Summer Home Studio Workshop Schedule

Every Summer, I host 3 workshops in my home studio.  They are limited to only 10 students, so everyone gets lots of individual attention!  These really fill up fast, so if you are interested, sign up TODAY!  Seriously!

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May Workshop:  Wire Drawing and Illusionary People Workshop

 (3 Day watercolor, collage, and marker workshop)

Instructor:  Karen Knutson www.karenknutson.com

Dates:  May 6 – 8^th, 2015 (Wednesday – Friday)

Hours:  9:00 – 4:00

Place:  Karen’s Home studio (Red Rock Studio)

8621 Coachman’s Lane, Eden Prairie, MN 55347 

Home phone:  952-934-0876      Cell:  612-940-9231

Cost:  $295

Contact:  karen@karenknutson.com to sign up

** (To register, send me an email.  The first 10 to respond will get in!  Then mail your check to 

Karen Knutson, 8621 Coachman's Lane, Eden Prairie, MN 55347)

This is my new favorite thing to do:  wire drawings.  They are done with permanent markers, but they look like they are wire sculptures!  That’s why I invented the name, “wire drawings”.  We will have one day of wire drawings, and watercolor paintings and the other days will involve learning how to paint groups of people in an illusionary manner.  You may or may not choose to add collage.  You know me, I will more than likely be adding collage, but you have the option either way. 

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June workshop:  Painting Textures with Acrylic- People paintings

 (3 Day acrylic workshop)

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Instructor:  Karen Knutson www.karenknutson.com

Dates:  June 16 – 18, 2015, (Tuesday – Thursday)

Hours:  9:00 – 4:00

Place:  Karen’s Home studio (Red Rock Studio)

8621 Coachman’s Lane, Eden Prairie, MN 55347 

Home phone:  952-934-0876      Cell:  612-940-9231

Cost:  $295

Contact:  karen@karenknutson.com to sign up

** (To register, send me an email.  The first 10 to respond will get in!  Then mail your check to Karen Knutson, 8621 Coachman's Lane, Eden Prairie, MN 55347)

I’ll demonstrate painting people in this workshop, however, you can paint totally abstract if you would prefer. No drawing experience necessary.  I have shortcuts to make drawing people really easy!  This workshop will concentrate on how to get many textures that only acrylic allows.  We will be using rubbing alcohol, different surface textures, and many other tricks to come up with special effects. Each painting will have about 4 layers to produce the special effects.  So fun! I’m really enjoying acrylic most of all lately!  Can’t wait to share my tricks!

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July Workshop:  Paint like Gustav Klimt with Good Design! 

(3 Day Watercolor OR Acrylic workshop with collage and metallics)

Instructor:  Karen Knutson www.karenknutson.com

Dates:  July 28- 30 (Tuesday – Thursday)

Hours:  9:00 – 4:00

Place:  Karen’s Home studio (Red Rock Studio)

8621 Coachman’s Lane, Eden Prairie, MN 55347 

Home phone:  952-934-0876    

 Cell:  612-940-9231

Cost:  $295

Contact:  karen@karenknutson.com to sign up

** (To register, send me an email.  The first 10 to respond will get in!  Then mail your check to Karen Knutson, 8621 Coachman's Lane, Eden Prairie, MN 55347)

We will get to doodle to our heart’s content in this workshop.  Acrylic actually makes this process easier, but if you’d rather work in watercolor and collage, that’s fine too.  This workshop will emphasize good design and lots of tricks to make the detail work easier.  We will also be working with several different types of metallic special effects and will be studying Gustav Klimt’s paintings. 

How Paintings Evolve

"Family and Friends"

Step one of painting

This painting, "Family and Friends", started with free and loose conte crayon markings.  Then I applied gesso randomly, using a palette knife.  The top photo is the finished painting, and the lower photo is step one.  This painting was as much a mystery to me, as to others.  Every step of the way, I had no idea how it would evolve, until about half way through, when I could see a mountain side, with rocks and decided to add some people at the top of the mountain.  The gesso marks helped me decide where to put them.  At this point, I stopped the painting, and got out my pencil, and made a value design sketch, something that I am passionate about.  Usually, I start with this, but this time, it was fun to start a painting with no preconceived ideas, and let the painting tell me the direction that it wanted to go.  "Family and Friends" just won a merit award at the Minnesota Watercolor Society Fall Exhibition.  I am teaching a workshop in my home studio on Oct. 4 - 6th on how to come up with ideas for abstracts.  There are still 2 openings, if anyone is interested.

Another Bird Painting

Home, Sweet Home
This was my demonstration painting for the home studio workshop for the Charcoal Pour technique.  This painting is lots more busy than my last one.  Which one do you like better?  The students did fabulous paintings, and loved the process of the charcoal pour.  I'm really excited to paint lots more birds!

Dragonfly workshop- Lynne Baur, instructor

Lynne Baur with her demo painting, (not quite finished)

It's been a busy time for me so I'm tardy in posting a review of the dragonfly workshop that Lynne Baur taught in my home studio.  (Click on the link, and go to the Dragonfly Gallery to see her incredible dragonfly collection.) It was my first workshop with a guest artist instructing at my home studio.  Lynne went above and beyond, and everyone was thrilled with everything that they learned.  We learned so many techniques to create texture, and although it was only a 2 day workshop, everyone finished a full sheet watercolor painting in that short time!  This was a mixed media workshop, including acrylic inks, acrylics, watercolor, and metallics.  I strongly recommend that you take a workshop from Lynne, who gives private lessons also, at a very affordable price.  It was so fun for me to be a student again, although I didn't get my painting done, due to being a hostess.  I will post it soon!

Painting on silk by Lynne Baur.  I purchased this one!