Mary Whyte – Hudson River Valley Art Workshops

Still Life in Fabric with Esterita Austin

December 4, 2010

Teri Austin is here teaching a 3-day workshop on creating a still life in fabric – with no sewing involved, just fabric, Misty Fuse, organza and textile paint.

This morning Teri gave a quick demo on painting an image to fuse onto organza. She starts with a line drawing of the object placed under a piece of release paper (shiny side up). Then using Lumiere textile paints from Jaquard, Teri showed how she mixes color to create the values for the painting, and then paints directly on the release paper.

Next, she lays a layer of Misty Fuse on top of the paint and then a layer of organza.

Then the extra release paper is folder over the image (or use another sheet of release paper) and the image is ironed to fuse the painted image to the organza.

The resulting image on the organza is a somewhat transparent image that can be sewn or fused into your still life composition. The image can be further enhanced by more paint or stitched lines.

Looked like a really fun technique. I think I’ll have to get some Lumiere paint and organza in stock!

Watercolor Portraits with Mary Whyte

October 28, 2010

Mary Whyte is known for her stunning portraits and she is sharing her process with the students in this workshop.

Today is day 2 of portrait work. The day starts with a quick demo by Mary and then the class spends the rest of the day working on their own portraits while Mary circulates around the class offering guidance and advice as needed.

There are two models in the class room with the students spread out around them. One of the models is one of our waitresses, Megan.

Megan says this is the first time she has ever worn a hat!

The other model for the day was Bonita. This is her first modeling experience but she says she is enjoying it very much!

How quickly the week has passed! Tomorrow is the last day of the workshop. During the first half of the day, everyone will get to choose their favorite subject matter – still life, landscape, or portrait, and work on a painting. Then in the afternoon, the group will gather for a critique.

Katie Pasquini-Masopust is Here Again

October 20, 2010

It is always a grand time when Katie is in the house! She is a wonderful teacher, has a great sense of humor, and has a wealth of knowledge that she generously shares with her students. And she just had one of her own works accepted into Quilt National!

This year Katie is teaching “Transforming the Still Life.” She started everyone off drawing a still life design based on white objects. Everyone was suppose to bring in something white and Katie brought a number of things, too, as well as a spray can of white paint to convert anything to the right color!

Once everyone was finished, all of the white object were gathered together to get picture of one large still life set up!

The group also did exercises creating black and white studies of their designs and then played with watercolors to work up some color schemes for their design.

This is Jane Stricker. Love her color exercises!

Here is the design wall of another student.

Besides enjoying the workshop tremendously (several students have already said they are signing up for Katie’s 2011 workshop here before they leave), everyone is having a great time around the dinner table. It is apple time in New York, so this week is sure to see some yummy apple pies for dessert.

Searching with Skip Lawrence

October 13, 2010

Skip Lawrence always says that in art, the “search is more important than the find”, and in last weeks workshop the class had a grand time searching!

Here are Stan and Rosemary busy with one of their daily challenges.

Skip was constantly circulating through the group to provide individual assistance, as well as preparing for his daily demos.

I love this piece by Peggy Gardner!

Another regular, Ruth Rooks, was busy in her corner creating some wonderful figurative pieces.

Study to Studio with Kenn Backhaus

October 12, 2010

Kenn Backhaus taught a wonderful workshop just a couple of weeks ago. This was his Study to Studio class.

The week was prime for Fall color — if only the weather would cooperate! And it did finally on Wednesday. It was a glorious, sunny Fall day and Kenn immediately took the group to Olana, the historic home of Frederick Church.

They started out down by the pond and barn buildings, then at lunch time Kenn moved them up to the site of the house.

The views were magnificent!

Here are some student comments about Kenn and the workshop:

Kenn is an outstanding, dedicated teacher. He teaches concept and thought process, as well as many technical things. He have many hours of this time beyond the 9 to 4.

The combination of the Victorian Inn, the wonderful instruction, the meals, and comradery, and the time to work at painting was a little bit of heaven for me.

—– Marla S.

The class surpassed my expectations. Kenn is a patient, understanding teacher who imparts his knowledge freely to the class.

— Sandra K.

Fiber art is back! Carol Taylor is in the house.

October 22, 2007

We have Carol Taylor in the house for the next two weeks. You heard that right. She’ll be teaching two back to back workshops. I THINK there is still room in next weeks class if anyone is interested!

See you next week. I will be taking pictures and so will Kim. It’s a lovely group and Carol is just wunnerful.