Monday, February 1, 2010

January Class Review

First, a huge thank-you to everyone for all the wonderful comments you left yesterday.  They really made me feel terrific!!! I appreciate each and every comment and will treasure them.  Now, on to the review . . .
Glass Bead Gel (with Connie Anderson) - Connie is the Queen of Texture Mediums, and she has been leading a series of classes exploring the use of texture mediums in collage.  Glass bead gel is a beautiful medium that glistens, and Connie put a lot of thought into the various ways it can be used.  Everyone got two canvases on which to work, and we were encouraged to explore at least two different treatments with the glass beads.  Here's my first:
I have always loved glass, and I stenciled with the glass beads to suggest some of the  depression glass I have.  I call this piece "Childhood Portal." It's not finished yet.  I plan to put it in a black frame and add some adornment  to emphasize the "childhood" theme.  I'd love it if I could find a frame in the shape of a house.  I thought about making a "Narnia" reference, but I think it's implied.  The other piece I made used glass beads as a transfer medium.  Transfers are tough for me, but this worked pretty well.  That piece is very unfinished, but I may share it later.
All-in-all, another terrific class by Connie.







Masterful Art Journaling with Dina Wakley at Get it Scrapped - This was, simply put, an amazing class!  It was structured as a four week class, with each class focusing on a different "master" (Van Gogh, Picasso, Mary Cassatt and Frida Kahlo).  Each week supposedly had two lessons:  one full of art challenges and one full of journaling challenges.  I say "supposedly" because each individual "lesson" had between 4-6 different sub-lessons, any of which could keep you occupied for a week. Each lesson also included fascinating biographical information about the artist and 1-2 videos demonstrating techniques. It was truly a class jam-packed with new techniques, inspiration and information.  For instance, in the Mary Cassatt week, we were encouraged to explore pastels because Cassatt worked in pastels, create a page about the mother-child relationships because that was a recurring theme in her work, and use the not-quite-white background technique that was common in Cassatt's work.  The art journal page above incorporates all these ideas.  It is so different from anything I have done, but also very authentic to me.  I've posted lots of other pages from the class on my blog that you can check out.  I'm actually still working on the Frida Kahlo section, and I can see myself returning again and again to the lessons for inspiration in the surface.  I made over 20 art journal pages and just scratched the surface of the content in this course.


What's up next?  This month, I'm taking Building Pages with Debbie Hodge at Get it Scrapped and Develop on Fridays at Paislee Press.  There are two year-long art journal classes going on that look interesting, but that's too long a commitment for me.  You can find them at Art Journal Caravan  and Journal 365 with Pam Carriker.

11 comments:

Amy said...

Rinda I have found the Masterful Art Journal pages you have posted to be so interesting and it sounds like such a fabulous insightful class - from a history and process perspective as well as the art.
I'm at a stage in my life where I find it difficult to get out to external classes - little children/dinner times/sleep times, I'm finding your reviews a great way to think about all of the classes I'd like to take in the future.

Sian said...

I really enjoy your class reviews too Rinda (is it ok to say I'm also a little bit in awe of the number of things you manage to fit into a day?). Your pages we've seen from Dina's class are wonderful. I'll see you over at Get It Scrapped later then!

scrappyjacky said...

I so enjoy seeing your art journaling pages....and your class sounds amazing.
Sadly we don't have much in the way of classes in my locality....but I need to look at some more of the online classes...I always learn so much from Shimelle's ones.

Unknown said...

Your classes sound great - how you do find the time.

Anonymous said...

There are very few local classes in our area any more, but I do love online courses. Diana Wakely's class sounds wonderful, filled with lots of inspiration for the future. I love both of your pages, but am especially drawn to the one inspired by Mary Cassatt. Not too surprising since I love her work. I briefly thought about taking Building Pages, but am doing Jessica Sprague's Wacom Tablet class now, and am signed up for the BPS Moving into Manual photography class which begins mid-month. That's probably more than enough, but I'll be looking forward to your review of the class.

Connie said...

Maria,
Thanks for the class plug. I appreciate it. Your piece is just beautiul next to the glass plate you were telling me about.

Thanks again,

Connie

humel said...

Busy lady!! How do you fit it all in?! I love your class reviews, they're always so useful and thorough - thanks for sharing x

Connie said...

By the way I love the journaling that you've been doing. Its just wonderful. I've seen you create in very different styles but you do an incredible art in all of them.
Connie

Dina said...

Ah, your pages are wonderful...and your kind words about my class mean so much. Your friend in art, D.

Elizabeth said...

Sounds like an amazing class! I liked reading your review.

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