Calendar

Mondays – 5:00 to 7:00 PM

Now until December 19, 2022
Drop-in: no pre-registration required

Experience the benefits of creative expression in a supportive group environment. No experience required.

Join us at our weekly open studio, each with its own theme, using a variety of art making mediums and techniques like mending, stitching, paint, collage, clay, found objects, 2d and 3d, weaving, and nature to explore what is immediate for you in the moment.

Making art together can support us to move through life’s challenges, helping us to grieve our losses, mitigate feelings of isolation and loneliness and reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety.

The sessions will be facilitated by Art Therapist Heidi Abbott, and Art Therapy Intern Farrell Elliot.  Heidi and Farell both have a love for the therapeutic, meditative, healing, and self-expressive attributes of creating together.

Everyone welcome, free, all supplies are provided.

Click here to sign up for a newsletter reminder

Acrylic Painting Level 1 with Gordon Wilson

Oct 17, 2022 10 am-3pm

This course is designed to give students a basic understanding of the acrylic painting medium.  Starting with an overview of various materials and methods used to paint with acrylics, we will then cover how to apply these elements to produce a final painting.

Recommended Prerequisites:  Decoding colour (Sep 19), Creating Visual Harmony (Oct2)

Cost $125

All materials included

About the Instructor:  Gordon Wilson enjoys taking seemingly complex art styles and making them accessible and easy to learn.  He has a degree in design and education and has taught in high schools for 15 years, as well as other venues.  Prior to teaching Gordon was a commercial designer and illustrator for 20 years working in television, publishing, and advertising

Location of class: Studio

Maximum number of participants: 12

Book Here

Silk Painting Level 1 with Dianne Nelson

Oct  23, 2022 10 am-3pm

Participants will produce a 22 x 22" painting on silk to take home.  Patterns will be provided, but you are encouraged to have an idea for a composition.  We'll develop a pattern, which we'll sketch on silk with gutta, then paint with special acrylics.  

Recommended Prerequisites:  Decoding Colour (Sep19), Untangle with ‘Tangling’ (Sep26) 

Cost $125

All materials included

About the instructor:  Dianne’s first piece sold while she was working as a teacher in Saskatchewan.  She has worked and traveled in Australia as well as various places in Canada, including Bella Bella, Ucluelet and the Northwest Territories.  It was there, in the tiny Dene  hamlet of Fort Liard that she discovered her passion with colour; painting on silk. She continues to be a member of the NWT Arts Association.  Since moving to Vancouver Island in, she has exhibited  at the Filberg Festival in Comox, The Old School House in Qualicum Beach and the MacMillan

Come to the Dark Side

presented by Terri Bowen, B.Ed., M.A., instructor at VIU Elder College and North Island College

Learn to Mix Luscious, Rich Darks! Enjoy a Hands-On Painting based on the History, Science and Psychology of Dark Paint Colours and Which Artists Have Used Them in an Outstanding Way (eg., Rembrandt, Caravaggio, el Greco, Goya, Malevich, Reinhardt, Stella, Escher, Nevelson , Kruger, etc!).

When: Sunday, October 23 from 12 noon – 4 pm

Where: Lighthouse Community Center in the Nordin Room, Qualicum Bay

What: Learn about the topic. Follow this up by creating a painting on a 12”x 16” canvass. Bring a reference photo or use a featured picture from the presentation. All materials except brushes are provided for $60 cash at the door.

Contact Terri at 778-424-0107 or tlbowen@shaw.ca by October 21. Limited registration.

Art Foundations-Water Mixable Oil Painting Level 1 with Margery Blom

Oct  31, 2022 10 am-3pm

We will be using oil paint and mediums with paint brushes to create a landscape on a 12”x16” gallery wrapped canvas.

Recommended Prerequisites:  Decoding Colour (Sep19), Creating Visual Harmony (Oct 2) 

Cost $125

All materials included

About the Instructor:   Margery Blom  BFA is an oil paint artist specializing in scenes from Vancouver Island. Margery displays in galleries all over the Island and is an active member of FCA.  You can find Margery as Resident Artist at the McMillan Arts Centre on Thursdays.

Location of class: Studio

Maximum number of participants: 12

Book Here

Art Foundations-Water Mixable Oil Painting Level 1 with Margery Blom

Oct  31, 2022 10 am-3pm

We will be using oil paint and mediums with paint brushes to create a landscape on a 12”x16” gallery wrapped canvas.

Recommended Prerequisites:  Decoding Colour (Sep19), Creating Visual Harmony (Oct 2) 

Cost $125

All materials included

About the Instructor:   Margery Blom  BFA is an oil paint artist specializing in scenes from Vancouver Island. Margery displays in galleries all over the Island and is an active member of FCA.  You can find Margery as Resident Artist at the McMillan Arts Centre on Thursdays.

Location of class: Studio

Maximum number of participants: 12

Book Here

Art Foundations-Water Mixable Oil Painting Level 1 with Margery Blom

Oct  31, 2022 10 am-3pm

We will be using oil paint and mediums with paint brushes to create a landscape on a 12”x16” gallery wrapped canvas.

Recommended Prerequisites:  Decoding Colour (Sep19), Creating Visual Harmony (Oct 2) 

Cost $125

All materials included

About the Instructor:   Margery Blom  BFA is an oil paint artist specializing in scenes from Vancouver Island. Margery displays in galleries all over the Island and is an active member of FCA.  You can find Margery as Resident Artist at the McMillan Arts Centre on Thursdays.

Location of class: Studio

Maximum number of participants: 12

Book Here

15 Shades of Grey  - November 4, Friday

 by Terri Bowen, B.Ed., M.A., Elder College Instructor at Vancouver Island University and North Island College

 A Hands - on painting workshop where you first learn about the History and Science of Grey and Why It’s ‘Grey–t’.

 Then do some hands-on learning about Tints, Shades and Tones (Values) in painting and how to create greys.

 Instruction also includes paintings and biographies of Famous Artists, such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and the currently controversial Chuck Close who excelled with this colour. 

 Then you get to paint your own picture, with coaching from Terri! 

 What:  All instruction, paints, and a canvass, are provided for $60 cash, due at the workshop.  (Please bring your own brushes.)

 When:  Friday, November 4 from 12 – 4 p.m.

Where: at the Nordin Room on the righthand side of the Lighthouse Community Center in Qualicum Bay.  Contact Terri by Nov. 1 at tlbowen@shaw.ca  Limited registration.

All levels of acrylic painters welcome

Register at the McMillan Arts Centre or by calling Susan 250-586-5510
Class size is limited. Sign up now.

When you are caught up in the natural beauty of the Earth (like a sunset), you rid yourself of any distractions and feel higher levels of gratitude for what’s happening in front of you,.
Using warm and inviting colours you will work on a bright and colourful background. Go big and be brave as anything goes. The foreground then becomes a dramatic silhouette as you watch the sunset.

Susan Schaefer is a well-known instructor in the Oceanside area.

Her students describer as: “an excellent teacher, encouraging, patient and fun.”
Visit Susan’s website here 

Art Foundations-Life Drawing Level 1-Studio Still Life with Carol Ann Owers

Nov 7, 2022 10 am-3pm

Still Life Drawing uses inanimate objects for subjects, allowing the artist to focus on light and shadow, defining shapes, angles, cured and straight lines.

Instead of a reference photo, we will work from a real life.  Three objects will be set up to express a theme and through several exercises, the artist will explore how light and colour can create shape within a composition.

Recommended Prerequisites:  Creative Imaging (Sep 12), Untangle with ‘Tangling’ (Sep 26) 

Cost $125

All materials included

About the Instructor: 

About the Instructor:  Carol Ann is a professional artist and enjoys working in a wide range of mediums, and brings her experience and expertise to the classroom.

Nature in all of her beauty inspires her passion to paint. Living here on Vancouver Island, nature is only steps away to the most beautiful scenery in all of Canada.

Carol Ann enjoys sharing her love of art and teaches Ar

Art Foundations-Wash Drawing Level 1with Gordon Wilson

Nov 14, 2022 10 am-3pm

This course is designed to introduce students to a method of drawing that was popular with artists and illustrators during the early 20th century. Wash drawing is an easy and effective method of drawing involving watercolour and line work on a toned surface, giving the final piece solid form and depth of field.

Recommended Prerequisites:  Creative Imaging (Sep 12), Untangle with ‘Tangling’ (Sep 26)

Cost $125

All materials included

About the Instructor:  Gordon Wilson enjoys taking seemingly complex art styles and making them accessible and easy to learn.  He has a degree in design and education and has taught in high schools for 15 years, as well as other venues.  Prior to teaching Gordon was a commercial designer and illustrator for 20 years working in television, publishing, and advertising.

Location of class: Studio

Maximum number of participants: 12

Book Here