Description
CREATIVE BACKGROUNDS! Workshop by Christina Erickson
August 11, 2025 / 10am – 2pm
Join us for a day of playful exploration of pattern and color! In this workshop, you’ll discover how to create multi-layered backgrounds. We’ll start by designing and cutting our own pattern-stencils and then use them to make complex backgrounds. Following that, the instructor will demo effective ways to paint the subject, in acrylics, on top of the backgrounds. Leave with unique artworks and a new set of skills. It’s really fun!
Artist Bio Christina was a high school art teacher for 28 years, teaching courses in Art Foundations, Advanced Art, Painting, Illustration, Visual Communications, and Fashion Illustration. With a degree in Art Ed, Christina taught in Boston, Athens (Greece), and Portland. She has participated in group shows, including at Blackfish Gallery, the Art Institute, and was juried into the LO Festival of the Arts. Her motto is: Creating art should be fun and it should be brain food. christinaericksona.wixsite.com/christinaerickson
SUPPLY LIST
-
- Acrylic Paints 5 or 6 tubes of your favorite colors. Fluorescent colors work great. The guild has a bunch of craft paints we’ll be using, as well.
- Brushes Bring an assortment of brush sizes for acrylics, including a 1” wide brush that has a good spring to it.
- Painting Surface We’ll be doing more than one piece, and you could work on paper or canvas, or both:
- Paper Bristol (smooth) is a fabulous paper! Or any paper 100 lb. or more. The guild has some paper to share with you if you want to work large.Please bring the following:
- Canvas Stretched canvas – you could even bring in painting rejects and work on top of them.
- X-acto knife with a sharp blade.
- Cutting board (or heavy cardboard to act as a cutting board).
- Ruler (not critical if you don’t have one).
- Paper towels Please bring a roll, as you’ll be needing them!
- An old towel or rags. would be grrrrreat! Working with stencils is messy- we’ll need to wash and wipe them dry with towels/rags.
- The usual: water container, paint palette
- Optional: If you have white chalk, it works great for sketching onto dried acrylic paint.
Photo Reference, if you have an idea of what to paint on top of the ground. We won’t have a ton of time for complex images. I don’t always start with a concrete idea, I wait to see how my ground turns out.
- Class is full, to be put on the waiting list, email the guild.
