EVENTS BASE MEMBERSHIP 30-DAY FREE TRIAL
Live Panel: The Art of Keeping a Creative Sketchbook
Thursday, November 5th
4–5pm PST
5–6pm MST
7–8pm EST
12–1am GMT (Friday)
11am–12pm AEDT (Friday)
Mentors: Erika Rier & Susan Woolgar
$19.00
Free For Mastrius Members.
Do you ever hesitate to start a new sketchbook because you don’t want to ruin those beautiful blank pages? Or wonder whether keeping one makes sense if you don’t love to sketch?
A sketchbook can hold whatever your creativity needs: paint, collage, color palettes, new marks, collected ideas, or a few thoughts about your subject. It’s a safe place to try different tools and materials, make mistakes, and follow your curiosity without needing everything to become a finished piece.
Sometimes, your best creative discoveries begin when you give yourself permission to experiment!
In this special LIVE & INTERACTIVE event, Mastrius mentors Erika Rier & Susan Woolgar will share how they use sketchbooks in their own creative practice. Discover how these pages can help you explore possibilities, build confidence, and keep creating when you feel stuck.
You’ll learn how to:
- Let go of perfectionism and enjoy the freedom to experiment
- Explore different materials, tools, marks, and color palettes
- Use notes, images, and journaling to capture ideas and develop your artistic voice
- Work through creative blocks with playful, regular experimentation
- Turn discoveries on the page into inspiration for future artwork
Your sketchbook doesn’t need to be a masterpiece. It just needs to be a place where you’re free to explore.
Join us for an inspiring conversation, bring your questions, and discover what a creative sketchbook could become for you!
🎟 Tickets ONLY $19 | FREE for Mastrius Members
🎙️ Event recording is available for Mastrius Members only.
👉 Get a FREE MEMBERSHIP HERE with the Base Membership Free Trial
Meet Susan Woolgar
Acrylic | Mixed Media | Pastel | Watercolor
Susan Woolgar has been working as a professional artist and educator for over 40 years. After graduating from the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) in 1977, she began her career in visual communications as a graphic designer.
She quickly discovered a love for teaching, and left the corporate environment of advertising to pursue other opportunities. She dove into the world of fine art, experimenting with an array of mediums including oil, watercolour, acrylic, pastel and various printing methods. All the while, she was teaching for various institutions and communities across Canada. Susan’s love for abstract art emerged during her “Under my Feet” exhibition in 2007. During this time, she began to explore the scale, form and traditional styling of her previous subject matter.
Her unique sense of colour combined with her ability to balance reality and feeling has propelled her work onto an international stage. Through the reach of the online art community, Susan has been teaching her “Abstracting the Landscape” course to students across the globe. She is currently represented by three Canadian galleries.
Meet Erika Rier
Acrylic | Digital | Drawing | Gouache | Ink | Mixed Media | Printmaking
I’m an interdisciplinary artist who creates work that is unabashedly feminine. I am currently focused mostly on ceramics and handmade comics. I consider myself a storyteller whose stories are told through visual art. Over the course of my career in art, I have been building up an ever evolving narrative arc, each work being the next page in a story. I create pieces that draw viewers in with their bright colors and delicate line work but as one delves deeper into the work, they find themselves immersed in a complex narrative. Whether I’m creating a mixed media painting or a simple ceramic dish, I fill each piece with stories for the viewer to uncover. Something as simple as a sideways glance on a face in a ceramic ring dish, can open up stories.
A bit about my handmade comics:
I’ve been self-publishing comics and visual narrative zines since I was a teenager which means for over 30 years now. I currently am focused on making books that have experimental formats which include hand-cut pages, fold-out pages, and even some pop-ups. While on the surface my work can seem whimsical and lighthearted, on deeper exploration you’ll find that my work examines political and social issues through a colorful, metaphorical lens.