Tag: creative

Creative Corner – Abstract Painting

Creative Corner features creativity freedom to make your own art from various materials that can be found around your homes and/or are inexpensive to purchase. Art courses are for the inner creative geared towards individuals 15 years of age and older.

Tune in this upcoming Monday, August 17th at 4:00 p.m. for a demonstration on abstract painting while learning advanced techniques in oil painting. Exploring and building on what we learned in Abstract Painting 101 (part one video here). Part Two explores advanced oil painting techniques as we build upon the foundation. Available through our Facebook page and YouTube channel, search @galluplibrary.

Visit our YouTube page HERE.

Visit our Facebook page HERE.

Creative Corner – Origami: History & Techniques

Create your own art from various materials found around your home! These courses are geared towards individuals 15 years of age and older. Supply kits are available at OFPL on a first-come, first-serve basis and can be requested below.

Tune in this upcoming Monday, August 10th at 4:00 p.m. for a workshop on the history of Origami and tune in for a demonstration on techniques. Learn how to make cranes, flowers, and more. Available through our Facebook page and YouTube channel, search @galluplibrary.

Visit our YouTube page HERE.

Visit our Facebook page HERE.

Email jwhitman@gallupnm.gov or call 505-863-1291 for more information.

Origami Definition

In Japanese ‘Ori’ means folding and ‘gami’ means paper.

Origami, the ancient Japanese practice of folding paper often a square paper (with a colored side) into decorative shapes and figures without cutting, gluing, taping, or even marking it. It is more than just a visual artform, origami inspires mindfulness and meditation.

Instructions for Origami folds contained within video.

Creative Corner – Clay Pinch Pots

Create your own art from various materials found around your home! These courses are geared towards individuals 15 years of age and older. Supply kits are available at OFPL on a first-come, first-serve basis and can be requested below.

Tune in this upcoming Monday, August 3rd at 4:00 p.m. for a demonstration on creating clay pinch pots using air-dry clay. Pinch pots are the oldest form of pottery dating back to ancient times. Available through our Facebook page and YouTube channel, search @galluplibrary.

Email jwhitman@gallupnm.gov or call 505-863-1291 for more information. 

Visit our YouTube page HERE.

Visit our Facebook page HERE.

OFPL does not own the rights to the music contained within the video.

OFPL does not own the rights to the music contained within the video.

Creative Corner – Abstract Painting 101

Creative Corner features creativity freedom to make your own art from various materials that can be found around your homes and/or are inexpensive to purchase. Art courses are for the inner creative geared towards individuals 15 years of age and older.

Tune in this upcoming Monday, June 27th at 4:00 p.m. for a demonstration on abstract painting while learning the basics in oil painting. This is Part One in a multi-series exploring the fundamentals in abstract painting. Part One explores techniques and brand names trusted by our resident artist and will be laying the foundation to our painting. Available through our Facebook page and YouTube channel, search @galluplibrary.

Visit our YouTube page HERE.

Visit our Facebook page HERE.

OFPL does not own the rights to the music contained within this video.

10 Oil Painting Tips for Beginners

Artists have been painting with oil paints for hundreds of years and oil paints continue to be popular worldwide due to their versatility, quality, and color. While getting started with oil painting is fairly easy, there is a little bit more to it than acrylics, since you are working with toxic solvents and mediums and the drying time is much longer. Individual artists who have been painting for a while have their own favorite brands, brushes, palettes, and mediums, but here are some general tips that may be useful to you if you are just starting out with oil paints.

Read the full article HERE.

Shop for Art Supplies Below:

Shop at Arteza HERE.

Shop at Winsor & Newton HERE.

Shop at Blick HERE.

Shop at Gamblin HERE.

OFPL does not own the rights to the music contained within this video.

Creative Corner – Color Theory Basics

Creative Corner features creativity freedom to make their own art from various materials that can be found around their homes and/or are inexpensive to purchase. Art courses are for the inner creative geared towards individuals 15 years of age and older.

Tune in this upcoming Monday, June 6th at 4:00 p.m. for a demonstration on the color wheel and a discussion of Color Theory and terminology. Available through our Facebook page and YouTube channel, search @galluplibrary.

Color Wheel TemplateDownload

Visit our YouTube page HERE.

Visit our Facebook page HERE.

Color Theory, Terminology, & More.

Color Theory Definition

Color theory encompasses a multitude of definitions, concepts and design applications – enough to fill several encyclopedias. Color theories create a logical structure for color. For example, if we have an assortment of fruits and vegetables, we can organize them by color and place them on a circle that shows the colors in relation to each other.

Color Wheel

The Color Wheel A favorite of designers and artists, the wheel makes color relationships easy to see by dividing the spectrum into 12 basic hues: three primary colors, three secondaries, and six tertiaries.

Basic Color Wheel.

Terminology for Review:

Analogous Colors

Any three colors which are side by side on a 12-part color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow, and yellow-orange. Usually one of the three colors predominates.

Complimentary Colors

Complementary colors are any two colors which are directly opposite each other, such as red and green and red-purple and yellow-green.

Hue

An attribute of a color which makes it unique. Example: Red, Forest Green, Cerulean, Violet, Pink, Magenta, etc.

Primary Colors

In traditional color theory (used in paint and pigments), primary colors are the 3 pigment colors that cannot be mixed or formed by any combination of other colors. All other colors are derived from these 3 hues. 

Example: Red, Blue, and Yellow

Secondary Colors

These are the colors formed by mixing the primary colors.

Example: Green, Orange, and Purple

Shade

Refers to the mixture of a hue with black or any darker color. This mixture reduces the overall color brightness.

Tertiary Colors

These are the colors formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color.

Example: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green & yellow-green

Tint

A tint is created when you add white to a hue and lighten it. It is also sometimes called a pastel color.

Tone

In art, the term “tone” describes the quality of color. It has to do with whether a color is perceived as warm or cold, bright or dull, light or dark, and pure or “dirty.” The tone of a piece of art can have a variety of effects, from setting the mood to adding emphasis.

Tile Art

Come make beautiful tile art that you can transform into coasters for your tables. Perfect to keep your hot chocolate or tea nice and toasty as your brave the elements.

Join us at the Main Library on Tuesday, December 17th at 4:00 p.m. for an afternoon of creative expression. Supplies provided.

Email jwhitman@gallupnm.gov or call 505-863-1291 for more information.

Tile Art Sample.
Courtesy of Pauline.
December 2019.
Tile Art Sample.
Courtesy of Anonymous.
December 2019.

Saved by Art

Diné artist Jerry Brown finds inspiration in traditions, upbringing

Gallup Independent. November 19th, 2019. Vida Volkert, Staff Writer

GALLUP – The sight of a nun walking down Thoreau’s NM Highway 371 with an acoustic guitar strapped to her shoulder is one of the reasons Jerry Brown changed the course of his life.

Brown, now a successful artist from Mariano Lake, had dropped out of high school and had no direction. In his own words, “I was too wild.” He had spent a few years in different boarding schools in the area, a school in Utah and public schools in Thoreau, Wingate and Crownpoint. Continued after Image

Newspaper article featured in Gallup Independent. Scanned 11.22.2019 by OFPL Staff member, Joshua Whitman.

‘Too wild”

“I started the public school, but I didn’t like it there and walked back to the house.” he said

It was around 1988 when Brown saw the nun walking down the street in Thoreau. The nun was “Sister Michelle.” She was the principal of St. Kateri Tckakwitha school in Thoreau, which later became St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School.

Newspaper article featured in Gallup Independent. Scanned 11.22.2019 by OFPL Staff member, Joshua Whitman.

Brown remembered the school was known as “the academy,” and it was a small campus. He was so intrigued by the sight of Sister Michelle walking with her guitar that he decided to visit the school.

“They put me in 10th grade. I met all the teachers. They came from all walks of life. They were missionaries that were doing the good thing for the natives,” Brown said.

Newspaper article featured in Gallup Independent. Scanned 11.22.2019 by OFPL Staff member, Joshua Whitman.

Creating Colorful Expression

Library serves up a colorful concoction: Mocktails and Coloring

Gallup Independent. November 18th, 2019. Vida Volkert, Staff Writer.

GALLUP – Josh Whitman was making non-alcoholic mojitos with club soda instead of rum, and Shirley Temple with grenadine syrup and lime juice during a mocktails-and-coloring event at the Octavia Fellin Public Library Saturday.

On the table, next to the cups, syrup, ginger ale, ice cubes, and mixers, Whitman had a spread of designs and colored pencils. On another table behind him, Whitman had a set of speakers and was streaming indie music on Spotify.

“Coloring is one of the things you can do and not stress about it.” Whitman, the library’s experiential learning coordinator said. Continued After Image

Newspaper article featured in Gallup Independent. Scanned 11.22.2019 by OFPL Staff member, Joshua Whitman.

‘Creative Expression’

“I have 14 different designs for them to choose from, and three different cocktails – I call them mocktails. The holidays could be stressful time of the year when people are shopping.” he said. “This is a free of stress and gives them a nice creative outlook to creative expression.”

Danielle Leekity, 32, and her children Anjelica, 11 and Jacob, 5, learned about the activity on Facebook and decided it was a good way to spend their Saturday in Gallup. The mother and her two children were sitting next to each other on an adjacent table and were coloring while enjoying their drinks.

Newspaper article featured in Gallup Independent. Scanned 11.22.2019 by OFPL Staff member, Joshua Whitman.

“My daughter is very artistic. She has pastels at home and taught herself how to draw,” Leekity said. “We usually come her for the events. Everybody says it gives children something to do but it is also for the families. a relaxing wat to spend the weekend. We go to the ArtsCrawl every month. The fun part about this area. everything is within walking distance.”

Newspaper article featured in Gallup Independent. Scanned 11.22.2019 by OFPL Staff member, Joshua Whitman.