April 2011 – Hudson River Valley Art Workshops

Watercolors with Paul George

April 30, 2011

They may have had to drive through torrential rains, but nothing was going to stop these artists from getting to the 3-day workshop with Paul George! Luckily once here, the sun came out and it has been a beautiful weekend.

This afternoon, Paul took everyone outside to our parking lot to do a demo painting of the back of the main building of the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn (home of the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops).

He started with filling in the large shapes.

Then added the larger details.

After the demo, the students had the choice of painting outside around the inn or going back to the studio to paint. The workshop day was finished with a group critique.

Fresh Spring Pastels with Susan Ogilive

April 27, 2011

Susan Ogilvie, a wonderful and talented pastelist from Washington, was here teaching a workshop for us last week. Susan has taught here many times and it is always a joy to have her back.

The week went by so quickly it was Friday before I realized I had not played my paparazzi role to capture the workshop in action! But I did manage to get a picture of some action around the dinner table.

All those smiles are probably (in part) because of the yummy cherry pie soon to be served for dessert.

Made fresh that day in our kitchen, this pie is made from organic dried cherries and features a marzipan crust. Naturally sweet without being overly sugary sweet!

Yard Show

April 18, 2011

It was a good week with Fran Skiles’ workshop group and it was over too soon.

On the final day, everyone hung a couple pieces of their work on the lines in back of the studio and a critique and discussion was had.

If you missed out on this class (there was a long waiting list), you’ll have your chance again when Fran comes back in 2013.

Mono-Printing with Fran Skiles

April 14, 2011

Yesterday the class was doing mono-prints. It wasn’t long before the design boards and walls will filled with prints!

The class is very international. We have Gerri Bea from Canada . . .

Cristina from El Salvador . . .

Fern from Florida . . .

Louise LL (also from Canada and a wonderful collage artist and instructor, too) took over a corner of the studio and filled it with her work!

Today I’m making a run up to the nearest art supply store for more gloss medium to fuel the prodigious amount of fun this group is having.

Fiber and Paper Collage with Fran Skiles

April 13, 2011

Fran Skiles is here this week teaching a 5-day workshop on fiber and paper collage. It is a full workshop and everyone hit the ground running! Within a couple hours of starting everyone working furiously!

The first day Fran showed how to use a sewing machine to create line and texture on white or black canvas.

The class is made up an exciting mix of art quilters and mixed media artists!

Fran is obviously inspiring a lot of enthusiasm in the class. No wonder the class filled up very quickly.

Today the class is working on mono-printing on various textured papers. Pictures to follow in the next post!

Inks, Paints, and Digital Photos with Lura Schwarz Smith

April 6, 2011

Lura Schwarz Smith is here with us this week teaching a 5-day workshop on using inks, watercolor pencils, fabric markers, paints, and more on fabric.

Lura arrived a couple days early and the first thing she did was set up the media table — a dazzling array of inks, markers, and pencils for everyone in the class to use.

The first couple of days were spent on exercises to learn or improve the students drawing skills and working with inks for shading and details on drawn images or digital images.

This is Janis using Fabrico fabric markers to add details to a digital image that she printed in Kerby Smith’s workshop. (Three students actually took advantage of the back-to-back workshop experience — and discount, to take both Kerby’s class and Lura’s.) She is turning an image of winter in New Mexico into a hot summer day! The colors are tremendous.

Here is an example of some of the drawing and shading exercises completed by Joan L. They practiced drawing faces both right side up and upside down. It was interesting to see how well the upside down faces turned out.

Then they used Tsukineko fabric ink to colorize their drawings.

You can also see some of the digital images that Joan created in Kerby’s class.

She’s a Pip and a Master Fiber Artist to Boot!

April 5, 2011

On May 1 – 7, Elizabeth Barton will be back again at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops teaching a workshop.

Elizabeth currently lives in Georgia, but was born and educated in York, England. She still has that wonderful English sense of humor! Before devoting herself full time to teaching and making art quilts, she taught at the University of Georgia.

The workshop this year focuses working in a series and how this process can speed the development of your own unique voice. You will be exploring many ways of creating quilt designs based on a single theme or idea. The aim is to generate lots of designs and then critique them discovering as you do the basic principles of good design.

Elizabeth is excellent at encouraging and guiding you on how to work from your own ideas and discover your own unique voice. Your ideas can abstract, realistic or impressionistic.

This is an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of a master instructor in a small class size setting. This means lots of individual attention and lots of room to work and explore multiple ideas at once. Not to mention, that Spring is a beautiful time of year in the Catskill and Hudson River region!

Elizabeth Barton also has a lively blog where she talks about art and thoughts there of.

Join the party and sign up for this fabulous workshop!