Let's be serious about having fun

For some reason I said "The only thing we should be serious about is having fun" on the first day of a five day encaustic painting workshop at Peter's Valley, NJ. It became our mantra. Someone wrote it down and we stuck it on the dart board. It was a good one considering we were working in 90 degree weather, in an open air studio with heat guns and 200 degree palettes.

The Setting

The Studio

I have found that my favorite time in the teaching process is at the end of the class or workshop when the work goes up for " Show and Tell". (In these settings I don't call it a critique.) I am always amazed, whether it is a one day, five day or eight week class, how each student's work develops.

The work

Marcia Branca

Francine Levesque

Geralyn Robinson

Krista Svalbonas

Georgeann Blaha

Mary Ann Plummer

Kate English


Here are a few pieces I began while I was there.

And the two that were donated for the Peter's Valley Sunday auction.

Outside/ Inside Part 3

Here are a few more contributions to the Outside/Inside collection.





Jo Reimer

Here’s my Outside Inside contribution with a shot taken through my studio window into my back yard. All I see is trees and sky. We grow trees for the wholesale trade so trees fill my life, for pleasure and for livelihood. Therefore, trees fill often inform my art. Besides that, I live in Oregon which is all about trees.






Marie Danti

I am fascinated by your inside/outside idea, as I often wonder how much of my natural "wooded" environment affects my painting. Am sending two photos that seem apropos: photo outside my window of a spring snow & a painting of the "indie" band SilverSun Pickups.
















Lorrie Fredette

Today is a sleepy, dewy, slightly hazy Hudson Valley morning. I thought it was a great time to shoot the view from my doorway. The window view, not so good. I am also sending an image from my current installation. I think it has a decent correlation.







David Miller

I think about this topic often since I work in a small basement with a low ceiling. There is no view unless I open the bilco doors. That isn't too often because of the weather. This has also affected the size of my pieces. I used to work much larger when I had space. I didn't work at all for a while because the lack of space and windows drove me crazy. I have finally adapted and I really enjoy my current work even though a window with a view would be welcome.

Outside/ Inside Part 2

Here are a few more images for Part 2
As I was putting together the final touches on my "Inside the Encaustic Studio" presentation, I began to notice an interesting connection between the outside and the inside of most of the artist's studios.For future blog posts and possibly another project, I invite you to email me 2 jpegs (72 dpi): one of the view outside your window and the other an image of your work. Please include your website url.Send to art@lisapressman.net



It might be a stretch but today, as I was looking out my window, thinking I didn't fit into my post, I caught an eye of my tangled shade pull......





Brenda Goodman's rocks and trees


The sky of Annell Livingston

Outside/Inside Invitation

As I was putting together the final touches on a power point presentation, I began to notice an interesting connection between the outside and the inside of most of the artist's studios. For future blog posts and possibly another project, I invite you to email me 2 jpegs (72 dpi): one of the view outside your window and the other an image of your work. Please include your website url.

Send to art@lisapressman.net

Here are a few of the connections I found:

The grid from Mona Brody's window

The geology outside and inside of Laura Moriarty's studio

                                   

Cora Jane Glasser's void

The luminous light from Leslie Neumann's window

The geometry of Debra Ramsay

Jane Nodine's patterns from nature

Thanks to Jeane Meyers for sending her view along today.