Teaching and learning more about my process by teaching.

So I finished up this year teaching at Donna Downey Studio. I was starting to get bored with my fabric collage process and knew I better kick it up a notch to make the class interesting not just for my students but for myself. What I learned this time around was :  I was still trying to keep the linens I used precious....I wanted to retain some of the raw fabric and not cover up some of the lace and beautiful details in the linen. I realized that this was my canvas and it was ok to cover all of it and make mistakes if I had to. I could always sand it or cover it up if I needed to. I watched my students boldly apply color and plaster and really make some bold pieces. I loved that. I decided with this last piece I am showing (the girl with the reindeer head) I would treat it like a canvas and I covered everything with gesso and plaster and color. I rubbed some of the color out with sanding. I used some of my "precious" lace to create a stencil using plaster which made it more imbeded into the fabric collage. I created depth and atmosphere with dark shadows and a hint of a landscape. It became a painting and not just a figure painted on top of fabric. Now I am interested again and feel like there is still much for me to learn with this process. Oh, and now I discovered chalk paints which work beautifully on the fabric. I apply some of the paint with glazing medium and then seal everything with first a clear wax and then a dark wax to bring out some of the texture.
Yes....teaching is part of my creative process. I look forward to an abundant and busy 2014 with alot of teaching coming my way. Please check out my 2014 teaching schedule. I also teach online and in the works to start a new online class on the trodden path. If you haven't signed up yet for Studying Under the Masters, please look at my post below with all the details and sign up button. THAT is going to be such a great class! Thank you all for supporting me this year and encouraging me with all your wonderful comments. It means so much to me....kate

My first big retreat in Portland was incredible.

I was in Portland for Art and Soul in October and roomed will the super fun and talented Jill Berry. I taught two classes, My Fabric Book Class and Fabric Collage.  You can go to to see all the great student samples from the class.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fractured-Angelics-Kate-Thompson/213204992183#!/media/set/?set=a.10151918618177184.1073741826.213204992183&type=1
I just love how different every piece came out. I look forward to going back to Portland in April and doing it all again.
As far as my art journey goes I did this portrait after taking Misty Mawn's class. I really focused on the lighting to created the values. I worked only in acrylics. Acrylics were always a struggle for me because of the fast drying element. I moved away from acrylics and created my own media using reinkers and watercolors and mixed them with acrylic paint. But I wanted to try again a portrait just using acrylics. I think I am going to have to do some more because I really love working with them now.

But of course I went back to my beloved watercolors and fabric and worked on a couple of new pages in my Fabric Book. I was so inspired by the class I taught I needed to add some more work. I will never sell this book. It really is like my art journal and journey and experiments...always including a beloved piece of lace or fabric.

I am also experimenting using a palette knife to create textures and folds in the blouse of this girl. Palette knives are really wonderful and great mark making tool.

I worked on a couple of fabric collages since I sold about 10 pieces this month....thank you God....my inventory is low which feels pretty great!

 

Now another new technique I am working on is starting with paper, applying a layer of gesso, then applying a layer of reinker in different colors (they can dry pretty light with great texture). I then start my painting on top of that. The second piece is a work in progress. I added collage and fabric first, then applied some plaster with stencils, sanded that down, covered with gesso and then the reinkers. I just started to add the figure so this is at the beginning stages.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my blog!

 

Life Book 2014

 

I am so excited to be a part of the new Life Book 2014 event starting in January 2014.
Here is a list of all the wonderful teachers partipating. Please check out their websites/blogs to get to know this incredible line up


12th Sept 2013 - Tamara Laporte - www.willowing.org
13th Sept 2013 - Tascha Parkinson – www.timewithtascha.blogspot.ca
14th Sept 2013 - Lesley Riley – www.lesleyriley.com
15th Sept 2013 - Alena Hennessy - www.alenahennessy.com
16th Sept2013 - Kat McBride – www.KatCanPaint.com
17th Sept 2013 - Carla Sonheim – www.carlasonheim.com
18th Sept 2013 - Jane Davenport – www.janedavenport.com
19th Sept 2013 - Danielle Daniel – www.danielledaniel.com
20th Sept 2013 - Jennibellie – www.jennibelliestudio.blogspot.com
23rd Sept2013 - Kelly Hoernig – www.kellyhoernig.webs.com
24th Sept 2013 - Micki Wilde – www.thesecrethermit.blogspot.co.uk
25th Sept 2013 - Kate Thompson – www.fracturedangelics.blogspot.com
26th Sept 2013 - Flora Bowley – www.florabowley.com
27th Sept2013 - Anna Dabrowska – www.tworzysko.blogspot.co.uk
28th Sept 2013 - Steven Speight – www.speightoftheart.com
29th Sept 2013 - Mika Diaz – www.mikadiazmixedmedia.com
30th Sept 2013 - Serena Bridgeman – www.serenarty.com
1st Oct 2013 - Dyan Reaveley – www.dyan-reavely.blogspot.co.uk
2nd Oct 2013 - Effy Wild – www.effythewild.com
3rd Oct 2013 - Carissa Paige – www.carissapaige.com
4th Oct 2013 - Marieke Blokland – www.bloknote.nl
5th Oct 2013 - Christy Tomlinson – www.christytomlinson.com
6th Oct 2013 - Traci Bautista – www.treicdesigns.com

GIVE AWAY!!!
I am giving away one spot for this event so please leave a comment and I will pick the winner next week. I will choose the winner by putting all the participants names in a box and pick a name that way.

A wonderful summer

This has been one of my most favorite summers I can remember. I have been meeting so many wonderful women teaching this summer. It has added so much to my life. I am getting more and more ideas for classes since teaching and creating art is what I plan to do the rest of my life.
I am addicted to art supplies and although it is wonderful to have all this stuff around, I get a little overwhelmed so I am going to try to reduce my palette and amount of supplies I use so that I can really get to know them. It will be very hard to do, but this thought keeps going through my head to simplify....at least for now.
Here are some examples of my love affair with R&F Oil bars. I did get carried away and bought alot of them because they are very seductive so hopefully this will be my last product for awhile.

I have been working with more stencils and plaster in my portraits and love experimenting.

And last but not least, I just finished a wonderful magical weekend at a Misty Mawn workshop. She inspired me 4 years ago to paint. I started taking her online classes and haven't stopped painting.Meeting her in person was such a wonderful gift. I had so many epiphanies this weekend such as painted with a limited palette, even the background pulls the painting together,marks all pencil is magical, purchasing jars of paints rather than tubes (paint doesn't dry up as fast) and so many more Misty secrets you can only discover if you take her class. Watching her paint is quite magical. It is so tempting to try to copy Misty but then you aren't on your own journey, so that is never an option for me...but to take some of her magical experience and incorporate it is the whole idea. Misty is a huge role model for me. Her integrity and originality is unquestionable and she is a fun gal to be around too! Here are some of the wip that I did in the class.

Oh, I forgot, my door at Random Arts is finished. Love the beautiful knob Jane added to it.

 

 

 

I am teaching at DONNA DOWNEY STUDIO Dec. 7-9, 2013

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/joint-compound-has-never-looked-SO-GOOD-.html?soid=1101387547574&aid=mPij3wSjmGA

Fabric Book Live Class

Here is the link to the class    http://www.artandsoulretreat.com/retreat-PDX-2786-workshop.php

Fabric Collage Live Class

http://www.artandsoulretreat.com/retreat-PDX-2784-workshop.php
Here is the link to the class 

What I have been working on

I always seem to love the work I do in my sketchbook. I started by applying gesso, let that dry and then applied re-inkers to the background. I drew the figures and started applying watercolors and acrylic white paint. I love doodling so I got my Ernst Haekel book out for inspiration.

Here is a close up of the face....I could have left the painting alone as is. It's very satisfying to me. I like how some of the inked background comes thtrough and the subtle mixing that happens here.

This is my girl! I had this idea of putting helmets on my girls. I think more helmets will start appearing in my artwork.

The painting completely changed as I started building up layers. I started finger painting with my beautiful Daniel Smith watercolors.

I love adding pencil work over my painting. I seem to be more into the detail when I draw rather than paint. When I paint I like to be more expressive, but when I have my fine .3mm mechanical pencil in hand, I love going in with the detail.

This piece is a bit tricky. It is all on fabric. I thought I wanted a sepia toned pallete but realized I really wanted to splash color in this., especially pink!

So I went in with color....still not sure if she is finished. I am working on her along with my students in my new online class. I videotaped the process except for the color. Whatever else I do on her I will videotape and include that in the class.

Still working on mermaids. Using my watercolors and mixing with white acrylic open paint....my favorite medium right now.

Back to acrylic on wood. Love how she is coming through. Wanting to work more on expression rather than a stare....put some life and personality in the figure.

My pintuck mermaid....see I told you I love detail with my pencil.
Thanks for looking!

Facing my demons and loving it!

It has been an extremely productive and creative couple of months. I taught my first live class at Random Arts in Saluda, NC. I am repeating the class up there in August. Now if you would have told me a couple of years ago that I would be teaching online classes, filming and editing videos of me creating and painting, teaching live around the country and selling my artwork, I would have laughed my ass off! I made a successful living as a print designer for the apparel industry in Los Angeles, but almost 5 years ago I moved to Charlotte, and my career came to an abrupt end. I believe I was done but I wasn't ready to admit that. There was a couple of years where the wolves were at the door and the bills were not getting paid and I was well into my 50's! Now I see that those scary wolves were really my allies and helped me to sharpen and focus like a laser on my future. My dear friend Jane, kept telling me to do a video and put it on youtube. I finally did it because everytime I saw her she asked me about it. I couldn't take the shame anymore that I hadn't followed through. From that video, doors were opened and I started teaching. She believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. I never even thought of teaching as a career in the past. I am an introvert, and that can be a good thing if you are an artist, but I wasn't sure how that would translate into teaching art. What I do have is passion and the most important part of creating for me is the process. Teaching is about being in that process and letting the magic and inspiration flow, so not only am I in the process but the students are as well and I get to experience and interact with them as they create their magic. I absolutely love it and it energizes me so. I love the teaching process just as much as the creating and I am so deeply grateful that I get the opportunity to make the rest of my life even more productive and fullfilling than my past. Please check out my page on FACEBOOK to see all the student's wonderful artwork. FRACTURED-ANGELICS-KATE THOMPSON It's a post from July 1- Random Arts Class Photos

Mermaid Circus online class with Teesha Moore and Jane Davenport

I was so excited to start this class. Teesha Moore and Jane Davenport are such wonderful and diverse artists from each other. What in the world was I in for? I shy away from lettering, I hate my handwriting. One of the most stressful stages in my paintings is signing my name! Mermaids and fanciful creatures....I need reference, realism, how in the world was I going to capture this world? I am just into week 4 so there is still so much more to go but what I have learned so far is the magic of markers. I knew nothing about markers. I just had the big black sharpie markers that never felt comfortable in my hands....now they are one of my new favorite tools. I especially like the watercolor markers because you can blend them. I love using watercolors anyways and adding the markers is just a brilliant touch. I am learning about color combinations that I never worked with before, like seagreens and aquas with corals and pinks....who knew...I didn't till now. Oh and the mermaid, I am loving discovering my mermaid. Haven't even reached the circus yet. That will be for next post. Oh, and the hand lettering, I am finding my way around that too and me thinks will be exploring that in my depth. Here is what I have so far.