Circus Maximum

I just returned from a wonderful long weekend in Connecticut, learning new techniques and just being inspired by Lynne Perrella and Anne Bagby.  Our theme was the circus, the workshop was called Circus Maximum, and we just had the most fun with it.  Bright colors, great images, and background techniques galore.  I've taken many classes with Lynne, but this was my first experience with Ann, and she was just full of the best ideas.  And like Lynne, Anne is a proponent of the low tech, low cost approach to mixed media.....and there is nothing low about the results!

We stayed at the lovely Interlaken Inn, about 2 1/2 hours out of NYC, and worth the trip.  We had people coming from the west coast, the south, the midwest, so I guess Pat and I didn't have that long a trip. Although, hauling several tons of art supplies on Metro North is not my idea of a good time.

Some shots of the grounds:

Beautiful metal sculptures everywhere!

On Friday is was all about Ann.  We worked on backgrounds, and our substrate was......are you ready?......deli paper!  It was all about layers.  Acrylics, applied with brushes, brayers, scrapers, razors, etc.  Then stamps, stencils, hand lettering, more paint, portfolio pastels, figures and shapes, and on and on.

Here are some that Pat did.

And here are some of mine.

We did a lot of blotting between layers, and even the blotting paper would eventually become something usable.

On Saturday, Lynne took over, and we created pieces on wrapped canvas.  Here is my happy couple:

They were done on 11x14 canvases.  The images are very old (medieval? renaissance?), and have nothing to do with the circus.  The theme was created with the embellishments, color choices, and everything else done to alter them.  I'm not even sure I'm finished, but am very happy with them as is.

On Sunday we did some more work on Ann's backgrounds and then did what Lynne called "speed collage," a fun way to create a long narrow banner, working quickly and without letting too much thinking get in the way.  I haven't taken pictures of those pieces yet, so there may be a Circus Maximum, Part 2.

Some random shots of our large and well lit workspace (which was open to us 24/7), and some of the wonderful pieces my classmates worked on.

The tags we wore to help us remember everyone's names needed a little extra help to stay adhered.