"Lunar Frog Crossing", Citrasolved papers collage |
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| Imagine With Art Newsletter |
Issue No.22
| September, 2011 |
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I welcome your comments!
susan@imaginewithart.com
707-824-8163
Table of Contents:
Art Play
Workshops
Free Demo
Muse Gallery
Book Club
Art Events
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Contact Us
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2550 Lewis Dr. Sebastopol, California 95472 707-824-8163
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 Dear Friend,
Last week our "nest" here at the Cornelis household finally emptied out, and I'm not referring to the chickens. With both boys finally off at college, I sat stunned for a few days, trying to absorb the change, as if all my cards had suddenly been thrown up in the air again. "Give yourself time," say my wise friends. "You will love having more space for yourself" and I do look forward to that.
[Photo by Bob Cornelis]
The summer was packed with weekend trips to the mountains and the city and a week long meditation retreat in the Santa Cruz mountains, my favorite combination of nature, art and meditation, shared with family and friends, chronicled in part in my blog of the past month.
In this issue I'd like to share some of the excitement from the Muse Groups' lessons using Citrasolved papers for collage, recommend some books, upcoming art events, as well as Imagine With Art workshops for the fall.
Cheers,
Susan
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Art Play: Citrasolv Collage
Citrasolv is a natural household cleaner that interacts with certain inks in a magical way. This has been discovered by artists all over the country, who are using it for mixed media applications. In the piece above the butterfly shape was cut from a foldout page of a National Geographic magazine that had been splattered with Citrasolv to "liberate" the inks.
So here's how it works. Take any National Geographic magazine from the past 30 years. They have clay based inks which, to my knowledge, other magazines do not use (so don't bother with the others). Poke a hole in the seal of a bottle of Citrasolv concentrated cleaner (not the spray bottle, which is dilluted). Sprinkle or spray the Citrasolv on the photo journal pages (not the ads). Close the magazine and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Open it to see how the inks have dissolved to make new patterns, sometimes revealing parts of the pictures in mysterious and intriguing ways. Separate the paper and lay them out to dry.
Now you can use the papers for collage in your art journal pieces and paintings or as ideas for abstract paintings. Cover books with them. Use them as gift wrap.
And visit the Citrasolv Artist website for lots more ideas. You'll see my paintings there in the gallery, and the winners of the Cultivate Your Creativity Contest. I was honored to win first prize! We'll be playing some more with Citrasolv in the Muse Groups this fall too, so come and join us.
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Come paint with me!
Whether you're a beginner or advanced painter, Imagine With Art workshops inspire and connect you with your playful expressive art self.
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Art Journaling in the Muse Groups
Remember why you wanted to learn how to paint and express yourself with images? Sometimes we get so wrapped up in how to mix just the right color or hold the brush right that we forget to allow ourselves to play. These Muse Groups are the ultimate artist sand box! They are laboratories to spark creative expression, mini-workshops to explore new painting techniques and learn a practice which captures thoughts, feelings and intuitions in a playful visual format.
Each session features a different mixed media painting technique which you can add to your repertoire - from textured collage to painting techniques with inks and acrylics. Meditation and writing are added to the mix to evoke that powerful Muse energy!
Some of the highlights of these next series will be: incorporating Citrasolved papers, recycling old paintings for new outcomes, pushing the limits of acrylics (pouring, spraying, drifting, etc.), word as visual symbol, sanctuaries incorporating metallics, etc.
Tuesday Muses (meets weekly for 8 weeks)
When: Sept. 27, Oct. 4, 11, 25, Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22 2011
Time: 1:30-4:30pm
Cost: $240 for 8 weeks, $35 for drop in session if space allows
Saturday Muses (meets monthly)
When: Oct. 1, Nov. 12, Dec. 3, 2011, Jan 7, Feb 4, Mar 3, 2012
Time: 10am-2:30pm
Cost: $240 for 6 months, $45/drop in session if space allows
Sunday Muses (meets monthly)
When: Oct. 2, Nov. 13, Dec. 4, Jan 8, Feb 5, Mar 4
Time:10am-2:30pm Cost: $240 for 6 months, $45/drop in session if space allows 
Explorations in Acrylic Painting and Collage Explore the terrain of your imagination while pouring, splattering, stamping and layering fluid acrylics to create fantasy-filled "scapes". Add textures created with acrylic mediums and collaged elements such as Citrasolved papers to create uniquely personal art expressions. Daily demonstrations and handouts included, so you can take the lessons home with you. Requirements for taking this workshop: a willingness to be playful and bold! When: November 19, 20, 2011 Time: 10am-4:30pm both days Cost: $160
Location for the workshops: The Studio in the Orchard, North Sebastopol
To register for any of the above workshops contact contact Susan. and at the Pleasanton Art League Sketchbooking with Watercolor and Collage Learn to make painting so portable that you can do it around town, at restaurants, on busy vacations, capturing your unique impressions in a color sketchbook. Using pen, watercolors, collage and personal stamps you will create your own captivating color sketchbook, discovering a new way to relate to visual experience and record it with your own personal reactions. When: November 2, 3, 4, 2011
Time: 9:30-4:30
Where: Firehouse Arts Center, 4444 Railroad Ave., Pleasanton, CA
Cost: $225 ($200 if postmarked by Sept 20)
Registration info: www.pal-art.com or call Linda Beach 925-449-4226, Lsbeach@comcast.net |
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Free Painting Demonstration
at Rileystreet Art Supply in Santa Rosa Waitlisted! 
Intuitive Painting with inks and Gesso
I will demonstrate how to paint intuitively, capturing thoughts, feelings and intuition in the playful format of art journaling. The unique process begins with the combining of inks with the thicker medium of acrylic gesso onto wet watercolor paper. Collaged images and the written word are added as personal meaning evolves. Participants will leave with new mixed media techniques and the inspiration to take their own journaling to all new heights.
Sat., 9/10/11 10:00-12:00 Free but reservations are required due to limited space. To save your spot, contact Rileystreet at (707)526-2416 or info@rileystreet.com
If signing up by e-mail, please remember to include your name and a contact number for confirmation purposes.
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Muse Gallery: The Muse as Healer I finally talked Shawna into typing up the text she wrote to accompany this art journal piece so I could share it. Shawna has been in a Muse Group for 2-3 years now. She's been a poet and healer for much longer. The feelings she expresses here ring with truth for those of us who practice art journaling. 
To Make Art
is to swim in a timeless sea. We want to fly like fish in this liquid bliss, over boundaries and blocks, unhindered and flowing. We want color to stain us: orange, prussian blue, lemon yellow. We want to be free from the clock's scowling face, the tick-tick-tick telling us over and over how time is marching, always marching- Art silences that roar, melts the moving hands until all we hear is swish-and-flow, swish-and-flow like the heart beat of our mother, carrying us in the watery space we all birthed from. Art releases tension that glues our brains closed, halts the thoughts and worries. As if any of it really matters- after we're gone, no one will care what car we drove, the style of our clothes, whether we were beautiful. What they will remember is our peaceful faces as they hold our art, read the stories of creation and wholeness. They'll think of us swimming in the art-filled ocean of our mind's imagination ...and they will call it good. by Shawna L. Swetech |
Book Club
Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur by Sy Montgomery. How could you not want to look at a book with that title and four gorgeous hens on the cover? Someone who came to my last open studio recommended it after seeing the bird paintings covering my walls. This author, who is a flaming animal lover, willing to go to insane lengths to get up close and personal with these birds, offers an illuminating and even uplifting excursion into the brains of our feathered friends.
Inkblot by Margaret Peot. I ran across this little book in the library. I thought I'd tried every idea for turning ink blots into creative exploration, but she has a few more you might enjoy.
The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images by Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism. This is a gorgeous source book for looking up symbols and their meanings. It "combines original and incisive essays about particular symbols with representative images from all parts of the world and all eras of history." And the price on Amazon is quite reasonable for a big, full color hard cover art book, a great companion for any art journaler.
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Art Events
Roots is the theme for the next exhibition at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, and my painting titled "Tangled" will be in the show. It runs September 15-October 22. For hours and directions to the Center check the website. And join me September 15, 6-7:30 for the show opening!
Put these dates on your calendar, October 15, 16, 22, 23 for ARTrails Open Studio Tour. I will be participating for my 10th year along with my photographer husband Bob, and I hope you'll plan to come see our studio art show this year. The opening reception this year will be at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, September 24, 4-6pm. Always a fun event, it's a chance to meet all the artists and get a sample of their work so that you can plan your route.
For those of you who like marathons of the figure drawing kind, the next Bay Area Models Guild drawing marathons are Oct. 9 and Dec. 4 at Merritt College in Oakland.
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Please visit my blog to see more paintings from the past month including some sassy new "Party Birds".
And remember, to "paint [and live] as though you were coming over the top of the hill singing" (Robert Henri).
Cheers,
Susan Cornelis
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