REGISTER BELOW FOR ArtCamp/Leesburg

Tim is leading ArtCamp/Leesburg August 15-18. Leesburg, VA is a beautiful town about an hour west of Washington, D.C.. Whether your just starting out or you’ve been drawing for some time, this workshop will be both fun and challenging. You’ll receive individual and group instruction as you learn time-proven techniques and skills to better help you create beautiful paintings. We’ll be working outdoors in the mornings (9-noon), and indoors (12:30-3:30) in the afternoons. Each day is packed with lessons and info. See schedule below for what’s in store at ArtCamp/Leesburg:

• Schedule:
  • Monday AM: Welcome, introduction to drawing still-life in charcoal. Focus on planes, shapes, & values.
  • Monday PM: Intro to portrait drawing in charcoal. Focus on draftsmanship, form, mass, light and shade.
  • Tuesday AM: Intro to oil painting. Focus on materials, mixing, technique, composition.
  • Outdoor still-life.
  • Tuesday PM: Drawing the portrait in charcoal. Focus on drawing features of the face. Portrait.
  • Wednesday AM: The exciting world of Impressionist color theory! Individual critique and instruction. Also- textures. Outdoor still-life.
  • Wednesday PM: Drawing the portrait in charcoal. Focus on finishing, composition.
  • Thursday AM: Continued one-on-one instruction; focus on ‘heading to the finish line’ as we pull it all together. Group critique. Outdoor still-life.
  • Thursday PM: One-on-one critique and instruction on pulling the portrait together towards completion.
  • Friday (optional per signups): Field trip to art museums in Washington, D.C.

Out-of-towners: If you’re visiting from out of town, we can provide host housing/meals for $25/day. Please send a check for the number of nights you’ll need, payable to Lisa Pinkham, with “ArtCamp Housing” in the memo; send to  ArtCamp, 1710 Revere Ct, Leesburg, VA 20176.

The nearest airport is Washington Dulles (IAD). We can help with transportation to ArtCamp. Let us know if you’ll be flying in. For driving directions to the ArtCamp location, click here.

Other questions? Visit our FAQs page.

REGISTER HERE via PayPal:

Select # of students/family (includes $45 material fee for each)

1 Student $310.00 2 Students (save. $45) $575.00 3 Students (save $90) $840.00 4 Students (save $135) $1,105.00

List name/age of EACH student:

Contact phone number:

View pictures from previous workshops: click any image to enlarge

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Thanks for registering for ArtCamp!

You’ll see how fun it can be to get serious about art!

Mark the date on your calendar and use this checklist to get the most out of ArtCamp. You should receive a confirmation email from PayPal for your purchase. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. For a review of the agenda for the ArtCamp, click here and select the ArtCamp that you’re registered for. Please read the following to come prepared:

1. Bring your sketchbook for notes and exercises. This is important, as students will need it for exercises, and are also encouraged to keep an ‘art journal‘ at home. If you don’t have one, we sell high-quality, 200-page, hard-bound sketchbooks for only $9 each at the ArtCamp check-in.
2. Art supplies: unless specified otherwise, art materials are included in the ArtCamp fee, so we’ll have all you need on hand. If you have a set of favorite brushes, feel free to bring them with you.
3. Pack a water bottle and a healthy snack for mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks.
4. Dress accordingly. Art can be messy. If the schedule calls for us to be outdoors, check the weather forecast.
5. We begin and end on time, so be sure to arrive a few minutes early. The ArtCamp hours are generally from 9am-3:30pm. Check the specific ArtCamp page for times specific to your ArtCamp. Lunch is at noon.
6. Ensure that we have your contact info in case of an emergency.
7. Driving directions can be found at the specific ArtCamp page.

Thanks-

Tim Chambers and staff at ArtCamp

Tim Chambers is leading a 3-day kids’ ArtShop in Palatine, Illinois (NW Chicago suburbs) July 26, 27, and 28, 2011. Tim will teaching three ArtShop topics: Drawing 1, Values, and Color. The ArtShop is for kids ages 9-18 (all skill levels). The workshop is limited to 15 students so register soon! Each ArtShop session will include valuable art lessons (drawing, painting, etc.), theory, art history, hands-on projects and individual instruction and guidance.
Fees: $65 per day / $180 for all three. Bring lunch.

Here’s a synopsis of the topics for this ArtShop. For details, click on each topic’s button.

To register, please call Positive Strokes Art School at (847) 705-7130 to be placed on the class roster. You must then confirm your registration with your payment within a week of your phone registration or your space will be given to another student. Classes are filled on a first come, first serve basis. The school is located at 896 N. Quentin Rd., Palatine IL 60067. Click here for driving directions.

ArtShop is open to kids ages 9-18 of all skill levels. Each ArtShop session will include lessons, theory, art history, hands-on projects and individual instruction and guidance. Tim has a great rapport with kids and enjoys seeing them learn new things. He truly expects kids to apply themselves to grasp new concepts, balancing serious instruction with much encouragement and a light-hearted atmosphere.

Look in ‘Upcoming Events’ in the left column to find the next scheduled ArtShop and click for more info.

Each session starts and ends on time, so please arrive a few minutes early. Kids should wear their painting clothes. We take a break for lunch (bring one along). All materials except a sketchbook are provided.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us via email or visit the FAQs page.

Bring your sunscreen and join Tim at Positive Strokes Art School in summer 2012 for the 2nd annual portrait workshop. The workshop will take place both outdoors (morning sessions/weather-dependent) and indoors (afternoon sessions) and will focus on:

• Understanding the purpose/concept of the portrait
• Proportions of the face and torso
• Recognizing big shapes/masses; Achieving a likeness
• How to draw the different features (eyes, nose, mouth, ears
• Seeing outdoor color (fascinating!!!!)
• Keying a painting outdoors
• How to lay-in (begin) your portrait
• Bringing the portrait to finish (highlights and accents; giving ‘punch!’ to your painting
• Optional (time permitting): Q&A re photographing for portrait reference.
• A material list and palette arrangement available upon sign up. All mediums welcome.
• We’ll be working from a live model during both sessions.

Fee includes model fees. To register, please call Positive Strokes Art School at (847) 705-7130 to be placed on the class roster. You must then confirm your registration with your payment within a week of your phone registration or your space will be given to another student. Classes are filled on a first come, first serve basis. The school is located in Palatine, Illinois. Click here for driving directions.

To visit the portrait workshop page click here. To return to the homepage, click here.

I receive many inquiries from parents regarding the value of art education for their children, and this has motivated me to both analyze my own artistic pursuit and also research the nuts-and-bolts behind the practice of art. I have been nothing less than fascinated  by what I’ve found, and have come away humbled and awed at the fact that I am an artist in heart and vocation. What a privilege! I’d like to share with you what I’ve found, and will add to this post as I continue to learn the marvelous goings-on and benefits of practicing art.

First off, I must say that there is a big difference between “serious” art and casual art, crafts, etc. The former requires astute and focused effort. Art that is more craft oriented, or merely decorative in nature, doesn’t make nearly the demand on one’s mind as does a serious pursuit, and therefore the effect on our minds is minimal in comparison.  I suppose a good analogy might be comparing the benefit of watching a sitcom on TV versus reading a classic novel. The former is good for ‘vegging out’, whereas a good novel stimulates the mind. I have found (and read) the same goes for art. It’s all in how one practices and pursues it.

In a nutshell, here are some of the benefits:

• Planning: what do you want to do? Or, if you’re not sure  on the ‘what‘, then how are you going to do it?
• Purpose: everyone we admire in history had a sense of purpose. Good art isn’t an accident, but a result of a clear plan and a series of good decisions.
  
• Visualization: develop the ability to visualize: any good work of art begins with a clear concept in mind before one stroke is made upon the paper or canvas. This requires one to order one’s thoughts and visualize an end result. Aimlessness gets you nowhere.
• Decision-making: increased ability to make choices: from concept to completion, a work of art demands hundreds, even thousands of conscious decisions.
• Discernment: choices must be constantly made for the achievement of one’s concept in his or her work. I call it canvas wisdom: the ability to know, from previous experience and an awareness of personal preference, what goes where.
• Analysis: this is different from discernment, for it is the information required for discernment. What is not right in this work, i.e. not consistent with the concept I have for this work?
• Awareness: one develops an awareness of their surroundings simply by using visuals. Is something straight, plumb, larger, smaller, softer, harder, course, smooth…? All the visual mind is quite distinct from the mind we use for most cognitive activities.
• Ingenuity: art is not linear as is math and grammar. Instead there are multiple solutions to every visual problem presented in process. Do I solve a problem with value (light/shade)? Color? Edges (hard/soft)? Composition (placement)? Line? Mass? Serious art requires decisions to be made, yet allows much latitude for a solution.
  
• Flexibility: The creative mind makes use of the right brain, which subjective in nature and process, unlike the left brain which is analytical and has efficiency as its goal. Most school subjects (the 3 R’s, for example) are aptly handled by the efficient, order-loving left brain. However, art is almost entirely right brain oriented.

Think outside the box, I say. Developing your child’s (or your) art skills by enrolling in a serious art curriculum or class pays dividends well beyond the artwork. Much of our lives are about efficiency and order, purpose and priorities, all of which are good. However, God has given us a world of beauty that makes life, well, beautiful. Too often, in our culture, we deem the value of things by their practicality. Is art practical? I don’t think it’s listed in an engineer’s black book. But it’s necessary. Don’t think so? Imagine a world without beauty. Look in any store and you’ll find beauty drives sales more than efficiency or practicality!

Okay- I haven’t even cited any studies that claim that art increase students’ academic skills, and I don’t think I need to. My adult students give one reason for taking up painting: they enjoy it.  We adults know all too well the thoughts that come by reflecting on our lives, what was important, what wasn’t, and all too often we’ve let the important give way to the urgent. If adults, retrospective in their wisdom, consider serious art worth their time, certainly it behooves us to implement art into our children’s lives, both in appreciation (art history) and application. I do think that if you consider the benefits I listed above that you’ll agree they can enhance other areas of life and learning. I mean, look at Leonardo da Vinci- we all know he wouldn’t have invented anything had he not spent time at his easel!

See you at my next workshop!

Tim

There is no greater work of art than a great portrait.“
-Henry James

Here are Tim’s resources for materials used in his workshops (these will open in your download folder as pdf documents):

• Material List for Portrait Drawing/Painting

• Materials List for Landscape Painting

• RIGHT-handed palette arrangement

• LEFT-handed palette arrangement

• Children’s Art Materials

  • Tim has selected materials for your children to continue practicing at home. The items feature a balance of high-quality and affordable prices.