Wednesday, March 10, 2010

A Workshop Week

The first week of March, I made my way to Portland for a three day workshop featuring paper making and collage, taught by Deanna Thibault. (www.thibault4art.com) I really like Deanna's art and she has a lot of knowledge regarding making papers and creating art that does not require mats and glass or plexiglass glazing.

 
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Deanna in action.

 
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Two samples of Deanna's art in progress.

So one of the things I gained was learning how to make paste paper. We combined wallpaper paste, gloss medium and either acrylic paint or watercolor paint as a pigment. After making this goop, we covered everything from deli paper to rice paper to watercolor paper to make colorful patterned papers.

 
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After putting the paste on the paper, we used all sorts of art and hardware store items to make patterns on the paper.

 
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Once these papers are made, they can be used in combination with watercolor or acrylic paints to create interesting bits in a painting to create an impact that is hard to do with paint alone.

I made two pictures using a mixture of paints and collage. Neither are anything great, but I find I never create anything very special in a workshop. I use the time just learning a new way of working.

 
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What I came away with was new ways of making dynamic colored and pattern papers. We even made cool papers using brown paper bags. I also became inspired to work toward creating art that is sealed with gloss medium, making mats and glass unnecessary. I know there have always been acrylics and oils which do this, but for me, this combination of painting and collaging is more in sync with the direction I've been going anyway.

An odd side effect of this workshop is that I've not been back working in the studio. I guess I'm letting it all digest as I process what I learned and think about just how it will affect my work.

If any Eugenian artists are interested, I would love to have a paste paper creating day. I'd be very happy to share the recipe I learned from Deanna and we could all go away with some beautiful papers to work with in our studios.

Spring! As of this morning, we have hummingbirds. The first little bird peered in the window this morning and I put up two feeders. Soon I had three hummingbirds feeding at the two feeders.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I love getting to see your workshop reviews and impressions. I got to see what Jenny O had done since the workshop. The papers are so bright and saturated color. Your pieces are really lively.