Blog: Syracuse

Photos of the Color Crush Workshop OOAK in Syracuse, NY

WOW …what an amazing 3-day Workshop organized by OOAK and held by my sweet friend Birgit Koopsen and me.

Color Crush was the name of the workshop and 21 super sweet, sharing, caring and fun students joined us for this retreat!

Friends attended, Friends were made and

the first day was all about color theory and exercises to work with color and get it really down :)

It was a great date with color and pattern

and even if some of the exercises forced some of our wonderful students to get out of their comfort zone…the spirit was upbeat and color crushing.

Look at all these smiling happy faces.

The second day was all about …well Color of course but also Mono Printing. Because knowing your colors really helps getting the results you want.

We marbled …and…

we mono print painted just a little bit…since this is usually a full day class.

And created fun backgrounds. And for some …it was the very first time mono printing- YEAHHH.

We composed some beautiful collage material and made some cleaning tasks artful and enjoyable ;)

And late in the evening of day two, when all the students were gone to dinner …Birgit and I sneaked in to have a happy look at this colorful classroom. We might have been like little kids in the candy store seeing all the work.

On the third day we bound an art journal together out of all the single pages we worked on so far and started finishing up some of the pages

It was pretty cool to see the group combining Birgit’s and my techniques with their own style- so inspiring and stimulating!

Look at the well used ArtFoamies and StencilGirl Stencils!

And here is our group – minus two who had to leave earlier – with their favorite pages in their art journal!

Thank you so much for coming to Birgit’s and my Color Crush workshop. It was a real pleasure to spend so much time with you creative souls and get to know you better! You inspired me a lot and I couldn’t wait to get back into my studio, it was such an uplifting time. Thank you also to Shelley from OOAK and her awesome team for inviting us and organizing this great event! And last but not least a big hug to my friend Birgit – love co-teaching with you and looking forward to our new plans ;)

Hope you enjoyed the photos of this workshop! If you want to know where I teach next- check out my In-Person Class Schedule – in the next couple weeks.

Nat

Comments (10)

  • Linda Fernandes-Bailey

    |

    great three days of fun and learning and friendship and food….love all these photos! Thank you

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

      |

      It was so wonderful to have you Linda- and you rocked the class – you are my stitching queen ;) Thank you for coming!

      Reply

  • Mary Harrell

    |

    Thanks to you and Birgit for a fun and artsy weekend!!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

      |

      Thank you so much for coming Mary! It was such a pleasure to have you and spent time with you!

      Reply

  • Sherry Canino

    |

    Thank you so much for such a fun and creative weekend !! xoxo

    Reply

  • sunmoongal

    |

    Looks like so much fun! Love all the art

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

      |

      It was so much fun- you would have loved it a lot denise!!! Hope you are well!

      Reply

  • Birgit Koopsen

    |

    <3 <3 <3

    Reply

Leave a comment

Art Stroll: Making Modern at MFA Boston

kalbachmfamakingcollage

When I was in Boston a couple months ago to visit my friend Julie Fei Fan Balzer we went to the MFA in Boston and saw the Making Modern Exhibition. The exhibition explored “what it meant to be in the vanguard of Modern art in the 20th century. Modern artists working in the Americas were influenced by a variety of contemporaries, teachers, rivals, and friends. Incorporating diverse sources of inspiration, 20th-century painters took their artistic practice in dramatic new directions.”

kalbachmfamaking02

Georgia O’Keeffe, Calla Lily on Grey, 1928 – Oil on Canvas. O’Keeffe was influenced in the composition of this piece by her teacher Wesley Dow who taught that artists should not copy from nature, but rather capture nature through the exploration of composition with elements like lines and colors.

kalbachmfamaking03

Marsden Hartley, Arrangement – Hieroglyphics (Painting No. 2), 1914 – Oil on Canvas. Hartley who lived in Germany between 1913 and 1915 was deeply inspired by Native American art which he encountered at Berlin’s ethnographic museum and also by artist Wassily Kandinsky. I do love his frame, a perfect sample how artist often made frames being part of their artwork.

kalbachmfamaking04

Stuart Davis, Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors- 7th Avenue Style, 1940 – Oil on Canvas. Davis painted this in his studio in Greenwich Village and it was as he said himself a “product of everyday experience in the new lights, speeds, and spaces fo the American environment” I love the colorful energetic composition and it does speak 1940s-jazz-time-NYC to me.

kalbachmfamaking05

Stuart Davis, Adit, No. 2, 1923 – Oil on Canvas. Davis visited Paris in 1928 and this painting is inspired by the urban landscape of Paris.

kalbachmfamaking06

In the 1920s and 1930s Artists and designers tried to capture the excitement, the speed, the intrigue and surprising loneliness of urban life, in their paintings, music, writings, fashion and furniture.

I love love everything in the above picture- can I have this in my living room, please!

kalbachmfamaking07

Edward Hopper, Drug Store, 1927 Oil on Canvas. This painting conveys an eerie nocturnal solitude through the brilliance of electric light. It is slightly discomforting.

kalbachmfamaking08

Walter Augustus Simon, 715 Washington Street Greenwich Village, 1947 Oil on canvas with additional Mixed Media. Simon lived in this building as a student and later with his family. It shows the intimate space with the ground level shops, failings, walls and fire escapes.

kalbachmfamaking09

Eldzier Cortor, Room No. V, 1948 Oil on Masonite. Cortor build up the painted surface with delicate skins of color that suggest cracked walls. He also chose the distressed and old frame with this painting.

kalbachmfamaking10

I love the visual and actual texture in this painting.

kalbachmfamaking11

Eldzier Cortor, Environment, 1947 Oil on board. Cortor extends the thickly painted rooftop patched by newspapers and other items into our space.

kalbachmfamaking12

Amazing!

kalbachmfamaking14

Hans Hofmann, Swamp Series II – Autumnal Glory, 1957 -Oil on canvas. Hoffmann once said ” A picture should be made with feeling, not with knowing. The possibilities of the medium must be sensed. Anything can serve as a medium …” He taught his students to layer color and form, creating as in this painting, movement and depth.

kalbachmfamaking16

Jackson Pollock, Troubled Queen, 1945 -Oil and alkyd on canvas. Pollock was familiar with Picasso’s early works, which often display masklike treatment of heads and interpenetration of figure and ground. This painting also marks a transitional moment in Pollocks career as he already moves toward the “drip” paintings for which he later becomes most known. I love this sample of where inspiration from another artist meets a different artists’ own interpretation and style.

kalbachmfamaking21

I really loved this exhibition and its attempt to explore what influenced and inspired the work of those artists. It is amazing to see the connection between old ideas and new ideas, surroundings and Zeitgeist and how new movements are being born. It is what makes art so incredibly interesting and provides such a trove of inspiration while taking an Art Stroll.

I hope you enjoyed this Art Stroll as much as I did!

Nat

Comments (3)

  • JoAnn

    |

    Thank you so much for sharing – JoAnn

    Reply

  • Joi@RR

    |

    Many of the designs in these and the buildings (of course) remind me of your art Nat. Thanks so much for sharing – I always enjoy your art walks! j.

    Reply

    • Mary Jane Huth

      |

      Thanks so much I love all your art walks! It’s soo great to see all the amazing art from all over the world!

      Reply

Leave a comment