UPCOMING
SHOWS
Word and Image
A collaborative exhibition bringing together 12 writers and 12 visual artists with ties to the North Oregon Coast. Word & Image is rooted in the tradition of ekphrasis, writing created in response to visual art, but expands the form into a two-way creative exchange. In this project, writers and artists are paired together, then invited to respond to one another’s work through poetry, prose, visual art, and mixed media. The result is a layered conversation between language and image, where each piece opens a new way of seeing the other.
Manzanita, Oregon
November 5 – 28, 2026
Opening reception: Saturday, November 7, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Stairwell Show: Oil and Cold Wax Paintings
Sitka Center for Art and Ecology
Oregon Coast at Cascade Head
Classes taught by Dayna Collins:
Abstracted Play in Oil and Cold Wax
Sitka Center for Art and Ecology
(on the Oregon coast at Cascade Head)
August 23-27, 2026
Registration through Sitka (Class is full, join waitlist)
Members of Sitka may register February 19, 2026 @ 9am
Public registration begins March 5, 2026 @ 9am
Jump into the deep end of color and the rich luminosity of oil paint mixed with cold wax. We will apply paint with squeegees and putty knives (it's like painting with whipped butter). Let's pump up the color and make bold, startling marks to create surprise and take our breath away. We will enhance our paintings by making more lines and marks than usual, taking our lines for a leisurely walk through the paint. We'll work intuitively and energetically on multiple pieces, exploring texture, layers, composition, and design with an emphasis on color. Layers dry quickly and cleanup is done with baby oil. You will complete several pieces and go home with painting starts.
Growing Wild: Wonky Collaged Flowers
Sunday, September 13, 2026
10:00 am – 3:30 pm
$150.
In this one-day workshop, we’ll spend a couple of hours painting a variety of papers using unconventional tools, then adding marks, lines, drips, and splatters to use for creating Curious Untamed Blooms on the substrate of our choice. After a break, we’ll spend the rest of the day digging through our colorful painted papers and personal collage papers to rip, cut, tear, and glue, going in and adding marks (and maybe a word or two).
Our finished collages will take on their own personalities and reflect our curiosity, playfulness, and a sense of experimentation, all the while pushing the limits of color, design, and composition.
Lexicon of Collage: Creating a Deck of Mixed Media Collages
Saturday, October 17, 11:30 – 5:30 and
Sunday, October 18, 12:00 – 4:00
$180. ($10 additional supply fee due at the first class)
Lexicon noun “The vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge.”
In this case, our Lexicon is a variety of collage techniques created in the form of a deck of collages that can be used for display or reference.
Working loosely and intuitively, we will use scraps of paper, worn ephemera, hand painted papers that we create, and materials scavenged from discarded books. Over two days we will create a deck of collages on 4x6-inch mat board pieces. Creating these collages is a wild cacophony of cutting, tearing, drawing, gluing, painting, writing, scraping, sanding, layering, and revealing.
Let ‘er Rip Collages: Using Vintage Book Parts
Saturday, November 14, 2026
11:30 – 5:30
$150.
Let’s take a deep dive into collage ripping apart and dismantling old worn-out vintage hardback books to scavenge for materials: book linen, interesting spines with gauze and gluey bits, not to mention fun illustrations and fancy text. We will also be ripping apart old paperbacks (the older the better) altering the covers with sandpaper and cutting out blocks of text. We will spend the afternoon creating collages using our stacks and piles of book parts, and we will use the book boards from the dismantled books as our substrates.
Throughout the day, we will discuss collecting materials; composition and design elements; the importance of color and value; explore a variety of techniques, and how to display completed collages. There will be demos with plenty of time for hands on experimentation.
Fearless Faces
Saturday, December 12, 2026
11:30 – 5:30
$150.
Dayna is offering a full day of drawing and painting wonky faces with an emphasis on loose and free, not realistic and precise. Using prompts, warm-ups, and lots of art materials, Dayna will guide everyone through loose drawing and painting to create a series of Fearless Faces. This workshop will be a fast-paced, lively day of artmaking, with a focus on color, abstraction, and pushing limits. No experience is required!
Building Creative Muscles
Saturday, January 9, 2027
11:30 – 5:30
$150.
Let’s jumpstart the new year by setting some creative intentions. What does it look like to live a creative life? What if we don’t know what we want to do or how to get started? How do we maintain a sustained art practice when so many interruptions intrude on our time?
Join Dayna for a full day of creative exercises and discussions about how to sustain a creative life by doing a few small things a day. Dayna will provide a resource guide for books to read (and she is continually adding new titles), how to incorporate inspiring quotes into your art practice, and how to choose a word for the year. Using her own life as an example, she will share about her reading and writing practice, how she chooses which books to read, and ways she has engaged in daily art challenges to keep her art practice active and alive. Dayna will be sharing examples from her Daily Projects with the goal of inspiring you to come up with your own project, whether it is a two-week project, a 30-day project, or perhaps something small each day for an entire year. We won’t do any of this perfectly, so she’ll also be talking about procrastination, perfection, jealousy, and comparison.
You will leave with fresh ideas, the beginnings of a visual journal for recording quotes, a place to practice sketching and painting exercises, experimenting with quick collages, and making lists of ideas to explore once you are home.
My art can be viewed on this website and at the following galleries:
Astoria, Oregon
Salem, Oregon
The Independence, a Trace Hotel
Independence, Oregon
Dundee, Oregon
