Saturday May 5, 11am to 1pm 
Price: FREE
Seating Limited - Must Register: 403.258.3500

GAMBLIN ARTIST'S COLORS presents a 90 minute Lecture & Demonstration that will cover the following:

• Artist's Oil Colours - Gamblin's approach to colour making
• Color Theory - 2-dimensional vs 3-dimensional Color Space
• Color Mixing - Navigating Color Space: Gamblin's practical approach to color mixing
• Mineral vs Modern Pigments - How to create a personalized palette of colours
• Indirect vs Direct Techniques - Historical application of opaque and transparent colours
• FastMatte Alkyd Oil Colours - Benefits and uses of fast-drying, matte oil colours
• Galkyd Painting Mediums - Focus on working properties and choosing the right medium
• Building Permanent Paintings - Understanding Fat Over Lean approaches
• Supports, Sizing and Grounds - How they affect colour and permanence
• Studio Safety - How to create a safe studio environment using Gamsol OMS
• Gamvar Picture Varnish - Understanding contemporary varnishes and controlling surface quality

All attendees will receive FREE Gamblin Product & Literature Samples.

Zelda Nelson painting demonstration of a landscape in acrylic.

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Oil painting lesson by Doug Swinton on mixing a colour that is light but not bright.

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8 Things I know for sure...

1. Squint when you are looking at your subject. Eliminate all the detail and whittle it down to 3 to 5 simple shapes.
2. Think 'cause and effect'. As John Carlson says in his Guide to Landscape Painting: “We must not train our eyes to copy tone for tone but think of the bearing of such colours and harmonies upon the main idea of our picture." (Great book, available at Swinton's for a few shillings)
3. It’s all in the value. Is it lighter or darker? You might have the right colour but do you have the right value? Value trumps colour every time.
4. Temperature is all you need to know about colour. Is it warmer or is it cooler? Don’t worry about what colour it is, worry more about what temperature it is.
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We're happy to sponsor this competition:

• Over $2500 in Cash Awards & Prizes
• The winner will be featured in Canadian Brushstroke Magazine.
• Prizes for top 5 entries.
• Entries are $10 each. Multiple entries accepted.
• All entries will be shown online.
• Contest closes March 31, 2012

Andrew Kiss was the latest contestant to do a Swinton's Friday Evening Demo. What an Awesome Night! He's is funny, witty and very personable. I have never seen a mound of paint on a palette so big! Great time and there was no wine left.

Andrew promised he will do a workshop for us in the spring. We will post the info as soon as we have details, in the mean time if you want to be on the waiting list just call the store to have your name jotted down.

1. FOCAL POINT: Choose one! The hardest part about painting is the vast buffet of visual stimuli Mother Nature puts out before you. Whether you are outdoors, painting a still life or using a photo you need to simplify thing so you don’t get over whelmed. If you are getting confused then most certainly the viewer will be confused. If you start by saying “my painting is about the barn and the cows and the tree, oh and for sure the puffy cloud and the fence… too much information!!!! Think is my painting going to be about the foreground, the middle ground or the background/ sky. One of these needs to be dominate and be a dominant shape.

2. SKETCHES: Keep making them until there’s a good composition with leading lines in to focal point. A bad composition can only lead to a bad painting. Think thumbnails. Thumbnails should be just that; a simple small sketch with just the bear bones of info to set you up for the kapowie painting you want. Try using a black sharpie marker to simplify your thumbnail sketches.