future paintings. I think I will continue on with this painting, to see what else I can get from it!

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

"Reinterpreting The Old Man", acrylic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Reinterpreting The Old Man", acrylic painting, 12 x 16"
$695 framed, FREE S&H

This week I did a demo for a local art group focusing on the use of fluid acrylics -my favorite kind! I used my value study for "The Old Man River" -the same one that I painted in my Watercolour Workshop DVD. I used a tertiary triad of red-orange, yellow-green and red-violet, and decided to keep to a warm dominance. It certainly is HOT, but it makes me smile :) I primarily used the paint transparently, like watercolour, but added some opaque and translucent notes at the end.

Just for reference, below is the painting from the DVD, done in watercolour. I changed the sky in the new painting, because it just wanted to be like that!! Like I always say, plan the best you can, but then be prepared for the painting to take you in new directions.

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, a DVD, or to commission your own painting, please email me.

Acrylic En Plein Air?

"Spring Fling", acrylic on paper, 12 x 16"
SOLD  
 
This is my first attempt to paint en plein air with acrylics. I used a watercolour block for my support, and boy did I struggle. I began the painting much like a watercolour, but things were just drying like crazy in the breeze and sun. It was a joy to go back in with more opaque passages though. I love the way that acylics do not dry lighter as watercolours do, sometimes they even dry a bit darker. I will have to tweak my set-up and try again.
Enjoy!

New acrylic painting

"Opabin Imaginings", 12 x 16", acrylic on paper
SOLD  
 

This is the demonstration painting that I did at the FCA show on Saturday. It is based on my plein air oil study from last September at Lake O'Hara (see post Sept 27, 2008 for the study). I chose an unusual colour triad that I just love (also in post Feb 20, 2009) of orange, yellow-green and violet. I used Golden Fluid Acrylics and worked quickly; the entire painting took less than one hour. That is the result of having a great plan and sticking to it, and not getting bogged down in the details.
Enjoy!

New Acrylic demo

"Costal Colour", acrylic, 14 x 10"
SOLD  
 
This is the demo that I did for the Chestemere workshop yesterday. I used fluid acrylics on watercolour paper. Fluid acrylics are fabulous for artists with a watercolour background, as they can be used with traditional watercolour techniques (except lifting), and then can be used translucently and opaquely like traditional acrylics. They also have the advantage that the colour dries as rich as it was when it was wet. I used a split complimentary palette of DaVinci's Leaf Green fluid acrylic, Golden's Dioxazine Purple fluid acrylic, and Grahams' Cadmium Orange tube acrylic (you can use tube acrylics like fluids by diluting them with water -just make sure to use an absorbant surface). I am off to teach my watercolour workshop in Edmonton, so will post when I get back, when I will post the value drawing for this painting and a previous version I did in a different colour scheme.
Enjoy!