Demo of Claybord Techniques

Another Flip video for your pleasure......I will cover these techniques (and many many more) at Valley Ridge and at Squam this fall. Click on their links in the sidebar to register for classes. I am thrilled about teaching at both these amazing locations, oooh la la. The Valley Ridge class will be especially nice since it is 2 days and we can really get into lots and lots of stuff, the whole enchilada so to speak.

Color Play

Here's a little video on color play. These are new colors I recently bought and I really think I'm going to enjoy them. We'll work with several different Triads in my class at Valley Ridge - I am bringing a few of my faves and have hand painted color wheels showing all the various colors that result.

Just click on over to VR if you want to join us. I think there are still a few openings if you're interested. Its going to be 2 days of glorious Claybord, yippeeeeeeeee, I can hardly wait!!!

Klimt meets the 21st Century

A couple posts ago I mentioned that I had developed some new classes and here is one of them. These were inspired by Gustav Klimt, one of my very favorite artists. I love the way he painted on gold leaf and his pattern work is amazing. I believe you can click on the images and they will enlarge so perhaps you can see the detail work better.

I had a wonderful time pushing myself to bring a retro yet current feel to the Klimt style. These pieces were all done on claybord using a lot of new techniques that I've never taught before.

All I can say is FUNFUNFUN!!! Hope I get to teach them soon.

Behind the scenes at American Artisan

I have never been a camper. Although I love the outdoors and could hike for hours and hours on end, I much prefer to return to creature comforts at the end of each day - pool or hot tub - glass of wine - big bathtub - cushy bed. You get the drift, I'm a Princess.

So, why oh why would I select outdoor art fairs as a source of income you might ask?
God only knows? What I do know is it seems a lot like camping......

Thursday I drove to Nashville to set up for the show. It was hot. Damn hot. Insanely hot. I had been sickly for several days due to this Calcium/Magnesium pill my Doctor had suggested. If you don't know the side effects of magnesium, I'm not going to mention it here, but let's just say I was weak.

I did manage to set up my tent without hurting myself or anyone else. No emergency personnel required. Whew. It was brutal with heat of mid 90's and a heat index over 100. I drank crazy amounts of vitamin water/gatorade/regular water. And I have found a miracle snack...........Flattened Bananas from Trader Joe's. They are only 90 calories each and have very low (if any) fat. They are chewy, semi-dried bananas and have a wonderfully intense flavor. I swear they give me a burst of energy.

The photo shown is the tent city we all built behind our booths. I have a full shade awning attached to the back of my booth, but we had all day sun exposure, so this convoluted structure was necessary in order to maintain shade (and our sanity). Sitting outside for 3 days


straight, wearing completely sweaty clothes, ugh. How delightful. Lucky for me, I had some amazing F-U-N neighbors and that made it bearable.
Mucho thank yous to Beverly, Henry, Jason, Theresa, Janice, Marie & Rhonda. Your humor made it all bearable. Thanks also to the staff of American Artisan and of course to Nancy Saturn. What a class act you all are.

American Artisans

Its Thursday so I must be heading to Nashville for the American Artisans show, an invitational art fair sponsored by a gallery extraordinaire. If you're in the area, I'd lovelovelove a visit, we'll be in Centennial Park (where the Parthenon is) on Friday-Sun. You can click the link for specifics.

Thought you might enjoy seeing another new piece, this one 30" tall by 10" wide, on claybord (click the image to enlarge). I have all sorts of madness planned for my return (I have a break between shows, yippeee!). So stay tuned for an instructional Flip video; more class previews and maybe, just maybe, I'll throw in a contest for good measure!

Class Idea - Repetition Warhol Style

This is one of my new class ideas, using the power of repetition to explore subject matter. Andy Warhol did this, although he use screen printing, and I have always been drawn to repeated topics. For this particular class, claybord is treated as "scratchboard", starting with black instead of white. And, instead of screen prints, we do stencil cutting (layered stencils to create more detail) and build surface texture with molding paste. Plus the usual carving on claybord and then layer after layer after layer of acrylic paint and paint markers. The effect is very "3D" in that the flowers look extremely textural and real. I have a variety of subjects to choose from, so not everyone has to use flowers.

I'll let you know when I have a venue set up. And, if you know of a spot that might be interested, just let me know so I can do a formal proposal.

Stay tuned as I post more new class ideas.

Words of Wisdom

Last night we met my step daughter & family at the Farmer's Market to select items for dinner. We brought the bounty back to our house and fixed a feast that (by some miracle) we enjoyed out of doors (balmy evening with no rain and no bugs, if you can imagine that!).

After dinner, we all hung out in the studio and my grandsons wanted to paint. On canvas, naturally, because I have taught them well, tee, hee. Aidan (age 7) had an idea in his head and immediately set to work.
He chose colors outside of his normal palette. When I questioned this, he said he wanted light colors, all pastel. He painted quickly, without hesitation, his small canvas on the table rather than the easel.

When finished, he placed his canvas up on my big easel to dry; his piece was alongside a couple of my abstracts which he inspected carefully. He finally said, "so, Yia Yia, you mainly just paint whatever you want, don't you, with stuff floating around?" He was talking about a couple of my geometric works, with foil squares.

"Yep," I said, trying to conceal a smile. And oh, if only it were so.....how easy he made it look and sound. To be seven again and to flit in and out of that precious art zone, how glorious it must be.

I'm heading to the studio right now and am going to paint whatever I want.