BASE MEMBERSHIP 30-DAY FREE TRIAL
Live Panel: The Power of Contrast
Thursday, December 11th
5–6pm MST
7–8pm EST
12am–1am GMT (Friday)
11am–12pm AEDT (Friday)
Mentors: Julie deBoer and De Gillett Cox
$19.00
Free For Mastrius Members.
A Design Tool that Goes Beyond Value
When artists think about contrast, the first thing that often comes to mind is value composition, the difference between light and dark, but contrast goes well beyond value.
Think about color temperature, saturation, texture, edges, size, transparency… and beyond.
Contrast is a key design principle that many of us artists don’t use to its full potential. Learn to think outside the box of value, and use contrast in your artwork to not only draw the viewer in and direct their eye, but to captivate them!
Join Mastrius Mentors De Gillett Cox & Julie deBoer for an eye-opening panel that will stretch your concept of contrast and empower you as an artist & storyteller.
In this panel, you’ll learn:
- How to identify and create many unique types of contrast to make your art more captivating
- Techniques for contrasting color temperature & saturation to create mood & evoke emotion
- How to manipulate size and shape to create contrast for dramatic & compelling compositions
- The impact of contrasting various textures and soft & hard edges to create intrigue & direct the viewer’s eye
- The power of contrasting transparent & opaque paint applications to create depth & layered visual interest
Join us for a rich discussion on the power of contrast. All questions are welcome in this live experience!
As always, Mastrius events are LIVE & INTERACTIVE!
🎟 Tickets ONLY $19 | FREE for Mastrius Members
🎙️ Event recording is available for Mastrius Members only.
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Meet De Gillett Cox
Charcoal | Conte | Drawing | Graphite | Ink | Mixed Media | Oil | Pastel | Printmaking
I explore the exuberance of life through colour, texture, and movement.
My paintings celebrate the tensions between opposing elements: smooth and rough, opaque and transparent, controlled and spontaneous; creating surfaces that invite the viewer to linger, explore, and feel. Working primarily in acrylics and mixed media, I am inspired by the Australian landscape, native flora, and the subtle dramas of light, form, and pattern in nature.
My practice is a dialogue between intuition and process. I respond to the physicality of paint, the way it flows, builds, and interacts with texture, allowing surprises to shape the work.
Each canvas is both a record of experimentation and a moment of exuberance—a celebration of the unexpected beauty that emerges when colour, form, and energy converge. Through my paintings, I seek to evoke joy, curiosity, and a renewed appreciation for the vitality of the natural world.
De Gillett Cox is an award-winning, best-selling Australian artist with a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Queensland College of Art. Over a 30-year teaching career, she has guided hundreds of adult students to develop their artistic voice and confidence. In 2012, De co-founded Arts Tree, an art school for adults, where she is the lead tutor, and her work has won 13 People’s Choice Awards. Her paintings and textile designs celebrate Australian native flora and fauna, combining bright, textured acrylics with a unique sense of pattern and color.
Meet Julie deBoer
Acrylic
My life is art. It’s about the creation of art, the support of artists, and impacting the world positively through art. I believe in and am building a non-competitive community at Mastrius, where artists can grow their skills and pursue their passions together, because…
ART is powerful and purposeful. It is not about making pretty things to hang on the wall, to match the curtains. Art changes our perspective and opens us up to something much deeper, higher, and grander than ourselves.
Creating unique impressions of the world as I see and experience them, is life-giving to me, and it seems, to those who enjoy my work. I am a deep-welled person, sensitive in every way a person can be, which heightens my awareness and ability to connect with people through my art. Though it also makes life more painful, it also makes it more beautiful and I’m grateful for it.
My smooth, flowing, moving landscapes capture the interaction I experience with nature.
God says “the sky speaks, the heavens proclaim, even the rocks cry out, the mountains and hills break into singing, the trees of the forest sing for joy!” This is what I see glimpses of and hear whispers of when I’m in nature.
THIS is my JOY and PURPOSE in creating art, to translate my experience into a visual, inspiring, joy-filled, and powerful visual display.