My 2018 color clinic will be at Evendale Cultural Center near Cincinnati, a great workshop location. All mediums are welcome, but most demos are in watercolor. 8/3/18 - 8/5/18; 9:00AM - 4:00PM. This is a fun 3-day workshop that offers an opportunity for artists to increase their  knowledge of paint characteristics, color triads, and seven contrasts of color. This intense learning experience is informal, friendly and fun. For more information, call 513-563-1350 or email susan.gordy@evendaleohio.org . Learn how to organize random swatches into an organized color wheel and get control of your palette!

Color Clinic Coming to Evendale Cultural Center

 A 3-day workshop in July with Nita Leland, Color Clinic offers you an opportunity to create unique artwork with improved knowledge of paint characteristics, color triads, and color contrasts. Nita makes an intense learning experience informal, friendly, and fun. Learn from insightful open critiques on your work, emphasizing creativity, personal expression, and individual development.

Nita is a professional artist, teacher, and lecturer. For forty years, Nita has taught hundreds of art workshops throughout the United States and Canada in color, creativity, and collage. She is the author of several popular art instruction books: the recently released bestseller Exploring Color Workshop: 30^th Anniversary Edition, Confident Color, The New Creative Artist, and New Creative Collage Techniques, along with 4 DVDs.

www.nitaleland.com  nitaleland@blogspot.com   

Color Clinic is held at the Evendale Cultural Center, 10500 Reading Road, Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 21, 22, and 23 from 9 am to 4 pm. Contact mailto:susan.gordy@gmail.com .

Why I Love Artists Who Love Color

Well, I never expected months to pass before I returned to my blog. After I last wrote, several weeks went by before my editor picked up my artwork and did the preliminary layout. Stef and I had worked on three books together, but this was the first time we used Dropbox.com to expedite the process. Way cool. I put all my files into Dropbox, where I had the artists deposit their digital submissions. I gave Stef access to my Dropbox so she could work at her convenience and leave comments, which I then responded to. She brought the designer into the loop and I was able to see the design develop and give my input on that. Amazon listed September 7 as the release date, so it was a shock when my advance copies arrived early in August, along with three boxes of books to send to my contributing artists. I had to confirm addresses for 50+ artists--several had moved--then ship throughout the U.S., Canada, to Australia and Brazil. It was pretty wild. FYI, I don't have "people." The exclamations from the artists when they saw their books were worth the hassle. Many shouted it out on Facebook. Kudos to these wonderful artists who shared their colorful work with me. I've always been grateful for artists who allow me to show their work to illustrate many different ways to use the principles of color that I teach. Their works inspire other artists, who see how joyfully and expertly color can be used.

Read more about Exploring Color Workshop, 30th Anniversary Edition at North Light Shop

So, here's how it goes as the deadline approaches. All my ducks are in a row, except for two that are missing. They are small illustrations and easily replaceable, but I clearly remember having done them. I simply can't find them. I search through all my files of past books, both hard copy and digital, to see if I have misplaced them. They don't show up. So, I tell my editor I'll do them over and send them to her this week. I decide to make one more pass at my digital files to see if I have scanned them. I have bazillions of images just for this book, because I scanned artwork from the two previous editions and also have hundreds of digital files from new artists' submissions. I've already checked these, but I skipped a couple of folders where I am certain I would not have put them. This time I decide to take no shortcuts. You've already guessed--that's where I find both of them: in the illustrated color glossary folder. You know that feeling? I remember doing them. They disappeared without a trace. I was beginning to think my memory was failing me. All better now.

Well, I hope you haven't been holding your breath waiting for that update I promised. I found I could't write about the book and do the work at the same time.
Feeling so relieved today. My editor picked up the artwork and notes for my new North Light book, Exploring Color Workshop, which is a 30th anniversary edition of my original Exploring Color. I've revised, revamped, reorganized, and added the work of 32 new artists and some new exercises and demos. Whew! The hard part is over, unless my editor wants a lot of changes. She will finalize my layout and determine if there is room for all the art I packed onto the pages. If all goes well, we will have an August pub date. You would think I'd be used to this by now, this being my eighth book, but it is always hard work and it is always exciting.
I'm so grateful for my editor, Stefanie Badders Laufersweiler. This is our fourth book together, including The New Creative Artist, Confident Color, and New Creative Collage Techniques. She is a pro and a delight to work with. Stef took a selfie of the two of us when we got together months ago. Can you believe there's an editor who makes house calls? We even have a favorite deli where we grab lunch before or after conferencing. How fun is that? Lucky me.
I'll try to do a better job of keeping you up to date. Meanwhile, waiting for Spring....

Big Smiles--Exploring Color to be Revised, Updated, Launched in 2016

Yesterday I met with my favorite editor, Stefanie Laufersweiler, about the book we're working on now--our fourth for North Light Books. We are so happy to be bringing this book back after a couple of years out of print. We still have lots of work to do, as this is a major revision and update. I haven't talked much about my book development process in the past (a total of seven books, going on eight), but I've decided to share some of my thoughts and experiences as I pull the book together with Stef's sharp eyes and sense of humor to assist me. Maybe you have dreamed of writing a book and will feel encouraged to give it a shot. Stay tuned!

After a busy few months since my last post, I'm ready to talk about some new adventures in writing and self-publishing. But First-- Two new 3-day workshops coming up this year!

Nita Leland Workshops 2015 October 23-25. 3-day workshop: Watercolor Tricks, Tips, & Techniques. Evendale Cultural Arts Center, near Cincinnati, Ohio. Contact Pat Haslit. Here's your chance to try new techniques and materials you may not have used before. Play with resists, faux textures, mark-making, and other special effects as you practice your watercolor skills. You'll complete a reference chart to use at home and will benefit from helpful daily critiques in a fun and friendly atmosphere with lots of individual attention. To book a workshop in 2016, please email me to reserve a date. Workshops available in color, creativity, collage, or watercolor.

New 3-day workshop coming up November 7-9. "Adventures in Creativity" at Evendale Cultural Arts Center, near Cincinnati, Ohio. Easy access off I-75. Contact Pat Haslit, jhaslit@fuse.net. Let's Play!

Free your creative spirit. Discover how to access your creativity and capture ideas, images, and quotations in a sketchbook. Try new color and design ideas; experiment with abstraction; play with mixed media, monotype, and basic collage techniques in a fun and friendly atmosphere with helpful critiques and tips on goal-setting. Based on The New Creative Artist.

Jacqueline Sullivan's Color Letter--Fantastic Resources

A Watermedia Collage Series on Trees

One of my students in Exploring Watercolor has been working on an interesting series. Jane let snow fall on wet watercolor to make textured backgrounds. She cut the colored papers into squares and attached them to black backgrounds. Jane painted the trees with watercolors. [Note: The patterns are precisely straight, but some curvature appears in the photos.]

I love what she's doing with these. Today she used this treatment on a redbud tree and it is spectacular! My class is constantly surprising me.

Adventures in Creativity, Collage, & Water Media May 5-9

Ocean City Center for the Arts, Maryland. Email Ann Terrell
Free your creative spirit in Nita Leland's workshop, where the emphasis is on you. Access your creativity in sketches, capturing images and quotations in a sketchbook. Try new color and design ideas; experiment with abstraction; play with mixed media, learn basic collage techniques and more. You'll benefit from helpful daily critiques tailored to every skill level and useful tips on goal setting in a fun and friendly atmosphere. A free private consultation with Nita on one or two pieces of current work is optional.

Meet me in Las Vegas!

Summer is flying by, but there's still time to sign up for my workshop.
It's all about color...
What's on YOUR palette?

Big Event at Hithergreen Center

This is the week of Hithergreen Center's gigantic garage sale. Thur. June 6 and Friday June 7 are the big days. I'm really excited about the new daylily sale. Sandy and Mike Holmes of Riverbend Daylily Garden have donated bulbs from four named varieties, shown in the photo. One is a newly registered beauty named for Hithergreen. The bulbs are only $5, while they last. The garage sale is a highly anticipated event, with books, toys and housewares, crafts and antique glassware--everything a bargain. Come early for the best selection.

Exploring Watercolor Exhibit at Hithergreen Center

Here's a new exhibit by my Exploring Watercolor Class. Please stop by Hithergreen Center to see the original paintings!

One of the ways they learn is to participate in critique at the end of each class. The discussions help artists to improve their paintings while they learn art principles that help them in their own work.

An outstanding feature of this class is their selection of a wide variety of subject matter. Each artist is developing his or her own style.
They've become a close community of artists and working with them is pure joy.

Rising Sun Collage Workshop 2012

Last weekend's New Creative Collage Techniques workshop at Rising Sun, Indiana, was fantastic. Here's one example. Go to the workshop page to see more of what these artists did in only two days. Many did more than two pieces. The variety of subject matter and approach is fantastic. In addition to paper collage, I had the class prepare a background with acrylic paints and then collage into it. One student worked mostly with fabrics. Most hadn't done much collage, if any, so you can see why I was impressed with the results. FYI, Rising Sun Art has more workshops through November. It's only 1 1/2 hours from Dayton, closer to Cincinnati, not far from Indianapolis--just a hop and a skip for a fun, productive two-days.

Building a Platform

You don't need a hammer and nails for this one. Robert Lee Brewer is helping writers build a platform for their marketing. He calls this the April Platform Challenge and it began on April 1 right here. I've been working on other projects, so just got into it today. Wow! I need lots of catching up to get up to speed. It's good to know I already have some of his recommendations in place. Now I'm checking everything out to see what I might have missed. Check it out--artists need this, too.

Rising Sun Indiana Collage Workshop

Join me for New Creative Collage Techniques – April 21 & 22 at Rising Sun Art Workshops.
Learn lots of collage techniques and see how easy it is to make exciting art work with a wide assortment of odds and ends and, if you like, paint. You’ll have fun making creative magazine and newspaper collages, recycling old paintings, and creating faux-texture background supports for collage papers, including oriental papers, handmade papers and photographs, using techniques described in my new book, New Creative Collage Techniques. I'll show you how to set up your workspace and prepare your materials so your collages will last. There will be a brief demo at the start of each class, then everyone will work on suggested activities or on their own projects. You’ll also learn design tips and how to make color work in your collages. To add to the excitement bring some items to share with the class–one artist’s “trash” might be another’s treasure! Each day ends with an upbeat group critique. For all levels of experience. Hope to see you there. Contact Vera Curnow.

Painting Like Seurat

Barb Stork, another Hithergreen instructor, assigned her students a project to paint different sections of Georges Seurat's great pointillist painting, "Sunday Afternoon at the Grand Jatte."

Here are photos of her class and of the assembled paintings, which make a delightful replication of the original artwork.

Confident Color Workshop was a blast!

I had a great time in Ft. Lauderdale last week. This workshop for the Gold Coast Watercolor Society is on my list of all-time favorites! The weather was fantastic--80s and sunny. Thanks to Teresa Kirk for running a great workshop and to Jennifer Kellum who handled the lunch logistics (important job!) to perfection and also to class members who kept the snack table filled to overflowing with caloric goodies.
Here's a link to some of the color sketches the artists did on the second day.
People playing with myriads of color ideas and subjects to paint with their watercolors is so energizing. The workshop (20 people) began with a review of basics (split-primary color mixing)and it was surprising to find many hadn't learned--or didn't remember--this simple, important method of avoiding mud in color mixing. Then we spent one day each on color harmony triads, color contrasts, color schemes, and painting light effects in color. On Tuesday night I gave a PowerPoint presentation for the Gold Coast Watercolor Society. This program shows how 30-plus artists in Confident Color use color creatively in different media, including graphic design, fibers, and mixed media.

GCWS has a fantastic facility for both workshops and demos. March 19-23 they are sponsoring Dave Daniels, a terrific artist and teacher who is a colorist supreme and not to be missed.
Gold Coast Watercolor Society brochure
Dave Daniels Web site

Keep Eyes Open for Georgia Mansur!

This Australian artist is creating a whirlwind in the watermedia world. She has a custom palette just released from Daniel Smith and when you see her gorgeous artwork on her Web site you'll want to know more about the international workshops posted on her site. Oh, and don't forget to look up her article on painting large scale acrylic landscapes in February Australian Artist magazine. You can download a pdf file of the article from her Web site. Go, Georgia, Go! I hope our paths cross some time when you're in the U.S.A.

Two new art instruction DVDs

These two videos were filmed in August, a month or so before the new collage book was released. I felt like I was under a lot of pressure, but they both were fun to put together. My past experience with ANTV two years ago was a little crazy. They shot two videos in one day and, as a result, one was very short. The hired crew quit at 6 p.m. and that was that. I was so tired I almost got lost driving home from Cincinnati.

This experience was altogether different. Jennifer Lepore Brune coordinated the production and an assortment of helpers popped in to swap out my materials and fetch clean water for me. Both of my editors, Stefanie Laufersweiler and Holly Davis pitched in, as well. Everything went so well. The camera guys, Phil and Ric, were fun to work with over the two days of the shoot. They were good at getting multiple close-ups and zooming in on the hands-on shots.

You can read more on my Web site about both DVDs. Creative Art Class has 100 minutes of instruction.
Collage Art Techniques is 75 minutes long. Both are packed with information and demos.

For online previews, search the titles or "Nita Leland" at ArtistsNetwork.tv

Free Collage Demo

Here is the first step in my creation of "Quintana Roo" collage, which appears in New Creative Collage Techniques on page 144. The step-by-step process (only available online) is in pdf format. Open it in Adobe Reader (download free at adobe.com) and print for easy reference. This mixed-media collage contains several techniques in the book, including an ink- and paint-textured background with overlays of brayer and crystalline papers.

Hithergreen Center has a new look.

Friends visit in the recently updated reception area. Hithergreen members Fran Doster and Dwight Glover donated funds to purchase the new coffee bar; Washington Township installed the water line and electrical connections. The Dayton Foundation, the Leland Foundation, Ruetschle Architecture and Design, and Aydelotte Equipment provided grants and services to make this project possible, along with updated chairs and tables throughout the center. An original abstract collage by the late Virginia Lee Williams of Centerville, Ohio, adds to the sleek and modern look of the area. Hithergreen is a friendly, busy place with recreational and fitness activities, in addition to art classes and more. Members can save $10 off the 2012 membership fee by joining next week before the center closes for the holidays. Stop by Monday, Dec. 19 through Thursday, Dec. 22 to see what Hithergreen is all about or check out Hithergreen's Web Site.

Some photos from my book signing

Books & Co., Dec. 8, 2011 We had a nice crowd of nearly 50 people for my demo and book signing of New Creative Collage Techniques. I enjoyed sharing some of collage techniques in my demo.

American Chronicle on New Creative Collage Techniques

American Chronicle | Leland takes another giant leap for ´Artkind´

Thursday, December 8, 7 p.m. at Books & Co.

Art-to-Art Palette features my book signing! I'm going to demo an Egyptian theme collage and I hope to see you there. Thanks to AAP publisher Ben Rayman for this article.

Book signing coming up soon

I'm working on a collage demo for this event. Come on by at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 8 at Books & Co. in the Greene Towne Center, 4453 Walnut St., Dayton, Ohio, 45440--just off I-675 at Indian Ripple Road. Location maps

Thanks and Kudos

I'd like to thank these artists, whose work appears in New Creative Collage Techniques: Annis Allen, Donna Baspaly, Karen Becker Benedetti, Gretchen Bierbaum, Dodie Bluck, Chispa Bluntzer, Gerald Brommer, Pat Clark, Jane Cook, Marilyn Coppel, Patricia Cox, Leslie Crespin, Bing Davis, Jean Deemer, Pat Dews, Frances Dezzany, Carolyn Dubiel, Brian L. Dunning, Sharon Eley, Maya Farber, Thelma Frame, Ann Hartley, Rosie Huart, Betty Kiesel, Bob Kilvert, Debby Krejsa, Mary Langston, Marta Light, Katherine Chang Liu, Phyllis Lloyd, Cheryl McClure, Cody Miller, Shirley Eley Nachtrieb, Stephanie Nadolski, Alexander Nepote, Richard Newman, Rochelle Newman, Lynn Lynn Lawson Pajunen, Tomoko Parry, Robert Paschal, Joanne Peltz, Roy Ray, Jeny Reynolds, Merle Rosen, Susan Pickering Rothamel, Arthur Secunda, Delta Skinner, David L. Smith, Aki Sogabe, Marilyn Stocker, Sharon Stolzenberger, Elaine Szelestey, Jonathan Talbot, Peter Tytla, Jan Upp, Virginia Lee Williams, Jeanette Wolff, Edwin Wordell, Pam Brooks Hamilton.
Several have passed away since Creative Collage Techniques was published in 1994, but their work is still representative of good collage techniques and design. I'm so grateful for the generosity of all these artists in contributing their work so others might learn from it.

I haven't been able to contact the 7 artists whose names are underlined, so if you know anything about them, please email me at nita@nitaleland.com. Thanks.

Updating Web Site and Blog

I've been at it for hours, but I have only myself to blame. When my Web editing program was discontinued I let it slide, then I got a new computer and it got even worse. I've been using a bare bones text editing program that wasn't much help, but I discovered it has an inexpensive "pro" version--EditPadPro. Much better--a far cry from Dream Weaver, but costs under $50. I'm just a cut-and-paster, anyway, not a Web designer. It can drive you nuts, though. I never had a problem with upper and lower case letters in my previous program and most of the blocks I ran into were caused by that. Be aware! And if you find errors on my Web and Blog sites, please let me know. I tried to check everything before I went live with the pages, but my eyes are crossed by now and I'm sure I missed something. Oh, yeah, it was a beautiful day and I got out this morning before I fell into computer hell.

Ohio Collage Society show at the Cannery tonight

I'm excited about visiting this show, which I judged for awards to be given at 7 p.m. tonight (Nov. 4) during the First Friday art walk. I'll be signing copies of my new book, New Creative Collage Techniques, and I hope to meet some of the artists in the show. Jerry Edwards of the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors will be demonstrating portrait painting and the gallery is filled with fine work by many area artists. Christy Jennewein, gallery manager, will be hosting the event.

Exploring Watercolor 3-Way Challenge

Here is some of the work from a recent series on painting a subject three different ways: realistic, stylistic, and abstract. They caught on right away--even the beginners "got it." That's what I love about this class. They're willing to try just about anything I ask them to do.

This activity is in The New Creative Artist on page 167.