December 22, 2012

It was the last, but certainly not the least workshop for us in 2012! Susan Brubaker Knapp, the extrordinary fiber artist who creates intricate wholecloth painted and thread sketched art and also fused and thread sketched art, was here for the week with an eager group of students.

On the first day, Susan immediate set the class to painting. None of the students had really done any painting before, so this was new, exciting, and a little intimidating — especially after seeing the incredible work of Susan’s that she had brought with her. But with Susan’s enthusiasm and confident guidance everyone was mixing their colors and painting.

Dalia choose a still life with citrus fruits.

Alison did an amazingly detailed job from a photo of orchids.

I choose a simple composition of emerging ferns. (Yes, as a rare treat, I got to participant in this workshop!)

Since the ferns were so simple, I finished in time to start another painted piece of a sheep.

Here is Alison’s whole cloth painting ready for thread sketching.

The next project was to create a fused art quilt, starting from a photograph.

Dalia’s husband is a doctor, so she choose to do a picture of a unique 3-headed stethoscope.

Nili is working on a larger version of the same composition as her painted piece, but this time boldly creating her own color scheme.

I am working from a photo of our Ridgeback, Bree.

Dinnertime was still filled with lively conversation and lots of laughs.

Mark, the chef, used this class to try out some new dishes for next year. One was this delicious chili con carne made with tender beef short ribs and topped with fresh avocado and cilantro. Everyone agreed that it was a winner.

Another “out of the park” home run, was the tiramisu. Between the groans of pleasure, everyone concurred that it was the best tiramisu they had ever had.

Back at the studio the next day, Dalia started adding painted details to her fused image.

Alison’s fused piece is from a photo of an area of the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, NY, where she once worked as landscape assistant. She is doing a marvelous job creating the reflection of the structure and statue in the reflecting pool.

More progress on the image of Bree.

Then back to thread sketching on the final day. Here is my sheep with all his curls sketched on with thread.

Nili was the only one to completely finish a piece – painting, thread sketched, quilted and bound (with facing). Beautiful!

Here is Alison’s piece — looking really great.

All in all, a fabulous class, fabulous classmates, and fabulous instructor. I would highly recommend a class with Susan Brubaker Knapp and we’ll see about getting her back at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops for a repeat performance in the future!

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