Treat yourself with this extended long weekend workshop!
In this workshop you will fuse writing and art, learning new techniques in both, and create an illustrated journal that documents your time at Wintergreen. A willingness to explore both writing and art is all that you require. Come enjoy the beauty and tranquillity of Wintergreen and be inspired by the generosity and skill of these two extraordinary teachers.
Some of the time will be spent doing writing exercises and writing new work inspired by the land, and having one-on-one sessions with Helen to discuss other ongoing literary work.
Instruction on watercolour, value sketching, composition for the page, and wash and ink illustration will also take place. Techniques will initially take place indoors by Kelley through demonstrations and short exercises. These daily lessons will be followed with in situ sketching and plein air painting on the Wintergreen property.
About the Instructors
HELEN HUMPHREYS is the author of four books of poetry, six novels, and one work of creative non-fiction. She was born in Kingston-on-Thames, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario.
Her first novel, Leaving Earth (1997), won the 1998 City of Toronto Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her second novel, Afterimage (2000), won the 2000 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her third novel, The Lost Garden (2002), was a 2003 Canada Reads selection, a national bestseller, and was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Wild Dogs (2004) won the 2005 Lambda Prize for fiction, has been optioned for film, and was produced as a stage play at CanStage in Toronto in the fall of 2008. Coventry (2008) was a #1 national bestseller, was chosen as one of the top 100 books of the year by the Globe & Mail, and was chosen one of the top ten books of the year by both the Ottawa Citizen and NOW Magazine. The Reinvention of Love was released in July 2001 in the UK, and in September, 2011 in Canada.
Humphreys’ work of creative non-fiction, The Frozen Thames (2007), was a #1 bestseller. Her collections of poetry include Gods and Other Mortals (1986); Nuns Looks Anxious, Listening to Radios (1990); and The Perils of Geography (1995). Her latest collection, Anthem (1999), won the 2000 Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry.
Helen Humphreys’ fiction is published in Canada by HarperCollins, and in the U.S. by W.W. Norton. The Frozen Thames was published by McClelland & Stewart in Canada, and by Bantam in the U.S. Her work has been translated into many languages.
KELLEY AITKEN is an artist, writer, and teacher. She lives in Toronto with her partner, Frank de Jong, a teacher and eco-activist.
Kelley tells us that she views drawing as a slow act. She says, “The process of drawing required attention and sensual observation. Time slows, we experience an intense focus and absorption. In drawing, we are creating a dialogue with the world around us; we develop and express that relationship between ourselves and our subject matter. Drawing is about learning to see, replacing what we know or assume about objects, figures and spaces with what our eyes tell us. A drawing is a reflection of a subject but it is also about us, out point of view and interpretation.”
Kelley works in a wide range of media - from encaustics to etchings to woodcuts and linocuts. She often works in black and white. She has produced imaged from the Facts and Arguments page of The Globe and Mail, musing that, “I thought newspapers lost a lot of their visual drama when they introduced colour.”
In addition to teaching at the AGO and producing her own art, Kelley holds private drawing and painting classes out of her home. Along with her studio partner, Elaine Whittaker, she offers encaustic (pigment in wax) sessions from their Toronto studio. Kelley also offers private instruction and art coaching.