Things are flying...

...in the studio, and it's obvious there's something afoot.  Luckily, you get to hear about it first!

This coming Saturday is the Kootenay Fibre Arts Festival and I'll be there doing mono-print demos on the Gelli Plate.  Best  part?  If you attend, you get to try it too!

Creating a mono-print is great fun, whether on paper

Gelli-print on paper using masks, stencils and bubble wrap

or fabric, (sorry, we're not showing any printed body parts in this family-friendly post, no matter what the poster infers)

Gelli print on fabric using cheesecloth as stencil

and it starts to get really interesting when you add Inktense Pencils

Inktense pencil work on fabric Gelli-printed with fun foam template

and/or the incomparable Art Foamies  (created right here in Creston, BC!) to the mix.

ArtFoamie stamped on Gelli-printed fabric

Want some even better news about this Saturday and the Kootenay Fibre Arts Festival?  When you attend, and register for this upcoming playshop

you'll get your choice of an added bonus.  Choose from a selection of  hand-cut stencils (yes, that's yours truly slaving over a hot stencil burner and sheets of cold house wrap), or an ArtFoamie stamp (Remember above where I told you they're incomparable?  Truth!)

One of eight house-wrap stencils to be given away - each unique

Only on Saturday, April 22 and at the Kootenay Fibre Festival will you have this opportunity - unbelieveable (barely), not to be repeated (this year anyway), and truly totally amazing!  

The benefits are legion.  The playshop is highly entertaining whether you're a fibre freak, a creative looking for a place to play and learn, or an established artist in any medium.  After making some 800+ prints for my own entertainment, I can safely say that it's more fun than you can possibly imagine!  You say you don't have any experience in creating art?  You don't need it!  No skills? They come in the learning package - no extra charge - and heavily disguised as fun.

If you've taken any of my other playshops, you'll know they are stress-busters that promote a desire for more, more and more creative fun.  If you're a newbie, you're going to love it!  This Saturday - come and register.

It's been a scramble...

...this past week, and I suspect that will continue through this one.

I've been trying to keep up with Creative JumpStart 2015, and with about six videos and techniques to play with each week, that's saying a lot.

I really enjoyed creating some embellishments based on a video by Andrea Gomoll that had a bit of a twist from ones I'd tried previously.  I spread a layer of coloured clear tar gel (cadmium red in this case) and another of coloured glass beads (using quinacridone magenta in the glass bead gel) on a palette paper, allowed them to dry overnight, and cut them into shapes for the raised hearts on this tag.

Another video by Diana Trout of a pattern panorama had me jazzed too, and I had to try it.  Using this photo of the Three Sisters, an iconic mountain trio from my former home in Canmore, Alberta, 

Photo by Peter Carroll Photography

I cut out some of my beloved Gelli prints for the hills in the front, used some crystalline paper for the mountains, and layered them on a Gelli-printed mat board created for a playshop demo.  It was printed primarily with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's aboriginal stamp.  Serendipitously, one of the circles fit exactly where I need the sun - how's that for the Universe working in my favour?!  I over-painted the sky area with some orange because I felt the quinacridone gold was a little too subdued, did some stamping on the front hills, and quickly sketched in some trees.  I was laughing the whole time I put this quiet, unassuming mountain scene together.

'Neon Three II" mixed media on mat board © Win Dinn

Just so you don't think that my whole world of colour is in the hot range, I did play this week with some Gelli prints and black paint.  Oops, there may be a bit of red under one of these.

I hope you've had some major colour, laughter and fun in the past few days, and that your week has been an entertaining scramble too!  If not, you might consider joining the Gelli it Up! playshop in Kimberley this coming weekend - we've got one spot left just for YOU.  

I'm in...

...the studio again, and it's chaos as usual.

Three piles of Gelli print fragments are strewn across one of the student tables,

a chair is stacked with paintings in progress,

and a folded book in stage three awaits hours of unfolding, and then curling.

A painting, recently coated with gel medium and then textured with a natural sponge sits drying on the drawing table,

along with stacks of mini canvasses from the Have a Heart series, in varying degrees of progress.

My 8 x 10 Gelli plate is anxious to test run a newly designed house wrap stencil, even though it's not yet completed, 

while a stack of 'Head Shots' wait nearby for some attention.  They want to be made into a booklet right now please.

So much fun...so little time.  Isn't the life of an artist the best thing ever?  I certainly refuse to argue that.

They did it again!

With one venue at Creative Fix, eight students, nine Gelli plates (I had one too), three hours and 7,469 Gelli prints by my admittedly rough count, round two of the playshop was a blast.

The hit of the night was the dozen blue jean templates, which resulted in some wonderful monoprints.

And the blue jean templates themselves were gorgeous by the time they'd been put through their paces.

They were not the only technique, though, as the fun foam plates got a workout, and

everybody got to make both a jeans template and a fun foam plate to add to their range of textures.

Fay creates her own blue jean template.

I suspect they look so intent because they were so focused on their fun foam plates!

Fay, Karen, Janet, Linda, Keiryn, Brandy, Alison and Cindy are hard at it.

The drying floor area of my studio this morning is a feast for the eyes.

I can hardly wait for next week's class!

Gelli, Gelli, Gelli....

 ...Gelli prints everywhere.

Last night was the first class of Gelli it up at Creative Fix here in Creston.  Day 1 of 4 - will I survive?  Of course, because the colour is definitely to live for, right?

The ladies were intent throughout, and colour CRAZED!

Keiryn, Brandy, Alison, Karen and Linda

Alison got into it with her fingers

Janet, Linda and Keiryn

With layer upon layer of colour

and shape,

and piles of prints everywhere,

even our token male was agog.

We created texture plates,

coloured ones that were already dry,

 and even one that was wet, wet, WET!

 The house wrap stencils got well (and beautifully) used,

as did the playbooks (great for cleaning brayers, stencils, but not so much for drywall compound!).

It was three hours of riotous fun, and even the texturing implements looked none the worse for their extensive wear this morning!

Thanks, ladies, for what promises to be a terrific start to another three Thursdays of fun, fun, FUN.

Did they land Gelli Side Up?

Yes, of course!  The Gelli It Up! playshop at the College of the Rockies, Creston, this past weekend was beyond fun.  With three different kinds of paint, nine enthusiastic participants (two of them working with fabric rather than paper) and WAY too many techniques, it was bedlam!

From striking abstracts

Doesn't  Linda's print make you think of searchlights over a city?!

to luscious realism,

Verona's tulip heaven.

the prints were one-after-the-other stunning.  Jackie's first print of the weekend was stellar...just look at these gorgeous colours!

Yummy texture, too.

They made and printed with fun foam plates, 

Fun foam by Linda

texture plates

I recognize Eileen's hand-cut stamp in the middle, but there was so much sharing going on, I'm not sure this is her print!

and blue jean templates.

Nor am I sure who created this.

They printed on magazine photos

Judy's lace print over an abstracted teapot photo from a magazine.

and even on funny money.

The new fashion in colourful Canadian bills?

They layered 

Love how the violet paper Jennifer used underneath peeks through for additional colour.

and textured

Those repeated circles really do it for me.

and had the occasional happy accident!

Eileen was so keen that she went home at the end of the Saturday's class with one of her prints and over-stitched it to incredibly beautiful result...isn't this a corker?

Busy as bees, they watched,

Photo thanks to Eileen

and then worked

Jennifer (back to us), Shelly and Verona

and worked

A contemplative Christine

and worked.

Linda adds colour

It's a wonder they hadn't collapsed by Sunday afternoon, yet they still looked ready for more!

Back row:  Verona, Eileen, Judy, Linda, Shelly, Jackie
Front Row:  Jennifer, Christine, Anne

Today's Helpful Hint: When 'choosing' participants for a playshop, make sure they're as playful as these!   It was so much fun to be with this Gelli-crazed group that I hope we can do an encore next year.  Thank you all for joining me at the college Summer Series!