Kathy Collins Free Watercolor Demo at the Daniel Smith Bellevue Store

Last Saturday Watercolorist Kathy Collins

demonstrated some of her

watercolor techniques to a full house at the

Daniel Smith Art Supply Store in Bellevue .

The Free demo was:

"Watercolor: Impressionistic Watercolors"

Kathy painted on a full sheet of watercolor paper a composition of boats docked, nearby was a similar painting matted and framed on an easel facing the audience, as a point of reference for us. We watched as Kathy applied the Daniel Smith watercolors to her penciled in sketch with a 2 inch synthetic bright brush. It took just 1/2 an hour to create her watercolor painting and she talked throughout describing her thought processes as she made her choices...it was very interesting to hear.

Towards the end Kathy started warning about overworking a watercolor, to not as she says: "Don't futz it!" Just stop, and start another before you are tempted to overwork it, after all, "it's only paper."

While she was painting, there were some really nice small sketchbooks of Kathy's being passed around of different trips, the most recent was to Hawaii. Kathy sketches in scenes with an extra fine sharpie, then later paints in watercolor. The sketchbooks were a hit with most people in attendance, they were a very personal record of Kathy's visit and everyone enjoyed her "trip".

There were also copies of a couple of articles that Kathy has been featured in, one was from

The Artist's Magazine , April 2007. I took a moment to read a bit, and this quote from Kathy (paraphrasing Frank Webb) really caught my eye: "...it takes acres of paper to make a painter", so true!

Afterwards everyone crowded around the demo table to ask lots of questions for the remaining 1/2 hour to get more insight about Kathy's color choices in general, and where she decides to apply the color to get her impressionistic effects. It was a very engaging demonstration!

Kathy Collins also has a watercolor workshop

coming up April 20th, 2008

at the Daniel Smith Bellevue Store.


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Sunday April 20th

WATERCOLOR: Impressionistic Watercolors

Kathy Collins kathycollinswatercolors.com

Kathy will show you how to create

impressionistic watercolor painting

using dramatic high contrast watercolors.

Learn techniques for large charging color,

and mixing flowing wet paint right on the paper

to achieve dark values while preserving white spaces.

Kathy’s artwork has been published in

Watercolor Magic, and The Artist’s Magazines.

A workshop not to be missed! $75 per day 11 am to 4 pm

Daniel Smith Free Demos this weekend at the Bellevue Store!

Saturday, March. 29th at 11 & 1:45 pm

WATERCOLOR: Impressionistic Watercolors

with Kathy Collins kathycollinswatercolors.com

DON’T FORGET Kathy’s Workshop April 20th Bellevue Store!

Sunday, March. 30th at 12 & 2 pm

ACRYLIC: Vibrant & Colorful Acrylics on Paper

with Theresa Goesling theresagoesling.com

So drop by the Bellevue Daniel Smith Store

for some helpful tips and "how to"s for painting with

Watercolors and Acrylics,

they are FREE!

There are Free Demonstrations every weekend

at both the Bellevue and Seattle Stores,

be sure not to miss out.

Life Drawing at the Daniel Smith Store in Bellevue

Did you know....

Every Wednesday there is Life Drawing at the

Daniel Smith Artists' Materials Store in Bellevue ?

It's from 4:30 to 7:30 PM and costs $9:00.

Here is a great opportunity to practice some

focused drawing with a live model.

The first half an hour is gesture drawing to warm everyone up,

then longer poses for the remainder time.

Karin Schminke's Recent Daniel Smith Free Demo - MULTI-MEDIA: Basic Intro to Using InkAID

Karin Schminke's recent FREE demo at the Daniel Smith Seattle Store allowed those who attended to see and learn a few of the techniques she likes to use in her Multi-Media Digital Printmaking work. Many more are discussed in much deeper detail in her book, with Dorothy Simpson Krause and Bonny Pierce Lhotka, the "Digital Art Studio ".

This is a very process oriented way of making Art, and Karin talked about how important it is to "start with the basics - then follow your own creativity".

For part of the demo, Karin talked about using different papers, different InkAID Precoats , watercolor and rice papers, and showed the audience some samples of the effects. Karin also likes to work with Arches Black Cover Paper to get certain effects. When using the Arches Cover Black, Karin paints the surface unevenly with one or two coats of InkAID White Matte Precoat and after thoroughly drying, prints her image onto the surface. Because of the uneven application, the thickness varies on the precoat, and when the image is printed on to the formerly solid black surface she gets some really interesting effects.

Karin shared a lot of information with us about how the different materials could be used, which allowed those attending the demo to ask a lot of questions. It was a great opportunity to get answers to specific questions from an artist with expertise in a very specific medium!

At the end of the hour long FREE demo on March 8th, Karin sent us all off with these encouraging words to experiment with different processes: "Be Brave!"

Daniel Smith Watercolor Extravaganza Featuring PrimaTek® Watercolors

Coming up tomorrow, Saturday, March 22nd, 2008, is the

Daniel Smith Watercolor Extravaganza

at both the
Daniel Smith Seattle Store (All Day)

and the

Bellevue Store (11 to 1 PM).

So come by and join the staff applying

Daniel Smith PrimaTek® watercolors

to their favorite surfaces (hands-on will be a special time)

and there will be FREE samples!

PrimaTek® Colors are Daniel Smith's own

"straight-from-the-earth pigments"

such as:

Amazonite Genuine
Rhodonite Genuine
Hematite Burnt Scarlet
Natural Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Genuine
Minnesota Pipestone
Purpurite Genuine
Lapis Lazuli Genuine
Tiger's Eye Genuine
Sodalite Genuine

If you have always wanted to see some of these exclusive

Daniel Smith Watercolors in action....

stop by either store on Saturday, March 22, 2008!

Yanshu Hsu's Free Pastel Portrait Demonstration at the Daniel Smith Art Supply Store in Seattle

While it was cool and gray outside at the Daniel Smith Seattle Store for last Saturdays' (March 15th 2008) FREE demo with Yanshu Hsu demonstrating Pastel Portraits, inside Yanshu brought light to her Indigo Blue Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper when she applied her Unison Soft Pastels to paint her Nice's portrait.

The group who attended the demo watched intently while Yanshu added the light flesh tones to her sketched out figure in dark blue and dark red/orange (sorry I forgot to ask which colors). The luminous, light colors allowed the soft curves of the girls face to emerge from the flat, dark surface. Yanshu continued to work over the surface and in just over a half an hour was the nearly completed portrait of her Nice.

Afterwards Yanshu invited questions from the group about her materials and her process. She also answered questions regarding her background (she was a student at the Lu Xun Art College in China), she is a member of the Northwest Pastel Society , and teaches private pastel painting lesson at her Yanshu Art Studio outside of Seattle in Sammamish.

Yanshu will also be participating in the upcoming SPRING PASTEL EVENT : April 26th & 27th at the Daniel Smith Seattle Store. Yanshu will be there on Sunday, April 27th from 2 to 3 PM.

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SPRING PASTEL EVENT at both the Seattle and Bellevue Stores

Saturday, April 26th 2008, from 9:00-4:00 SPRING PASTEL EVENT: Hands-On, multiple demos, Artwork, give-aways and more. Pastel on Paper with Mary Shea at 11 am mary-shea.com (Sponsored by Sennelier Free Samples)

Sunday, April 27th 2008, from 11:00- 4:00 SPRING PASTEL EVENT: Hands-On, multiple demos, Artwork, give-aways and more. Pastel on Ampersand Pastelboard with Che Lopez at 12 pm (Sponsored by Unison Free Samples)

If you have been wanting to learn more about Pastel Painting, this could be a great opportunity for You!

Welcome to the Daniel Smith Blog!

Hello! Update June 19, 2009, we have moved the DANIEL SMITH Blog to it's permanent address at: http://danielsmithblog.com/ . Please visit us there for more on DANIEL SMITH: Artists' Materials.

Also, please feel free to follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DANIELSMITH_ART

Art...here at Daniel Smith... we are all about helping You to express the creative, artistic side of You. This blog will be an evolving place to share information, and creating conversations with You.

I will be exploring lots of different topics on subjects that I find interesting about making art, Daniel Smith and our products, especially the ones we develop and manufacture, as well as subjects and questions You may have.

To begin our journey, we'll start at the Daniel Smith Seattle store where the Daniel Smith corporate offices are as well. Our Call Center, where telephone catalog orders are taken, and where where Daniel Smith Watercolors , Daniel Smith Acrylics , Daniel Smith Oils , and Daniel Smith Inks and Printmaking Supplies are Manufactured are also at the Seattle location.

We also have our Daniel Smith Bellevue Store , where I will also be visiting as well. The Warehouse where all your orders are full-filled, is in another location nearby. I will be visiting these places in the future to let you in on what's happening, and how it all works.

There are also many free demonstrations as well as workshops at both stores. I will be attending some of them, and sharing some of the tips that the Artists share in their demonstrations. This is a place to share and learn, and I will be learning right along side of You the things about making Art that I have myself have not done (yet!). I studied painting and lithography in school, so there is much for me to learn about watercolor, acrylic, and other mediums as well. We will be on a journey together!