“The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.”
- Vincent van Gogh
This past weekend I took classes from the famous Donna Downey. I have followed this gal for years on her blog and felt like I knew her personally. She was an absolute joy, Great teacher, down to earth, and totally fun to be around.
The classes were held at My Heart's Fancy a wonderful store in Oklahoma City. This was my first visit to the shop, it is packed full of great stamps, stencils and paint supplies. If you are in the area you should check it out. 
The first class I took was Paint like an Artist. This was a canvas painting strictly using stencils. Using stencils (lots and lots of them) and acrylic paints I learned how to use color to create depth and texture. Then the class learned how to isolate pieces of your background design to build your design in the foreground. Here is my painting below with the stencil of the lotus flower in the middle.
Next class was using pan pastels. we learned about the tools, as well as how to sketch, draw and transform simple designs into dynamic and colorful pieces of art. This was my first time to try using pan pastels. They were a little intimidating, but I am going to continue playing with them.
2 comments:
Yea!! You and Sheryl went on another arting adventure! Lucky you to be able to take classes with Donna. To learn all those techniques in person is the best way to learn as far as I'm concerned! Love your projects and seemed to have taken to it like a duck to water. Just beautiful! I keep hearing about pan pastels but never have worked with them. From what you said, it seems like that is a medium I would rather take class than to learn on my own. Thanks for sharing your weekend!!
I so agree with you...having the opportunity to learn new styles from an artist in person is so much fun. So glad I had that opportunity. Thank you again for supporting me and reading my blog. You are such a sweetie. And yes, I featured you because you have been an inspiration watching your blog grow and watching you grow as an artist. So glad our paths crossed and met.
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