california workshop


I'm back from the San Francisco Bay Area where I taught a three day workshop about techniques using cold wax medium and oils. Thanks to the generosity of my host, Connie Kleinjans, I also had a day before the workshop to spend at the beach, taste fine wines, and take part in other exotic-to-me California activities. After the workshop, I had another day and evening to spend with my old grad school friend Nancy Lewis. We went into San Francisco to see SFMOMA, and also arranged to meet Kimberly Kradel, a Facebook friend, who runs the extraordinarily informative website, Artist-At-Large.com. We wound up that day at the studio of encaustic painter Ally Richter, one of the participants in my workshop.

In between those two days was the workshop itself, which went very well, with each of the eight artists who participated taking the cold wax techniques in a unique direction. It was a friendly, dynamic group of women, a joy to meet and work with. This was the first three day workshop I've taught, and this length of time allowed everyone to come away with some finished or nearly finished work. (Of course, like my other workshops, the emphasis was more on process than finished product, but it was satisfying to see some paintings become fully developed and resolved.) The venue was a beautiful gallery space (Gallery 2611 in Redwood City) with plenty of natural light and space, which we somehow managed to keep fairly clean.

Although I may hold one workshop in my studio in September (just for a day) I don't have any more scheduled until October, which is fine...I need lots of studio time and focus to prepare for fall exhibits. I do find that the workshops invigorate my own painting--not only do I remind myself of all the possibilities of the wax as I teach about and demonstrating them, I also find the work of the other artists inspiring. This particular class came up with quite a few tips and ideas, duly noted, as well as some amazing paintings.  ¶ 6:46 PM