i recently spent a fabulous workshop weekend with a room full
of very talented and enthusiastic artists at donna downey studios….
and our instructor was the uber-talented danielle donaldson!
our first day was spent painting squares.
beautiful, boxy squares painted in a row…..
and some painted in a grid.
{i couldn't resist labeling them….
those heavenly boxes were just calling out for some letterforms!}
and then we stretched the square into a rectangle
and created our own "paint strip".
on the second day it was back to squares in a more nostalgic way….
danielle showed us how to paint a rainbow viewfinder disc!
then we switched things up a bit and created a collage square,
and i'll be honest…..
while my inner-grid girl was absolutely thrilled with
painting squares, i tend to hit a brick wall when it comes to collaged
squares. while a collage looks like just a bunch of tidbits randomly
placed on the paper, there's still a lot of intuitive order going on
when it comes to placement,
and i've never been able to figure out what that order is!
but thankfully, sweet little rachel who was sitting at my table gave
me some great suggestions and jolted me back to reality,
and my deer-in-the-headlight stare slowly faded away.
and just so we'd have something to sit on top of our collage square,
we ended our day with a drawing lesson from danielle.
she has the most wonderful imagination, and her little animals are
as precious as she is.
by the end of day three, everything came together as a finished piece….
and every time i look at my bear square i'll be reminded what a
truly marvelous artist, instructor, and sharing person danielle is,
and i'll think of all the awesome energy in donna's studio,
the inspiring people i shared the weekend with (hi joanna!),
and how hitting a brick wall can sometimes be one of the best lessons
of the entire weekend! :))
