Motivational March on

Don't give up!

At the start of this journey, I just wanted to inspire others and create a place for us to study together, kind of like a gym. I had a very different vision of what this place would be like. Things have changed over the years based on what you have told me you want to do and the whole dream has transformed. Lo and behold, here we find ourselves, we recently reached a big milestone.....

We celebrated our 9th year of serving the artistic community in Calgary, oh how quickly the time passes. But look how far we have come! I cant believe it myself. I thank you all for being a part of this dream.

I will continue to put forth the effort to renew the commitment to this dream of serving our arts community. I hope the Atelier helps the aim aim to foster a love for skills based arts and create opportunities for developing artists to hone their craft and technical know how.  

We are past the failure rate of 2026 New years resolutions. It is what it is, maybe we have to recommit to get the the goals we have set for ourselves after holiday contemplations. Time to renew your promise, dig deep… for yourself, do the hard thing and begin by showing up. Making great art takes practice. You can’t just read a book and know how to play piano. Art is no different. Getting the results you want, takes “miles on the brush”. We want to see your butts on drawing horses often enough. If you want the results it takes showing up to do the work. So don't give up now!

I was flipping thorough some old yellowing newsprint drawings from over the years, The pile is huge and there are many more rejects than wins. I want to put forth that I too am still as student. I don't like the majority of what I create. We are our own worst enemy.

Recently, I was paid a compliment from a participant (it was Bruce) and it dawned on my how long its been since that has happened. I guess its hard to forget that we are all so hard on ourselves and maybe it hardens our hearts. It's nice to hear once in a while as a reminder that not everything is sh*t.

Maybe I’ve become and old crotchety hard ass but you are definitely doing better than you think. Sometimes we just don't hear about it enough. Keep up the good work. Yes you, reading this I’m talking about you. You are doing great!

There is so much happening this month at the studio as well so you don't want to miss out. I’m sitting at the back of a very full portrait night as I write this, wishing I was joining the group and painting.

Duty calls, I need to let you know whats going on in the studio:

• February first

• Upcoming workshops

• What else?!

First February: 

Just like that another month passes, it was great as short as it was we did a lot!

• We had our regular full drop in schedule and painting classes 

• Feb. 12th We hosted a free drop in event for the cSPACE showcase series 

• Feb. 16th Family Day closure.

• Feb. 21st Bobbi Dunlop Masterclass

• Feb. 22 creativiTEA “ Aesthetic painting vs Meditative painting” workshop 

• Plus 2 Saturday sessions (Feb. 7 & 28th) with Doug Levitt and I instruction the educational Stampede Youth Poster Competition participants.

As you may or may not know, I work many side jobs to keep this place going. There are only so many nights of the week to program and I decided this year to focus mainly on the community builder of "drop in" opportunities which are the cheapest item we have and its consistent, rather than scrapping it and just having classes.

Drop in sessions act in much the same way as a work out that an athlete does in the gym. We need our muscles trained in the event we need to use them, otherwise they atrophy. Don't miss leg day. Try to get your hours in so you are always ready.

Personally, I’ve always wanted to inspire others to reach their creative goals through the methods and techniques of those giants who have come before us. I philosophize about you all regularly, as I’m driving to and from work wondering how I can accelerate your progression and not make all the mistakes I have.

I mean you’d have to be crazy to work these hours and choose this life path, right? I built this place to create a work out space where we can regularly develop the muscles of our mind, hand and brain regularly. Like a gym for artists. From life and reference. 

You can only take advantage that Calgary has this if you come down and participate in person.

You have weekly options. There are only so many days of the week and I’m just one guy running things so hopefully you can try to make it fit in your schedule.  I have two painting classes and 5 drop in sessions per week. Check out the calendar for more info.

Special events coming up to get in your calendars: 

March 21st: Bobbi Dunlop will have her next masterclass

April 12th: CreativiTEA “Inner Critic and Wild Child”

Plus this may be of interest to many of you. My friend Martinho Correia, who I studied with and travelled to Italy with and many other adventures in art.....has a portrait course at the end of March that I highly recommend to those artists wanting to get more realistic results with their work.

Here's more info:

I will be attending the Figure Society Inaugural symposium in St. Louis Missouri at the end of March to rep the studio and make connections and hopefully bring back great intel from an amazing experience. fingers crossed.  

Stay tuned as I will be putting together the April - June Spring semester listings soon and updating the workshop page with all the new opportunities for you.

Ciao for now.

Warmly Bunny