Even
with my busy schedule, I have been finding myself looking forward to
the monthly Elk Grove Artists Group (EGA) meetings. It gives me a
chance to take a needed break from work, discuss things with fellow
area artists and to perhaps learn something from the guest speaker
that I might have never known. Thinking it over since my entry A night with the EGA that I decided that it would be a good idea to
post a little recaps of the meetings I'm able to attend for those
members who aren't able to attend and to let non-members know what's
going on.
Last
night at the start of the meeting we welcomed new member Ester Cheng
into the group. New to the Elk Grove area and works in watercolor,
acrylic, pastel and mixed media. Strangely enough, I have run into
the delightful woman and her husband last month while I was attending Blue Moon Gallery's Second Saturday reception when they had come by after
seeing my and several other fellow artists' work being shown at the
Sacramento Fine Arts Center's Magnum Opus XXIII show. After welcoming
her to the group, we also thanked Vice President Judy Knott for doing
the 14th Annual Walk for The Arts to raise funds for the
EGA. Judy thanked those who pledged donations but asks us for a bit
more participation for next year's walk so that we can raise more
donations in order to help the club. We also covered the fact that our Ist Annual Elk Grove Art Tour is coming up which consists of 10 locations and 27 artists which you can go meet between 10am and 5pm on Saturday September 29th (you can find the map here: http://elkgrovefineartscenter.org/Studio_Tour_2012.php ) . After going through club
business, we ended it with a raffle drawing which was won by our
Plublicity Officer Kelly Croisdale. Right now the raffle winners are
entitled to hand or display, for one month, one piece of original
work at the Elk Grove Fine Arts Center. So congratulations to Kelly
for winning for this month!
This
month's guest speaker was the wonderful Dee Tschida who discussed her
techniques for how she goes about her abstract paintings. Covering
briefly the 4 painting skills briefly (technical skill, painterly
skill, artistic skill, skill of expression), she started off showing
the various tools and things she uses to put texture into her pieces
before she begins painting. Showing such things as modeling past
(which she explained has more substance then geso but suggests you
should let dry for 24 hours before painting), her acrylic paint
brands of choice (keeping the audience reminded that it's best to
keep to a three color pallet to make sure that the colors don't
clash), and primed canvas, she let everyone know that she would
demonstrate what she does. Dee then went about showing a small slide
show explaining how she had started her abstract painting career and
how she got to the style she uses now. As a watercolorist who doesn't
really use acrylics that often, let alone go towards the abstract
genre, I was completely captivated and I have a feeling that others
in the room were as well with some of the questions they asked.
Once the
slide show part of Dee's presentation was over, she demonstrated her
technique though had to remind us repeatedly that she would only be
able to show the first couple of steps of what she does since there
was the drying time she needed to consider. Patiently answering our
questions and explaining things in a completely understandable way,
the presentation was quite informative for those who aren't acrylic
users and even those in the room who were discussed amongst
themselves that they found out about things they hadn't known before.
If you're interested in learning more about the EGA, go ahead and visit our official website:
Don't forget to check out the works of area artists at the Elk Grove Fine Arts Center which is located in Old Town Elk Grove!
Elk Grove Fine Arts Center
9080 Elk Grove Blvd.
Elk Grove, CA 95624
(916) 685-5992
Wednesday through Saturday - 11am - 4pm or by appointment
Website: http://elkgrovefineartscenter.org/
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