July at the Mentone Arts Center

Bradley Wilson Returns

Popular artist/instructor Bradley Wilson will be back in Mentone this month for a weekend art workshop on July 18-19. The two-day class is titled, “Hidden Images: Letting Images Find You.” Tuition for each workshop is 5 per student plus a supply fee paid to the instructor. There also is a materials list that will be emailed to each student upon registration. As with the students who took his exciting June workshop, you’ll explore pareidolia — the human tendency to find images in unexpected places. Using acrylic paint, watercolor, inks, and drawing media, participants will experiment with layered marks and playful processes while discovering how accidental shapes can develop into surprising imagery. Creating with a sense of play is key to this type of art-making.

The workshop was designed as both a standalone experience and a two-part creative journey for any returning students. It offers a complete and satisfying introduction to intuitive image-making. For any returning students, this second session builds naturally on the first, as they will be encouraged to work with greater complexity, developing more layered compositions, refining emerging imagery, and deepening their personal visual language. New participants are fully supported in beginning their own process. All experience levels are welcome; curiosity and openness to experimentation are essential.

About the Instructor

Bradley Wilson was born in Chattanooga in 1970. He is a visual artist and author who makes paintings, drawings, and prints. He teaches studio art and art history part time at Lee University, Dalton State College, and conducts regular painting workshops at a variety of venues. He resides with his wife and a multitude of dogs and cats in Charleston, Tennessee.

“Twenty years ago, I became interested in the idea of painting as an improvised performance,” Wilson says. “I had grown dissatisfied with making work that was fully conceived at the beginning, worked out through studies and sketches, and then executed onto canvas. Something important was missing. I began to make paintings with no formulated plan. I let the images emerge slowly or quickly out of the painting process itself. I began playing with color, line, texture, and shape. I embraced uncertainty as an essential element of creating.

“My painting process is fluid and organic. I constantly make changes throughout the creation of a piece. I have no philosophy of painting other than to be open and responsive to the possibilities of the moment. Connecting with the present and finding the potential is what my work is about.”

Magic of Marbling Class

We have also scheduled “The Magic of Marbling” class for the weekend of Sept. 26-27. The class will be led by renowned instructor Anne Murray. The ancient art of marbling involves floating paint on water, manipulating it, and then creating unique prints. The first day will be an introduction for all levels. Everyone will be amazed at the design possibilities, according to Murray. The second day will build on techniques to create more complex patterns. Marbling is art, science, and magic rolled into one craft. The second day will end with small projects demonstrating some of the possibilities for using the papers you have created.

Tuition is $195 per student and a $50 supply fee paid to the instructor. The class is limited to eight students. We are working out the final details of the class and will have more information soon. The class will likely be held in our gallery, as the normal classroom we use at Moon Lake Village is scheduled to have some renovations underway at that time. Anyone interested, please contact me at the email below.