Mixed Media Workshops, Australia

Yes. Well, it may have been because I saw it as an extension of drawing or my mental health postcards. Or I needed a technique to commemorate Dad's life and use his many pictures in a meaningful way. (I haven't shown you a box I brought back!) Or I wanted to know how Seth manages to have so much fun day after day after day on his blog. Whatever the reason, I signed up for it. Three workshops, in fact.

All three workshops I signed up for aimed to create a "book" of some kind.  

Day 1: a journal meant to be bound at the top but I had a few winged pages and must cut the tops of the wings so they fold in. (Is that the correct description?) I'm almost finished with the background painting, but there are quite a few more steps left for backgrounds. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but nine days later the pages are still not completely dry. I was so lucky the title on the cover was done by Kaye, an experienced calligrapher in the same class.

Day 2: a small accordion book of photos; again, the pages are not dry so further background work awaits but this is the first book I want to return to. Everything relates to Dad and on the left, I used the map of Bergen Alicja sent me in W2W2. I suspect this is only the first of a few Dad books to come. 

Day 3: an unbound book, (i.e. just loose book covers) showcasing all the techniques we learned; they will be bound/wrapped with a ribbon or a piece of fabric when completed. I had great trouble with residual paint/medium on the protective plastic on the table sticking back to my work in progress, (really bad on second left piece,) so peeling those off would be my first task. We worked on seven covers, on both sides, and the far right backup board has just one layer of paint, because two of my favs decided to stay in Australia.

The left one lives with Hope and the right, with Carol. I was thrilled they liked them enough to want to keep them. I had trouble with some pages, but these two came easily. 

These are unfinished backgrounds only so they are not finished/polished in the way I would have liked; the idea is to work further with collages, stamps, stencils, rub-ons, and I'm also interested in some free-hand drawing and taking off unwanted bits. Hope's on the left has "Unfinished" on the other side, a wonderful reminder for the both of us.

The classes were great fun and Seth a wonderful teacher. We were in a rush to learn all the techniques so not many of us progressed beyond background paintings, but we had sufficient instructions and samples to know how to proceed. Imperfection was labeled the "best parts" and I tried my best to experiment with layers-upon-layers, textures, and complexity.

I'm not sure where mixed media sits in my life, but there is definitely room. I'm keen to use a few material/techniques I already have/use, (collage, stamps/stamp pads, inclusion of my fivers/textiles, gesso, drawing, but I'm so inept with stencils) and one new thing I liked in class, acrylic glazing liquid, which slows down the drying but creates transparent/translucent color layers. I must also learn to work cleanly and to remove the unintended messy bits.

I kept telling myself I like simpler, slicker, flat pages; (can you see the orange bottom, a twin of the top right piece in the pic, in the small collaged piece?)

But then I did this, too. (This started with the red thrums from Kaz's workshop but I didn't like the paint colors I used and piled up glaze and gesso in many layers. In the end, Linda and Seth helped me with color choices.) 

Somewhere in between;

appeals to me the most, more interesting than my postcard in progress.

Finding a new technique is almost as exciting as making new friends but these classes came with a few new cohorts with whom I hope to keep in touch.

How wonderful, this life of making.