Workshops – Dayna J Collins

WORKSHOP: Colorful and Dynamic Abstracted Landscapes

I’m teaching in September! After a hiatus last year due to the you-know-what, and then the uncertainty of this year, I figured I wouldn’t return to teaching until 2022. Then I was contacted by Sitka Center for Art and Ecology to see if I would be available to teach a class September 6-9, 2021. With some minor calendar tweaking, I said yes.

My class, Colorful and Dynamic Abstracted Landscapes, is four days of working in oil and cold wax, in the beautiful Boyden Studio at Sitka, located in the forest at Cascade Head on the Oregon coast.

Here’s the description of the class:

Oil and cold wax is a versatile medium that creates rich luminosity and interesting surfaces. Applied with putty and palette knives, it feels like painting with whipped butter. Using our surroundings at Sitka as a jumping off point for playful abstraction, we will pump up the color and make bold, startling marks to create surprise and inspire awe. We will experiment with laying down swaths of paint, building texture, and scraping away. We will work intuitively and energetically on multiple pieces, exploring texture, color, layers, composition, and design. My goal is for you to return home with several completed pieces, several beginnings, and a refreshed and renewed enthusiasm.

Registration is now open for this four-day workshop, September 6-9. Here is link to the registration page. (Limited to 12 students; vaccines required.)

Just for fun, here are photos from previous years.

Come paint with me!

I’m Teaching! Four Days of Oil and Cold Wax

If you’ve ever been interested in working in oil and cold wax, I have a great opportunity to immerse yourself for four consecutive days of art making in a beautiful new space. I will be teaching my Abstracted Play class at the Salem Art Association’s newly revamped and remodeled Art Annex on October 6-9, from 9:30-4:30. There will be plenty of time to dive in, learn new techniques, experiment, be inspired, inspire each other, work hard, and, of course, play. But first, this is the bright, airy, new space, located in the heart of Bush Park, where we will be meeting. And my class is the very first to be offered!

This class is for everyone. If you have previously worked with oil and cold wax, this class will help take you to the next level, but it also works well for beginners with no experience at all. Oil paint mixed with cold wax is a versatile medium that creates rich luminosity and interesting surfaces. We’ll experiment with laying down paint, adding texture, scraping paint away, and then doing it all over again. And maybe yet again.

During the four days, we will work on multiple pieces, working intuitively and abstractly, exploring texture, layers, composition, design elements, and use of color through oil paint and pigment sticks. We will explore making marks using graphite pencils, twigs and awls, solvents to remove paint and leave marks, and oil pigment sticks. We will be working on wood substrates as well as Arches oil paper.

Oil paint mixed with cold wax allows the layers to dry quickly (and without much odor), and clean up is done with mineral or baby oil, so our use of solvents is very limited (or even unnecessary).

The cost for the four full days of class is $350 with a $20 supply fee. I provide some materials and share all of my paints and pigment sticks. To register, just go to the Salem Art Association website using this link.

Jane Davies Extravaganza

Last week I had the privilege of taking three consecutive classes at Art and Soul from Jane Davies (she did a blog post about the classes, which you can see by clicking here). I thought it would be fun to break the classes down, sharing a bit from each day. It was a great three days of art-making and although I didn’t finish any of the pieces, I have a lot of good beginnings and I learned so much.

Day 1 – Layering With Transparencies

Day 2 – Working in Series

My friend Katy and I took the class together.

Day 3 – Balancing Opposites: the Ying and Yang of Composition

Artist Serena Barton was in the class and it's always a treat to spend time with her. — Artist Serena Barton was in the class and it’s always a treat to spend time with her.

My new friend Karen. She lives in Portland very close to Guardino Gallery!

Fire in the Belly

I’m home from a five-day intensive workshop with Robert Burridge. The workshop, Abstract Acrylic Painting and Collage, was held in Bend and as Bob so aptly said: We will be covering five years of art school in five days. We sort of did, at least the Cliff’s Notes version.

Over the course of the five days, I took 22 pages of notes and Bob gave us multiple handouts. During the first two days of class when Bob was delivering oodles and oodles of general information, I felt conflicted with wanting to get going with painting. We painted a bit on the first day, but I figured we would be painting more on the second day. Well, we did paint more, but still not all that much. I was torn between wanting to sit at the feet of Bob and absorb all that he was so generously sharing about his 22 years of daily painting, and wanting to get my hands dirty. I finally came to the conclusion that what Bob was giving us was invaluable information and I would have plenty of time to paint when I got home. Of course, we did paint during the week and more as the week went on, but the information I collected is priceless. I’ve already gone over my notes twice, circling, marking them up, and making notes for artists to investigate, books to read, and changes I want to make in my studio. Did I mention that Bob is funny? Hilarious. I was continually writing down Bobisms –pithy little sayings. No topic was off limits, making it an entertaining and rich week. For sure you’ll want to check out his website: Robert Burridge Studio

I won’t share the details of what we learned because that’s Bob’s information to share. But I will skim the surface with a listing of some of the many topics he covered just to give you an idea of the magnitude of this class. The following list is in order and then again, in no particular order, because sometimes he circled back.

Risk-taking/working in series/learning to paint our own stuff/painting materials-traditional and irreverent/gessoes/paints/glues/varnishes/Citra-Solv/rubbing alcohol/paper/substrates/panels-mats-frames/copyright/color theory/developing concepts/structure-composition/warm-ups/texture/contrast/production/gray scales/value/drawing/figures/negative space painting/inspiration/artists & writers/landscape styles/naming and signing paintings/marketing/creating a body of work/galleries and festivals/themes/concepts/shape-size-color/pros & cons of making prints/commissions/photographing art work/inventory/resume-bios-artist statements/drip trees/pricing/shadows/travelling with art supplies.

We did paint and I’ll share photos from my week. In order and not in order. Bob gave us warm-up exercises and assignments during the first few days, then left us to do whatever we wanted while he circulated or worked on paintings himself. We could paint, we could watch him paint. It was all pretty great. One of my best painting classes ever – and I’ve had some great teachers.

We started with black and white then graduated to color.

I finished a few, and I’m still dabbling with several. Here’s a teeny tiny taste of the workI did during the week, some finished, some in process.

I was working on some new concepts and ideas and it was great fun to experiment.

And then it was time to go home.

To Teach Or Not To Teach

I love to teach. I love to make art. Sometimes I can’t seem to make the two jive. If I’m teaching, it seems to gobble up so much of my available art time: devising classes, making samples, then proposing them; making lists of supplies for students to purchase, making lists of what I’ll provide and need to bring. Then there is the endless and constant promoting. I love providing a class packet with handouts, again time-consuming to create and assemble. When class time arrives, there are boxes of supplies to pack up and schlep to the site of the class, the reverse when the class is over, pack everything up, take it back to the studio and put it all away. Time. Such a valuable commodity.

I took off all of 2012 from teaching. I didn’t teach a single class and I didn’t offer any sessions of The Artist’s Way. Instead, I focused on creating art. It paid off. I had a solo show in Silverton at Lunaria Gallery in August of last year, and as a result, was invited to join the gallery as a member. I also had a solo show at Portland’s Guardino Gallery in March of this year, a dream come true.

As 2013 approached, I started thinking about teaching again. I decided to offer a 12-session of The Artist’s Way and it filled immediately. I was approached by The Art Department in downtown Salem about teaching a couple of classes and I came up with two: Layers of Memory (a plaster and painting class) and Oil and Cold Wax: Abstracted Play. The plaster class sold out immediately with a waiting list; I offered it again a couple of months later and again it sold out (with another waiting list). The oil and cold wax didn’t sell out, but since teaching it, I received many e-mails from people asking me when I would be teaching it again. I was contacted by The Art Department about teaching classes again over the next couple of semesters. I paused. I needed to decide if teaching was where I wanted to put my focus. I always come away from my classes energized and full of satisfaction. It is gratifying to share techniques and nurture others on their creative journey. But something was causing me to hesitate.

I chatted with my husband, a huge supporter of my art, whether teaching or creating. His preference has always been for me to concentrate on making art, not teaching it, but if I chose to teach, he’d be right there schlepping boxes for me. His advice was to back away from teaching and focus on making art.

I made the decision not to teach any more classes this year. I’ll most likely offer a 12-week session of The Artist’s Way again at the beginning of 2014 as that is a different type of offering, less about teaching and more guiding, facilitating, and nurturing.

I sometimes have pangs of regret about my decision. When I see someone else teaching what I had proposed or what I have been teaching, it causes me to second guess my decision. That’s why I’m writing this blog post. I thought if I revisited my decision, then shared it publicly, it would remind me why I made the decision I did. Right now, I’m focusing on a show I have in August at Lunaria. I’ve made a proposal to a favorite venue in Portland about a possible show in the future. And I would love to have another show at Guardino sometime in the future. I’m always looking for new opportunities to share my work. But to create a body of work, to explore and grow and express myself through my art, it means devoting lots of time in the studio.