January 4, 2025
Saturday - Paint-In
New Brighton Community Center, 1 - 4 pm.

Join several of your fellow painters for companionship, feedback and support of your beautiful artwork, as we together, work on a current painting that we would like to finish. Last year, all nine people had a great time in this bright, sunny room. It’s a chance to be inspired by others and to get tips or other ideas for painting with pastels. It also gets you out of the house for Mid-winter!

March 11, 2025 Tuesday
Allison Ecklund, How to Start Your Own Business
New Brighton Community Center 7 – 9 pm

Allison formed Eklund Law PC, her solo law practice, in 2007. She is former President, and now, Events Director for Outdoor Painters of Minnesota (OPM) and is the lead organizer of Plein Air Grand Marais, Plein Air Duluth, and other painting events throughout Minnesota and beyond. With her vast lawyer knowledge, she will explain how one is able to start their own business selling art, and all the intricacies involved with owning a business.

Board meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every other month, beginning with January, from 5:30-7:00 via zoom.

Member meetings are the second Tuesday of the same month as the board meeting, from 7-9pm.

At our member meetings we feature guest speakers, demonstrations, materials and equipment information, critiques and exchanges of information and insight to further members' artistic development and our sense of community as a society.

Our meetings are held at the New Brighton Community Center, 400 10th St. NW, New Brighton, MN 55112, in Room 224.

Recap of the October 1 Demo by Lyn Asselta

Lyn began by describing the image she was going to paint in her demo. It was called Kresge Point, along the shores of the Atlantic. It is one of her favorite and isolated points she enjoys going to for contemplation. She wanted to highlight the path that leads one out to Kresge point. The format she chose was to use the vertical position for highlighting the path and the point it leads one to. In the foreground was a lot of grass, but in her drawing, she chose to change that area into more rock formation, and explained how to make the path slightly different to reinforce her intent. As she did her under painting, she explained her process and why she chose the value she did. Then, on a whim, she decided to make the painting a nocturne scene. As she was working, she did answer people’s questions as they came up. It is important to know when to stop. For her, it is recognizing when you are slowing down and taking longer to make a decision. Some of the questions she answered were about the double film sticky paper she uses to set her paper onto a backing. (She uses mostly gator board and a sheet called grafhix.) If she makes small mistakes, she removes them by painting over them. For larger mistakes, there are several options: one can erase it altogether; or possibly turn it into gray by using a complimentary value; or re-balance it somehow so it does not stand out. Her demo was astounding and the final product was very different from the original image. Of course, the painting sold immediately when she was done. Afterwards, many people wandered around to look at the many samples of art work that were either in progress or completed by the workshop attendees.

Recap of the September 10 Presentation With Art Weeks

Art began by talking of his personal history and how he started with line drawing. This was mostly due to the fact that he was an architect and that was the practice he knew. Using a slide presentation he was able to show examples of his work. The structural integrity was important. In the beginning he began with portraits, taking many of his subjects from MAD Magazine. It takes some good hand/eye coordination to do a good portrait. Now he started to study the work of other fine artists who did line drawings. Again, giving examples of these works through his slide show and books he brought along for the evening. Attendees each got a list of his favorite artists and some of their written books.

Later he wondered if he could apply his line drawing technique to landscapes. And whether the line technique could be applied to pastels, so more experimenting was done. Sometimes he uses value from water color paintings, or even other media, that used only one pigment, as studies for his paintings. Combining lines with shapes, he felt good about the paintings he was doing. More samples of his pastel works were presented, some just line drawing and some using lines and shapes. Following this, he gave a demo of his technique, using several pens. He showed how he handles the pens when he is drawing, from the side and mentioned that it is all about the pressure and angle of the pen to create the effect you want. He prefers using hard pastels for the most part. They are good for making lines, blending the colors and maintaining the edges of the painting better. Following the program attendees were able to practice some of these techniques with various pens that were provided for them in the back of the room.

Recap of July 9 Paint Out in Bryant Lake Regional Park

It was another beautiful day, very similar to last summer. The sun and clouds danced in the sky, challenging all of us painters with when we had light to work with. Nine people total showed up as the event progressed. (Some had actually come earlier than our designated 4 pm start time!) Not all of us actually painted, nor stayed for the entire event, but most importantly, we all enjoyed each other’s company and support. Some were able to complete a draft, with lighting, before the sun disappeared again. Then, due to the shadowy skies, most of us started a second painting (or sketch, as was my case). The clouds burst forth a short rainfall in the middle of our time, but we were prepared with our umbrellas. It only lasted about 15 minutes, so we were able to continue our love for painting. Following are some images we captured during the whole event. Most stayed right up to the end time of 7 pm. Next year, my hope is we will have a farm to work on for our inviting imagery. Hope to see you there!

Recap of May 14 Presentation by Aline Ordman

There were 36 people who were excited to learn about Aline’s techniques that evening. Her first stage is to begin by stepping back and squinting at her picture. This gives her the idea of where to use her charcoal for sketching the dark areas of her painting. These sketches are nothing more than basic shapes. The paper she prefers to use is Art Spectrum, but more recently has enjoyed the smoothness and texture of Pastel Mat. Her painting technique involves moving in circular motion with her whole arm, not just the hand. The source of her movement is from the shoulder. Using just the hand is drawing, not painting. When she makes a mistake here, she just erases it. Now that the shapes are done, she begins stage two, Carving.

Aline “carves” out her areas with the background color of the basic shape. She is looking for spots of color. No detail work is done in this stage. In terms of how the painting should look at this point, she refers to a quote she heard in the movie EMMA. “Oh, she’s a Monet, alright, beautiful from a distance, but up close, she’s a mess.” And believes this is how all paintings should look like at this stage. Her favorite pastels are Blue Earth, which are made here in Minnesota from that town.

Stage three is finding harmony with the next layer. This is when she begins work on the details of the painting. The trick here is to define some hard edges, but not everything has to have a hard edge. The painting and its strokes must maintain the feeling of movement throughout. As a practice, she never puts matting on her paintings, as she believes that too much dust falls on them. Nor does she use a fix-it when finished. She will frame them all, using spacers, against the glass. The largest size she ever does is 16” x 20”. Her four simple rules are the four S’s. Squint, Simplify, Step out and Stop. It’s important to know when to stop fussing with the details.