Arts & Ecology Courses
All year-round we offer a variety of arts and nature courses and workshops.
Date: April 27, May 18
Family Workshop: Make your own Vintage Family Album
A project of Charlotte County Archives & Sunbury Shores
Date: Saturday, April 27
Time: 1:00 – 3:30 pm
$10 adults/children under 12 free
Using reproduced historical photographs from the Charlotte County Archives and your own images and photographs, create a fictional narrative for your own family album. Annotated with white ink on black paper, you can collage and mix and match contemporary images on historical backgrounds. Add written comments, small drawings, and special symbols (ie hearts, flowers, etc). Your vintage album will include covers and binding ribbon. Bring family photos, including pet photos! All other materials supplied. Children welcome!
Note: This workshop accompanies the exhibition Lisa Marie Boissoneau: Borrowed Roots at Sunbury Shores from April 5 – 27, 2024
Ceramic Animal Sculpture with Melissa Kennedy
Instructor: Melissa Kennedy
Date: May 18 and 25, 2024
Time: Saturdays, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Min/Max: students 5/8
Materials: Included
Course Fee: $280
Early Bird course fee: $270 until April 20, 2024
New Brunswick artist Melissa Kennedy will teach this fun hands-on course for adults in the ceramic studio on two consecutive Saturdays. Create a small scale, hollowed out sculpture of your most-loved pet.
Students will need to come with animal photographs, from multiple angles, of their model. During the two days, students will focus on understanding how to use photos as references, building up animal shapes, understanding volumes and structure, learning techniques for setting up and using tools, and of course, discussions on likeness and/or expression. Artworks will be kiln fired to be picked up later. There will be time for a midday break so bring a packed lunch.
Visit Melissa Kennedy’s Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/m.kennedy.art/
Are you a member? Contact us to use your one-time discount on this course! Click here to learn more.
Artistic Growth Studio with Theresa MacKnight (formally Jay Dampf Memorial)
Instructor: Theresa MacKnight
Date: July 1 – 5, 2024
Time: Monday – Friday, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Min/Max students: 6/10
Materials: Bring your own
Registration Deadline: June 17, 2024
Course Fee: $525
Early Bird course fee: $475 until May 30, 2024
All levels are welcome for this unique opportunity blending studio work (mornings) with customized instruction and coaching time with Theresa MacKnight (afternoons). Developed by the late Jay Dampf, a long-time artist instructor at Sunbury Shores, it’s an opportunity to enjoy dedicated time to work on your own practice while also benefiting from individual attention, guidance and critiquing with Theresa. Students bring their own work (drawing, painting in acrylic and oils, and watercolour), either in progress, or ready to start.
Theresa MacKnight is a highly accomplished artist and former art teacher. She has won numerous awards and been exhibited widely across New Brunswick and elsewhere. Theresa has extensive knowledge of working in different mediums and teaches with patience, encouragement, and consideration of individual needs. She has spent many years involved with SSANC as instructor, student, and exhibitor. Recently retired from full-time art teaching, Theresa continues to explore and expand her own art practice.
Visit Theresa MacKnight’s website: https://www.theresamacknight.com/
Are you a member? Contact us to use your one-time discount on this course! Click here to learn more.
The Abstracted Landscape with Jay Isaac
Instructor: Jay Isaac
Date: July 9 – 12, 2024
Time: Tuesday – Friday, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Min/Max students: 7/10
Registration deadline: June 25, 2024
Course fees only: $675
Early Bird Course Fee: $630 until May 30, 2024
Sunbury Shores Courses + Huntsman Accommodation & Meals Package:
· · $1,190 / $1,145 Early Bird before May 30 – single occupancy per person (includes 5 nights accommodations in Anderson House and 16 meals (Links Crest dining and box lunches)
· · $1,090 / $1,045 Early Bird before May 30 – double occupancy per person (includes 5 nights accommodations in Anderson House and 16 meals (Links Crest dining and box lunches)
Check out the Huntsman accommodations here: https://sunburyshores.org/accommodation/
Materials: List [click here]
This 4-day acrylic painting and drawing workshop will focus on how an observed landscape can be abstracted through colour and form. Short field trips will guide participants to observe the landscape, make preliminary sketches in situ, and then develop paintings in the studio. This course is recommended for participants with experience working in acrylics or watercolours at an intermediate level or more. Upon registration, participants will receive a list of course materials. Note: This is a scent-free workshop.
A prolific artist, curator, and writer, Jay Isaac will share examples of his work, and the work of contemporary and modern artists to illustrate the use of landscape and its components as starting points for abstraction. Formerly from Saint John, Isaac was educated at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver BC, and the Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff, Wales. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Isaac has also curated several online exhibitions and published critical essays and articles about artists in Canada. His work is in many private and public collections in Canada including the Royal Bank of Canada and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.
Visit Jay Isaac’s website: www.jayisaac.ca
More about Jay Isaac – ArtsNB article
Are you a member? Contact us to use your one-time discount on this course! Click here to learn more.
Journaling with Mary Kircher
Instructor: Mary Kircher
Date: July 19, 20, 21, 2024
Time/Schedule: Friday, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Saturday, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
Sunday, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
Min/Max students: 6/12
Materials: to be determined
Registration Deadline: July 5, 2024
Course fee: $350
Early Bird course fee: $325 until May 30, 2024
Journaling can take many forms: sketchbook, diary, tapestry diary, and collage as you capture memories and develop ideas. Fibre artist Mary Kircher will teach how to make a unique accordion-style journal as versatile as your imagination. Mary will share her techniques for creating journals, incorporating collage, tapestry, stitching, and writing, resulting in creative displays for fibre artists, book lovers, creators, and makers. Participants are asked to bring found objects that are relatively flat including fabric, feathers, stones, paper ephemera, etc.
Mary specializes in hand weaving and custom dye techniques. With a Master’s in Art and Design from North Carolina State University, Mary has taught many workshops and exhibited her work both regionally and internationally, including at Sunbury Shores in August 2023. Mary’s work is in numerous private and public collections. Visit Mary at Woven Translations — Mary Kircher, Fiber Artist
Visit Mary Kircher’s website: https://woventranslations.com/
Are you a member? Contact us to use your one-time discount on this course! Click here to learn more.
Colour, Colour, Colour!! with Maggie Rose
Instructor: Maggie Rose
Date: July 22 – 26, 2024
Time: Monday – Friday, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Min/Max students: 6/13
Materials: List (to be confirmed)
Registration Deadline: July 8, 2024
Course Fee only: $695
Early Bird Course Fee: $650 until May 30, 2024
Sunbury Shores Courses + Huntsman Accommodation & Meals Package:
· $1,325 / $1,280 Early Bird before May 30 – single occupancy per person (includes 6 nights accommodations in Anderson House and 16 meals (Links Crest dining and box lunches)
· $1,205 / $1,160 Early Bird before May 30 – double occupancy per person (includes 6 nights accommodations in Anderson House and 16 meals (Links Crest dining and box lunches)
Check out the Huntsman accommodations here: https://sunburyshores.org/accommodation/
Suitable for the beginner to the advanced painter, this five-day intensive workshop is an information blast on all aspects of colour and colour mixing as they relate to painting.
No matter your medium of choice (oil, acrylic, gouache, water-colour, pastel…), this information is applicable to all. You will learn to mix colours swiftly and accurately; learn to achieve both dynamic and subtle colour in your work; learn to get more out of the colours you already have and to make smart choices when adding to your paint box. This class teaches you how to juggle all colour attributes – hue, value, temperature and chroma. Most importantly, it explains how to alter only one aspect of a colour without altering other elements.
You’ll learn how to reduce, maintain, or heighten chroma and learn how to keep hues consistent while they are lightened or darkened through all modelling factors. You’ll learn why an understanding of colour temperature is critical to successful work. We’ll explore a variety of palettes from the simplest to more complex. There will be many mixing demonstrations, application examples, and time for the execution of small projects and exercises to ensure that you fully understand the information.
A professional artist and much sought-after art instructor in Canada and the US, Maggie Rose received her MFA from The New York Academy of Art, graduating cum laude and was the recipient of the Forbes Foundation Travel Grant for excellence in painting. She taught at the New York Academy for over 20 years while maintaining her own studio practice. Maggie is known as a gifted and generous teacher and your week of study is sure to be action packed, loaded with information and, as class size is limited, you will receive plenty of individual attention.
Are you a member? Contact us to use your one-time discount on this course! Click here to learn more.
Painting with Maggie Rose
Instructor: Maggie Rose
Date: July 29 – August 2, 2024
Time: Monday – Friday, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
Min/Max students: 6/13
Materials: Bring your own
Registration Deadline: July 15, 2024
Course only fee: $695
Early Bird course fee: $650 by May 30, 2024
Sunbury Shores Courses + Huntsman Accommodation & Meals Package:
· $1,325 / $1,280 Early Bird before May 30 – single occupancy per person (includes 6 nights accommodations in Anderson House and 16 meals (Links Crest dining and box lunches)
· $1,205 / $1,160 Early Bird before May 30 – double occupancy per person (includes 6 nights accommodations in Anderson House and 16 meals (Links Crest dining and box lunches)
Check out the Huntsman accommodations here: https://sunburyshores.org/accommodation/
This five-day intensive workshop is for artists with some painting experience, although all levels will be accommodated and will benefit. Throughout the course, a wide variety of painting techniques and approaches will be explored. Maggie will demonstrate various ways to “build” your paintings so that the results are complex and reflect and enhance the intent of your narratives. Artists will be encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and to take their work to places of new discovery and levels of excellence. There will be an emphasis on understanding the underlying abstraction of all sound work.
Subject matter is up to individual artists and working from life and/or photographs are equally encouraged. Participants are asked to arrive with a variety of possible ideas to explore. Maggie will provide prompts and suggestions for anyone interested in a more exercise-based approach. Participants will have the option to develop one piece or several pieces throughout the week. Contemporary painters and artists of historical significance and will be discussed and incorporated into all lessons, providing inspiration throughout the week.
A professional artist and much sought-after art instructor in Canada and the US, Maggie Rose received her MFA from The New York Academy of Art, graduating cum laude and was the recipient of the Forbes Foundation Travel Grant for excellence in painting. She taught at the New York Academy for over 20 years while maintaining her own studio practice. Maggie is known as a gifted and generous teacher and your week of study is sure to be action packed, loaded with information and, as class size is limited, you will receive plenty of individual attention.
Note: If you have never taken Maggie’s Colour Colour, Colour Workshop you are encouraged to do so (if possible) the week prior to the Painting Workshop.
Visit Maggie Rose’s Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/maggierosestudio/
Are you a member? Contact us to use your one-time discount on this course! Click here to learn more.
Figure Drawing with Geordie Millar
Instructor: Geordie Millar
Date: August 12 – 16, 2024
Time: Monday – Friday, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
Min/Max students: 6/13
Materials: to be confirmed
Registration Deadline: July 29, 2024
Course only fee: $695
Early Bird course fee: $650 until May 30, 2024
Sunbury Shores Courses + Huntsman Accommodation & Meals Package:
· $1,325 / $1,280 Early Bird before May 30 – single occupancy per person (includes 6 nights accommodations in Anderson House and 16 meals (Links Crest dining and box lunches)
· $1,205 / $1,160 Early Bird before May 30 – double occupancy per person (includes 6 nights accommodations in Anderson House and 16 meals (Links Crest dining and box lunches)
Check out the Huntsman accommodations here: https://sunburyshores.org/accommodation/
A comprehensive approach to figure drawing, this five-day studio course is for artists of all levels who wish to further their skills. Working from life with a dynamic model, concepts of anatomy and technique will be explored in the bright airy seaside Sunbury studio. Millar’s enthusiasm, sure-handed draftsmanship, and tested teaching methods promise to make this a very fun and useful workshop.
Millar studied drawing, painting and anatomy at the National Academy of Art and the Art Students League of New York. His studio practice focuses on animals, landscape and anatomy, and perceptions of natural history. He teaches life drawing & art direction for animation at Sheridan College in Oakville, ON. His work with film director Guillermo del Toro can be viewed onscreen in the features The Shape of Water and Nightmare Alley, the Netflix series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities and del Toro’s upcoming feature adaptation of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.
Visit Geordie Millar’s website: https://www.geordiemillar.com/
Are you a member? Contact us to use your one-time discount on this course! Click here to learn more.
How to Register:
- We accept credit, cash, debit, and e-transfers
- Register Online – https://sunburyshoresorg/courses/ or https://sunburyshores.org/kids/
- Call Florence, the Outreach Coordinator at (506) 529 3386 to register over the phone
- E-transfers go to executivedirector@sunburyshores.org, please include contact and relevant details in the description
- Visit us at 139 Water Street in Saint Andrews. Winter Hours, Tues – Sat, 10 am – 4 pm
*Are you a member? Contact us at outreach@sunburyshores.org or call 506 529 3386 to register using your one-time Membership discount!
Registration and Cancellation Policy
- Pre-registration is required.
- The registration deadline for 3 to 5-day adult courses is 14 days before the course begins.
- A 50% minimum downpayment is required to save a spot in a course.
- Pre-paid registrants receive a full refund if a course is cancelled by Sunbury Shores. This will occur if the required minimum number of pre-paid registrations is not met 2 weeks (14 days) before the course begins or any other comprehensive and unforeseen circumstances.
- If a registrant cancels a course 2 weeks (14 days) before the course begins (enough time for Sunbury Shores to fill the spot with someone on the waitlist), the registrant will receive a full refund. If the registrant cancels after the 2-week (14 days) deadline, this is only a 50% refund.
