WHAT A WORKSHOP!

I'm home from the workshop. WHAT A WORKSHOP! Craftsummer, as it's called, began over 30 years ago at Oxford's Miami University and originated as a craft oriented program. Now its focus is fine art and artisan works - and it's an absolutely amazing opportunity for artists and art teachers to gain new directions in their art journeys.


In a week or so, I'll be able to post a slide show of the incredible batiks that this talented class created. You'll be impressed .... no, you'll be blown away by the creativity and quality of work which these fifteen gifted artists produced.


When I checked my emails, I found that Nava from http://navartpact.blogspot.com/ has awarded me the Arte y Pico award. Arte y Pico is a blog from Uruguay, whose blogger has come up with this award. It features a gracious angel with a batik looking dress and wings ready to soar - very impressive!

What's Art y Pico mean? As Ana, the award originator puts it, "Basically, ironically, it translates into a wonderful phrase in Mexico, 'lo maximo'. It will never find its counterpart in English, but if it HAD to, it would be something like, Wow. The Best Art. Over the top".

I'll soon be passing this special award onto five other artists' blogs that are awesome. THANK YOU SO MUCH, NAVA, for passing the award on to me.

BUFFALO BATIK

This is another oldie - but goodie, I think. I like the way the batik shows off the textures on this ancient water buffalo.

To see all of the batiks on this blog, go to the lower right hand column where it says LABELS, and click on batik. I'll be adding more after our workshop is over here at Miami U.

(Have a Happy Birthday tomorrow, Teresa!)

"BUFFALOED!" Transparent Watercolor on Kinwashi adhered to 140#CP Arches 16 x 9"

BURRO BATIK

The batik process has been around for a very very long time, but to be able to do batik, you just about have to think backwards from a normal painting process.


This batik was created several years ago. I usually do only one or two batiks a year, partially because of the mess, and partially because they take a lot of time. I also prefer working on batiks when there's really good air circulation in the studio, too, since hot paraffin fumes aren't so good to breathe.


This slide-converted-to-disc didn't reproduce the colors very accurately on this painting either. It's more colorful than shown on my computer monitor.


"HEAVY LOAD" Transparent Watercolor on Kinwashi adhered to 140#CP Arches 12 x 15"

BUGGY BATIK

It's workshop week at Miami University - in OHIO, (not near the ocean.) This campus is old, beautiful, well maintained, and a delightful university town.

This batik, not reproduced here to its advantage (sorry,) was created almost ten years ago after a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, at Mackinaw Island with a painting friend. This digital shows the picture as being way too blue and dark. I had a disc made from slides of paintings I'd done earlier and can't seem to get the correct coloring on my screen. I hope you get the idea.

"TRAVELING IN STYLE" Transparent Watercolor on Thai unryu adhered to 140#HP ARCHES 25 x 19" COLLECTED