Join us Friday, August 4th for Downtown Helena’s First Friday celebration!
We have a fun family-friendly special event planned for the evening.
Veggie Pakoras and ice cold chai by Ishinder Kaur … Live performance of Tabla-Jazz Fusion by Jaskrit and Haransh Singh from 5:30 to 7:45 or so.
Hope you can make it to the 400 Block anytime between 5 and 8pm. Homemade traditional Indian appetizers will be served until the food and drink are gone. We’ll have other cool beverages for those who don’t want chai. 😉
While you’re enjoying the music and refreshments, take in our current exhibit, the First Annual Art Jewelry and Figurative Art Invitational, and check out what we’ve put up in the Back Gallery. As always, we offer the best (!) gift wrapping in town — it’s free and given with love.
We know there are many events happening this weekend, and Friday in particular. Consider spending a little time supporting your very special downtown before or after you attend another event!
Come listen to Jaskrit and Haransh Singh’s fabulous fusion of Indian tabla and jazz music, then head over to the Herb & Garden, Funky Trunk, Aizada Imports and JMac’s Pottery. AND — Don’t miss the 3rd anniversary party of Mountain Sage Gallery right across the street from 1+1=1. They’re planning a fun birthday-bash.
Everything is free! We hope to see you at the gallery. Call 431-9931 for more info.
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.
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.
We invite you to an opening reception of our upcoming exhibit, “Young Voices” on the evening of Oct. 30th, at 1+1=1 Gallery. Please come support these young artists, ages 9 to 13, in their first group exhibit in Helena.
Artists featured in the exhibit are Adia Terry, Ema Terry, Hannah Martin, Lily Hamper and Phil Martin. These five artists have participated in summer creativity/art classes taught by Maureen Shaughnessy and have spent the month of October learning the behind-the-scenes of exhibit planning, promotion and organizing.
Our popular Girls Art Nights ran for a year and a half on the third Thursday evening of each month. The sessions always filled up and turned out to be lots of fun for everyone. Women in our monthly classes have an inexpensive opportunity to make creative art projects, learn to trust their inner artist voices, play with each other, enjoy great potluck finger food, beverages and all the art supplies they needed to complete an artwork or two or three in a few hours.
