All breakout sessions are on Saturday April 15.
All sessions are 1.5 hours unless otherwise noted.
Supply lists for all breakout sessions are here.
Where “Video available for purchase” is indicated: Video sessions are $15 per video. Links to the videos purchased will be sent to purchasers the week following the convention. Videos will be accessible for one month.
9:00 AM sessions:
| Go Travel – Make Art! René Eisenbart Cascade Room A Video not available | Is It Done Yet? Liz Walker Cascade Room B Video available for purchase | The Pleasure of Drawing Winnie Givot Cascade Room C Video available for purchase |
10:45 AM sessions:
| Let’s Get Moving Beth Verheyden — 2 hour session — Cascade Room A Video not available | Juror’s Critique #1 Vera Dickerson Cascade Room B Video not available | Fun with Acrylic Paint Pours Kim Smith Cascade Room C Video not available |
1:15 PM sessions:
| Forest for the Trees: Exploring the Freedom in Gestural Painting Molly Freitag Cascade Room D Video not available | Juror’s Critique #2 Vera Dickerson Cascade Room B Video not available | Creative Backgrounds – Painting on a Map Jacqueline Newbold Cascade Room C Video available for purchase |
3:00 PM sessions:
| An Artist’s Journey – Live Painting Demonstration Michelle Lindblom Cascade Room A Video available for purchase | Painting our Pets and Animals with Confidence Chris Stubbs Cascade Room C Video available for purchase |
Session descriptions
Go Travel – Make Art!
René Eisenbart
9:00 – 10:30 AM, Cascade Room A
Hands-on Class, $15 – Limit 40 participants
Video not available.
See supply list here
Travel is a catalyst for creativity. It places us in situations we couldn’t otherwise imagine. It spurs us to do things we didn’t know we could do, offering perspective on our lives and expanding our horizons. It can change us. For René Eisenbart, teaching workshops abroad is all about harnessing that creative energy. An example would be the lesson she’ll present, Mixed-Media-Maps. First, she’ll show work by different artists offering a variety of approaches. Then use her lesson plan to create your own map art with purposeful play, applying techniques to celebrate past journeys or enhance future travel. René will also offer practical ideas for creating on location and traveling with minimal art supplies, both a tiny sketch and watercolor kit you can drop in your go-bag and a more inclusive compact case with small palette, brushes etc., for plein air or classroom.
You’ll see her setup for teaching in the classroom and she’ll have tips for sketching and journaling with a playful, expressive approach.
Is It Done Yet? Putting the finishing touches on your paintings
Liz Walker
9:00 – 10:30 AM, Cascade Room B
Lecture, $15 – No limit on the number of attendees
Video available for purchase
No supply list
Many paintings fall short because we stop too soon or settle for “good enough.” How do
we push through and polish our “diamonds in the rough?” Learn how to turn a good painting into a great one by putting the needed finishing touches on your work. Award-winning WSO artist Liz Walker will present visual examples of “before and after” images (her own paintings and those of selected WSO artists). The tools and methods Liz shares in digital slideshow format will help you identify areas in your work that could be strengthened and improved. Liz’s examples will include cropping, linking shapes, adding (or removing) detail, and striving for color dominance and harmony. Learn to evaluate your work in a whole new way and take your painting across the finish line with flying colors!
The Pleasure of Drawing
Winnie Givot
9:00 – 10:30 AM, Cascade Room C
Hands-on Class, $15 – Limit 25 participants
Video available for purchase
See supply list here
This breakout session is for those who say, “I can’t draw,” as well as for those who already know how. We will play with exercises, most from Betty Edwards’ book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, to move into the right (artist’s) side of the brain, which can see relationships and shapes and thus draw them.
But why draw? Because it gives such pleasure as an image emerges on the page. Because in drawing something, you come to really know it. Because it is the basis of representational paintings. And because it is eminently portable and can be doneanywhere, anytime, and brings you simply into the present moment.
Let’s Get Moving
Beth Verheyden
10:45 AM – 12:45 PM, Cascade Room A
Hands-on Class, $15 – Limit 40 participants
Video not available
See supply list here
Feeling the energy of movement and motion is exciting! It draws us into a painting and makes us feel as if we are right there in step with the dancer or moved by the wind of the car rushing by! Beth captures that feeling in her paintings and calls her work “Watercolor in Motion.” Beth will share her award-winning insight and techniques in this unique 2-hour breakout session with you. Learn how she transforms a subject frozen in time into a living and moving experience. Bring your paints and brushes because you will be painting and creating motion and movement too!
Juror’s Critique #1
Vera Dickerson
10:45 AM – 12:15 PM, Cascade Room B
Lecture, $15 – Limit 20 critique participants; no limit on auditors.
Video not available
No supply list
Vera Dickerson, our juror and workshop instructor, will critique twenty images of water media paintings by WSO members. This critique session is an opportunity for input from a well-known artist to learn how to improve a painting and what makes a painting stand out. To have your image included in the critique session, sign up as a Participant. The participant slots go quickly, so be sure to sign up soon. Auditors simply listen, watch, and learn!
Fun with Acrylic Paint Pours
Kim Smith
10:45 AM – 12:15 PM, Cascade Room C
Demonstration, $15 – Limit 20 participants
(Hands-on opportunity at the end)
No supply list
Come explore the further possibilities of acrylics with this demonstration of paint pouring
techniques!
Kim will demonstrate on various substrates and show the amazing creations that can be made
without using brushes. We will go over pouring mediums and paint mixing. The demonstration will
include pouring methods such as the ‘flip pour’, ‘swiping’ and the Dutch Pour .
At the end of the session we will have a little time for participants to try one of these methods on a
small coaster. Beware, this is messy! Wear old clothes or be attentive to where the paint goes! (Or just watch!)
Nitrile gloves and plastic aprons will be available, or bring your own apron if you choose to try this.
Forest for the Trees: Exploring the Freedom in Gestural Painting
Molly Freitag
1:15 PM – 2:45 PM, Cascade Room D
Hands-on Class, $15 – Limit 20 participants
Video not available
See supply list here
While drawing on our inner muse, we’ll create a meditative arena in which an abstract play or narrative can take place full of playful expressions and intuitive responses! We will find arrangements of lines, marks, patterns, and texture to speak of formless, intangible, and unseen things. We will paint and draw in a way that addresses feelings, psyche, and spirit. We’ll move with a balance toward gestural, flowing expressions of our story to further our creative communication process. We may even discover authentic, poetic beauty in our undertaking! The experience will focus on elements working together to form relationships that express things about us, life itself, or the spirit of non-intention.
Juror’s Critique #2
Vera Dickerson
1:15 PM – 2:45 PM, Cascade Room B
Lecture, $15 – Limit 20 critique participants; no limit on auditors.
Video not available
No supply list
Vera Dickerson, our juror and workshop instructor, will critique twenty images of water media paintings by WSO members. This critique session is an opportunity for input from a well-known artist to learn how to improve a painting and what makes a painting stand out. To have your image included in the critique session, sign up as a Participant. The participant slots go quickly, so be sure to sign up soon. Auditors simply listen, watch, and learn!
Creative Backgrounds – Painting on a Map
Jacqueline Newbold
1:15 PM – 2:45 PM, Cascade Room C
Hands-on Class, $15 – Limit 20 participants
Video available for purchase
See supply list here
Consider painting on a map to create an interesting background to your watercolor painting. Topographic maps are fun to use because they show a landscape’s natural and physical features, including the altitude contours of the earth’s surface. They depict lakes, rivers, coastal flats, mountains, valleys, forests, and elevation gain. A map of Deschutes County will be our perfect backdrop for the artist’s playground. Jacqueline will demonstrate how to use a map for creating a fun backdrop for painting mountains, rivers, cityscapes, nature, or even journaling. This technique works well for those of you who like to keep a watercolor art journal. Jacqueline will supply the maps and gesso. In this hands-on break-out session, you will have time to explore how to paint on a map.
An Artist’s Journey – Live Painting Demonstration
Michelle Lindblom
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM, Cascade Room A
Performance and lecture, $15 – No limit on the number of attendees
Video available for purchase
No supply list
Michelle Lindblom, painter, printmaker, and writer from Bend, will give viewers a window into her art studio world and painting process by creating a work on canvas during this 90-minute session. During that time, she will stop periodically to discuss what is happening, taking questions from the audience regarding the process. Michelle uses her subconscious thoughts and intuition to guide her abstract work on the canvas. The only preplanning that occurs is her selection of hues and found materials she may wish to incorporate into a piece. Because music is an essential element in setting the tone for the spontaneity and flow of Michelle’s work, she will have a selection of instrumental pieces playing during her session.
Painting our Pets and Animals with Confidence
Chris Stubbs
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM, Cascade Room C
Hands-on Class, $15 – Limit 20 participants
Video available for purchase
See supply list here
Painting animals is similar to painting people — eyes, noses, ears, and mouths — but with a focus on fur. In some ways capturing the fur is one of the most challenging aspects of painting our wonderful friends. Often it ends up looking “spikey” when we paint it in watercolor. This past fall, I learned the secret of painting soft fur from AWS, NWS artist Kathleen Giles which I will pass on to you. Once again, we’ll study and paint eyes. Eyes capture the soul of people and animals. Bring your brushes, watercolors, and some small sheets of paper to practice the techniques I will show you. If you wish, bring a drawing of a special animal or pet, and try practicing what you’ve learned.