NORTH BATTLEFORD — Recently, I had the privilege to organize a “free-for-all” painting session for Battlefords Art Club members. I stretched a large canvas, which was a first for me, and applied gesso in preparation for this event. Using acrylic paints in a select palette, which helps for continuity in the work, I researched ideas for a group event.
There could be any number of members participating, but I laid down some guidelines. After all, we are an exuberant bunch.
Some of the guidelines included:
• Deciding on a particular direction or subject to work towards
• Getting two minutes to paint for each turn
• Don’t pout if another artist paints over what you just added, since one owns the canvas during their turn
• Have fun.
We decided on an abstract landscape in portrait orientation. Over two hours of slapping paint around during each of our turns, our creation had quite an adventure. It started as a sketch, trees, maybe a mountain, hard to tell since it was abstract, paint running in droplets, blobs and bands. In the end, it is a lovely Hallmark card Christmas scene. What fun we had ridding the canvas of previous strokes of paint, laughing and poking fun.
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Photos courtesy Battlefords Art Club
