Last month I went to Hudson River Valley Arts where Jane Davies was teaching a week long workshop.  I found Jane on Pinterest, which led me to her website where she has tons of videos showing her process and work.  As with most things I find interesting, I soon became obsessed and began systematically going through almost all the videos she has created.  When I saw that she was teaching at Hudson River Valley, a place friends have urged me to look into, and an easy train ride from New York City, I decided to sign up.

It was above and beyond my expectations.  First of all Jane is a fantastic artist and teacher, which is not always usual that one leads to the other.  But in her case it does.  She gives great demos, has a sense of humor, is smart, talented, and she plays the ukulele and might even sing, if encouraged to!  The class was full, with 18 people, all strong, interesting women from various parts of the world, including Chile, Quebec, Germany, and Norway!  I didn’t get permission to post photos of any of the other women or their work on this blog, so I’m just posting photos of the work I did while there.

We began by exploring lines with different mediums and then moved on to making collage papers that we would then use in our work for the remaining days. Making collage paper is a rabbit hole one can easily become lost in!  There are so many ways in which to combine the paint, get it on the paper, scribble, smudge, streak, spray, dribble and the end results can be wonderful.  Here are a few of mine.

Reluctantly and with Jane’s encouragement we began using those papers in our work, while also incorporating a variety of techniques that Jane demonstrated.  These first two photos are two of six pieces I worked on simultaneously.  The other four are still works in progress.  They are collage, acrylic paint, and ink and measure 11.5″ X 11″.

Boundaries Unobserved

Murmuration

This next series were all worked at the same time and are collage, acrylic on paper, measuring 11″ X 11″.

As you can see, I had a great time.