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Jason Ward’s Landscape Demonstration

Instructor Jason Ward ran his Landscape Painting Workshop not too long ago, and he put together a demonstration of the stages he might go through while working on a piece. 

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Cast Drawing in 5 Values

Evan Kitson’s Cast Drawing in 5 Values was held this past Sunday (July 7th) at our Workshop space in Station One Center for the Arts. Working from a variety of red chalks and sanguines (shorter tonal range) for his demonstration and providing them to all in attendance to work with, Evan lead the group through each material’s properties, pigments, binders, proper layering and how they behave on various surfaces. He also covered techniques on how to make them more versatile and more effective in your process. 

More techniques on how to create a correct, structured underdrawing, and how to keep your tonality organized as you work were covered as his demonstration continued. To illustrate his points as he instructed, Evan layered media and experimented with washes, pushing the norms and really emphasizing the adaptability available in the material. Suggestions on how to stay on track as well as what illusions to be wary of were in helpful abundance.

The demo was followed up by an astounding group of drawings produced by the attendees, who were constantly engaging with their peers’ work, returning to their own with refreshed direction.

Upcoming workshops can be found/registered for at: www.kingstworkshops.com 

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Intuitive Self-Portraiture as Metaphor

Instructor Leah Limpert Walt lead her Intuitive Self-Portraiture as Metaphor workshop this past Sunday evening. Leah began with a conversational introduction to a number of artists and their self-portraits with a focus on what they prioritize and how their processes spoke to more than just technique. She also brought in a number of her own self-portraits to show the participants, and you can see one of those above (first image!)

Leah then followed up with a self-portrait demonstration in oil paint while working from a mirror. She went over her palette choices, her process in this instance, and gave wonderful insight to how she was arriving at her decisions. Above you can see her demonstration in progress, her palette, and her finished demo.   

Everybody then grabbed a mirror and went to work with their own respective materials and processes. It was a lot of fun walking through the room and watching everybody’s work develop in different manners. When we lined them up at the end of the evening we were amazed at how everybody’s work clearly was alike in their aim, but very unique in their execution!

Check out http://kingstworkshops.com for more!

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Table Top Monoprinting


Jeff Geib led this past Sunday’s workshop through a variation on monotype that was experimental and engaging throughout. Participants were asked to bring an image for reference of their choice, whether it be a master copy, sketchbook, photograph or an art book off of the shelf at SOCA, and all other supplies were provided. 


Covering historical context for the process in relation to Gauguin’s use of it and breaking down the dynamics present in printmaking into “image, field and paper,” Jeff touched on aspects of each that ultimately translate into the print. Asking questions that encourage innovative moments natural to the process like: What is the permeability of the paper? How thickly have you applied the ink? What happens when you go too dark too soon? and, What is the surface of the paper your printing on like?


Participants started with a stencil guard, giving a sharp clean edged graphic and then were invited to push past the cleanliness to create bleeding edge and noisy, borderless prints. 

Check out our website http://kingstworkshops.com for more workshops and information!

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Participant Spotlight: Karen Slagle

Karen recently had her work published in Muzzleloader magazine, and she has been steadily building an amazing portfolio of strong and beautiful charcoal drawings (when she's not building scale models of colonial-era forts!) Karen's sketchbooks are works of art in their own right, filled with beautifully observed drawings of her surroundings, studies and concepts for future work, and impressive master-copies. It's a privilege to continue to work with somebody as engaged in every aspect of the art-making process as Karen is, and an even greater privilege to share a small selection of her work with you- Enjoy!

"When I have attended workshops in the past I had to keep in mind that it was a brief moment in the learning process with little to no contact with the instructor afterward. It always seemed questionable whether I would be able to use what was taught. King Street Workshops offers an incredible opportunity to study with four instructors whose camaraderie and passion for art is contagious.   The program is designed to take full advantage of what each instructor has to offer and ties together seemingly unrelated subjects.   As the first block of workshops was wrapping up, I felt confident that everything we learned was going to take its place in future work. It is most remarkable that what I’m not  confident about became a topic of easy conversation with all four instructors. I’m really looking forward to the next block of workshops." -Karen Slagle

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Light and Mood

This past Sunday, Instructor Jason Ward wrapped up our first block with his workshop “Light and Mood”! 

Jason focused on theatrical lighting and staging, using a fun narrative still-life as our subject for the evening. Following a slide presentation, Jason gave a painting demonstration using a limited palette of Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Titanium White, and Black. Focusing on establishing how light changes as it moves through a space, he discussed how we can make formal design decisions to create a powerful image. It was a fun evening full of discussions: the big picture design of an image, “narrativity” in our work, paint handling and manipulation, color and tonality, painting strategies, film and theatre, priority in design, and more! 

In our next block of workshops, Jason will be discussing Landscape Painting! For more information, check out our website, http://kingstworkshops.com