The week with Kathyanne White went way too quickly. Everyone was having such fun printing on unusual surfaces (paper, fabric, tyvek, lutradur, aluminum cans) and collaging all of this with fabric, beads, buttons, and other embellishments to create wonderfully textured journals.

But I can’t be too sad, because Kathyanne has already agreed to come back in the Summer of 2012.

Here is a little preview of something that you will have to chance to create in that workshop.

This little cube was made from an aluminum can that was cut apart into sheets that were then printed with a digital image. The sheets were then cut apart and assembled into this cube with other layers of printed aluminum squares, wire, thread, and beads.

Kathyanne wrote a great post on her blog about the workshop and also has more details about her methods.

This weekend is the workshop with Natalie Sewell doing fabric landscapes. Then on Sunday, the always wonderful Alvaro Castagnet arrives to teach his Impressionist approach to watercolor. (Still one more spot open in his class!)

Contrary to popular understanding, landscape painting in the 19th century was not exclusively practiced by men. The 2010 exhibition at the Thomas Cole historical site in Catskill, NY seeks to increase awareness of a previously little-celebrated but highly talented and accomplished group of women artists, and to examine the ways in which women artists were trained and exhibited their work alongside their male colleagues.

Opening Day of the exhibit is Sunday, May 2, 2010. There is a lecture at 2pm by co-curators, Nancy Siegel, Associate Professor of Art History, Towson University and Jennifer Krieger, Managing Partner, Hawthorne Fine Art. Admission to the lecture is $9

This exhibit runs from May 2 – October 31, 2010.

The Main House and Studio are open by guided tour. From the first Saturday in May through the last Sunday in October, tours are offered Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10am to 4pm. Tours are offered at other times by appointment.

The Thomas Cole house is about 20 minutes away from the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops.

Lots of creativity continues to happen in the Kathyanne White workshop here at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops.

Yesterday the morning session was spent learning some nifty tricks with PhotoShop Elements to manipulate your digital images.

Then in the afternoon it was back to the journals. There is a lot of really neat stuff happening!

I wasn’t able to get quite so many photos yesterday because it was my night to make dinner and I had a whole lot of stuff to deal with in the office (my to do list is never empty). But hopefully today will be less hectic.

Tonight is the presentation of the up and coming workshops – both the rest of this year and all of 2011. If you’re in the neighborhood stop by at around 8:00pm to see the show or you can always request our 2011 Early Bird Enrollment information via email.

On the second day of Kathyanne White’s workshop, everyone got to try their hand at printing digital images onto uncommon surfaces.

We printed on watercolor paper, tyvek, bark paper, and aluminum sheets cut from soda cans!

From the left to the right, the first one is on aluminum, then next on tyvek, and the last on watercolor paper.

Today we are going to learn about distressing these surfaces with heat to create more interesting and complex textures.

We also prepared for printing on cotton, a gel medium “skin”, muslin, and lutradur – which we’ll do today.

Kathyanne then discussed with the group the various options for our next journal project. We could choose to make a base of just watercolor paper, just fabric, or a combination of the two. We could design a journal to be just an art journal or make it so that it could be written in as a regular journal.

We were then set lose to create like crazy.

Most people choose to paint more watercolor papers to use as a base for the pages.

A field trip to the local dollar store for beads and other embellishments was fitted in at lunchtime.

The afternoon was spent preparing our collections to incorporate onto the pages.

These are little bundles of painted fabric, plastic netting, wool wrapped twigs, and buttons and beads.

Marlene is working on combining decorator fabrics to become a page or cover for her book.

This is another fabric combination being created by Su

Su also put together these fun little bundles of fabric, beads, buttons, burlap, and twigs, all tied together with wire.

Today Kathyanne will be explaining how to use PhotoShop Elements to manipulate images. Then the images will be printed on the materials that we prepared yesterday (fabric, lutradur, etc.). After that we’ll start distressing the printed images.

Kathyanne White, a mixed-media artist from Prescott, AZ, is here this week teaching a 5-day workshop.

Pictures don’t do this type of work justice because it is hard to get the incredible texture and layered nature of the pieces.

I have the rare treat of joining in this workshop, so I’ll be posting pictures quite often — hopefully!

We started the workshop using acrylic paints to color watercolor paper to be used as the basis of our first book. Both sides of each piece were painted.

A painting area was set up in the back of the studio to keep all of the paint in one area. This was also the closest area to the studio sink and got great sunlight from the picture windows.

Once one side was dry, the other side was painted, too.

Kathyanne also showed us how to “dye” fabric with acrylic paint in a baggy. The fabric pieces were laid out on the lawn in back of the studio to dry. Luckily, it wasn’t a windy day!

While we waited for the watercolor papers to dry, everyone gathered the materials that they wanted to collage onto the papers. This was things such as bits of fabric, ribbon, photographs, beads, wire mesh, bits of torn paper, etc.

The next step was to assemble the painted watercolor papers into a book. This is Marlene punching holes through the paper for threading the binding.

Now the fun began (not that the painting wasn’t fun, too)! Using glue or a gel medium, all of the bits and pieces were collaged onto the paper pages.

I attached beads and buttons to the binding thread of my book.

Today we start on another book. But one of the things we’ll also be doing is printing on aluminum cans! These are some example of the ones that Kathyanne has already done. Really amazing stuff!

Yesterday, while I was playing in the studio, Mark manned the office. What a nice guy!

It was a beautiful week last week in Greenville, NY at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. The Spring colors are brightening the landscape . . .

and the students in Carol Taylor’s workshop are brightening the studio.

Marcia and Carol E. busily turning out some fantastic work.

Carol T. kept the class hopping with lots of different improvisational piecing and applique techniques.

As everyone worked Carol spent time with each person to offer assistance or individual critique.

Rika knows how to use blue! Love it.

These are more examples of some of the piecing techniques that were explored.

An effective use of skinny line piecing!

Sher, from TX, went off in a different direction, combining some of the piecing techniques with clusters of hanging fibers that echoed the colors of the fabrics. As a former weaver, Sher was attracted to the use of the fancy yarns.

Marcia M. was one of the many folks in the class who complete a full art quilt top. This was a very industrious group, many making use of the fact that our studio is open 24 hours and is just a few steps away from everyone’s rooms.

The other exciting news of the week is that this May this sign will be coming down!

Our 50 ft pool was closed last year for renovations, but it is finally near completion and will be open this summer, starting in May.

For those of you that are fiber artists and want to use the pool, that means that the classes you want to sign up for are Carol Soderlund (Dyeing to Discharge) June 27 – July 3, Larkin Van Horn (Beaded Medallion Quilts) July 8 – 11, or Rayna Gillman (Deconstructing the Screen) July 17 – 20. Both Larkin’s and Rayna’s workshops are 3 day workshops and Carol’s is a 5-day workshop! Or you can always stay here during the Irish Music Festival in East Durham July 11 – 17 and not only enjoy the pool, but also the music!

Another thing you can enjoy are the desserts! Mark made some sinfully delicious eclairs. These are the shells that were later filled with an Italian pastry cream and coated with organic dark chocolate. Yummy!

The color is blooming in Greenville at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshopsand not only in the flower beds and trees!

Carol Taylor is here this week teaching her “Piecing it Together” class and the studio is absolutely bursting with color.

Here is one quick example from Tuesday. I’ll be getting more pictures today.

Carol has kept her students busy with 20 improvisational piecing techniques, plus learning to couch fancy fibers on fabric.

Lots of demos, but still plenty of time to work.

The group is also enjoying lots of lively conversation around the dinner table.

Tonight we will have the full group at the dinner table – including the 2 day students and a student from one of Carol’s previous classes who wanted to join the fun even if it was just for one day.

Carol will be giving a trunk show of her quilts tonight and I’ll be presenting the up and coming attractions (2011 workshops).