Lynne Perella

I just spent the most amazing two days learning from the wonderful mixed media/collage artist, Lynne Perella. There is so much to tell, I think I'll divide it into several posts so no one has to plow through pages and pages of my gushing all at once.

First, click on Lynne's name above, and see what she's all about. Then come back here and see what she gave to me and everyone else in the workshops.

One of the things I loved about Lynne is that her art, while gorgeous, is also low-tech and low-cost. We painted on red rosin paper, the stuff that contractors put on your floors to protect them. It can be found at Home Depot for a few dollars a giant roll. We used inexpensive water soluble oil pastels and cheap acrylics. We used common objects for texturing.

We began with some mechanics. Our paper had to be coated with gesso, and at this phase we were to add lots of texture -- I embedded tulle, cheesecloth, and tissue paper into the gesso. I added further dimension with sequin waste, and made marks with a plastic fork, an old credit card, stamps and stencils.

We hung the paper up to dry:

While it was drying we gathered in a circle and talked a bit about who we are and what brought us there. Lynne said it is important to know your "community" -- the people who share your passion and truly "get" you. For some people in that circle, workshops and online groups are the only places where they're understood.

Then we did a great warm up exercise. One that Lynne uses every day in her studio. We looked at a copy of a Durer woodcut and each of us selected one image from it and using a small piece of black construction paper, either cut or tore it to represent the image we chose. We then took our images to a blank wall, and arranged the silhouettes:

We weren't finished. Lynne then had us go back to our tables and take all of our leftover black construction paper and add that to the wall. One of her favorite elements to add to her collages are the scraps she's cut off of other pieces or the paper she's wiped her brushes on. She wanted us to have a higher regard for what others might see as trash or waste.

Following this lively and interactive exercise we broke for lunch. This is how both days began. More later.....