Soulful Art, in Acrylic Expression
with Melissa Young
Saturday & Sunday, January 8-9 | Time: 10:00am–2:00pm|
Tuition $95
Via Zoom | Zoom link will be sent to participants the day before class
Join fellow creative Melissa Grace Young in a 2-day workshop of expressive figurative painting in acrylic as she guides you through a spontaneous and soul-satisfying dip into your art and heart.
Listen to your quietude and open your creative spirit as you bring your story to life. Composition, scale, and color are all considered as you lay down the bones of your divine masterpiece. Find yourself expressing your individuality in symbols and images most meaningful to you. Learn to work through the ugly phase inherent in the painting process.
Materials List:
Acrylic or Acryla Gouache paints in your favorite colors
Brushes, round, small, medium, and large (your preference)
Canvas, or substrate of your choosing, panel, board, cardboard, or paper
Charcoal stick or regular pencil
Water
Paper Towels
Artist’s Statement
Melissa Grace Young is a passionate artist following her creative spirit from the Texas Hill Country to the Pacific Northwest Coast. Growing up in San Antonio, her home was an environment that nurtured artistic and creative pursuits. Melissa studied psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and then went on to earn her MD. She set up her solo Family Practice in the suburbs of Houston, where she and her husband raised their three children.
She supported FamilyTime Crisis and Counseling Center and their local Women’s Shelter, raising awareness and funds for their programs by holding events, including art shows and sales of her artwork, and was awarded their “Woman of Achievement” in Medicine.
Over the years, Melissa has attended the “Women of Resilience” conference in Sante Fe, gathering health professionals, mental health professionals, and social workers to come together to study women’s unique challenges and coping strategies. Then her own life took a rocky course after her 30-year marriage ended in divorce. She used her art to help find her way back into herself. Then in 2017, Hurricane Harvey flooded and destroyed her family practice.
Melissa was left with a critical decision- to return to rebuild with the stress and financial challenges ahead or restart her life on a new trajectory. She made an instant decision to rebuild her life with art as the primary force. She says she felt a guiding hand every step of the way and gave in to those nudges.
Manzanita has been a haven for ten years now and a place Melissa has enjoyed nurturing her creative spirit along with her sweetheart Charles. The Hoffman Center first attracted her through their ceramic program, and from there, she was encouraged to teach Sketchbook Journaling with their Visual Arts program.
Melissa says “The pandemic has challenged us all in so many ways, but through Hoffman’s virtual teaching options, she and the Hoffman Center learned how to cope and help others by widening teaching options.”
She is looking forward to leading two series of workshops in 2022, Soulful Art- a four-month acrylic painting journey, and Moon Circle Art journaling- meeting monthly on the full moon day beginning
January 17.
Soulful Art, in Acrylic Expression
with Melissa Young
