Drawing nuts – and feathers and roses

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nutpist copyI had the loveliest Valentine’s Day – two sisters asked if I would give a private drawing workshop at the Studio for their mother as a birthday gift for her. We had a great time! In two hours, we covered several drawing media from Prismacolor to pencil to vine charcoal, and we drew lots of small objects from observation, paying careful attention to detail. The idea of Contour Drawing (which is still one of the best drawing disciplines ever) is to look at the object as you draw rather than the paper itself.  You  pretend that your pencil is touching its actual contours, as if it were an ant crawling around the edges, recording every bump and irregularity.

nuts

Workshop participants drawing studies of feathers, roses and pistachio nuts for practice and discipline

Our favorite subject of the afternoon lesson was a pistachio nut. We got to know our own nut intimately as we drew its every detail – it’s a challenge, for sure. But the drawings turned out beautifully – and at the end of the lesson, we mixed the pistachios up and had to pick out our own from the pile – everyone recognized their nut! Then we ate our models.

Note to self – do more drawing! It’s a wonderful way to observe, to meditate – and to snack.

Susie Monday at UPC

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My friend Susie Monday is an amazing artist. She inspires me, and so many other people, in our work and in our lives. Here is part of her Artists Statement – see if it doesn’t resonate with you, as well:

“My textile paintings tell the spiritual and metaphysical stories that  unfold in my life and in the lives I observe of women around me. My goddesses, saints and angels are less about religion than they are about everyday occurrences: our hopes, dreams, frustrations, foundations and the resources we call upon in the secret spaces of the heart.”

Yesterday, I stopped by the University Presbyterian Church near Trinity University where Susie’s  textile collages grace the gallery in the Education Center. It is a visual treat to see so much of her richly symbolic color-splashed work in one place – here are some photos from the exhibition. I hope you get by to see it this month. The show will be up until the first of March. Thanks, Susie, for the joy your bring to our lives!

Cheesecloth – to dye for

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cheesecloth1I love this stuff! I hand-dyed a bunch of it for Sunday’s Spirit Doll workshop and made some cool discoveries. One – it’s cheap – and available in a ton of places, like hardware stores in the paint department and supermarkets in the kitchen gadgets department for about $1.00 a yard or less.

Two – you can dye it super-fast with Rit dye, procion dyes, or just plain old diluted acrylic paint – and it stretches and tears and look very artistic either as a collage addition or as Spirit Doll swooshy capes and wraps.

Here’s some of the dyed cheesecloth that I put together with other supplies for the Spirit Doll workshop – earthy and rich:

cheesecloth

And here’s a bunch of it drying on the bench outside the Studio – kinda like exotic rags;

cheeseclothbench

If you want to dye it yourself, this is a fast and easy way – put a squirt of fluid acrylic paint and about 1/2 cup of water in a little plastic container, add the cheesecloth and squish it down and saturate it, let it sit for about ten minutes, then squeeze it out, and dry it by spreading it out or putting it in the dryer for a few minutes (if you put it in the dryer, it will crinkle up, which you might like)

Note: I tried a gold metallic acrylic, but it didn’t retain the metallic look – I added a little orange and a little walnut ink (of course) and got a nice mottled peach color. It’s impossible to mess up – any color seems to work.

This was one of my favorite Spirit Dolls from the workshop – Pat Konstam used a rock that she had found in Israel for the face (it looks as if it’s smiling) – and she used red and brown cheesecloth for her Red Sea Spirit Doll:

cheeseclothpat

Spirit of the Red Sea – Pat Konstam

And finally, check out the video from the workshop – I hope you enjoy seeing it, and I hope you’ll go play with cheesecloth!

PS –  As I was doing a little research on dyed cheesecloth, I discovered that it’s the newest thing to wrap a newborn baby in – who knew?? Ain’t been no newborn babies in my neck of the woods for a loooong time!

cheesecloth

 

PhotoEncaustic – what I’m learning in school

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To get prepared for my Beeswax Collage workshops, I’m taking a fairly intensive online course with PhotoEncaustic artist Clare O’Neill. There are about 24 people in the class, and we meet both on Facebook and in the online classroom to watch Clare’s videos and to question and critique our work. I love the flexibility of the class. We’re in our third week right now. Here’s a video of Clare’s work – you can see why I was attracted to it. She’s passionate about what she does and she’s a good teacher, too.

Here are three practice pieces that I’ve competed so far. The first and second ones are my own still-life photos and the third one is a vintage photo from Flickr Commons. I have a long way to go, but have already learned soooooo much from Clare and the other people in the class. (There are still some spaces in the second Beexwax Collage workshop on May 17th at my Studio if you want to sign up and see what I’ve learned) –

PhotoEncaustic 1 - Lyn Belisle - mounted on wood

PhotoEncaustic 1 – Lyn Belisle – mounted on wood

Tissue and wax PhotoEncaustic

 

 

 

 

Encaustic and vintage photo - Lyn Belisle

Encaustic and vintage photo – Lyn Belisle

NOTE: A great source for all things encaustic is my friend Michelle Belto’s book, Wax and Paper Workshop. All of her techniques and tips can be used with PhotoEncaustic, and it’s a perfect book for beginners who want to explore the possibilities of working with wax as an art form.

If you’d like a gentle introduction to the technique, Michelle and I have collaborated in an online class about Wax and Tissue if you’d like to check it out. Here’s the link – it’s at Roses on my Table art community. Online classes are really fun, particularly since you can learn at your own pace.

Back to the Wax!!

Goodbyes, hellos, and how to start a blog

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The Medina Mud Band in the early days

The Medina Mud Band in the early days

The Medina Mud Band said goodbye to the Quihi Dance Hall Saturday night, and to the many benefit gigs we’ve played there for Inner City Development. So many friends turned out despite the stormy weather – and the biggest surprise came from Patti and Rod Radle, Inner City’s founders and executive directors, who announced that they had established the Medina Mud Band Cultural Arts Fund for the children at their West Side community center. So the band lives on in a fine legacy – what an honor!

Cousins Pegeen, Jesse, (me), Grace, and Skip

Cousins Pegeen, Jesse, (me), Grace, and Skip

One of the coolest things about the event was meeting my cousins from Louisiana, who drove to Texas for the gig. My cousin Skip has been here before, but I got to meet his daughter and her children in person! We had the best time. The girls wanted to go to the Wax Museum on Alamo Plaza. I have to say that it is one of the weirdest places I’ve ever visited. Many of the life-sized statues were creepily real, while others looked kind of goofy. Here’s a gen-yoo-wine photo of me and Barack Obama – which is wax and which is real??

obama

President Barack Obama gives a high five to Lyn Belisle just before he melts into a puddle of wax

OK, now I’ll bet you are saying, “Gee, I wish I knew how to make a blog so I could put up pictures of touristy wax figures on the Internet.” Help is here – actually, I just remembered that I made some tutorials for my Trinity students on how to make a blog using Blogger. It’s free (all you need is a Google account), and it’s fun. These tutorials should be fairly easy to follow if you want to try it – nobody says you have to keep it.

The only thing you’ll have to remember is that in the first video, I tell the students how to access Blogger through their university account. You’ll just go directly to blogger.com and take it from there. There are also lots of helpful videos on You Tube as well, and a good help menu on the Blogger site. On your mark, get set – BLOG!

Tutotials:

What was shown, what was told

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Silvia shows Otomi paper

Silvia shows Otomi paper

The first Saturday Studio Show and Tell was great – filled with inspiration and ideas. Among the showees were Lesta Frank, who demo’d  a great paper peel and transfer technique, Rosemary Uchniat, whose embossing demo turned metal into unbelievably intricate collage textures, and Bonnie Davis, whose tar paper painting had everyone brainstorming. She learned this method from KenT Youngstrom from North Carolina. His website is fascinating – lucky Bonnie!

Take a look at our video (and pay no attention to the date in the title – it’s not really 2915 – is it? ..arg)

We’ll have another Show and Tell in February, date coming soon.

facesnuevaWinners of the Friday Freebie face shards, one for each, are Susan Calkins, Rosie Rojas, and stitchingalways@gmail.com (familiar email, but darned if I can remember who it belongs to). If you’d like to come to the Studio and pick one out, great! If you need it mailed, send the info and it will be on its way to you!

What to do with your face

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Kiln-Fired Earthenware Shard Faces, unfinished

Sometimes people who come to the Studio and see a basket of my little earthenware shard faces say, “These are interesting, but what do you DO with them?” Need ideas? This week, I received photos from two California artists who incorporate these faces into their pieces.

Erica Seelig, from Ukiah, CA, has a beautiful Etsy shop called A Gathering of Good. She sent photos of these two pieces – astonishing craftsmanship! I told her she has elevated my faces to stratospheric status!

Terra Cotta Woman

Spring Woman

Also from California (Sacramento), jewelry designer Karen Anderson  sent these photos from her Etsy shop, Catching Waves. Karen has such a great eye for matching the shard color and texture to the beads and theme – look!

Sea Goddess – glass beads, earthenware pendant, silver plated brass chain, pearls, moonstones, vintage glass pearls, sterling and enamel earring, crystal dangle, vintage glass seed beads

Wild Coral Sea Goddess – sterling silver clasp, raw coral branch beads, turquoise nuggets, African silver beads, antique silver plated solid brass chain, vintage silver beads, clay face shard, seashell

It’s pretty nifty seeing these inclusions of my face shards in such stunning work.Thank you, Karen and Erica, for sharing your artistic vision.

fluffheadBut enhancing an earthenware shard face doesn’t have to be elaborate – last night, I got a photo from dear friend Carol Mylar, a fiber artist from Colorado, who added a bit of fiber fluff to her Sprig Shard – voila! Instant mini-clay-and-fiber wall piece!

For today’s Friday Freebie, I’m giving three little unfinished shard faces to three SHARDS subscribers, one for each – not a biggie, but lots of potential for creativity, as you can see! And as usual, you can go to my Esty shop, Earthshards, to get ideas for surface finishes. Stay safe and warm this weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

Carol Mylar –

Lesta and Lyn, spooky spots, and Friday Freebie winner

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Lesta Frank and I did a repeat of our Surface Design on Paper half-day workshop this past Sunday at the Studio. It’s totally amazing to watch eight creative people take the same concept and make an astonishing assortment of gorgeous one-of-a-kind artisan papers. We used the enhanced paper to cover small Lotus Books, each one a work of art in themselves. Wanna see?

 On Saturday, the day before our workshop, I did some video footage in the Olmos Dam Basin for an upcoming Artful Gathering online class – I can’t tell you much about the class yet, but it involves Spirits! That’s big hint.

DSC00267You can read an interesting article about Olmos Basin, and about author Whitley Streiber, here in the archives of Texas Monthly – kinda spooky. The author said he made contact with strange beings here. But my online class will not be scary, honest (although it may deal with strange beings). Stay tuned for details, and visit Artful Gathering for info about Early Bird Registration for all of their cool classes.

Kantha Cloth Bag with Florentine Shard Face

Kantha Cloth Bag with Florentine Shard Face

Last, but definitely not least, congrats to lucky subscriber #86, Joanne Desmond, who won the Friday Freebie in the random number drawing – Joanne, contact me and I’ll get your freebie to you ASAP.

Have a good day, everyone – and watch out for strange beings.

 

 

 

Newsy week and Friday Freebie

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Roll the newsreel – it was an eventful week!

  • MONDAY: At the Fiber Artists of San Antonio Meeting, plans were announced for the 19th Annual Fashion Show – it’s always a sell-out! Get your tickets early cause they go fast.
  • TUESDAY: Whoopee – my friend Sherrill Kahn, the super-talented mixed-media artist, emailed me to confirm she’d be at the Studio in late May for two workshops! Stay tuned for details.
  • WEDNESDAY: Had an amazing painting session at the Studio with pal Gloria Hill – here’s her latest large abstract – great work, Glo!
  • glo
  • THURSDAY: Got a call from Pablo Solomon, sculptor and designer, whose annual Solstice Show at my Studio will coincide International Yoga Day! We’re planning a YogaArt Celebration the weekend of June 20th. Also on Thursday, my classes started at Trinity University – looks like a super-bright and friendly group of students.
  • FRIDAY – hey, that’s today! Monika Astara, fashion designer and dear friend, is coming down from Austin for a visit to brainstorm some new ideas with me – and to shop the Niche Warehouse Sale, of course.

OK, enough about MY week – how about a Friday Freebie for YOU! I found these little Kantha cloth bags at Ten Thousand Villages right before Christmas, and I’m adding one of my Florentine Face Shards to it as this week’s Friday Freebie. If you are a SHARDS subscriber before midnight on Sunday, you will be in the drawing. These Florentine Shards are available in my Etsy Shop in case you want to see more of them. Good luck and happy weekend!!

Kantha Cloth Bag with Florentine Shard Face

Kantha Cloth Bag with Florentine Shard Face

Living and learning

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learning copySchool starts for me this week – as a teacher and a student! I go back to Trinity to teach my course in Essential Information Technology, and I’m taking an online photo-encaustic class from Clare O’Neill. The tuition for that one is rather steep, but I expect to learn a lot of new skills in both photography and encaustic that I can pass along to my own workshop participants. (Did somebody say “Old dog, new tricks?” – arf.)

If you’d like to experience an online class, do I have a deal for you! Michelle Belto, encaustic artist extraordinaine, and I have teamed up in an online offering called “Wax and Tissue.” You can see details here at Roses On My Table. It’s a good way to gently discover the encaustic process, and if you take a look at the materials list, you can see it’s not all that complicated. It’s a lot of fun, too – we had a great time making this video.

Online classes are easy to access and view (you get specific easy-to-follow directions) and you can look at them as often as you need to or want to. I like to watch the ones I take in sections so I can have “think breaks” in between.

“Wax and Tissue” has a lot of information (and a certain amount of goofiness – you know Michelle and me) and you can email us questions through the forum with the other students. The course costs $55, which is a *lot* less than the encaustic class I’m taking with Clare O’Neill – and definitely less than my Trinity students are paying for *their* tuition! Lifelong learning in the arts is truly priceless, especially when you can do it in your jammies. Think about joining us – OK, I”m off – gotta head to class!