July 2026 Art Demo – Tamsen Armstrong
FAA Guest Artist Demonstration – Tamsen Armstrong
Thursday, July 9, 2026
6 pm at
The Gallery at 48 Natoma
Tamsen Armstrong’s Demo for FAA
Tamsen’s goal is to show painters a few tools she uses to help her make creative decisions for her paintings when she paints from photographic references. One tool she finds very helpful is Chroma Magic, created by Michelle Clamp and available to purchase through any app store site. It is Android and IOS friendly and is $19.95 one-time purchase (no subscription!)
Chroma Magic displays your photo references in the most natural way for painters – showing hues, values, and chromas. Based on the Munsell system, the combination of showing reference colors in context gives us painters a natural map of how colors and values vary. It also improves your color perception. Note: it is not necessary to be familiar with the Munsell color system to use this tool to help you mix accurate colors and values.
Tamsen uses it because it helps her see color and value when painting from photo references. She notes that even though she doesn’t always copy the color exactly, it does give her a starting point, especially when at the beginning point of blocking in the big shapes.
For her FAA demo, Tamsen will be starting a painting using this tool and walking you through the basics. She will also touch upon how she chooses photo references, how she uses Apple Photo to help balance values, and will pass along a few links to other online sites that she finds helpful in “my struggle to learn how to improve how I ‘see’ and paint.”
About Tamsen Armstrong
Tamsen’s father was a painter and the smell of turpentine was as much a part of her childhood in Southern California as that of suntan lotion. When she showed interest in drawing, he would sometimes set her down in his studio for an impromptu lesson …ranging, for example, from perspective to color mixing.
Though she later became a high school English teacher, the art world continued to call. In 2013, she became a serious student of oil painting when she took her first workshop in Provence and began to learn the joy (and heartbreak) of Plein Air painting. Many outings, workshops and studio classes later, Tamsen is continuing to learn and improve her skills as a painter of landscapes, still lifes, people and animals, all with the support and encouragement of her husband of 47 years.
Her work can be seen currently at For the Love of Art in Auburn, the Sun City Lincoln Hills Fine Arts Show in June and online at tamsenarmstrong.com.
Please contact Lori Anderson, President, Folsom Arts Association, for questions about our monthly artist demonstrations.