Teaching 'Mindful Colours' Workshop for the First Time

Sarah Mclaren (website) and I taught our new 'Mindful Colours' workshop to 24 people. 

It was important to have 24 people because we sat them right in a colour wheel to involve more of their senses as they explored their own personal responses to colours.

Most colour workshops start off with making the ubiquitous colour wheel. Our workshop was no different except we encouraged people to intuitively pick their favourite colour from each tray and not overthink it. The idea is based on the way Johannes Itten worked with his students by encouraging them to isolate and work with their own personal palettes.

It was very interesting to see the variation in colours different people picked to make up their personal colour wheels. We encouraged them to write about their choices.

Sarah led the group in an exercise on value.

We also had exercises to explore other characteristics of colour - temperature and intensity.

The last exercise was based on pulling together what had been learned to make an abstract colour image expressing an emotion, feeling or visual experience.

It was so interesting to walk around the room looking at different people's colour wheels with their abstract picture. For a lot of the participants, it was only when they stepped back and saw their own colour choices besides others did they see how distinctive their own work is. 

We asked every person for an evaluation of the workshop. We were delighted with the feedback we recieved. Sarah and I sat down for a couple of hours while going through the comments and reworked parts of the workshop based on these comments.

Now we feel ready to go out into the world with our 'Mindful Colours' workshop.

We had such a fun time teaching it we are looking forward to our next booking - more on that later.

Colour: A Personal Response Workshop, 'Mindful Colours' by Sarah McLaren and Lesley Turner

Ready to teach our workshop on colour.

'Mindful Colours' by Sarah Mclaren and Lesley Turner 

But before that, there were many hours of planning and preparing of workshop supplies.

We dug deep into our fabric stashes to find as many different variations of colour as we had. We asked friends to donate fabric scraps to broaden the range. Many thanks for donations from Bryony, Lori, Laura, Louise and Lesley. Your contributions filled in some gaps we had.

We cut hundreds of squares for each of the 24 colours according to Joen Wolfrom's colour system.

Sarah and I had a number of coffee shop meetings to plan the workshop exercises and logistics. We also met up several times to collated and organise the workshop materials. 

Several people had asked if we taught workshops related to our 'Colour: A Personal Response' exhibition. We got the message that people really were interested in learning more about colour. 

After planning the workshop we decided we needed to trial it to get feedback and then make improvements. We approached Isabel Jones and Alison Kershaw with their connections with Friday Fibre Friends, Sew 'n' Sews and Deep Cove Weavers and Spinners groups. Between the 3 groups, they signed up 24 participants - the exact number we needed to pull the workshop off.

Thank you, Isabel and Alison, for taking on this part of running a workshop and allowing Sarah and I to focus on the teaching.

Here are Sarah and Brigitta setting up the tables and covering them with white cloths.

We set up tables to work at and we also had 2 tables of activities for people when they first arrived and during the break.

These are my small colour books where I ask people to write how they feel about that specific colour.

The other table had a few of Sarah and my favourite colour reference books to look through.

With everything set up to our satisfaction, we were ready to trial our new workshop.

'Edge of the Forest' Opens

Edge of the Forest Exhibition Opens

The first exhibition of the Canadian Surface Design Association's 'Edge of the Forest' opens in the 

 Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. Richmond Hill

 It is up for all of March. There is an opening reception on March 11th.

Here is the rest of the schedule, to date: 

April 20-May 4th, 2015 –  Art Square Gallery Toronto

June 4-July 9, 2015 – Exhibition at Parrot Gallery Belleville, ON

August 15  – October 18, 2015 prior to & during Fibre Arts 2015 Conference, Woody Point, NL

The aim of this juried fibre exhibition is to present a survey of work currently being done by Canadian members of the Surface Design Association

Here is my entry.

'Forest Reliquary' 2014 

Materials: Vintage cotton table cloth, earth pigments, cotton thread, leaf skeletons, deer bones, maple tree samaras, fern spores

Techniques: Earth dyeing, spore printing, hand stitching (furrowing, whipped double running stitch, attachment).

Currently, I am using domestic linens and earth pigments as I explore the biological processes in the Pacific North West rainforest. 

Read more here.

I will be teaching a 2-day, weekend workshop on using earth pigments at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts 2015 MISSA June 27 - 28 this summer. Do come and join us if you are interested in learning about working with eco-friendly earth pigments and need a little MISSA Magic in your life MISSA

Pattern Design For Artists

The students have spent the past couple of weeks learning how to make repeating patterns, developing their own designs then using them to create different patterns.

Connie cuts a quick, inexpensive corrugated cardboard stamp to trial a design.

Elisha created a design based on a building then translated it into foam stamps, one the mirror of the other so she could make a greater variety of patterns.

She chose one of 17 different patterns she could make with this stamp to print on a heavier weight cotton.

Charlotte is developing designs based on the pineapple.

Sarah is exploring pattern making with a design based on lines found on rocks.

She made quick foam stamps of the design in the positive and negative and the mirrors of both. These 4 stamps allow her to create a vast number of different patterns.  

Connie's humming bird wing design is proving to be most successful.

She has produced many pleasing and promising patterns with it.

Daniella Woolf Encaustic Workshop

Here are some more images of sampler panels I made during the workshop to document each of the techniques Daniella showed us.

 

 

 

It was a great workshop. I learned lots and Daniella is an excellent instructor.

Encaustic Workshop Day 2

On day 2, while waiting for Daniella Woolf's next batch of demos, I continued to add  and scrape back layers of clear and pigmented wax on my Day 1 panels.

 

Daniella is an experienced teacher and kept giving us new techniques to work with throughout the day.

Donna Clement and I shared a palette of melted wax.

This sampler panel demonstrates different techniques and media for marking the wax surface.
Day 2 was filled with learning and exploring the encaustic medium.

Maiwa & Daniella Woolf

After waiting many years I have finally had a Maiwa Symposium experience.
I attended Daniella Woolf's encaustic workshop.

Having no experience with the encuastic medium, I was very pleased Daniella began at the beginning.
Warming the panel.

Preparing the panel.

And so on the first day I built up layers of wax...

...scraped them back then added more.
It was so different from stitching and dyeing.

Studio Tidy Up

Back in Victoria I decided to tidy up my studio.

First I put away everything covering my work tables.

I rounded up all the loose yarns and threads, sorted them by colour then put them away in my thread colour- coded boxes.

I did the same with all of the fabrics I had accumulated over the past year.

I have a set of colour-coded fabric boxes I use for teaching.

I topped up those with fabrics and put them in storage.

This is a good start to my studio tidy-up.

"Hand To Hand" - Works by Teaching Artists

 The faculty at Victoria College of Art is having their annual exhibition this month

Here is all the info about it

Do hope you can see it

I will be at the opening on the Thursday evening - looks like it is going to be lots of fun

Hope to see you there

Lesley

"HAND TO HAND" - Works by teaching artists:
Performances, dance, textile arts, mixed media, installation, tapestry, painting, drawing, sculpture, claymation puppets....

Opens:
Monday Feb. 13 – Feb. 19

Reception:
Thursday 7.00 p.m. February 16 at CACGV( Community Arts Council Greater Victoria)  Gallery, Cedar Hill Recreation Centre (3220 Cedar Hill Road)
At the reception on Thursday, giving a Degas touch, there will be a performance by two award-winning students, Kie Matsuit and Joel Exposito, from the Professional Training Program of the Victoria Academy of Ballet.
Monday (opening day) and also Thursday evening,  a performance piece by  Yvonne Owens, Leyla Mitchell, and Atomic Vaudeville's Mily Mumford --  who will present ‘Military Industrial Dreamers: A Kate Bush Tribute Piece.’
  
Contributing Artists:   Andy Wooldridge, Lesley Turner, Victor Arcega, Danielle Hogan, Joanne Thomson, Carol Thompson, Tony Bounsall, Paul Peregal, Steven Dickerson, Yesman Post, Joyce Kline, Yvonne Owens, Georges Daigle.

Sponsored by the Victoria College of Art, the CACGV and the Victoria Academy of Ballet

Enquiries to CACGV              250-812-6112 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-812-6112      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-812-6112 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-812-6112      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      end_of_the_skype_highlighting        or
Peter Such
President, Victoria College of Art1625 Bank St. Victoria V8R 4V5www.vca.ca              250-598-5422 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-598-5422      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-598-5422 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-598-5422      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      

Art at the Whyte

Lesley Turner 'Valuing Women's Work' 81" x 62", composted, hand stitching; cotton
An afternoon tea cloth was left under a maple tree during fall to be incorporated into the decay cycle. After many hours of washing, ironing and stitching the work goes largely unnoticed as the restored cloth is sacrificed again to protect furniture while the hostess serves tea to her guests. This installation is a metaphor for much of women's work not accounted for in our national accounts system.

Mary Shaffer's jacket...

...was the inspiration for a number of works placed around it.

Likewise, Catherine Whyte's engagement dress, shoes and portrait  inspired Ingrid Lincoln's panel. The artist statement reads: 'This is a homage to Catherine Whyte. A strong personality in a soft guise.'

The curators Michale Lang and Mary-Beth Laviolette did a very good job pairing and arranging artifacts from the Whyte collection with Articulation's art works.