Mixed Media Month--an adventure for a watercolor artist

In March, I attended  a series of 4 workshops at the Centennial Barn on mixed media--they were taught by Barb Smucker, Roxanne Brett, and Marilyn Bishop.

Mixed media is a lot of fun and somewhat about process--there don't seem to be many hard and fast rules, although approach the end, design, composition, color, etc. still come into play.

The hard part for me is the glue--I'm always getting glue where it's not supposed to be!

In reverse order.....

The top piece is a small cut out from a larger work that started with light acrylics overlaid with stencil and line.  An example of a work, before it's cut is shown to the right.  Hypothetically, you could work up an entire sheet as a finished piece, which is about 18x12 inches, but it's a little overwhelming.  There are a lot of little nice areas.    

The next piece, above right, is a watercolor overlaid with rice paper, and then amended again with watercolor.  There's a humming bird in there. Maybe.  This was from Marilyn Bishop, one of the founding members of the Cincinnati Watercolor Society, and currently the organization's president.  She's an excellent watercolorist, and she's artistically fearless.

The piece with the car (above left) was taught by the indomitable Roxanne Brett, who's enthusiasm is a great treat for any group.  We were working on symbolism and composition and color through collage.  All the members of my immediate family are represented there.

Finally, we made paper, and developed a book mark.  This is my least favorite piece from the workshop--I was just struggling with the composition--it ended up too dark.  (In a moment of frustration, I painted over the whole thing with black--there was no going back.)

Barb Smucker taught the first and last workshops--she's got an interesting process going on, and a very thoughtful way of approaching art--she's a fabulous teacher.  I've said it before, but it's worth saying again--if you ever get a chance to take one of her workshops, come!