Here’s another catch-up post! In mid-December, I taught at Hudson River Valley Fiber Art Workshops at Kim and Mark LaPolla’s inn, the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn in upstate New York. It was a fabulous experience in a beautiful location.
Because the workshop was held so close to Christmas, only four students signed up (boo!) but they were great students, and did wonderful work. Two had come all the way from Israel to take classes here. Here they are (from left:) Alison, Nili, Dalia, and Kim:
This workshop was five days long, which meant that I had time to guide students in working on original pieces based on their own photos. Usually, in one-day classes, all the students do the same thing, based on one of my projects, so this was really fun to teach.
The studio/classroom is very large and bright, and is located in this building across the creek from the main inn building:
Here’s the studio from the back:
We started with wholecloth painting. I taught students my basic technique, including how to create a pattern from their photo, and how to mix and blend colors. Once the pieces were painted, we thread-sketched and quilted them. Kim did two small pieces, one of fiddlehead ferns, and the other of a sheep:
Nili worked from a photograph of shells:
Dalia worked from a colorful still-life of citrus fruit she had shot, but changed the background to a vibrant purple that really set off the fruit:
Alison’s subject was orchids:
I also covered my fusible appliqué technique. Students brought enlarged photos and created patterns from them, then cut out all the pieces and fused them down. Alison worked on a photo of a beautiful garden structure and statue reflected in water. Notice how the colors are in the same family for the structure and its reflection, but are darker for the section reflected in the water:
Dalia’s subject was her husband’s stethoscope. She did a great job of capturing the metallic highlights and shading on the rubber tubing, using paint on top of her fabric pieces:
Kim did her dog (the photo was shot looking straight down on the dog); I love the diagonal lines in this piece, and the way the green on the bricks really make it pop. The brown print fabric with the beige and red spots is a fun choice for the dog’s face:
Nili worked from the same photo of the shells that she used for her painted piece. It was interesting to see how different they looked. For her fusible appliqué, she used non-realistic colors, so the emphasis was on the shell forms:
Half the fun of taking classes here is getting to stay in the charming old inn, and eat Chef Mark’s wonderful meals:
Chef Mark enjoys a bite of dinner with us:
The proud students with their work at the end of the week:
The group on our last night together. (That’s Kim’s spectacular work in the background.)
I loved this window art at the Albany airport!
Many thanks to Kim and Mark – and Alison, Nili and Dalia — for making this such a fulfilling and memorable week. If you get a chance to take a class at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops, I highly recommend it!
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