Back from the Pacific Northwest

I just had a fantastic experience teaching Abstract Painting at the Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island in Washington. Here are a few video clips of the event:

And a few pictures:

A walk before the workshop

The workshop in Progress

Watching a Demo

We will be doing some of the same activities in Expressive Collage at Omega in September.  I will also be returning to Pacific Northwest Art School in May (4 - 10), teaching Abstract Painting (a different version), as well as a two-day workshop on Monoprint Collage using the gel plate.

Music in the video is by Podington Bear (I think I misspelled it in the credit - sorry, Podington with one d).

Pictures from the Exhibition

I want to share with you some images of the show, "Journey Into Process", of which I am a part.  It is on view at Vermont Institute of Contemporary Art (VTica) through September 8.  You can see my portion of the exhibition on my web site though I did not post the 4"x4" pieces individually.

Part of my wall, before the opening

VTica serves REALLY good hors d'oeuvres at openings!

Part of my 4"x4" exhibition, in the hallway

"Edge Location" series

One of two groupings of my Shape Series

Enjoy!  I've recently updated my Workshop Calendar, so take a peek and see what's coming up this fall and in 2014.

Blue Canvas

Here is the sequel to the last post, a video of me working on this blue painting. What I love about video is that it makes the process look so straightforward, as if there is no hesitation, no uncertainty about What To Do Next.  This painting was challenging and, at times, frustrating.  You will see a big difference between the finished piece and the version in the video.  At one point I just had to turn off the camera and work it out without being "watched". 

Blue

I've been fascinated by more-or-less-monochrome paintings, and started a Pinterest board to collect images.  How do you make a painting interesting when you are using predominantly one color?  I thought I'd investigate this issue by making a series of paintings, or collage-paintings, dominated by a single color.  This one is 12"x12" on canvas.  I did shoot some video of the process, but will edit and post at a later date.

This was meant to be predominantly blue, but I can see I got very green in some places.  The collage pieces, using the paper demonstrated below, are on the middle left, and lower left just below the orange.  They get sucked right into the painting.

In the meantime, I made a video of a painting technique I use to make collage papers:
This is one of the many techniques I'll be sharing in Expressive Collage and Painting at Omega in September, as well as Scribble Paint and Unbinding the Visual Journal at Art and Soul in Portland in October.

Back to the Postcards!

Some of you have asked if I ever sleep, implying that I am doing a lot of work lately.  I have had some productive studio time, for sure, and am gearing up for summer and fall workshops.  I do sleep.  What I haven't been doing is scanning and posting all the fabulously creative postcards I've received for The Postcard Project!  I read every single one, and LOVE them all, but the volume has been overwhelming, and other obligations have taken priority.  I am keeping them safe while I figure out how and where to display them...

Here are a few recent ones; it was hard to choose just enough for a blog post, so I decided to highlight the fabric pieces:

All postcards that reach our post office in 2013 COUNT towards keeping it open in 2014.  Rather than scanning and posting every single one on the online galleries, I think at this point it will be more realistic for me to do an occasional post on the blog with select images.  We are well over the 2000 mark now!  THANKS SO MUCH to all of you who have sent and are sending cards.