Sedona Arts Center update for July 12 — Come see artists painting in the Shangri-La of the Southwest during the 15th Annual Sedona Plein Air Festival and take a plein air painting workshop!

“I am thrilled that two astute collectors that have a love for the Sedona Plein Air Festival have come forward to offer us a special boon. $10,000 of prize money! Though they wish to remain anonymous I am deeply touched and grateful on behalf of all the artists and the Sedona Arts Center! This raises the prestige of our Festival as it enters its 15th year and we are happy to announce that we are spreading the award money throughout the event and creating a special Best of Show award for $5000!”

Vince Fazio, Executive Director, Sedona Arts Center.

A keynote address mid-week and an awards gala Friday evening provide added encouragement to view and purchase. On Friday afternoon the artists select their best three works to be judged for awards in the designated Awards room. The festival also includes paint-out events where all artist’s paint and the public is invited to watch and buy. Each paint-out has its own awards accompanied by a sales event.

Whether painting outdoors or working in the studio, the primary focus of the workshop will be learning how to simplify a landscape as well as interpreting color relationships to develop a sense of atmospheric space. Students will learn to quickly gather the necessary visual information needed to complete a painting in the field and how to simplify a landscape and interpret color and value relationships in order to create depth. Other fundamental concepts will also be discussed, including the importance of values, shapes and edges. Students will learn to analyze the information they gathered in the field or from photographs, interpreting color and value relationships in order to create new found depth in their landscape painting. This workshop will include demonstrations, slide presentations, critiques and lots of one-on-one instruction.

The Joy of Observation!

“Each group and each student is unique! My goal is to offer a roadmap that will continue to guide your creative journey long after the workshop is over. To bring more clarity to your work. To learn to paint with intent. To continue the journey from ‘painting’ to becoming a ‘painter’. And most importantly – how to develop the mindset of ‘practice’ that leads to successful ‘performance’.”

—Lyn Boyer

Now take this opportunity to work with Kathryn in the more controlled studio environment where artistic creativity and inspiration come together on a larger scale or more developed work than plein air painting allows. This workshop is for those painters that have some experience and wish to take their work to the next level.

During her workshop Betty begins each day with a demonstration/ lecture covering tools, techniques, brushwork, problems and solutions. Emphasis throughout the workshop is on organization and simplification of darks and lights, value and color relationships, edges, movement and mass to create a dynamic, coherent composition.

Further emphasis will be placed on the creative process to make paintings that are more than strict representations of the landscape we see. Multiple demonstrations will be complemented by individual attention and group learning.