Ellen Elmes "Dry Falls"
Don Elmes "Nevada Falls"
Watercourse: A visual exploration and response to the beauty of Northeast Georgia waterfalls through the use of photography or watercolor painting media (your choice).
The workshop leaders, husband and wife team Don and Ellen Elmes, will instruct participants onsite at various waterfall locations near the Lillian E. Smith Center for the Arts which will serve as the core meeting place for the workshop. Beginning or advanced learners may choose to focus with Don Elmes on techniques in digital or 35 mm photography, or, with Ellen Elmes, on techniques of the transparent watercolor medium. All participants will produce new works while in the field with guidance from the instructors.
Informal gatherings of workshop participants over meals and the sharing of artworks will provide opportunities for dialogue focused on the wonders of nature and the creative visual response.
*Participants should be able to walk short distances (.5 to 1.00 mile) on moderate trails to access waterfall sites. Those registering for the workshop will receive a complete list of suggested supplies and a questionnaire on food preferences or special needs.
Schedule:
Thursday, June 5th:
LES Center, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Workshop registration followed by a meal and slide talk by Don and Ellen Elmes in the Center's beautiful dining room with Directors Nancy and Robert Fichter.
Friday, June 6th:
9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
In the field painting and photography workshop sessions held at nearby waterfall sites.
Saturday, June 7th:
9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Continuance of sessions at waterfall sites.
Evening:
Art Exhibit reception held at the Globe Gallery in Clayton, GA, featuring artworks by Don and Ellen Elmes. Works in progress by workshop participants may be displayed informally during the reception.
Sunday, June 8th:
8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
Breakfast at the LES Center with a critique and wrap up session.
*Bag lunches will be provided for Friday and Saturday workshops in the field.
About the Artists:
Living for 35 years on the mountaintop of Jewell Ridge, Virginia, Ellen and Don Elmes have traveled extensively - painting, photographing, exhibiting, and teaching along the way. During the last two summers, they both taught for Common Ground Scotland, a traditional arts-oriented workshop and performance program situated in the Robbie Burns countryside of Ayreshire, Scotland. Ellen also teaches watercolors every summer at the original Common Ground on the Hill, established in 1995, in Westminster, Maryland.
As director of both a HandMade in America grant and an Appalachian Regional Commission grant during 2007, Don helped to launch a new home-place for southwestern Virginia artisans in the creation of the Appalachian Arts Center in Wardell, Virginia. He, along with a colleague, photographed almost three hundred artworks of regional artists, and prepared them all for placement on the Center's new website, (http://apparts.sw.edu). When working on his own, Don photographs the beauty of nature, zooming in on the delicacy of a dew-dropped spider web, capturing a wide-angle view of the vastness of mountain ridges, or shooting the rainbow of a cascading waterfall while hiking a trail in the Rockies or the Appalachians.
Ellen recently retired from teaching after 19 years as an assistant professor of art for Southwest Virginia Community College. She has exhibited her watercolor paintings widely in the Mid-Atlantic states and in Scotland. Her paintings focus on the human and natural spirit and the journeys resulting from the merging of the two. Also a mural painter, Ellen has produced over 10 large-scale murals, and has initiated and directed five community-created murals with children, adults, family and community members. She has enjoyed and benefited greatly from being an artist in residence for four summers at the Lillian E. Smith Center for the Arts, and is looking forward to another stay in the Esther Smith cottage in 2008.