Three people met me in the studio yesterday for an afternoon dedicated to exploring their playful and creative natures. Inspiring and filled with spring’s freshness.
We started with sharing to see where we all were and where we wanted to go. It was clear getting into the flow was the place to start so we began with a mindful mark making practice.
Using a limited palette of black and white inks and paints on craft paper we explored our marks. Our implements were sticks (thick and thin) and pipe cleaners (thanks Sammy!) along with some markers and pencils, a few black oil pastels.
This practice brought a kind of peaceful attention helping us forget our judgements towards our work. There was nothing about making a “good and finished” piece of art.
With the second practice we used old gel prints painted over by gesso, continuing the mark making while also responding to the previous work. Interesting how different this was.
We then took this to a whole new level by playing musical art chairs! This meant moving from our own painting to our neighbor’s, adding our marks and responses to their work and then moving on to the next piece. What a hoot with many unexpected surprises - all happily accepted!
From there we did go to gel plate printing, stencils at first and then finally exploring the magic of successful (at least most of the time!) image transfer. See all below.
Feeling grateful for this group.
1. Initial ink drawings:
Sammy’s
Amelia’s
2. Shared works on previous prints:
Sammy’s
Susan’s
