Please join us for an exceptionally wonderful event that supports blooming artists and local charities. Our 3rd Annual Young Voices exhibit opens Friday, February 2nd at 5:00pm. Grab a snack and beverage, listen to youngsters bravely deliver their artist talks, browse their original artwork and choose a piece of framed, funky, ready-to-hang art for your home. 40% of all sales go to local charities selected by the young artists themselves. This year the students have chosen Montana WILD and The Angel Fundto receive their donations. What’s not to love?!
During the summer and fall of 2017, these students have worked with artist and art educator, Maureen Shaughnessy, exploring different mediums and techniques. Now, the gallery walls are theirs for the duration of the show which runs from February 2nd-17th. Winter gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 11 to 6pm and Saturday 10 to 5pm.
Artists featured are: Scarlet Carpenter,Silas Fruge´Lilly Hamper,Adia Terry, Ema Terry and Rachel Kuntz. They range in age from 8 to 15 years old. Over the summer, the students learned to work in various mediums, focusing particularly on 3-D and “Teen Art Adventure” plein-aire art.
A few peeks at some of our art seshes from last summer:
Last year the students chose the Helena YWCA and The Friendship Center as recipients of their fundraising efforts. Here they are presenting checks and some of their art which was purchased by gallery patrons and donated to the two organizations to enliven their walls.
And here are some scenes from last year’s opening night reception and artist talks at 1+1=1 Gallery:
… because it makes everyone so happy and inspires us all to pay attention to the child-artist within. The third annual Young Voices art exhibit runs from February 2 through 19. Please join us for an opening reception with the artists on Friday, Feb 2 from 5 to 7pm.
An uplifting art show featuring works by seven 1+1=1 studio art students
Young Voices artists, ages 8 to 15, have taken art classes throughout the summer and many have continued with one-on-ones during the school year. Artists include Ema Terry, Adia Terry, Sophia Albright, Rachel Kuntz, Silas Fruge, Lilly Hamper and Scarlet Carpenter. (See photo albums below for some sneak peeks.)
Each young artist participates in the behind-the-scenes tasks of curating and mounting an art exhibit: from planning, promoting and mounting the exhibit to patching holes in the walls, writing artist statements, bios and short gallery talks – the lessons they learn are about life as well as art.
The student artists will be present during the opening reception to meet the public and give 1-minute gallery talks. This year we are showing sculptural works by the younger artists and plein-air paintings and drawings by the teens. You’ll be delighted and curious when you see the variety of techniques and creativity.
We encourage everyone to join us to support these young, brave creatives. Hope to see you Feb. 2nd, or if you can’t make it to the reception, please stop by the gallery to view the works between Feb 3rd and 19th.
Stretch Your Art Dollars
Each year our Young Voices artists choose two or more local charities to receive donations from the sales of their artwork. In years past, they have donated to the Holter Museum of Art, Mountain Meadow Preschool and Green Arts Montessori School, The Friendship Center and the YWCA. 40% of all sales are given to these non-profits by the kids and the gallery. The rest goes to the kids and to pay the expenses of opening night.
Through your purchases of their art, you boost the young artists’ confidence and contribute much-needed funding to these charities. Watch for more details in our next “love letter” and on our social media posts. If you do not currently receive our email love letters (aka newsletters) and you want to, please subscribe/sign-up here.
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Scenes from the summer Teen Art Adventures (plein aire painting and drawing:)
Scenes from Kid’s Summer Creativity Sesh, Summer of 3d:
One-Day Intro to Encaustic Workshops at 1+1=1 Gallery Studio
Learn the Basics of Encaustic Painting in an intimate, hands-on, art-studio class setting. All supplies included, just bring yourself and fearless creativity.
September 17, 10 – 4:30 October 7, 10-4:30 Cost per one-day workshop: $150 includes instruction, all materials and tools, and a gourmet lunch
Choose one or both workshops
In these Introduction to Encaustic Painting workshops, you will learn the history of encaustic painting and it’s current resurgence as a painting medium. Instructor demonstrations, examples, as well as lots of student painting time allow for hands-on learning. This workshop covers exploring painting techniques with encaustic, fusing and layering. It also includes demonstration of collage and toner-based image transfers specific to encaustic painting. Other topics include choosing encaustic materials, studio setup, safety considerations and care of encaustic artworks.
Some painting experience is suggested but not required. Individual creativity and experimentation is encouraged while learning to paint with the molten wax (encaustic.) Darla is an excellent teacher as well as experienced artists. She provides a professional, creative, fun and encouraging learning experience for all.
Workshop supplies include: two 10×10 birch plywood panels (to paint on) encaustic paint and oil sticks, encaustic medium, collage and image transfer materials.
Wear comfortable shoes, as you may be standing much of the day. Dress comfortably in clothes you don’t mind messing up — you could drip wax on your clothes and it’s hard to get out!
No loose clothing (sleeves) or hair as you will be using torches. We will have working aprons and gloves available.
Darla Myers
Instructor Darla Myers lives in Bozeman where she has her own studio and teaches workshops. She is represented in Helena by 1+1=1 Gallery. Darla will be one of two featured encaustic artists in an upcoming October 2017 exhibit, titled “Wood and Wax.”
By request of some of my older art students, I am trying something new this summer. It’s a series of plein-air drawing and painting classes for teens on eight Mondays. We’ll focus on learning to draw from life and nature, by observing carefully and practicing basic and more advanced skills.
The series is limited to just four girls. Each will get lots of attention and we can all go on our adventures in one car.
teen art wanderings course details:
Ages: for girls ages 13 and 14
Dates: June 12 – Aug 21 (with breaks) — see schedule below
Time/Day: Mondays 11am to 4pm gives us time to drive to our adventures, have a picnic lunch and plenty of time to make art.
Course is 8 sessions throughout the summer. Students must complete at least 6 sessions to keep the art kit at the end of the summer, and have the opportunity to participate in the Young Voices Art Exhibit during the school year.
Tuition & supplies: $320. Includes beverages and snacks. Students bring own brown bag lunch. Scholarships available. Please ask.
Transportation: students will be dropped off and picked up at 1+1=1 Gallery and will be transported by Maureen to wherever we are going that day.
Each of the 8 weeks we’ll go to a different place to draw or paint outdoors (unless it’s raining or snowing) click the pics below for details on that week’s fun:
In the Studio and Downtown Helena. Composition, Color and Drawing Basics. Lunch at the Parrot. (Start in the studio with overview of basics and mark-making. Then to the walking mall to practice what we learned. Lunch will be late, so make sure your girls have a healthy snack before they arrive.)
June 19 Boulder River: River & Mountain Landscapes. Drawing and mark-making with graphite sticks and ink pens. Picnic lunch at the river then spend our last hour soaking at Boulder Hotsprings.
June 26 Carousel and Reeder’s Alley: We’ll paint with watercolor pencils as well as ink pens and pastels. Picnic lunch then stop at Big Dipper for treats
July 10 Ten Mile Creek: Farmland, Botany Closeups & Skies using pencils and watercolors. Picnic lunch. If it’s hot we can dip in the creek!
July 17 Crystal Creek: Wildflowers, Flowing Water & Mountains. We’ll use pastels and watercolors. Flowers should be gorgeous this week! Picnic lunch and short hike.
Aug 7 Canyon Ferry Lake: Wetlands & Weather. Guest artist Kallie Audet will join us to show some of her acrylic painting techniques. Picnic lunch, plus treats at the Townsend A&W
Aug 14 Elkhorn Ghost Town: Artifacts & Buildings. Students may choose a medium they’ve used earlier this summer. Picnic lunch.
Aug 21 In-studio using reference photos to paint and draw with students’ choice of mediums.
Students get to keep their kit when they complete the course. We hope they become life-long creatives and art-lovers. We’ll make plans for the exhibit too!
What we’ll do:
Sketching, painting and a bit of photography
Things we’ll draw and paint:
Landscapes and close-ups; rivers, mountains, trees and grass; people, bugs and birds; natural scenes and city scenes; wildflowers and seedpods
mediums we’ll try:
Watercolors, water-soluble pencils, pastels, graphite and pencils, ink pens, mixed-media, acrylic paint, charcoal and collage.
Bonus Fun Thing:
This year will be our Third Annual Young Voices Art Exhibit at 1+1=1 Gallery (sometime during the school year.) All four of my teen adventurer-artists will be able to participate in the preparation for the exhibit, at no charge. (Students’ families pay for inexpensive frames.)
This series of four Sunday afternoons is for anyone who wants to explore how meditation, mindfulness and intuition can lead or inform our creativity. Whether you are an experienced artist, new to art, or someone interested in letting your creativity blossom, you will find something delightful and inspiring in this series.
The class is limited to 5 students. If you are interested, please sign up soon, as these workshops fill fast. You can sign up by paying online (any of the buttons below.) If you can’t pay online, please give me a call 431-9931 to reserve your space in the series.
Who: Women age 20+ … experienced artists or budding artists or non-artists. Anyone who wants to get down and get creative! Maureen Shaughnessy is your instructor. What: Four workshop sessions on intuitive painting techniques Cost: $160 for the 4 sessions. If you would like to attend but cannot afford the tuition, please ask about scholarships. We have a small scholarship fund to help you pay. Dates: Dec 4 and 18, 2016 AND Jan 8 and 15, 2017 (must sign up for all 4, because each sesh builds on the previous sesh. Times: Sunday afternoons, from 2 to 5pm Where: 434 North Last Chance Gulch (studio in back of 1+1=1 Gallery) What to Bring: All art supplies will be provided. Please bring a small plate of your favorite snack to share with the group.
Here’s What We’ll Do:
December 4, 2016 – Everyone will have an opportunity to make a half dozen or so handmade paint brushes using lots of different materials. Depending on time, we will experiment with our new brushes, developing our own vocabulary of marks: shapes, patterns and textures.
Handmade brushes
December 18, 2016 – Beginning with a peaceful meditation and quiet breathwork, we will center our hearts and bodies … and focus our minds. This session is about letting go of preconceived ideas; letting your intuition and your breath lead your hand and brush; and seeing where your deep inner no-mind takes you. Using our handmade brushes as well as Japanese brushes and a very limited palette of ink and paint, we’ll create designs based on the Enzo concept. We won’t be limited to circles. I encourage everyone to work with circles at first, and after you’ve taken that as far as you wish, let your intuition further develop your mark-making vocabulary (begun in the first sesh.)
January 8, 2017 – as you are beginning a new year and maybe trying to shed some old habits, you will get deeply in touch with your intuition in this session. We’ll start with a beautiful slideshow — cycling quickly through many intuitive paintings — to stimulate your creative juices and give you some ideas of the possibilities. Then we will spend the rest of the afternoon getting our minds out of the way. You can choose to paint on a large wood panel, heavy weight paper, or both. Paint to music; paint with your whole body – these are just two methods of stimulating the no-mind-intuitive artist inside us. Intuitive painting has alot to do with making marks (the kind we develop as we find our voice, that we explored in the first two sessions) and responding to the marks. Making more marks and responding again. And again. It’s fun. It’s deeply fufilling. There are no mistakes.
January 15, 2017 – During this session we will work further on the paintings we began in the last sesh. Setting aside your artwork for a time then coming back to it when you are refreshed and in a different mood — really takes your painting to a new level. We’ll start with a group discussion of how the last sesh felt for each of us, and talk about our paintings with positive feedback. I will give a couple of demonstrations of techniques — just to give you ideas of where you might take your paintings this time. Again, we will have music in the studio to help your ideas and creative juices flow.
ALL SUNDAY AFTERNOON SESSIONS ARE 2 TO 5PM
BEVERAGES AND ALL ART SUPPLIES PROVIDED
Thank you for reading this far. Hope to see you at one of my art classes soon. <3
This series of two Sunday afternoons is for anyone who wants to -- artfully -- explore and encourage their dreams, or learn to help others do this. Whether you are an experienced artist, new to art, a therapist, or someone interested in letting your creativity blossom, you are going to love this dream illustration series.
It's that time of year when I wrap up my kids summer art classes and start our women's creativity and art sessions.
We've had such huge interest in the adult classes that I decided to offer them twice a month instead of just once monthly. So, on the first and second Sunday of each month, starting September 11, you have a fabulous opportunity to stretch your creative muscles in a small (6 student) class that's guaranteed to knock your socks off and inspire you.
This year our Sunday Art Sesh classes are in short series or two, three or four. Please sign up for all of the classes in a series to get the most out of your time. For example, the self portrait series is very in-depth (and transformative) and if you miss one, you'll miss a big chunk of the experience. Read on for the whole schedule ...
To start off our 2016/2017 season of Sunday afternoon art sessions, I am offering a 3-part series to explore the art of the self portrait with different media. We'll use a DSLR camera, Iphone camera and processing on both the Iphones and a laptop computer. We will also make dry-point-etching self portraits and make a series of monoprint etchings on a tabletop press.
You may remember high school or junior high art classes when you were assigned to draw your self portrait. How did you feel about the drawing you made? Mine never really looked like me, and at the time (way back in dinosaur days) that was the message we got from our art teacher - that our self portraits were supposed to be as accurate a likeness as we could make them. If I still had that selfie, I'd show you! BIG Sigh...
This series of Sunday afternoons is for anyone who wants to explore their own sense of self and how you might express the different aspects of *you.* Whether you are an artist, are just getting started making art, or are interested in letting your creativity blossom, I know you are going to love this self-portrait series.
Self portraits are a form of creative, artistic expression that dates back to the first mud-paintings on cave walls, and from classical painters and sculptors to contemporary artists. Most artists don’t create self portraits to sell. But it is an incredibly useful way to practice the arts of introspection, observance, self-knowledge and self-expression. For kids ages 9 to 13, introspection isn’t something they admit to doing regularly. I expected my students to be challenged, maybe uncomfortable, certainly pushed outside their comfort zones. They did some beautiful expressive work and I am sooo proud of them. Two students who could not attend today’s sesh will do this same project in one on ones with me later.
Watch for announcements and invitations to the 2nd Annual Young Voices exhibit opening November 8th where you will be able to see their artwork in person and meet the artists.
Today in our Kds Creativity Sesh we learned about self portraits and created two types of portraits.
First we watched a slideshow/collection of self portraits by artists both well known and unknown, including some by other students. Then we looked at some of the more unusual or creative self portraits and talked about why artists make self portraits and what they might be trying to express about themselves.
I gave my students an assignment to take lots of photos of themselves ( using a digital remote and an iPad on a stand) with the end result of 8 different emotional portraits. They chose their favorites to work with.
Next, the kids used either Photoshop or a mobile app to distill the color portraits to a black and white, posterized, sketch-ized or comic-ized image. We printed those on Bristol paper, glued them to very large sketch Bristol and they added paint and papers to create self portraits.
The students used some of the remaining expressive self-portrait photos to learn about enhancing the emotion of an image by the way one chooses to process the photo. Some of their photographic results are above.
Also, please check out some of their mixed-media self portraits below and let them know through comments, how you respond to their endeavors. Thank you!
Well, 2016 is well under way. Tim and I are busy getting ready for another year of exhibits, classes, concerts and events at 1+1=1 Gallery. We are stretching our physical space by adding some functions to the basement. We are growing our group of artists by adding new artists to our roster. And we are evolving what we offer at the gallery by holding more classes, performances and different types of educational events.
We learned some stuff in our first couple of years of running the gallery. We are still tweaking things like how long to run an exhibit and which times of month are best for opening nights.
