ART UNRAVELED!!!!

Come join me in Pheonix on August 8 and 9 at ART UNRAVELED!!!! I will be teaching Scribble Collage on August 8, in which we spend the day painting papers using a ZILLION techniques, and then make collages with these yummy materials. On August 9, I will teach New Dimensions in Collage. We make our collages 3-dimensional by creating panels and shadow-boxes with foam core to add depth and layers to our art.

Here is one example of a "Scribble Collage"


I made a collage with my scribble painted papers, and then used the same techniques for painting over them to focus the composition.

A few from a recent "New Dimensions" workshop at Ink About It, which we called "Dream Houses" - same process:

Leslie's piece in progress:


And Pat's:


I hope you can join me in Phoenix for this art extravaganza and total immersion in creativity! To register, go here. Thanks for visiting!

Tools, Not Rules

Next Friday, the 28th, I am teaching my Art Basics workshop for the first time. It will be at Studio Place Arts in Barre, VT, and I am way excited about it. We're calling it "Creative Beginnings: Unlocking the Secrets of Color", just to have a fun title, but it is really about the basic building blocks of painting/collage: color, composition, and I'll cover materials as well - paper, paint, mediums. The class is almost full, but we may be able to squeeze in a couple more students, so if you are interested and can get there next Friday, call Studio Place Arts.


Yes, we will begin by making color wheels, and then various sorts of color gradations, just to see what to paints do, and to anchor the rest of the discussion and establish a vocabulary for the composition studies. My theme here is "Tools, Not Rules"; the color wheel and gradations, and the elements of composition are tools, just as your brushes, your eyes, and your palette are tools. They do not constitute a set of rules that must be followed in order to make good art.

Here are a couple of composition samples:
We'll be working "off the grid", doing lots of sketches and playing with variations.

OK, on to the next topic: the Sketchbook Challenge! I have found that I am reluctant to draw in my sketchbook because I don't want to "waste" the fine printmaking paper I used to make the book. Plus, I am just starting to draw, so my drawings are pretty basic. "Not worthy" of the fine paper or putting in a hand-bound book. See? So why not paint in my sketchbook? BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE TO PAINT IN A BOOK! Who knew? I prefer to paint on a sheet of paper. But today I seem to have broken through this little self-made obstacle. I just started doing color study/painting/collages in the book, and guess what: I feel freer doing these as "studies" in the sketchbook than I do when working on paper. Here are a couple of pages, and I'll do a post on the Sketchbook blog in the next couple of days.
Thanks for visiting!

New Collage Paintings

Here are a few pieces I have been working on post-Rupert Workshop. There are about half a dozen more in progress, and I work on them all at the same time, which is probably evident from the similar color scheme and compositional elements. My process begins with a painted or collage "start" - random painting, collaging, building up pattern and texture. Then I proceed to add layers of paint and collage, obscuring much of what came before, but adding new elements. Often a piece will change course dramatically several times over in the course of its journey towards completion. Completing a piece in any one work session is never the object. I find that if I keep focused on the process, pieces have a way of resolving themselves, or not, in their own time.

Art Unraveled proposals for workshops are due next week, and I'm proposing a workshop that focuses on this process of layering paint and collage. Of course, I'll include other tried-and-true workshops in my proposal as well. I'll keep you posted on that.

I think I'll try another color scheme for the next group. I love this quinacridone gold and turquuoise thing, but I should probably challenge myself in the color department. Any suggestions? I love your comments!!

Rupert Workshop

I am having SUCH a great time with the students in my Collage Journeys workshop this week. What a creative bunch! ON Monday we did Scribble Painting, Tuesday we we explored personal text and image relationships as well as composition; on Wednesday we made collages with foam core; and today everyone continued work on their chosen project. Gretchen collaged in a journal she had begun, as did Deborah. Marianne continued with the foam core constructions, while the rest worked on collage / paint compositions. Tomorrow we wrap up with some show and tell and discussion. I have lots more pictures, but here are just a few to give you a flavor of the creativity we all experienced.

Talk and Demo

Here is me giving a talk and demonstration to the Essex Art League in Essex Junction, Vermont. This is a group of skilled, enthusiastic, and dedicated artists that meets monthly to share ideas and inspiration from each other's accomplishments. They show their work as a group at Phoenix Books and Cafe in Essex, one of the endangered species of independent book stores we need to support and protect. As most of the members of the Essex Art League are painters, I was impressed with their enthusiastic response to my discussion of collage. I hope to be able to offer a workshop to the group sometime during the summer or fall. My workshop schedule is starting to fill up for the spring; I'll update my website as soon as specifics are nailed down.

Dream House

I can't believe it is already February! My book manuscript is due at the end of March, and I'm feeling behind, as usual. Right now I am working on foam core pieces, some for the book and some for teaching projects. I love this material as a collage support and building material, and first was inspired to use it by Carol Owen's book, Crafting Personal Shrines. I am so excited that she will be contributing a few pieces to my current book! Here are a few foam core "Dream Houses" that I've been working on. It seems like a fun format, offering lots of opportunity for content as well as embellishment. These may need a little work yet. From left to right: "Butterfly House", "Bird House", and "Home".

Ink About It workshop

I had so much FUN last weekend teaching a collage workshop at Ink About It in Westford, MA. It was a great group of people, several of whom had taken my workshop there last summer, all full of creative energy and talent. THANK YOU to everybody who attended and to Linda and Lori, the owners, for hosting me. Besides the Saturday workshop on "Painting with Paper", I taught a Friday evening seminar on writing a book proposal. That was my first time teaching this topic, but I've talked about it a LOT to anyone who asks.

All week I've been working on making paper and mixed media dolls. What a RIOT! Inspired by Autumn Hathaway's Spirit Dolls, and Pamela Hastings' paper and mixed media dolls, it did not take long to get on a roll. Will post some pictures next week.