Tony Saladino Abstract Acrylic Class

"Choose Your Dream", 20" x 20", Acrylic with some collage on gallery wrapped canvas, 1 1/2" depth (Click on the image to enlarge)

"A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or else what's a heaven for?" Robert Browning
Tony Saladino began our one day abstract acrylic class with these words to remind us that this is a journey and we should not expect to leave in the afternoon with a finished painting, but concentrate on the process and find our personal expression of marks and color. We had an advantage painting in a beautiful studio and grounds in North Richland Hills. Thanks Karen. I've included some photos at the end in a slide show which show the progression of his demo and he used a landscape photo for the initial reference.
Tony uses Purdy house painting brushes from Lowes in sizes 1", 1 1/2", and the 2" being his favorite and he scumbled his color keeping a fairly dry brush. In fact, he didn't wash his brush until about 20 minutes into his demo. A hint: He kept a blank canvas nearby to scumble leftover brush color before picking up new color. He says it's OK to look childlike in expression as it frees us from trying to please others. He urged us to bring all the areas of the painting together at the same time and not finish one area to completion. As his demo progressed he had many layers of color and areas of very thick paint with some of the layers showing through. He feels it lets your personality come through. He continually stressed to us "It's not about the subject but the division of space."


A painting he brought to show us above.
Tony didn't finish his demo as his ideas will change with future viewings. He feels it's finished when he thinks it's stimulating or stimulates a viewer. If you enjoy a good Argentine tango, search the dance floor as you might find Tony or Karen. In fact Karen's studio doubles as a tango dancing space. During the critique, Tony respected each individuals personal marks and inspired each of us to express those that reside deep within.
He was correct that we should not expect to leave the class with a finished painting as I finished the above painting in my studio and had good starts on two others before the day ended. What a great day of painting on June 10. His next critique class will be July 9.

Mouse over the photo for captions.

Gerald Brommer Workshop ~ Week One ~ Collage

Collage Figure
7" x 11"
Gerald Brommer has presented 2 weeks of workshops at the Artists' Showplace Gallery. I enjoyed the first week so much, Stained Papers and Collage, when an opportunity to take the second week came, Designing with Watercolor or Acrylics and Collage, I jumped at the chance. The above figure was not one of the assignments but by the end of the week I did a figure when we were on our own.
For the first few days we were working with pure collage with our stained watercolor washi papers and later we began adding more paint. We were cautioned against turning these into paintings but let some of the collage show.
We could add anything that would stick to the support, 300 pound watercolor paper, with acrylic mat medium.
Jerry said, "Don't talk to a collage artist about archival. Who cares if it lasts forever and if it starts to fall apart? Good. It will make it more interesting. Kurt Schwitters (20th century master of collage) used wine labels and newsprint."
We purchased a packet of 20 various washi papers about letter size and one of the samples had fragments of the Bangkok Daily News in it (certainly not archival). How wonderful and freeing is that. He also stated, "Paint to please yourselves and hope that others like it" and "Don't over think this. There are no mistakes with collage - just add another piece of paper until it gets so heavy you can't lift it."
Radial Design
11" x 11"
Radiating from a central core. One of about 12 designs we studied. I supplemented some of the painted washi papers with some acrylic painted pieces from the Anne Bagby workshop and from the Carrie Burns Brown workshop.
Jerry Brommer
Collage artist, story teller (the Hittite story was memorable) author of books, books, books, 35 plus art books and some are used in high schools and colleges, educator, juror and scholar and a very enthusiastic master of watercolor and collage painting methods. I guess it would be correct to say he wrote the book on it. Check back later for future posts on the workshop. There is great hope in collage that when your children put you in the "home" and you're not allowed to have scissors you can still enjoy collage, just tearing up and gluing it down again.

Anne Bagby Workshop ~ Artists' Showplace ~ Texas Art Blog

Approximately 5" square image made from a collage of handmade papers from the Anne Bagby workshop held at Artists' Showplace. This example was placed in my journal. I made the face area from a page of the 1924 The Outline of History by H.G. Wells. I like some of the text to show.
Anne

Project on a 12" square of deli wrap of handmade papers done Saturday, colored and stamped and collaged. Anne said keep it simple and watch your values. This was anything but simple and it was too much the same value so I added lots of line work. Today I covered a 7" x 10" journal with the page. On the inside I'd pasted a Dan Burt drawing from his workshop. This journal will be used for drawing more than journaling. Anne says she takes the paper out to cover the journals but I worked around the rings and ran a line of paint connecting the edges. Not as neat but it's still together from someone who can't reassemble a ballpoint pen.


Art Journal Page 78
A trip to Aggie land for a wedding and seeing my first bluebonnets.

Art Journal Page 79
Still on the move but time to check out Grace Haverty's sketches. Packing, packing again for the Bagby workshop and it is a 3 day from Thursday to Saturday.
Art Journal Page 80
Anne's card, her chop, some instructions and my small work for my journal. See the stamp at the left of the image...it's an Anne Bagby original I won by using the most line - hope she doesn't ask for it back after she reads this post. Some of us Southern girls in watercolor workshops find great comfort sipping a cup of Earl Gray and applying a watercolor or two but mixed media artists are a different breed. They work really fast and do what's called "speed collage". I'm a Southern Texan. I work slow, talk and hear even slower and like to have time to inquire about my neighbor's Mama occasionally. Don't let Anne Bagby's diminutive size mislead you. She's a one woman dynamo, spewing forth tips, orders, suggestions, and ideas in a rapid lively way and hence the notation in my journal of "General" Bagby. I may have exaggerated a little when I wrote in my journal she said "Move it, Nancy" but I sat at the front table and was under her all seeing eye. At times she did remind me I needed to forge ahead.
I was glad I'd ordered her DVD from Creative Catalyst as I was a little more prepared to know what to expect. We cut out stamps and made our papers on Thursday and Friday and worked on our projects on Saturday - when I got to have a cup of tea while working. I've learned new paper and stamp making techniques, met a fascinating new instructor, made some new friends and visited with some old ones at Artists Showplace. They have a great facility for workshops and provide individuals with nice long tables and the owners are helpful and encouraging. Restaurants are close by and there is plenty of parking for unloading art supplies.
Another treat was Anne's show, Prototypes in Paper in the gallery and we could view many of her 12" canvases. The show will hang during March.
Thanks, Anne, for your patience and explanations. On Saturday, we packed away our supplies and cleared off the tables leaving only our handmade paper and our projects then each student had a show and tell time. The hand stamped and painted papers were amazing and beautiful and now for more projects with our wonderful papers.

On Friday night a student of Anne's, Dianne Hicks, stopped by. She has been to France with her and taken other workshops in the states. Her web site is a treat.

I've included a slide show of some of the activities during the workshop: