Featured
Mobile Watercolor Techniques
Mobile Watercolor Techniques
August 4, 6, 11, and 13 from 6:30-9pm
(Please hold August 18 for a rain date)
Cost: $160-$225 sliding scale*, plus supply list (below)
Take advantage of the creative magic that happens during late summer on this explorative traveling watercolor adventure. Explore the quiet and bustling spaces of our quaint town with your on-the-go palette set up. Be inspired by the many seasonal offerings from the blossoming daylilies and lush summer foliage to the active city streets full of market goers. This art class is on the move!
This mobile watercolor class will put into action the very techniques exploring shadow, light, and form that are essential to building up a watercolor practice that flows with ease. Learn how to harness your essential color palette with guided lessons or explore alternative and exciting ones with metallics or neons. Once you are able to apply the color theory concepts, these style pivots can be thrilling and bring an extra sparkle to painting outside. Students will start with simple washes and planes then move on to more complex city scapes.
Class will be held outdoors in and around 33 Hawley until the sun sets, and finish up indoors, so make sure you bring a phone with a camera to document your subject.
To register, please email programs@nohoarts.org with your name, address, and phone number. Payment can be made via PayPal here, or by mailing a check made out to NCFA to PO Box 366, Northampton, MA 01061.
*Payments on the upper end of the sliding scale help support our continued commitment to accessibility, including sliding scale models and the NCFA Community Fund.
Paige Quinn-Vasic is a local working artist who is trained in many creative mediums such as painting, printmaking, ceramics, and more. She completed her bachelors in fine arts and art education at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which drove her to explore an interdisciplinary practice. Her medium of choice in the last few years has been collage with painted paper, but recently got back into oil painting. The feeling of manipulating color is meditative in a way that other processes feel more removed from the quality of direct play. Her practice tends to hop between mediums as she follows the whims of her creative inner child, exploring whimsy, peculiar curiosities, and microaggressions. Since moving to Northampton in 2023, she has earned a LCC grant for her community project, Noho Art Club, and dove into teaching workshops. You can see more of her work at www.paigesquinn.com or @paigesquinn and @nohoartclub on Instagram
SUPPLY LIST
Small watercolor notebook with spiral or glued binding. Sizes vary from 3 ½x 5 ½ to 5x 8 give or take an inch or two. Moleskine watercolor notebook is high end , Strathmore 400 series watercolor art journal is mid-end, and Canson on the cheaper end are examples. There are many kinds to choose from. Please don’t go bigger than 6x 8 for this. And make sure it’s for watercolor or mixed media. Sketch book paper is too thin and your paintings will cause the paper to buckle.
Small travel watercolor paint set either with tube paints or pan or a combo of both. You can cobble together your own set using a very small palette and basic colors. Or, you can use a white/clear daily pill case and put the 7 colors (no white) in each compartment. The lids are used as a palette. Portability is what’s important. If you bring your own colors, please include cadmium yellow, pthalo blue or Prussian blue, ultramarine blue or cobalt blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, any black.
Brushes: only a few: #2 or #3 round, #5 or #6 round, #9 or #10 round. You can bring more if you want. A small to medium flat brush can be great for capturing shapes in architecture quickly.
Pens: Black permanent markers. Fine point - .03 or .05.
Small water container (like individual yogurt cup or applesauce cup)
Small rag
2 Binder clips for keeping your sketchbook open. Paper clips will cover your paper
A tote bag or carrying case for all the supplies
Intro to Mural Painting and Spray Paint
Intro to Mural Painting and Spray Paint with Ramiro Davaro-Comas
Saturday, July 26 from 10am to 4pm
(Rain Date: Sunday July 27)
Cost: $200-$350 sliding scale*
Intro to Mural Painting and Spray Paint is an exciting new workshop with artist Ramiro Davaro-Comas! Come learn about the history of mural painting and graffiti and experiment with spray paint through developing your own tag and/or character.
The first part of the workshop will focus on learning about the background and career of artist Ramiro Davaro-Comas. Ramiro will talk about the history of American muralism, graffiti and street art while introducing students to all aspects of painting murals. The mural component will touch on different lifts for accessing walls, how to approach different surfaces for painting, and a variety of methods to get images onto a wall. Students will then make letters and characters in different graffiti styles by mixing, matching, and evolving, as they see fit, characters from established alphabetic styles. Students will be introduced to the common tools of graffiti art— stencils, spray paint, caps—and examine the work of the artists that have used them. In the afternoon, the class will walk to downtown Northampton and discuss the mural on the back of the R. Michelson Galleries, as well as others in the area. After returning to 33 Hawley, students will work on spray-painting techniques outside, and each complete an original art piece on large 4’x4’ wooden panels.
Wood panels, spray paint, caps, and gloves will be provided. Students should wear clothes that can get messy and are strongly encouraged to bring a painting respirator, an n95 mask, or a face covering.
To register, please email programs@nohoarts.org with your name, address, and phone number. Payment can be made via PayPal here, or by mailing a check made out to NCFA to PO Box 366, Northampton, MA 01061.
*Payments on the upper end of the sliding scale help support our continued commitment to accessibility, including sliding scale models and the NCFA Community Fund.
Ramiro Davaro-Comas is an Argentine/American artist with a background in public art and artist residency management. His passions for painting, storytelling, and community work have pushed him to travel throughout his career, collaborating with artists around the world. Davaro-Comas’ art career began in Northampton and he has been creating in the area since 2009 by showing at local galleries and painting large scale murals. Most notably he painted the Children's Book mural with artist Kim Carlino behind the Michelson galleries, the Ninja Turtles Mural on Center Street, the American Farmland Trust Mural on Short Street and a mural with students at the Leeds Elementary School. He has painted over 300 murals and managed another 150 mural installations for other artists.
Davaro-Comas is currently co-directing Super-Stories, an organization he launched with artist Grace Lang that focuses on arts education and large scale mural projects. Their motto is “If you know something, teach it!” His public art practice with Super-Stories focuses on centering the students and community members in every aspect of the work. He has painted 33 murals in the past 3 years with over 10,000 students, community members and teachers. He is passionate about creating murals that are based on student artwork that he obtains from brainstorming and drawing workshops.
Additionally, Ramiro is consulting on public art projects, painting private commissioned murals, and creating work for gallery exhibitions. When he isn’t making art, Ramiro spends his time building things, skateboarding and raising his son Otis.
Links to Ramiro Davaro-Comas’ work:
https://www.ramirostudios.com/
Drawing Explorations: Mixed Media Drawing Fun! with Lisa Bastoni
Drawing Explorations: Mixed Media Drawing Fun! with Lisa Bastoni
TUESDAYS: June 3, 10, 17, and 24
TIME: 6 to 7:30 PM
Location: Northampton Center for the Arts @ 33 Hawley Street, Eli’s Room
Cost: $120-$160 sliding scale, all materials provided
To Register and for more info: please email lisabastoni@gmail.com
What happens when we cross Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain with exercises from Lynda Barry's comics workshops, and a dash of inventive drawing experiments from elementary art education? A playful yet powerful approach to image-making, combining elements of writing/journaling as well as drawing, painting, collage, and more.
Using simple, accessible materials, we will explore a variety of approaches to drawing from observation, memory, and imagination. Emphasis will be on process over product, and generating some joy/building community through creativity.
Class size is limited to 12, and all materials will be provided. Write to lisabastoni@gmail.com for more info and to register!
Instructor Lisa Bastoni (she/her) is a working artist, songwriter, and elementary school art teacher. (lisabastoni.com)
Center for the Arts Drawing Group
Wednesday mornings, 9:45am to 12:45pm, $15/session ($10/session if the month is paid in advance)
The Northampton Center for the Arts Wednesday Morning Figure Drawing Group is looking for artists to join us. Please email Steve at artfromsteve@gmail.com if you're interested in joining us.
Each Wednesday morning session begins with a nude model assuming a series of short poses that increase in length from 2 minutes to 30 minutes. There are no requirements other than a desire to draw, so bring your paper and pencil, water colors, crayons…whatever medium you choose. Beginners and experts and all in between are welcome. No critique or instructions, just drawing. Tables, chairs, and easels are provided.
Don’t be late!
Please, no fixatives sprays or other materials with noxious odors.
The Drawing Group will begin meeting in Eli’s Room at 33 Hawley.
Noho Art Club with Paige Quinn-Vasic
Noho Art Club
Friday 11/8, 5:00-8:00pm
Friday 12/13, 5:00-8:00pm
FREE!
Paige Quinn-Vasic brings her popular Noho Art Club to NCFA during Arts Night Out! Check out the new exhibits at 33 Hawley, then head downstairs to Eli’s Room for a Noho Art Club meet-up! Come play with collage and gelli plate printing, and and check out Paige’s felt sushi demo, an original wet felting technique that she’ll be offering through the Center soon!