30 July 2018

MidSummer Maine II last day


Rain was forecast for today but the sun prevailed most of the day. We had a chance to do our mark making with India ink in the driveway and as they dried in the drying rack, we worked on adding other media to scraped painted paper.



I started with a very pale piece of scraped painted paper and added oil pastels, watercolors, liquid chalk, correction fluid, white India ink (yes, there is such a thing), plain colored chalk and acrylic paint. If you look at the background, that was the pale paper I started with as a first layer.


I had another sheet which I had worked on a few years ago in a similar fashion using the same techniques and materials. It was so awful I never intended to use it but I needed two sheets in order to demonstrate weaving so I went back into this sheet and added more marks.


I sliced them into strips and wove them together first in one direction then another to see which was the most pleasing to me. This was the final weaving.


We spent most of the afternoon making prints with various sized and shaped gellis.





Last we look the marked papers with India ink and sliced and wove them




I really loved both of these workshops and although they had the same name, they were both very different.  I laid out the choices of which techniques or materials I would demonstrate and let the participants decide what they wanted to do. I think almost everyone is returning next year.

I can say without a doubt I set out the most intensive array of materials and set up and break down was LONG. There were no lack of materials.

The next event will be the Maine Event September 14, 15, and 16. Until then I will be making and also traveling to meet people, visit art museums and favorite places while I sketch and paint.

Thanks for reading,
Beth

26 July 2018

MidSummer Maine II day two

 Another perfect day in Paradise and we were all set to go. We spent today finishing up our books and filling them with various techniques. We decided to take a motif, like a circle , and use as many techniques and we could come up with in an hour to express "circle". In the past I did an entire book using milkweed pods as a motif. It really makes you reach outside of the box mining for ideas.


























The we explored different techniques








and we made some fabric beads for future embellishments - fun!




Dripping multicolored paints

23 July 2018

MidSummer Maine II day one


What a great bunch of gals. We had such a good time.


More aprons


Our sunny lunch spot alfresco


Steampunk crow made by Marcella watching over to goings on


The newly sided Art Greenhouse before the trim and deck painting. Still looks good!!


A happy camper making scraped paint paper - a new technique








Using our papers to cover our books









Coptic Stitched and ready to work into
















Now some rest and dreams about tomorrow

19 July 2018

Ready for the next workshop


We've had a bit of a heat wave but nothing compared to inland temps. For us 85 is high. Inland it is 95+. I went out to the Art Greenhouse to reorganize all the materials and clean the place for the next workshop early early. I also noticed it was darker in the front of the building so today I installed another set of "daylight" bulbs. The bulbs make the place look like there are skylights or no roof at all. Great!! Tomorrow the next workshop starts!



There are NO lights on and it's about 6 am so it seems a bit dark.



I love that new paper drying rack.

 






And last but not least, new aprons for the participants



Thanks for reading,
Beth