Louise Minks Workshop: Exploring Color and Design
NEW! 1 ½ Day Class at our Show in Warren, VT
May 15 and 16, 2025
Register at https://gmrhg.wildapricot.org
Teacher: Louise Minks
Website: www.louiseminks.com
Name of Class:
Rug Hooking Through a Painter’s Eyes:
Exploring Color and Design
Dates and Times:
Thurs. May 15, 9 AM-4PM
Fri. May 16, 9 AM-12PM
Class Size:
6 Minimum, 15 Max
Cost:
$220 – includes Thursday lunch.
Description of Class:
Painters are taught that good composition, or “design”, is essential to the success of a painting, along with effective color suitable to the subject or focus. We will explore ways to make good decisions in developing and completing hooked projects with these goals in mind.
There will be exercises and demonstrations to help students explore different design options and the ways color can change the impact of a finished piece. This will offer opportunities to try new ideas and techniques in case something different feels interesting and possible!
Class includes:
- Looking at paintings to find/understand design & color ideas.
- Practicing design with exercises using paper/scissors and coloring tools.
- Exploring composition with demonstrations/activities
- Understanding color relationships & using the color wheel
- Learning playful and non threatening skills to enhance work
Students will bring two small pieces of their own work for a guided group commentary experience-one favorite and one they aren’t sure about
Louise will take students on a tour of the show to talk about and find examples of newly learned techniques
Students will leave with the beginning of one or more new designs but no hooking will be done in class.
Supplies Sold by Louise:
Colored papers and coloring tools; glue sticks; color wheels and handouts about composition and color to take home – $7/student, payable to the teacher.
Students Should Bring to Class:
1 pair each large and small paper cutting scissors; notebook, pen and pencil
Samples of Louise’s Paintings:
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- Ancient Sites and Symbols
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- Daffodils- Joyful Spring
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- Sheep
Artist’s Bio
I have painted in acrylics and oils in New England for many years and was introduced to northern New Mexico when I was awarded an artist residency at the Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos in 1997 and 1998. I have always loved color and strong expression, so painting in New Mexico is a joy. Following the Wurlitzer experience, I taught at Taos Institute of Arts until it closed and then taught at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, NM. for over 15 years.
I operated my own gallery and working studio in a restored 1834 grist mill, the “Book Mill,” near my home for fourteen years. I currently work out of a studio in the historic “box shop,” Leverett Crafts & Arts, in Leverett Center. In addition, I teach and paint in New Mexico, Vermont, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and southern New York state. Additional artist residencies include Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and Memorial Hall Museum, Deerfield, MA. From these residency experiences and from international travel, I have developed touring exhibitions of paintings and/or silkscreen art work with special themes: the Pueblo Revolt of 1680; African American portraits; the Underground Railroad; the African American history of Harpers Ferry; African Album; art work about Kenya. I also created two handmade books with original artwork and text: African Album and The Connecticut River.
My academic background is American history, not fine art, so I learned and developed as an artist by working with a few professional artists in their workshops, but more importantly, by painting side by side with excellent artists. We talked and studied paintings and art books together, experimented and continued working. It was always “learning by doing.” And it still is!
Louise @ LouiseMinks .com; www. LouiseMinks .com; 413-367-2800
Artist’s Statement
“Color! Vibration! Rhythm! Celebration!
These are essential to my work.
It is a completely joyful process to me.”
I work out of my studio at Leverett Crafts & Arts in my town of Leverett and showed my work locally at Sawmill River Arts at The Montague Mill (BookMill) for 26 years. I paint mostly on site in New England and in the Southwest when I teach at Ghost Ranch where Georgia O’Keefe lived and painted.
My only formal art education was in the 6th grade when my mother hired an art teacher to teach some of the neighborhood kids around our ping pong table in the basement – no art classes in our grade school. I loved it, and I still remember everything that teacher said!
I didn’t take art in high school or college, but as an adult, I worked with several professional painters and excellent painting buddies. I learned a great deal from all of them. I became a professional artist myself, teaching classes and workshops in New England and New Mexico for over 30 years.
Through the years, I have tackled portraits, historical interpretive paintings, bookbinding and printmaking. I have been an outdoor “plein air” landscape painter for over forty years, passionate about painting “fast and loose” – a wild woman just loving fresh air, dramatic light, the excitement of attacking the canvas with brush and paint. I was never a “detail” painter, always much more slap dash. Color and drama still grab me first, and I try to grab them!
I love what I paint and paint what I love!
I’m very grateful to be able to do this as my life’s work.
It is a great blessing in my life.