Giveaway Winner

Congrats to Mitzie Crider, a jewelry artist who has won my giveaway! She'll be receiving a couple of sheets of my hand decorated wabi-sabi paper! 

If  you'd like to make your own "Papers Wabi-Sabi", I'll be teaching this class at Portland Art and Soul, coming up soon!

Giveaway Drawing Tomorrow!

Thanks to all of you who posted comments here for the Art and Soul Retreat Blog Roll Giveaway!

 I will hold the random drawing tomorrow, August 27th. If you haven't given me your email along with your comment, please do so, so I can contact you if you are the winner of the wabi-sabi papers!

Check out my book blog, to see inspiring work from one of my readers.

Art and Soul Portland classes are filling up, so sign up now for the classes you want!

Student Wabi-Sabi work from Art and Soul

Art and Soul Portland Coming Soon! Blog Roll Begins!

Some of us Art and Soul instructors are having a blog roll to celebrate the upcoming Art and Soul Retreat. I get to be first! I'll be telling you about my classes and offering a giveaway. Here's the lineup of all the blog roll participants and blogs:

 August 20: Clarissa Callesen http://clarissacallesen.blogspot.com 

August 21: Liz Kettle http://www.textileevolution.com

 August 22: Jen Crossley http://amarkintime.blogspot.com/

Barbara Worth Rainey http://fireflypress.blogspot.com/ 

August 23: Jill Berry Blog: http://jillberrydesign.com/blog/

Some of these folks are having giveaways so check them out and learn about their upcoming classes!

 I'll be teaching:

Layers of Memory

 You’ll learn to create magical collages in an exciting and productive workshop! I’ll guide you through:

Mixing luscious layers with re-inkers, acrylic paint, and glaze medium

Using alcohol inks, stencils, handwritten text, a variety of papers

Three fun methods of adding photo transfers to collage

Choosing the best images for your collages

Composition tips for making your chosen images pop and for creating a balanced collage

Combining paint and papers to add mystery to your pieces

Enjoying and building on so called “mistakes”

Sealing your collages with a variety of mediums and adding finishing touches

 All levels welcome and I'll provide lots of individual attention! You'll leave with two or more gorgeous pieces and the knowledge to continue to explore your mystery collage creations at home. 

9:00 - 4:30, Monday - Sept 30

 Wabi-Sabi Wax

Wabi-Sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature; of accepting natural cycles. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered, and reveres authenticity above all. We’ll honor ourselves and go with the flow as we create a set of eloquent, mysterious, and gorgeous abstract pieces. The word “abstract” doesn’t have to scare you! I’ll show you how to let delightful accidents lead you to creating with a playful spirit. You’ll discover the magic of beeswax in creating layered and fascinating paintings. You’ll experiment with using oil paint, papers, and ephemera with beeswax to create rich, complex textures.

This is a time to enjoy experimenting, adding on and scraping off, and letting your inner free spirit guide you!

 Tuesday, October 1 9-4:30

Papers Wabi-Sabi

You’ll be amazed how easy it is to create gorgeous papers in the wabi-sabi style. I use my paper cut or torn up for collage, for book covers, and for backgrounds. You can cover boxes with your papers and make 3-D elements with them. You'll use mulberry paper, richly colored re-inkers, alcohol ink, and acrylic paint, used teabags, rubber stamps, bleach and acrylic glaze medium. You'll learn how to make your paper both flexible and strong. You'll leave with a collection of delicious one of a kind art papers!

Tuesday October 3  6:30-9:30 PM

Many Windows

Would you believe you can create a whole body of work in one class? You can! You'll make about nine tiny, exquisite collages, learning how to use composition, color and theme to create a variety of pieces that blend harmoniously. I'll provide individual attention and ideas as desired. You'll mount these 3” square collages on a canvas or wood panel that you have painted or papered to set off your collages. You’ll leave with your own mini art gallery: a rich, finished work of art.

Friday, October 6

Leave a comment on this blog to enter my giveaway!

I'll need your email in the comment so that I can contact you if you are the winner. The winner will receive two goodly-sized sheets of my hand-decorated wabi-sabi paper!

Hope to see you at Art and Soul!

New Over Old

The other day I decided to paint over an old acrylic painting I did years ago of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz   (1651 – 1695).

Sor (Sister) Juana was one of the, greatest poets, dramatists, and essayists of Spain's Golden Age. She was also a nun. She often ran afoul of the male clergy in New Spain where she lived (the former name of Mexico.) They didn't like her writing, her intellect, and what they considered her unfeminine behavior.
I wanted to use the support the acrylic painting was on for a new cold wax piece. I was never crazy about the acrylic painting, though I like some of the other pieces I did of Sor Juana. Though I decided to cover up the acrylic painting, I wanted the new one to also be in honor of Sor Juana. I named it "La Respuesta", or The Answer, after her written response to vicious criticism from the clergy.

I'm happy with how the painting came out. I didn't plan it, but kept Sor Juana in the back of my mind and in my heart while I worked.

Date Changed for "Wabi-Sabi Buried Treasure" at Yachats, OR

The date for my upcoming workshop at Bloom Artscape on the Oregon Coast has been changed from August 17 to September 21. Here's more about this delightful venue run by Sandy Mier:

Come play on the edge!

You deserve a creative getaway, and we have  just what you need at BLOOM! an artscape.  Nestled between the Pacific shoreline and the lush Siuslaw forest, our cozy art studio is bubbling with creative energy!  The combination of artful teachers and artistic adventures will nurture your spirit. Join us--we have a bouquet of art experiences, just for you!

--Sandy

 

Here's more about the workshop:

Saturday, September 21, 2013

BURIED TREASURE

Encaustic Exploration with Mixed Media

with Serena Barton

Combining mixed media and 3-D embellishments with Encaustic.

"a kind of archaeological excavation in reverse!"

Working on wood panels plus transforming an old book, Serena will lead you  to create a primal, mysterious work that invites the viewer to imagine a story woven into the piece with each layer and each element.  

Some of the techniques this workshop will cover:

imperfection and happy accidents

Saturday, September 21, 2013

10am-4pm

with lunch break

$135  All materials provided!  

Bring an old book for transformation

Register through Sandy

Join us for a Special Event:

Sunday, September 22,  1pm-4pm

Reception and Book Signing

Come meet  SERENA BARTON, enjoy a special showing of her artwork, and pick up a signed copy of her recent book!

Refreshments will be served.

This piece was featured in one of the two DVDs I filmed earlier this week at the North Light studio in Blue Ash, Ohio. I demonstrated adding 3-D elements to this encaustic collage, including vintage wooden buttons and several fish vertabrae.

Though I've made my own videos for online classes, I had never been in a professional filming studio before--I'll admit I was a little nervous! My editor, Kristy and the film crew, Rick and Christine, I had met before when I went back to North Light to photograph the project steps for my book. They are warm, and funny, as well as being highly skilled. They soon put me at ease, and I had a lot of fun creating the videos. They even used a clapper, like in the real movies, which made me feel so very cool.  

The lovely and talented Kristy

One of the videos features Kristy and me going on a walk to find wabi-sabi in nature and objects along the way. We did find some cool stuff that served as inspiration for some of the projects shown in the DVDs. The DVDs will include using acrylics, collage, re-inkers, alcohol inks, coffee, encaustic, cold wax and oil, plaster, 3-D elements and more.

I'll keep you posted on the release date for the DVDs. It will likely be the middle of December. Now that I've overcome my nervousness, I hope I get to do this again some time!

The table where I demonstrated techniques. You can see my "mark" on the floor.

Some of the set dressing with book prominently displayed

A blurry photo of some of the many cameras in the studio