Artists holding workshops at Okotoks gallery

The Okotoks Art Gallery is holding varied workshops this month for the aspiring artist.

Coming to the gallery's second floor studio are two workshops by artists Janifer Calvez and Ashley Gaboury.

Colourful Winter Landscapes with Janifer Calvez is a multi-day workshop over three Tuesdays days on Feb. 21, 28 and March 7 from 6:30 to 9 p.m.

“I’m going to lay down some foundational skills of acrylic painting, so people can get some theory, practice some skills like washes, colour theory, perspective," Calvez said. "Just some foundational skills so people can create their own piece of work instead of just copying mine.

“We’re going to talk about the colour of snow, and how there’s many colours reflected in snow and the shadows, where the lights coming from, all that kind of stuff.”

The class is aimed at beginners to intermediates, from teens to adults. The plan is to create a scene from the perspective of walking through the forest in the winter, the type of scene Calvez is no stranger to not only on canvas, but as an avid hiker.

“I’m always inspired by the vast spaces and skies we have in Alberta with the mountains in the background,” said Calvez, whose impressionist style proves fact is sometimes just as vivid as fiction.

“I love doing the impressionistic – it's representational but it is also my impressions, and I’ve had people come down to southern Alberta who appreciated my work before, but then they get here and they’re like, ‘Oh, you weren’t making it up.’”

With that, the techniques to capture that feel will be broken down.

“We’ll explore how the light bounces off the snow, the trees and the sky as well, and I really want to encourage people to find their own style,” Calvez said.

“Eventually you find out your own style, and that’s why I want to also incorporate all the foundational skills so they can create their own things later.”

For the Winter Landscapes workshop, participants will be asked to bring their own supplies, with a list being provided.   

On the fluffier side, Watercolour Pet Portraits with Ashley Gaboury is all about capturing your fur baby's personality in watercolour, held on Saturday, Feb. 25 from 1 to 4 p.m.

Often commissioned by patrons to create portraits of their beloved fur babies, the artist is looking forward to sharing some of that.

“I’ve been really exploring watercolours over the last couple of years, ever since I did my Golden Artist Educator training in 2018, I really got into watercolours,” Gaboury said. “I just love painting and drawing pets, and I do a little bit of work with the [Yamnuska] Wolfdog Sanctuary out near Cochrane.”

With that love of all things furry, pet portraits seemed like a good fit to the artist.

“They’re fun, they’re loose, and I thought that would be something really great to share with the community,” said Gaboury, who has other mixed watercolour media coming up closer to spring.

Participants won’t need a high level of skill going in, and while Gaboury teaches other classes in drawing and sketching, this will focus primarily on the brush.

“In this class we are going to be focusing on using the watercolours and the pen and ink, different techniques of doing that, and also just how to bring life to the subject matter of pet portraits,” she said.

Supplies will pe provided for the pet portraits class, which is aimed at adults and teens, with beginners welcome.

For more information visit OkotoksCulture.ca or call the gallery at 403-938-3204.