OPEN FOR THE SEASON! Tuesday - Saturday, 10AM - 5PM & Sunday 12PM - 4PM | 11 Pirates Lane Gloucester MA | 978.283.1857
SKETCHBOOKS FROM SCRATCH
Saturdays: June 6, 13, 20, 27 & July 11, 18 | 9AM – 1PM
$60 PER CLASS
Sketchbooks from Scratch is a six-week, six-part series dedicated to the art of handmade sketchbooks. Starting in June and wrapping up in mid-July, students will meet in the NSAA Studio Gallery on Saturday mornings to learn skills like papermaking, bookbinding, and printmaking to make their own sketchbooks and then work with a variety of instructors to fill them.
Check out the individual class breakdown below. Classes may be purchased independently of one another.
This workshop will introduce participants to the creation of hand crafted paper. Papers of
different textures, colors, and sizes will be fashioned from recycled and natural materials.
Participants will create some of their own equipment to further their exploration in this exciting
process. Some of the items to be created are bookmarks, notecards, stationary and possibly
free form molded paper sculpture. Those who are doing the SKETCHBOOK FROM SCRATCH
will create the pages for their future book during the workshop.
This is a very busy and energetic workshop that hopes to accomplish a great deal in the time
allotted.
ABOUT JAN
Jan Charles began her career as an artist in high school in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. She was well known for making posters for musician friends and as the Art Editor for the literary magazine. She attended Regis College majoring in Fine Arts, and was the Art Editor of the literary publication and a staff photographer for the yearbook. After attaining her degree, she was selected to be part of the Lowell Model Cities Masters Study Program that was co-sponsored by the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and Mass Art. Janice attained a Master’s degree in Education with a specialty in Art Education.
Although being artist was always her ambition, her career after marriage took her in an entirely different direction. For 30 years Janice was president of an insurance marketing company selling annuities and life insurance through her network of 10,000 agents.
Janice regularly participates in painting workshops in exotic and foreign locations. Her most favorite Plein Air subjects are still in and around the Cape Ann area.
Janice and her family own and operate Charles Fine Arts, a fine art gallery in Downtown Gloucester Massachusetts. The gallery exhibits work from locally and nationally known artists.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
Materials list available upon request.
Printmaking with Jan Charles
Saturday, June 13 | 9AM – 1PM
$60 PER CLASS
Course info TBA
ABOUT JAN
Jan Charles began her career as an artist in high school in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. She was well known for making posters for musician friends and as the Art Editor for the literary magazine. She attended Regis College majoring in Fine Arts, and was the Art Editor of the literary publication and a staff photographer for the yearbook. After attaining her degree, she was selected to be part of the Lowell Model Cities Masters Study Program that was co-sponsored by the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and Mass Art. Janice attained a Master’s degree in Education with a specialty in Art Education.
Although being artist was always her ambition, her career after marriage took her in an entirely different direction. For 30 years Janice was president of an insurance marketing company selling annuities and life insurance through her network of 10,000 agents.
Janice regularly participates in painting workshops in exotic and foreign locations. Her most favorite Plein Air subjects are still in and around the Cape Ann area.
Janice and her family own and operate Charles Fine Arts, a fine art gallery in Downtown Gloucester Massachusetts. The gallery exhibits work from locally and nationally known artists.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
No materials will be required for this workshop.
Bookbinding with Kathryn Berchin
Saturday, June 20 | 9AM – 1PM
$60 PER CLASS
In this bookbinding workshop, students will have the opportunity to create 1-3 books, exploring the basics of the coptic, pamphlet, and/or stab-binding techniques. By the end of the workshop, students will have made at least one sketchbook using the coptic stitch, creating a book that is ideal for artmaking in the studio or on-the-go. With the option to include handmade paper from the previous workshop, students will build a deeper personal connection to their sketchbooks, creating handmade objects that will accompany them in further authentic encounters with their creative practice and surroundings.
ABOUT KATHRYN
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Kathryn Berchin is a printmaker and mixed media artist currently living in Salem, MA. She studied drawing and printmaking at Gordon College and was significantly impacted by her time studying and working in Italy–inspired by authentic connection and presence in the places she’s traveled to and lived in, she brings those experiences to her continued creative practice and craft. Having worked in various educational settings over the years, she has now gratefully landed as a lead toddler teacher at Waldorf School at Moraine Farm in Beverly where she can now invest in cultivating tangible and creative experiences for her little ones out in nature and in their day-to-day life in the classroom.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
Materials list needed
A Mindful Approach to Drawing the Figure with Adam LoRusso
Saturday, June 27 | 9AM – 1PM
$60 PER CLASS
Explore the human figure through a grounded, meditative approach; allowing the process to feel accessible and enjoyable. Students will gain a solid foundation in figure drawing fundamentals while developing a personal practice that is expansive, calming, and deeply rewarding. Whether you’re a beginner or returning to drawing, this course will help you cultivate a healthy, balanced relationship with your craft — because loving what you do is the fastest path to growth.
ABOUT ADAM
Adam LoRusso is a tattoo artist, painter, and educator based in Beverly, MA, whose work bridges fine art with philosophical and spiritual inquiry. Trained in graphic design and tattooing, he has spent well over a decade developing a practice that uses the human form as a vehicle for self-understanding and exploration. His paintings move beyond symbolic imagery to capture the energetic, atomic pulse underlying everyday moments. He tattoos full-time at Last Light Tattoo Studio in South Hamilton, teaches Drawing as Meditation workshops, and hosts figure drawing sessions at Porter Mill Studios.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
Students are strongly encouraged to use large drawing paper to enable you to use your whole arm, not their wrists, when drawing to open up, loosen up and gesture with dynamism!
Most items are available at Art Supplies Wholesale in Beverly, except Nitram Charcoal. I do find Nitram charcoal a cut above the rest, but if you want to buy everything at your local art store: Coates, General, or Grumbacher brand Willow or Vine charcoal work – get soft or medium (DO NOT buy compressed charcoal)
LARGE pad of Strathmore Charcoal paper (18×24″ preferred, 16×20″ acceptable. LINK HERE)
Nitram Fusains Extra Soft Charcoal – Extra Soft Batons Moyens, 8 mm, Pkg of 5 (LINK HERE)
OR Coates, General, or Grumbacher brand Willow or Vine charcoal work – soft or medium (DO NOT BUY COMPRESSED CHARCOAL)
Medium or Small Blending Tortillions, ONE PACK (LINK HERE)
Introduction to Gouache with Mary Rose O’Connell
Saturday, July 11 | 9AM – 1PM
$60 PER CLASS
A NOTE FROM MARY ROSE:
I love painting in gouache. It dries quickly, the colors are vibrant and creamy, setting up and cleaning up is easy!
A few things take a little getting used to. The colors dry a little dark and they dry fast on the palate. Using limited water and squeezing out a small amount at a time helps.
For me it has been a game changer. I can explore color and design ideas before beginning a larger oil painting and the small gouache studies are little jewels by themselves.
They require minimal supplies and are easy to travel with.
ABOUT MARY ROSE
Mary Rose O’Connell is best known for her dynamic oil paintings of the New England coast. Other genres she has mastered are her sensitive portrait, still life, and landscape paintings. She paints in her studio and outside in a representational style. Classically trained in the Boston School Tradition, her work shows a strong grounding in composition and design combined with the color and light effects influenced by the 19th century Impressionists.
Along with being a national award-winning artist, Mary Rose was a past recipient of the Charles Family Foundation, the Cape Ann Museum, and Copley Society of Art Fellowship. Mary Rose is a juried artist member of the Copley Society of Art, the North Shore Arts Association, and the Rockport Art Association and Museum. She has exhibited with the Oil Painters of America, the American Impressionists Society, the Allied Artists of America and the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club at Gramercy Park, N.Y.
Mary Rose instructs students in composition and design techniques using oil, acrylic, gouache, and drawing mediums. In addition to the technical aspects, the classes focus on color, value, and edge relationships within the paintings. She conducts workshops throughout the United States and Europe. Her series of online instructional videos are facilitated through Epiphany Fine Art. Mary Rose maintains a studio at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell owned by the Boston Council for the Arts. Prior to moving her studio to Western Ave, she spent six years as a studio artist at the Whistler House Museum of Art. Mary Rose is currently the President of the Board of Trustees at The North Shore Arts Association of Gloucester, MA.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
Arches Watercolor hot press pad (I use 9×12 and divide with tape. Any size will do)
Blue painters tape (1/2/inch)
Richeson Grey Matters Round Pocket Brush (sizes 6 and 8)
Gouache Set (set of 5 preferred)(I like M. Graham but any good brand is fine (Holbein, Winsor Newton))
A few photo references
From Classroom to Studio: Creating a Sketchbook Practice with Loren Doucette
Saturday, July 18 | 9AM – 1PM
$60 PER CLASS
Instructor Loren Doucette will help launch you into your home practice with prompts and sketching exercises. Students may work with any media they like best including pencil, charcoal, watercolor, gouache, acrylic or pastel.
Please bring a sketchbook with paper thick enough to hold both wet and dry media. We will work outdoors (weather permitting). We will experiment with color mixing, drawing from observation/imagination, as well as any photo references you choose to bring. “Not a day without a line” is the key!
ABOUT LOREN
Loren Doucette lives in Gloucester, MA working as a full-time painter and art mentor. Her work has shown in solo and group exhibitions since 2006. She received a BFA in Drawing and Painting in 2013 from Montserrat College of Art where she participated in Montserrat’s study-abroad program in Italy. It was there that landscape painting became a stabilizing force in her work. Using Oil, Acrylic, Pastel and Gouache, her work includes architectural landscapes unique to Gloucester’s harbor, vibrant floral paintings, emotional figurative work and abstractions that come from the bones of all three subjects. Her paintings are prayers hovering between realism and abstraction and celebrate the sun, flowers, people and color of this world. In addition to painting, she offers art mentoring and classes throughout the year while doing live demonstrations upon request. All of Loren’s original artwork, giclee prints and a large assortment of her greeting cards can also be viewed and purchased on her website and online store.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
Please bring the medium you are most comfortable using!
Loren can assist you in watercolor, gouache, acrylic, oil or pastel.
Please bring palettes or palette paper
brushes
water jars
paper towels
a sketchbook
charcoal
paints with lots of white and a variety of other colors such as blues, yellows, reds, pinks and a brown or two.
