Art Van Go Workshops

We treated ourselves to a workshop with Art Van Go on the weekend. In order to get as many of us on it as possible we held it over 2 days.  It was a fast and furious pace with Viv Arthur telling us loads of information about all sorts of paints and mediums. She was a fabulous teacher who really knew everything about her products. 

mixing paint on a plastic palete

a finished sample

 Once we had played with making metallic paints or making metallic backgrounds we moved on

masking off areas

making more layers 

looking at transparent and opaque paint

the difference between colours on black and white fabric

  Here are the photos of all the marvellous work we did during the day.

putting on the base layers

it took a lot of concentration

playing with rollers made us very happy!

something interesting going on over there

Janet using her favourite colour

lots more concentration here too

layered pieces with masking tape on

what was the surprise Carole?

lots of markal sticks being used

torn masking tape for a different effect

and once you have taken it off you can keep the masking tape for other work

Viv told us that she is hoping to retire.  We will miss her very much and wish her every happiness when she does finally put her feet up. Thank goodness we got this workshop in now - it was great fun and the results are fantastic.

Annie Bowden lecture

  Talented local print maker Annie Bowden came to us on Saturday and what a delight it was!

Her enthusiasm and passion for printing as well as her expertise just shone through.  She says she gets an adrenaline rush from printing because you dont know until you pull the print if it has worked. 

She talked us through the four main types of printing (relief, intaglio, lithography and screen printing)  and her materials (printing plates from cardboard boxes, plastic packaging, wall paper, woodwork adhesive [waterproof], charbonelle ink and printing paper).   Her exhibition at Chase Water starts shortly and it is definately worth checking it out.

Annies very large prints that were printed by walking on them!

just one page from her degree book

  Lots of fabulous work on show in her sketchbooks (Annie thought these weren't very good but I disagreed)

interesting textures

 Her early prints were highly detailed and representational

 Some had colour added after printing

 Annie preparing a collograph plate for us using some "sourced" wallpaper from a DIY store,

 Her more recent work is becoming more natural and free.

including printing a daffodil

 More botanical prints

 Some prints made into a little book after a book making lesson at Connect In Threads (taught by yours truly)

another large print

 Annie also makes quilts. (She said she hasnt yet worked out how to combine print and stitch). This is her quilt making a positive statement about some of the awful things that happened in 2016.

 The final print from the plate made on the day

 It was a fascinating and entertaining lecture and I could have added lots more photos here but this gives you a flavour of the beautiful work we saw. Thank you Annie for a great afternoon - definately someone to invite back as we just ran out of time to see it all.


Elise

Margaret Beale workshop

The May workshop was with the lovely Margaret Beale.  She is rightly very well known for her fabulous work with a soldering iron and we were lucky to have the benefit of all those years of experience.   After a quick introduction she went straight into demonstration.

 using a flowerpot as a stand to protect the soldering iron. Using black felt as a background to this piece.

How to use to make patchwork.

 Soon we were all busy soldering. Looks like a production line here!

 Smiles all round - working hard but having fun too

 a sample of the gorgeous buttons Margaret had made

 Some fancy cutting work using metal rulers

 Mandy and Gail hard at work

 Some book cover samples

 A really great day. Thanks to Margaret for being so generous in sharing her time and expertise.