April 2013 – Hudson River Valley Art Workshops

The weather has turned mild and the grounds of the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn, home of the workshops, is busting out all over with buds and flowering bulbs.

The stage is being set for some fun workshops in May with Barbara Nechis, Mary Alice Braukman, Eric Weigardt, Robert Burridge, and Paul George.

Robert Burridge’s class is full and Barbara Nechis’ class has only a couple of spots left, but the others still have a bit more space.

Mary Alice Braukman is once again teaching a 5-day workshop, May 6 – 10, 2013 at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. Mary Alice is always a pleasure to have as an instructor and guest. She was the director of the Kanuga Watercolor Workshops for 17 years, so she is definitely experienced in creating a great workshop experience for her students.

About her teaching style, Mary Alice says, “My workshops involve new concepts and ideas. The goal in teaching is to introduce students to creative textural surfaces by experimenting on various papers and combining different media. I hope to inspire each student to make a unique visual personal statement.”

To facilitate that experimentation, Mary Alice, though her connections with various art supply producers, brings to her classes lots of the latest water media materials to play with in the workshop. We always know that Mary Alice is due arrive soon when we start getting boxes and boxes of art supplies arriving by UPS!

Visit Mary Alice Braukman’s website for more information about Mary Alice.

Eric Weigardt, AWS-DF, NWS, will be teaching a 3-day workshop for us for a change from his usual 5-day (which he’ll be teaching next year). So this is the chance for anyone who can’t get away for a 5-day workshop to enjoy Eric’s friendly, humorous, and knowledgable teaching style. The workshop is scheduled for May 17, 18, and 19th.

Last year Eric received the highest national honor for a watercolor artist, the prestigious American Watercolor Society’s Gold Medal of Honor, April 20th 2012 in New York City. In American Watercolor Society’s (AWS) 130 year history, only 64 Artists have received this award since its inception in 1948.

Check out Eric’s website for more about Eric’s many achievements and his books and DVDs.

Paul George, the award winning New England artist, is teaching a 3-day workshop May 31, Jun. 1, and 2.

Paul is signature member of the National Watercolor Society and is also an active member of the New England Watercolor Society, Cape Cod AA, North Shore AA and former Vice President of the Rockport Art Association.

This is from Paul’s 2011 workshop with us. Looks like a very happy crowd!

Paul has a great YouTube video in which he talks about the watercolor supplies that he uses.

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Thanks for reading our blog!

While we always post pictures from our workshops, I’m looking suggestions and ideas for more blog posts. What are you interested in reading or seeing on our blog? Would you like interviews with the instructors, the students?? More of the meal recipes? How about interviews with art material suppliers?

I’d love to get your feedback!

Sandra Leichner, that award-winning, awe inspiring, appliqué artist from Albany, Oregon, was here for a whirlwind 3-day workshop.

This was one dedicated group. We had to practically drag them out of the studio at meal times!

Sandra was a very approachable, friendly, and knowledgable instructor — and dedicated. I always saw her in the studio, even after class hours.

Students could learn Sandra’s techniques using one of Sandra’s designs or they could work on their own.

This is just one of the incredible pieces designed and created by Sandra that she brought to show the class. There was amazing detail throughout.

Every day Sandra would give process demos, working with small groups of the students at a time, so that everyone could be close and see clearly what was being shown.