Salt Spring Island Painters Guild

Photos from one of our summer plein air sessions. How fun! ☀️

https://www.ssipaintersguild.com/classes

Every 6 months the Painters Guild members hang a Refresh of artwork at Lady Minto Hospital. Enjoy a wander through the halls to see the latest installation!

Spring Growth in Winter: A Mixed Media Workshop

Date: April 18, 2026
Time: 10:00-4:00
Instructor: Susanne Rutchinski
Location: SIMS
Levels: Open to all
Medium: Mixed media (water based)

In this workshop, I will share my process for creating wild flower scenes using all water based media. Starting with a textured substrate, together, we’ll work with inks, washes, rice paper and acrylics to create expressive art pieces.

We’ll begin by making marks and prints on delicate rice paper, which you can incorporate into your final piece. You’re encouraged to bring bits of nature—leaves, grasses, feathers, block stamps—anything that inspires you—to print from and add personal touches.

Throughout the day, I’ll share techniques for color mixing, layering, and composition, helping you discover new ways to bring depth and harmony to your work.

By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a unique, mixed-media piece that you love—a reflection of your own creative process and connection to nature. Plus a few new tricks and ideas to keep you inspired.

More info: https://www.ssipaintersguild.com/classes

Painting Beautiful Florals

Date: April 8, 2026
Time: 10:00-4:00
Instructor: Betty Rideout
Location: SIMS
Levels: All
Medium: Oil or blendable acrylics
Max Participants: 14
Price: $55

As we all know, Salt Spring island is filled with creative people. Many of those love both to garden and to paint. This workshop will help to combine these two pleasant obsessions.

In this workshop you will learn how to paint lovely, luminescent flowers filled with light. Painting translucent objects, such as petals, is more difficult to achieve than painting opaque objects. As a result, it’s challenging to paint florals that accurately represent their delicate nature. This workshop will provide techniques about how to paint in a way that represents the fragility of a flower. Working with your own image, we will work step-by-step through to, hopefully, a completed painting. I’ll demonstrate modelling using the classical approach of chiaroscuro (light-dark) which creates a dramatic setting. We’ll then begin painting by starting with warm shadows and elaborating from there. We’ll also be working using the alla prima, or wet-on-wet, approach, which makes blending easy and gives us control over where we want hard edges. Most flowers have only a few hard edges. I’ll circulate to offer guidance, suggestions, and admiration as flowers begin to bloom via paint!