This one-day workshop with award-winning artist, Laila Jensen, will guide you through the process of creating an abstracted mixed media forest project from start to finish. In the morning, we will prepare the canvas and we’ll learn about washes, molding paste, mark making, and making collage paper for our project. In the afternoon, we’ll create our forest using the collage papers, paints and any other materials that you choose to bring. In addition to coming away with a special artwork of your own creation, you will also come away with knowledge about using mixed media products, making and using collage paper, and some background about abstracted design.

Please Bring the Following Materials:

• At least one canvas (12 x 12 is recommended). You may want to work on two canvases, in which case, please bring a second one.
• Your own acrylic paints and brushes, whatever you have. Recommended colours for this workshop are white, black, orange, a light red and a deep red, yellow ochre, any light yellow, a light blue and a dark blue.

Ladysmith Arts will Provide:

• gel or ‘medium’ product (for e.g. ‘gloss gel medium’).

Additional Materials (Please Bring if You Have; Otherwise, the Instructor Will Provide):

• Patterned paper, textured paper, and any paper you might like to use as collage materials for the piece.
• Some lightweight paper, such as tissue paper (preferably art grade, but any will do). 
• One or more transparent paints (anything with the word ‘quinacridone’ or ‘transparent’ will work).
• Any metallic paint.
• Some compatible markers such as Posca pens, soluble ink pencils, Stabilos.
• Any brand of molding paste (aka modeling paste).

About Your Instructor:

For Laila Jensen, trees have always been a huge source of inspiration. You can see the influence of the beautiful barks and delicate leaves of Alberta aspens, the spruce and fir forests of B.C. and the majestic trees of Vancouver Island in her work. As a mixed media artist, Laila work in layers using plaster, pastes and papers, inks and ink pencils, chalk pastels and metallic leaf. She achieved Signature Status with the Federation of Canadian Artists in 2021 and won first place in the Federation’s Abstracted Exhibition in 2020.