April Workshop • Exploring Art Journaling at Studio262

Excited to announce I’ll be teaching an Art Journal workshop this April at Studio262 in Corvallis. I’ve taken a short sabbatical from teaching this past fall and winter, feeling recharged and ready to go! This one is based off a fun and playful class I taught last year. We used our hands to paint, mixed and glued…and had a bunch of fun!

This April, we’ll explore mixed media in the form of art journaling. Its easier than you think! We’ll go step by step and play with mixing acrylic paints, papers, graphite and oil pastels and make textures and shapes.

Learn about the practice of art journaling and complete one spread during the class. Please bring your own journal or sketchbook. All other materials provided.

Workshop Fee is $20. Ages 14 to adult. Min. 3, Max 12 students. Pre-registration is required.

To save your place, sign up online at Studio262WorkshopPage

Feel free to email me with any questions. I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty with you!

Let Go

There are times when I need to get out of my own art routine…I savor moments painting and creating in my journals. Yet there are times when I feel I need to switch it up, work in a completely new manner, and go with the inspiration of the day.

On this particular night, a few weeks ago, I packed up a few sheets of paper, a few paints and pastels, my rather large jar of black gesso, and headed out to meet fellow artist friend at our local coffee shop. I had nothing in mind, no preconceived ideas. I just knew I needed to let something out. I needed to move, to stand, use my entire arms in long sweeping motions and short choppy ones and just make marks on the paper.

Working in this manner, I tapped into my emotions, letting them guide my movements, and then let them go. Out of chaos emerged several symbols and eventually a beautiful, strong and fierce face. Who knew when I started what the final painting was going to reveal?

Do you have a method for “letting go” and a form of creating which has no rules? Where you can be free from constraint? I’d love to hear about your process.

Spring Play

I just love watching my students work. The brushes dancing, the color flying the hands moving… the creativity flowing.

In the last workshop we experimented with movements big and small in our pages. We did a fun warm up exercise using just black gesso and a brush. Nothing to do but make marks on the page, go with the flow and start moving!

After that we all did some marvelous layering with pastels, spray inks, stencils and ink. Love the bright spring colors and playful energy in all their pages.

Some warm up exercises and our working table

Artfest 2012

I’m just now getting around to posting pics from Artfest back in March. It was amazing, incredible and so inspiring. It was also my very first Artfest, and sadly, the last one held. I am really grateful to have experienced it. Three solid days of art classes, seeing old friends and making new friends at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, WA. Below are a few images of the location. We were up on a hill overlooking the ocean, it was the end of March and oh so cold but the beauty drew us outside to explore.

I had amazing classes. Below are a few images from them.

Day 1: Vintage Village Color Books with  Lisa Bebe

Here are my pieces following her instructions. 🙂  So much fun to learn new ways of combining materials. We used printed photos, ink washes and paint. I think they came out pretty awesome!

Day 2:  Flexible, Stuffable Journals with LK Slattery Ludwig

After a very  process driven day before, the second day was pure messiness!! Paint splattering, stencils flying quickly between our hands, paper folding, needles stitching… it was a whirlwind of creativity! I never finished the complete book, but I did finish the canvas cover, and many many amazing painted papers. I had a blast.

Day 3: Obsession or Collection with Roxanne Padgett.

Awesome culmination of a lot of techniques. We made a small book, stitched up some inside pages, and even made our own beads to string onto the spine of the book. I almost finished, but not quite! I had brought many papers and images I had collected over the years and was able to mesh them all together!

Earlier that morning, I had met a few other ladies down at the beach to take a walk thorough the salty air before the days classes began. The shore was strewn with driftwood and rocks…one of the ladies sang “cockles, and muscles….” and the fog was just starting to lift, it was very peaceful. I didn’t have my camera, but I was able to save my ocean memories by working in sand, seaweed, and driftwood to the books pages.

I’ll end this with a few sketches I did when I got home. After a few days away from routine, it was hard not to daydream about the misty hills and warm cozy classrooms buzzing with creativity!

Happy Creating…Stay Inspired! 🙂