April 20, 2010

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!