Workshop | Mixed Media After Images

Did you know watercolors and soft pastels can be combined in several ways to create dreamy effects? Join currently exhibiting artist, Melanie Oliva, for this workshop!

In this hands-on workshop, attendees will depict an “after-image” – the image you see under your eyelids after staring at something bright. Instructor Melanie Oliva uses this effect in her work to forewarn that the beauty of our world may someday only survive as an after-image if we do not act to protect it.

Attendees will either bring a reference photo they’ve taken with their phone that includes lots of light, or will take a new photo outside. We’ll cover the basics of watercolors, including wet on dry, wet on wet and splatter techniques, as well as mark-making when adding soft pastels to the mix, in varying states of wet and dry. Attendees will then complete a monochromatic painting in shades of red, working from their reference photo.

Supplies included: Watercolor paper, brushes, water containers, palettes, watercolors, paper towels or rags, masking tape, soft pastels, pencils/erasers.

Attendees can bring: a reference photo they’ve taken with their phone that includes lots of light, or will take a new photo outside.

Workshop fee includes a supply fee! REGISTER HERE

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Teaching Artist: Melanie Oliva

Melanie is a professional artist who has been teaching art for the past five years. She’s taught children and teens with MOCA North Miami, children with The Bass Museum (S.T.E.A.M.), children and teens with Broward County Libraries, children and teens with ProjectArt and adults the City of North Miami. During COVID lockdown Melanie also conducted over 100 virtual workshops, classes and private lessons with children, teens and adults.

Previously an award-winning Creative Director in Chicago, Melanie Oliva uses her honed aesthetic and conceptual skills to advocate for Earth and her inhabitants – through collaborative paintings, activism and group art activations. While originally from Nashville, Melanie and her husband have also lived in Amsterdam, Chicago and now Miami. Melanie founded artist collectives Inspiration Pollination and The Artful Activist and co-organized a nationwide Artist March. She was a 2018-2019 Resident with ProjectArt and has also taught art with the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, the City of North Miami and The Bass Museum. Melanie’s work has been featured in a solo exhibit at The Frank Gallery in Pembroke Pines, FL and has also been accepted into History Miami Museum’s archived collection.

More on Melanie’s After Image Series: “These scenes from the Everglades are part of my After-image Series which addresses climate change and its affects on South Florida flora and fauna. Driving through Miami can be a little scary as a passenger and has often led me to close my eyes at critical moments. The intense sun leaves a detailed “after-image” of what I saw right beforehand – the image you see under your eyelids after staring at something bright. This series forewarns that the beauty of our world may some day only survive as an after-image if we close our eyes at the most critical moment and do not act to protect it.”