Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Whoa...Montana!




I am back from Montana.I still can't believe what an amazing experience it was!
Sara Mast and I came up with the concept "Fuse" for our workshop last year.  Our vision of how it would unfold came true.





It is not until you are in big sky country that you get  it. There is an openness and connectedness to the earth and the cosmos that I never felt before.










Sara opened her house and studio for 4 days to myself and 3  students. It was a small workshop  that created huge energy...so much that the rains and rainbows came almost every night.






We spent the first day going over  materials, health and safety practices with both encaustic and oil along with basic technical information. The second day  things heated up. Sara and I "riffed" on  the 30 drawings in 60 seconds. Everytime I do this excercise myself it changes, so adding Sara's input to the mix was great. We watched as the participant's uptightness left and freedom seeped in. There was collaboration and dialog.



















Hanging the work up is the time to look, see, analyze, reflect and discuss ways to move forward. This is not about product, finished works of art or creating a "style". This exercise along with others are about discovery and reconnecting.






We demonstrated our own unfolding process of collaborating together. It is something we have been discussing for a while, collaborating not only by teaching together, but by painting together.

`
It was fun but we need to work on knowing when to stop...maybe we need to do a timed session.
 




We also worked on a monoprint together.


And we had the students try it out. It was very interesting to watch the egos  coming and going.






Another group activity



Three of the days we had a Gyrokinesis instructor and a Nia instructor give us a class. We all felt  tensions being released after hard work in the studio and a sense of community.








Here we are on the last day..very happy but very sad for it to be over.





 We are plotting and planning for next years workshop.  Mark your calendar: Workshop 1- July 28-August 1.  5 spots are filled
If you are interested please email me: lpart@earthlink.net
or Sara:sara.mast@wildblue.net

From painter Karen Chesterman
"The atmosphere of the workshop was one of playfulness and serious focus.  Sara and Lisa demonstrated the limitless possibilities of expression inherent in the medium.  It was just what I needed to take back to my studio.  Thanks you again for a great workshop,  you guys are a dymanic duo....."

Thursday, July 19, 2012

30 Drawings in 30 minutes








I have been using an exercise in my workshops for over a year now and it is by far one of the best ways to get students to loosen up and stretch.( I should give credit to one of the books that gave me the idea but I don't remember which one, sorry) I used the format and have improvised on it. It is 30 drawings in 30 minutes on small paper with mixed media. I usually start out in black and white and then introduce various materials as I go along.  It is a call and response kind of thing...fast,  guided but no thinking involved. It brings out the inner vocabulary along with strengths and possible weaknesses, It also allows for further development....idea making and possibilities. It is amazing when you put them all up what information they hold. You can see my assistant's post about it here.


At Cullowhee, I did the exercise for my students and then again with Rebecca's class but one of her students missed it. So I decided to do it one more time with Leslie, one of my people, calling the time and prompts so that I could participate. It was the first time I did the exercise and it wasn't as easy as I have led people to believe. Time, judgment, criticism, and crap gets in the way real quick.  I managed to push that aside and get moving.







Leslie had us do the first 15  drawings in black and white and the next 15 in color...the same directions. Below are an example of a few of mine. The prompts are suppose to be a structure. When I call them I get a kick out of the people who don't follow the rules, and of course I was one of those!



Scribbling, line making, shape making, emotions, were just some of the directions


"Making marks"



Sadness

Quiet




Loud



I don't remember what prompt this was but I like the space and the tiny spot of red





yes..I do like Cy Twombly's work....



This is when my heart got pounding...putting things together, imagining them big, shaped, installed and shifting in space. ( without the pushpins of course)




Playing with them






Looking at them here on a larger scale I would say that these are telling me to focus more on subtlety, and space in my work. I plan to revisit oil paint on a larger scale. Any other insights are welcome!!!


I am off to Montana to do my workshop with Sara Mast next week. Big sky country and Yellowstone!!.Still a few more days to sign up! I come home for a few weeks and then I will be teaching at Truro Center for the Arts  (two spots open)


Studio time in between and after.

Workshop information:

Visual Arts Center in Summit, NJ
Truro Center for the Arts in Truro, Ma (2 spots left)
Shake Rag Alley , Mineral Point WI

Snow Farm, Williamsburg, MA
and Private time for instruction and mentoring.
Email for more details




Next blog post : Studio visit with Barbara Fisher in Asheville.






Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Back from Cullowhee Mountain Arts




Deep 3  16 x 12 oil stick on paper


I am back from teaching  a week long workshop Cullowhee Mountain Arts, an exciting new program of workshops held on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC. The facilities of the art department were outstanding and it promises to be very exciting program as it grows.

I  was teaching Encaustic and Embellishment and was so lucky to have artist Rebecca Crowell down the hall teaching as well. We have been pals on Facebook and on our blogs but have never met. We have a smilar approach to painting and teaching  and since we both had small classes we were able to share information, powerpoints and materials. I am liking the idea of collaborative teaching as well as art making. Rebecca  and I started a diptych at this workshop and may have to make a date to finish it.


Here we are after visiting the River Arts District in Asheville



Here are my four students and their work.  There seemed to be a focus on circles and energy in the group, all displayed in different ways.

Maggie, Leslie, Dawn and Pat

Leslie's 4 pieces

Dawn



Maggie


 I didn't make any actual artwork during the week but I worked on a few paper pieces and I did my own 30 drawings in 30 minute exercise. I will be posting those later this week.


# 3  12 x 12 oil on paper



#2  12 x 12 oil on paper

Friday, July 6, 2012

Was it a vacation?

In the Deep 24 x 24 encaustic 2012


Not exactly. . . I was gone from May 28 through June 6th at the Sixth International Encaustic Conference in Truro and Provincetown,  MA. My schedule was full of lectures, demo's, panel discussions, networking, openings and teaching.


Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were spent in a Mono-type workshop with artist Paula Roland. 
Paula with Cherie and Patrick
It was fun to be a student again and challenging. I was working next to fellow artist and friend, Sara Mast.  I did a bunch of prints but it wasn't until we started collaborating on a scroll that I felt things moving.


                                                                  


We worked on two scrolls for most of the workshop and then took them outside. On the wall, wrapped around a fence, around each other, and finally gently tossed out in the grass. We had a great laugh when someone came in and said we better move it because they almost drove over it. Tire marks might had been interesting. We just weren't that concerned with making a "product".






The final day I was looking at my "test strips" that I made of various paints on papers and decided that I liked them best out of the pieces I did. I began to rip up my prints and glue them to small pieces of paper and hand them over to Sara. Another collaboration began and a few hours later ...Voila!!




It was a great experience. We have a workshop called FUSE planned for the end of July in Montana in Sara's studio where we hope to continue the collaboration together with our students.

Thursday night was the opening of Merge: Contemporary Encaustic Print Invitational a show curated by Cherie Mittenthal which included David A Clark, Marybeth Rothman, Paula Roland, Toby Sisson and myself.





Marybeth Rothman and her work

























Friday, the conference began which included demos, talks and panel discussions: i.e. funding your work, getting a gallery, teaching practices, creativity, critique, collage and so much more. Friday night was a night of art and art openings. Saturday afternoon, I presented a talk on 14 artists and their studios and Saturday night was the Keynote speaker, gallerist Ed Winkleman.

Sunday morning was the hotel art fair where I displayed work along side MaryBeth Rothman. I sold a few pieces and then attended the rest of the fair. 




Sunday night was the book signing for Encaustic 2012. A portfolio of my work is included in the newly published R&F Handmade Paints inaugural edition of Encaustic Works '12, A Biennial Exhibition in Print. The work was selected and essay written by Joanne Mattera, renowned artist and author of The Art of Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax. R&F Handmade Paints has been sponsoring this biennial exhibition series, 'Encaustic Works', since 1997.

 It was quite a scene with many of the curated artists there  to sign books.




Monday I taught a one day workshop on pigment sticks and encaustic. I had a lovely group of talented and experienced individuals. I decided to get them working very quickly and  the day went very quickly. Joanne Mattera was kind enough to attend the beginning of the workshop and she said this; 

"I visited Lisa Pressman’s Introduction to Pigment Sticks and Encaustic and was impressed by the ease with which she demonstrated and then introduced a series of one-minute exercises designed to get students actively involved in the possibilities of the medium. There was none of the chitchat that often accompanies workshops; students were fully engrossed. Returning at the end of the day, I was bowled over by what the group had achieved."

You can find some more photos and more of a description here



Somewhere in those few days I was accused of having a party in my room...NO..it really wasn't me. I did have some lobster, laughed, cried and connected with some terrific artists/friends. Hmm. Maybe it was a vacation,
a great working one and one that keeps on giving back.




Between the Lines 28 wax and ink on paper 17 x 17 2012






PS. The light  in Truro