Participants must be paid members of MAA for the year 2025-2026 (unless otherwise specified)
NEW! “Brush It Bold” Painting Workshop with
Sheila Davis SCA OSA SFCA
June 16 – 17 **FULL – Waitlist Only
June 18 – 19 **FULL – Waitlist Only
We are thrilled to announce that the Manotick Art Association is hosting a “Brush It Bold” painting workshop with Sheila Davis June 18 and 19, 2026. Please join Sheila Davis for this fun and engaging two-day workshop.
Sheila explains that her workshop will help you grow as an artist in the following ways:
- Gain the confidence to achieve strong brushwork full of vitality and strength.
- Develop your subject matter using line and shape to influence your next mark and each after that. Learn to lay down colour in one clean, fresh stroke.
- Get your point of interest across without losing spontaneity and freshness.
- Push yourself to think in the abstract while keeping recognizable form and shape.
- Learn to edit and simplify your subject defining composition and values.
- Learn to see colour and value and temperature and push it to its limits or tone it down.
Here are notes from Sheila about how to prepare for her workshop: - The beginner to intermediate painters should work from my image. A digital image will be sent out. More advanced painters should work from their own similar images.
- I work and teach in oil with odourless mineral spirits on cradled birch panels. You will not get the same effects as myself working on canvas or with acrylic, but I will help you along. Acrylics are best used with an extender such as Airbrush Medium. I recommend working in acrylic on canvas.
- I will paint a 36×36 size. We will be working on a minimum size of 24×24. You must get your work home 🙂 If you are a slower painter or a novice, please bring a 30×30. You may not have time to cover a 36×36.
Day 1: - Please arrive in plenty of time to set up prior to workshop. We will start with a brief talk about subject – muse and inspiration and how to see it and bring that forward in your work and the definition of good composition – value, colour and line. I will explain the palette I use and why, the surface I use and why, and the best setup for painting.
- I will paint in stages allowing the class working time between. I will start by demonstrating my approach to lay down colour and movement and begin working up the subject.
Day 2:
We will be finessing values, colour and details and adding those little marks that make a painting sing. I will talk about varnishing, storing, and presenting your work. If time allows, we will do a class critique and/or have a discussion on promotion and social media.
Registration Details: June 18 and 19, 2026 9:30 – 4:30 at Manotick United Church – lower hall (The church will be open at 9:00 to facilitate set up)
Maximum 14 participants
Open to members of the MAA and non-members after April 20 if not full at that time
Cost:
$ 223.00 – MAA Members
$ 258.00 – Non-members To register (if possible please pay upon registration)
To Register: email workshops@manotickart.ca
To Pay: Send e-transfer totreasurer@manotickart.ca
(The workshop supplies list and optional reference photo will be provided following registration).
About the Artist – Sheila Davis Primarily self-taught, Sheila has been a professional artist for over 26 years. Her interest lies in the changing light in obscure areas of the environment as seen in the periphery of daily vision. Sheila works in oil, painting both plein air and in the studio, preferring large panels.
Using dynamic brushstrokes and saturated colour, she captures the friction and play of texture and temperature where surface planes meet, challenging the eye to look deeper, to see beyond the obvious, to become aware of those areas of nature necessary to existence, and to see beauty in the mundane.
Her work has a strong organic feel to it, indicative of the natural landscape she paints. Foremost she is known for the energy she pours into each work to capture the chaotic vibrancy of Mother Earth.
An elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists, the Ontario Society of Artists, and a senior signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, Sheila’s work has been featured in magazines, on television and is included in private and corporate collections around the world. She is represented by various galleries throughout Canada and she participates in select exhibitions throughout the year.
Learn more about Sheila and her work at:
www.sheiladavis.ca
www.brushitbold.ca
www.beyondtheeasel.com
NEW FREE Workshop
Getting Ready for plein air Painting!
Presented by your MAA plein Air Team
(Barbara Murray, Judi Myers, Nienke Smith and Sheena Crozier)
Interested in plein air, but don’t know much about it or where to begin? This is the workshop for you. This free workshop is hosted by your new MAA plein air Team.
Register and see what all the excitement is about!
This workshop will cover and will include the following:
- History of Plein Air painting
- What to expect
- How to prepare
- Plein air set up demonstrations
- Answers to your questions about plein air painting
Registration Details:
Thursday April 30 – 1pm to 2:30pm (following the last Paint-in of the season)
Manotick United Church – lower hall
Cost: This is a FREE workshop
To Register: Please email workshops@manotickart.ca
Here are some samples of art from your Team members:
MAA Workshop – Linocut Spring 2026
Under Pressure: Linocut Intensive Workshop with Deidre Hierlihy
Would you like to learn a new artistic skill? If so, please join us for the following exciting MAA workshop-
Under Pressure: Linocut Intensive Workshop with Deidre Hierlihy
Please note the new dates:
Saturdays, March 21 & April 4, 2026 — 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM
Curious about printmaking? Do you want to experiment with colour? Play with pattern? This printmaking class offers a playful forum for artists to build skills in different elements of art (pattern, line, mark, colour, composition). Deceptively simple, a strong linocut design demands a bold sense of pattern and an ability to balance lights and darks in an image.
Join artist and printmaker Deidre Hierlihy for a fun and engaging two-day linocut intensive. This hands-on workshop gives artists a chance to experiment, explore pattern and mark-making, and learn how to transform any drawing or photograph into a powerful printed image.
We will be using soy-based inks, which clean up easily with soap and water—perfect for a relaxed, creative environment.
Registration Details:
March 21 and April 4, 2026, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
Manotick United Church – lower hall
Maximum 12 participants
Open to members of the MAA and non-members
Cost:
- $100 – MAA Members
- $125 – Non-members
To Register (please pay upon registration):
Email workshops@manotickart.ca
To Pay:
Send e-transfer to treasurer@manotickart.ca
The workshop schedule and supplies list will be provided following registration.
About the Artist – Deidre Hierlihy
Deidre Hierlihy graduated from Queen’s University in 1981 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She completed a year of research and printmaking at Graff, Centre de Conception Graphique in Montréal, and later earned her Bachelor of Education from Queen’s. Deidre teaches mixed media to children and printmaking and drawing to adults at the Ottawa School of Art.
Her international experience includes living and working in Japan (1987–88), where she taught English and studied Japanese woodcut printing, and an artist residency in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland (2019). She has exhibited widely across Ottawa, Montréal, Japan, and Northern Ireland. She is a member of the Ottawa Gatineau Printmakers Connective, Graphein, and the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild – Ottawa Valley Chapter.
Learn more about Deidre and her work at
https://deidrehierlihy.com
