Well, it seems as if I didn't do much this summer, but I was too busy doing to get much blogging done. So I will share with you my trip to the art retreat CREATE, in Chicago, sponsored by
Cloth, Paper, Scissors.
Cloth, Paper, Scissors.
Leaving Portland, OR. The mighty Columbia river.
Some where over America.
Chicago International Airport.
Chicago International Airport.
Day 1: Helen Shafer Garcia from CA teaches the Batik Tree of Life class.
Now does it look like we are having fun or what?
Helen was the best - so easy going and a great teacher.
My sketches for my tree of life, done on Japanese Rice paper glued on canvas board.
A progression of my work. I've been interested in RED this year.
That color seems to pop up a lot in art I like and art I do.
The Tree of Life theme is based on the Mexican clay trees that they make across the border.
They attach leaves, fruit, flowers or creatures to it. It was originally used to attach figures from the Bible to teach the stories of the Bible, but has branched out to include all sorts of themes.
My concept centered around love, life and happiness. I tried for vivid colors.
I wanted to try that rich, red background, which I've never done before.
My water color set up. I had a lot of the brown paint travel under the rice paper and come up all over, as you can see on the left. It ended up giving things a batik look.
Not quite finished. I need to add a black line around all of the elements without losing the white border that I purposely created. Its not easy, hence why its still a work in progress.
The art work of other students in the class.
A friend from Aruba. She teaches art in a school down there and was here to learn new techniques.
9 comments:
I know you loved this class and your project as well as your classmates' are gorgeous! The rice paper must have been fun to work with and your colors are very exciting.
Incredible pictures...incredible journey. Lucky for me I just came from yoga and could fold myself up quite nicely to fit in your suitcase. . . all prepared for your next Journey! Where we headed?
I love this tree of life, an image I keep being drawn to. The red background is stunning. I bet this workshop was great fun.
Thanks for the support! I too am drawn to the tree of life image - I really like it. In Mexico in Feb. I bought a large rug (shown in a prior blog post) with a tree of life full of birds. The background was red and hand dyed by the river with crushed beetle bodies that yield the red color (sorry beetles!). In fact, all of the colors in that rug came from natural dying, mostly with plants.
Then I took a Tree of Life class with Sue Spargo in the summer in July - I still need to post those pictures. Its a special theme.
Reets - I would so love to bring you with me on an art trip!
I feel such a strong pull to the batik look of this, but not necessarily to the batik process itself. How did you get the white lines around things in the first place? A wax pencil? I really like that effect.
Hi Betsy! When I painted with water color, I left the white areas all around each object, to give that highlight effect. It really sets things off.
This looks like such a COOL workshop, I´m getting so inspired looking at these pictures. I absolutely love yours!
This class looks like it was so fun! Your piece is GORGEOUS! So glad you went for the vivid colors!
Red was my favorite color as a child. Now, I am drawn to it again as an adult, as an accent or to set things off. Of course, it looks fabulous as the entire background - like on this rug I bought from Mexico.
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