Arts, Antiques and Auto Show, 2011

This past fall Denton Main Street hosted the Denton Arts, Antiques and Auto Show on the Square in Denton, Texas. Trophies were offered for the winners of certain classes of cars and I was asked to paint hubcaps as the trophies. This project at first was somewhat daunting but once I got started it was really a lot of fun. One of my favorite cars is a mustang so on one trophy I painted a classic red mustang and then on the other hubcap I painted an old model of an Olds. A Creative Art STUDIO also had a small booth on the Courthouse lawn and we set up a children's art station. We had a table where kids could make their own stamps and stamp art and work on a community painting. Even people's pets wanted to paint. Check out our pictures.

Painting on Yupo or "Going with the flow"

I love watercolor. Coming from a stained glass background and working with hard pieces of glass, I find so much satisfaction painting with watercolors and watching the colors flow. Like glass, I love the intensity of the colors when painting on Yupo paper. Yupo paper is a synthetic water-resistant paper that is made from recycled polypropylene pellets. That means that when used with watercolor, your paint will dry only by evaporation and there will be no absorption by your paper (as would be with regular watercolor paper). Painting on Yupo you can get some of the most intense colors and there is sometimes a feeling that the paint is really in control. In the recent watercolor class at the studio, the students painted on Yupo. Check out the pictures of the students and their paintings in progress. Lots of fun!

Bead Class

Recently I taught a class on basic beading at the studio. I have always loved beads and their beautiful bright colors remind me of stained glass. One great advantage of working with beads is that you have something portable to take with you where ever you go. In the first class of basic beading the students learned some basic wirework and beading techniques and made some beautiful beaded necklaces and earrings. Pictured are some of the students modeling their creations. In the second class students learned to make a bracelet using a basic wirework technique and a bracelet using stretchy cord. The secret in using stretchy cord is to tie a good knot and use a dot of glue on the knotted cord. The last class in the series involves making a pendant using collage and stained glass techniques. First the students created a small collage using paint and images, then sandwiched their creation between two pieces of glass using lead free solder. The pendants are reversable with an image on both sides. Lots of fun to make and wear.....Robin

Sculpting a Face Class

May 24, 2011: Linka Behn recently taught a class on sculpting a face with air-dry clay at the studio. If you are familiar with Linka's work you know that she often paints faces and is able to capture so much emotion and feeling in her work. In this class she taught the students to create faces with personality using air dry clay and simple clay tools. When completed the faces could be mounted on a pedestal or added to a work of art. Nice job guys. Those faces definitely had attitude!....Robin