Dress of the Day

 
Dress of the Day, acrylic, collage on w/c paper 10 X 11"

Imagine With Art Newsletter

Issue No.30

 
May, 2012   
Quick Links
I welcome your comments!
[email protected]
707-824-8163   

Table of Contents:
  Art Play
  Muse Group
  Workshops
  Vitality Quest
  Food for the Muse

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2550 Lewis Dr.

Sebastopol, California 95472

 

707-824-8163

 

 As an artist I often think I function like a sponge, soaking up experience and then wringing it out onto the paper or canvas. . .or blog. . .or newsletter! 

So you'll be reading about some artists whose work I saw on my trip to Vancouver and Victoria and hearing me rave about the nature sanctuary at Osmosis Day Spa where sensory drawing fits so well.  


You'll also get to try my latest art delectation in the new Art Play technique using powdered graphite.  I had a fleeting thought that my love of this messy powder might be a reflection of the fact that my house is messier than ever with two boys home from college this month, but maybe not.

There are several different ways to participate in Imagine With Art this summer.  Read about them here and get a taste for what's happening in the Muse Groups, and I hope you'll find a way to join me!

Cheers,
Susan
Art Play:  Powdered Graphite    
  Parallel Universes  

powdered graphite, acrylic inks, collage on w/c paper, 10 X 11" 

I like to browse the aisles of art stores.  Not so long ago I brought home a jar of powdered graphite, knowing that eventually I'd figure out something to do with it.  Generally I stay away from dry media like charcoal and pastels only because the powders could make a mess of my art journal book, not to mention my studio.

But I found a way to to use the graphite in a wet media application that fixes it on the paper surface and gives mysterious beginnings to paintings and art journal pieces like the one above.

Coat your paper with matte medium and while it is wet, sprinkle on graphite powder in some abstract pattern.  Spritz it with water, tip the paper to get dispersal of the graphite and blending with water and medium.  Try holding your spritzer at an angle to "shoot" the graphite across the page.  

Some of the graphite will stay in tiny globs on the surface.  That will give you some interesting earth/rock like texture.  But you may also want to dissolve it by running a brush through it, or, better yet, your finger.  Ooooh, finger painting, yes!  Just be careful to start with just a tiny bit of graphite. It will go a long way.

Go ahead and introduce some gesso and ink while it's wet, or wait til the medium and graphite is dry.  Touch the surface when dry to make sure it's fixed.  If some graphite comes off on your finger, you can coat it with spray fixative or acrylic varnish before continuing.

You can see several more examples in my recent blog postings, and now that I've started playing with this I can't stop.  So have fun with it!  And try your own experiments. 

      Permission in the Muse Group

 

I have to say that there's just nothing like a room full of Muses.  You know how hard it is sometimes to do art on your own? It can feel more like work, that is if you even allow yourself the time to do it.  But the atmosphere of the Muse Group, of everyone showing up to play together, regardless of all the other things happening in our lives, is a bit intoxicating.    

 

 Sunday Muses

This past weekend the theme seemed to be permission to break rules.  Being the teacher I get to hand out the permission and we got to laugh about how silly it is to ask someone else for permission to break imaginary rules when your intention is pure creative expression. 

 

One form of asking permission is "am I done?" which almost always means that you're very close to finishing a piece and want help restraining yourself from going too far.  That's the kind of thing a group can give. 


Another gift of the group is that each person takes the new technique and applies it in a different way to their own art piece, which multiplies your exposure to new ideas.  This past weekend I stole three new ideas for lessons from the works of students.  (We all agree that it's not stealing, but the kind of cross fertilization that has always been the way of the artist.) 


One more gift is the time constraint in the group which pushes us to work quickly without thinking too much. So feelings slip by the censor and show up in surprising  and evocative ways on the paper, in the symbolic language of dreaming. 


At times there's such a feverish intensity in the studio that all conversation is abandoned, tea is made and and left undrunk, and when it's time to stop, there's a collective grown. 

I am tough.
 Painting Laboratories for Creative Expansion!
 
Learn to paint intuitively, capturing thoughts, feelings and intuitions in the playful format of art journaling.  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!

 

New Tuesday Muse Group starts in July      
When: July 17-Aug 21, 2012 (meets weekly for 6 weeks)  
Time:  1:30-4:30pm   
Cost: $210 for 6 weeks, $40 for drop in session if space allows  

 
Inks and Textures Galore

Learn to express your inner voice in this playful mixed media workshop.  Your imagination will take flight as you paint, draw, stamp, comb and splash colorful inks onto papers textured with collage.  
When:  August 11, 2012  
Time:  10am-4:30pm  
Cost:  $80  

The above workshops are held at Susan's north Sebastopol studio.  
For more information and to register email Susan or call 707-824-8163.  

Free demos at Rileystreet Art Supply!  
 
Intuitive Painting With Inks and Gesso (Wait list only)
Free Demonstration at Rileystreet Art Supply, San Rafael   
Saturday, May 26, 11am-1pm
To save your spot contact Rileystreet San Rafael at 415-457-2787


Art Journal Fun with Image Transfers  
Free Demonstration at Rileystreet Art Supply, Santa Rosa 
Sunday, July 8, 12-2pm 
 
Do you love the sense of mystery evoked when images and words are superimposed over painted surfaces?  In this demo Susan will first create a spontaneous abstract underpainting using fluid acrylics and fingers only!  Then she will demonstrate a method to transfer a transparent image onto the painted surface using clear contact paper, a toner copied print and acrylic gel.

Participants will also be introduced to a practice of art journaling as an ongoing practice to experiment with new art materials and techniques while accessing inner wisdom. 

To save your spot contact Rileystreet Santa Rosa at 707-526-2416 or email [email protected] 



   

Vitality Quests at Osmosis Day Spa 

 It's a little bit of paradise. . . 

osmosis nature spot

We've all got different visions of paradise, but this day quest, created by Osmosis Day Spa in Occidental contains a lot of the basic ingredients: a warm and detoxifying Cedar Enzyme Bath, a sound healing session in the new hammock garden, which lowers brain wave activity to the most restful and creative cycles, a 75-minute massage session to fully unwind with healing gift of touch, and a gourmet box lunch enjoyed in the quiet and beauty of the secluded 5.5-acre property. And that's just the beginning. . .

  

On July 22 I will be leading the afternoon portion of the quest "Tapping the Creative Nature", an afternoon of guided meditation, art instruction and reflective alone time spent in the secluded nature sanctuary.   

 

Quest participants will have exclusive access to the secluded back three acres of Osmosis on each afternoon the program is offered. The environment is a riparian area that includes a 400' stretch of Salmon Creek, 4 massage pagodas that can be used as retreat huts, and 7 specially chosen private places along the creek that have been created for the questers (11 total) to use during their quiet time. There is a covered area with seating around a magical fountain where the group will gather for learning.  

 

Practicing sensory awareness you will draw with eyes closed and open, expressing on paper the qualities of touch and movement, form and space. As words arise in the flow of the moment you will learn to capture them with your "net" and incorporate them in your art pieces.  You will experience drawing as a natural impulse, which not only reveals your personal uniqueness, but also reflects the elements of nature.    

It's a little bit of paradise. Read more about the July 22 Vitality Quest and see if this remarkable offering fits for you.  

Food for the Muse 

  On my trip to Victoria, British Columbia last month I visited some wonderful galleries and saw the work of some Canadian artists I'd like to share with you.

I visited the Art Gallery of Victoria to see Emily Carr: On the Edge of Nowhere, paintings of the British Columbian painter whose biography The Forest Lover I'd enjoyed years ago.  Carr's reverence for the nature of the north coast is so palpable in her paintings, but also her words. "Go out there into the glory of the woods.  See God in every particle of them expressing glory and strength and power, tenderness and protection."

Some other favorites of mine were:
Annabelle Marquis  (Painting/collage)
Toni Onley (Painting/collage)
Krystyna Jervis (Assemblage, painting, encaustic)

I haven't been doing too much watercolor sketchbooking lately, but here's someone who has, Richard Shepherd.  You'll love his blog The Artist on the Road
 

I'm off to Camp Winnarainbow, Wavy Gravy's adult summer camp at Black Oak Ranch next month.  Can't wait to be a kid again.  Wanna come?  I'll be doing art with my friend Suzanne Edminster, clowning it up, swimming in the lake, and drumming by the campfire.   

 

Don't forget to visit me on  my blog or on  my Facebook Page  during the month and

 

See you back here next month. 

   

 

Cheers,

 

-Susan Cornelis

 

 

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