Sandpainting “Teaser”

Thistle & Susan admiring Art's sandpainting

I thought I would do a quick “teaser” about the upcoming workshop that Art and I (& Thistle) will again be taking in August on “sandpainting”. I know that a number of you have written to us asking for more info on it, and I discovered that I had actually written a short report on last year’s workshop for one of the Loose Ends’ newsletters.  So I thought that I would just do a quick “copy & paste” and get this quickie up on the blog.  I will give a much more detailed report after this next workshop in August!  Here ya go . . .

The workshop was on “sand painting”, a very unique class that could be done anywhere, but is SO MUCH FUN when you are actually doing it on the beach.  Unlike many days on the Oregon coast, we were blessed with beautiful warm sunny days nearly the entire time.   

The first day the fourteen or fifteen of us all took our canvases down to the beach, where we soaked them in either the fresh water coming down a feeder stream, or for the more intrepid, right in the ocean waves.  Then dry sand was thrown on the canvases, and using more water, we created patterns in the sand.  When we had something we liked, we stabilized it with a spray of water/acrylic medium, then laid back in the sunshine for an hour or so to let the whole business partially dry (Thistle pretty much flaked out in the sun for the whole afternoon).

The next day, back in the studio we painted our canvases, then put them out in the “patio” area to dry in the sun.  It was incredible to see how the same technique could be translated so many different ways.  Some people created actual identifiable images, but the ones I like best simply accented the natural patterns of the water through the sand.   

Above is a photo of Susan (another artits), the ever present Thistle and the sandpainting that Art did!  In the photo its hard to see or appreciate the rich texture that his piece has.! 

Whenever I go to a workshop of any type, I always (like so many of us) take WAY MORE  stuff than I could ever possibly use, but this time I really tried to organize myself so that I would have plenty of stuff, but not have it look like I was moving in for the duration of the rest of the year.  

And, I once again had the opportunity to use my “Artists’s Kit” (actually I used two “Artist’s Kits” – naturally I had do the packing and planning for both Art and myself).  A third single “Artist’s Bag” is now Thistle’s official “overnight suitcase” with all her necessities.  Art, Thistle and I plan to take this workshop again next year, and now that I know what to have with me I am going to just leave all of our Kits packed up! 

So, there’s the “short” version of the story.  I’m going to take a lot more photos this year and I think we are going to be working with other techniques, so keep your “eyes peeled” for that one! 

Until next time –

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Tagged as: art, natural decorating tip, Thistle