ART BEFORE OUR EYES

La Jolla artists demonstrate their craft

PHOTOS COURTESY OF LA JOLLA ART ASSOCIATION

Have you ever marveled at a painting, sculpture, or piece of pottery and asked yourself, “How did the artist do that?” In keeping with its mission to promote lifelong learning, La Jolla Community Center is providing some answers by hosting a monthly series of free art demonstration classes. On the fourth Thursday of each month, an artist and member of the La Jolla Art Association takes center stage and paints, sculpts, or crafts artwork from start to finish, in front of a live (and very interested) audience. 

“The La Jolla Art Association was established in 1918 to advance the appreciation of fine art in Southern California,” says Minnie Valero, the association’s president. “Our members include fifty local artists who represent a variety of media from oil to watercolor, acrylic, digital, and more.” Works by these artists have been exhibited at the La Jolla Community Center for close to ten years. Attendees must register in advance at: ljcommunitycenter.org/art-receptions

ARTIST: Minnie Valero
MEDIUM: Watercolor on Yupo
WHEN: July 28 from 4 to 6 pm

Born and raised in Argentina, Minnie Valero has drawn and painted all her life. She describes herself as a contemporary impressionist, always working on the elements of shape, value, color, line, texture, pattern, and the principles that govern them. She enjoys working with watercolor, pastel, acrylic, and oils and seeks the challenge of doing something unusual to keep her work fresh, relevant, and ever evolving. For her demonstration class in July, Minnie will show how to paint with watercolor on Yupo paper, a synthetic surface made from polypropylene resin. Since Yupo is non-porous, it does not automatically absorb paint like traditional paper used for watercolor. In Minnie’s demonstration, she will share her techniques and creative ways to experiment with this inspiring, nontraditional material.

ARTIST: Sherry Roper
MEDIUM: Oil on canvas
WHEN: August 25 from 4 to 6 pm

As an artist inspired by classical realism, Sherry Roper looks for beauty in everyday scenes and objects. She is intrigued by the details and complexities of her subjects, and says she is drawn to dramatic light and shadow in both still lifes and landscapes. Sherry’s hope is to inspire a sense of wonder and mindfulness in the viewer.

In her demonstration class in August, Sherry will describe and demonstrate the classical “indirect” method of painting, which the Dutch masters of still life used in creating their masterpieces.  She will describe how a careful drawing of the subject is transferred to the canvas, after which a gray-scale underpainting is completed and then layers of color are applied in opaque and transparent glazes, resulting in amazing realism.