Get your creativity flowing this March at the Comox Valley Art Gallery with a variety of programs for children, youth and adults! CVAG offers classes, free tours, art talks and discussion sessions; check out the offerings:
• Art Buffet for Kids and Parents with Mary Anne Moore takes place March 10 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. This class is for five to eight-year-olds with parents.
Children and their parents can work together or individually, creating artwork from wire, beads, glue, paper and more. Make sculptures, pictures, cards, or unrecognizably interesting art.
Share ideas and inspire each other in this creative setting where you can be messy and inventive.
For older kids, Mary Anne Moore offers Art Buffet for Kids on the same day (without parents) from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
Moore is a Vancouver Islander who has always been drawing, painting and making art.
She says: "Everyone is creative and it starts from childhood. The trick is to encourage and support the little artists so they can rely on and be confident in their ideas."
• Graffiti drawing techniques with Jeremy Hook is a two-session course March 17 and 24 from 1 to 3 p.m. for teens aged 12 to 17. Students will design graffiti style images and text on paper or in sketchbooks and learn to transfer the design to large canvas, paper or walls.
In this class, finished projects will be painted using brushes and acrylic paint on canvas or board, for a piece of art that can be displayed in the home gallery.
Artist/instructor Hook is a local freelance artist and self-proclaimed Funk Soul Brother, trained in illustration and graphic design. With a Degree in illustration and graphic design from the Art Institute of Seattle, and a Bachelors of Science from Portland State University, he describes his art as surreal impressionistic, realism, with rural-urban cultural influences.
Jeremy feels that all forms of creativity and personal expression could be embraced by our society to better understand our connection to our culture.
• Adapting Your Photograph as a Watercolour Painting with Tony Martin is a two-day intensive (six hours/day) being offered March 31 and April 1 for youth ages 15 to adult.
Tony says: "Let's not kid ourselves — 99 per cent of us use photographs as subject matter for our paintings, especially in this digital age."
Martin will show the most efficient methods of how to transfer the photo image to watercolour paper, how to abstract it or eliminate unnecessary content, and then the basic techniques of layering colours with paint.
Martin trained at St. Martin's London (BFA) and Alberta College of Art, Calgary (Post Grad Painting Dip); Tony has also taken an adult education course through UBC.
His teaching experience includes Grades 8 – 12 Quesnel Secondary School ; Continuing Ed., Alberta College of Art (drawing and composition painting); North Island College (illustration and composition painting credit courses); Burnaby and Vancouver School Board adult education (various art courses). Tony was the director/curator of CVAG from 1991 to 2010.
• Discover Art Saturdays is a three-hour interactive visual art experience held on occasional Saturdays at the Comox Valley Art Gallery. The next one is scheduled March 17 from 1 to 4 p.m.
This event is for everyone of all ages interested in learning about the visual arts, with emphasis on families who are looking for fun, creative, affordable activities.
Featuring an hour of facilitated questions, answers and discussion, hosted by gallery staff and volunteers, and followed by two hours of drop in art making, this event will take place in the Contemporary Gallery (main space) of the CVAG.
• On March 24, an Art Talk featuring exhibiting artists Gordon Greenhough, Tony Martin and Clive Powsey, will explore their current show: Diverse Approaches in Watercolours. This event is free or by donation and takes place in the gallery from 2 to 3 p.m. All ages are welcome.
• ART 21 is a new program at CVAG for anyone interested in learning more about contemporary art art that is being produced today by artists who are alive. CVAG presents the award winning and Emmy-nominated PBS documentary series in bi-weekly screenings and discussions.
ART: 21 explores today's most fascinating artists. How do they work and why?
Meet the artists at work and speaking in their own words –direct, accessible and unfiltered. This series takes us into artists' studios, homes and communities to provide an intimate view of their lives, work, creative processes and sources of inspiration.
Each session will look at a segment on one artist followed by a facilitated discussion. For the month of March, ART 21 takes place March 14 and March 28 at 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
For more information on these or more of the Gallery's programs, visit the CVAG website or contact us at 250-338-6211. CVAG is located in downtown Courtenay at 580 Duncan Ave., across from the library.
— Comox Valley Art Gallery
