‘Machetanz Arts Festival’ wraps up Saturday

PALMER — There’s a whole lot of art going on at the University of Alaska Mat-Su College campus in Palmer this weekend.

The 2014 Machetanz Arts Festival began June 3 with a four-day watercolor workshop taught by featured artist Robert J. O’Brien of Perkinsville, Vermont.

Felicia Desimini, the Assistant Professor of Art and the coordinator for the Machetanz Arts Festival said, O’Brien’s class was offered for artists of all skill levels.

“I was astonished when I saw Mr. O’Brien’s work because I’ve never seen watercolor look so much like oil paintings,” she said. “He takes you from the beginning to the end of a composition.”

O’Brien has been painting for more than 40 years and is a signature member of the American, National and the New England Watercolor Societies. He is the Director of Exhibitions for the Vermont watercolor Society as well as the Scholarship Chair for the American Watercolor Society.

Born 1954 in Rochester, New York, O’Brien is known for his landscape and architecture watercolor paintings. He has traveled to France every year since 1988 in order to capture the unique lighting for his landscapes.

His four-day workshop covered skills including; glazing techniques, skies, wet-on-wet, color theory and mixing elements of composition values, buildings and barns, shadows, tree and floral painting techniques.

O’Brien’s class Saturday is on portrait watercolor, and a model will be provided for this class.

On Friday and Saturday, the festival expands to include an array of 22 half- and full-day classes, she said.

Learn about drawing and design; digital photography; mosaic; silk painting; oil painting; embossing; pin press monotypes; and en plein air painting.

Alaska Native artist June Pardue also will step students through the process of making a replica seal intestine cup out of sausage casing during a half-day class on Saturday.

Box lunches for $5 will be provided by Turkey Red of Palmer.

“There’s something for everybody here, come and have an artistic adventure! Come and make stuff,” Desimini said.