Transfer paint fun in Florida

Trip to Florida in March to meet with some very creative  fiber, paper and mixed media artists. Good friend Candace gathered ten women who's attention was on trying new ways to enhance their art. For me it was a new experience to work with paper products as well as fabric. I know there was a reason why I have all this different papers in my studio, and not really knowing what to do with it. One more door is opening, thanks to your creative energy!





Beautiful flowers outside Candace's dads house.

 As usual the Transfer Paint workshop starts with making paints and painting papers. One afternoon resulted in lots of papers lined up to dry over night. Many plain papers and many not so plain ones, with lots of texture and  landscape images. Mary did some quite interesting painted papers, that was even better transffered to fabric the next day                              
A quick sit down session at the end of the workshop gave everyone a good idea of what was made, and good feedback on what worked and what didn't work as well with paper or other things.

Sandy S. worked with paper only, and most of her papers ended up very light. Usually that is because of the heat from the iron. She still got very nice definition on the shapes. She brought in loads of ferns to share, my favorite, and as you can see she got some beautiful imprints.

Bonn S. got strong colors, and did some nice mixed colors. Browns and oranges is the perfect compliment to her chosen leaf shapes. She will incorporate this into her mixed media art. 

Cynthia B. is an excellent paper artist, who loves to experiment with new media, and this is one of her "background" papers layered with different colors and textures.

Mary S. has created art for a very long time and I just love her whimsy with everything she does. Painted landscape papers transferred onto fabric in brilliant colors, and I cannot wait to see  what she will add to them. Never tried this before but Mary transferred onto real bird feathers, and it also worked like a charm. Next day she gave me a card made from handmade paper and this feather. Think I will have to keep that for myself!

Esther B. worked on fabric. She is an art quilter and will use this for a special quilt. Colors are somewhat soft, but with outlines in stitching or paint, she will have a great beginning.

Candace T. worked with both fabrics and paper, and this will be used for her wonderfully creative mixed media pieces. I don't think there is much that needs to be added to this one, it has both depth and a 3D effect just like it is.                       

Cathie R. prefers paper I think, but had a good time with the fabrics as well. The circle is a used coffee filter, stained from coffee and then using the transfer paint to create a very detailed image. The black and white (paper) is one of my favorites, it looks like an old negative photograph. The ferns created beautiful shapes and overlays.

One more of Candace's creations, the design is from using a stencil with the paint. The transfer created a very neat fabric. Bright saturated colors.

Jane N. has a favorite color, I think it is green! She was very successful in mixing her yellow, blue and turquoise and got bright crisp green color. She used stencils and leaves as well as textured painted papers and had a small collection of  fabric pieces to work with later.

Janet B. also is an art quilter and was using fabrics for the transfer. Some of her colors were also soft, and this is mostly due to the heat on the iron. She did get a lot of detail, and can add detail with stitching.

Karen D.  mixed  some  really great green color, used some ferns, and other leaves, and now has several beautiful pieces of fabrics to work on. Strong colors and good proportions, these should be fun to finish.

We were so lucky to have a very large workspace for this workshop, and that makes everything easier. Great tasting pot luck lunch from all these women made it two very special days for me. I would love to go back. Now I cannot wait to dig into my paper stash and find out what I can do with it. The new heat press will get some use this week!