Artist's Workshop at the Oregon Coast

Last week I attended a four day painting workshop, hosted by WSO, at the breathtakingly beautiful Oregon coast town of Newport, nestled along the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Under the direction of Gale Webb, an inspiring painter who creates fun loving mixed media art, 25 of us artists painted, stamped, collaged and created to our hearts content.

collage paper

We made pretty collage papers using deli paper, black gesso and paint. We designed our own original stamps cut out of thin foam and carved from linoleum.

collage floral

For the above composition, I started out with a pink colored surface. Then added layers of vintage wallpaper,old magazines and paint letting parts of the pink background show through. Finally, I stamped on circle shapes to help weave different areas into one cohesive piece.

Even though I love painting little birds in trees and am sort of known for that, it's quite enjoyable to branch out to explore other subjects every so often. Lately, I've been revisiting the floral series. Flowers are what I love to subconsciusly doodle in places in the margins of writing journals and on note scraps. What do you doodle? Do you have a favorite shape or subject?

green blue abstract

Here's a sea greenish blue abstract painting, most likely inspired by the ocean beach scene right outside the workshop window, using my handmade circle stamp and deli collage paper.

This background was created once again by using handmade stamps, collage paper and along the bottom cutout shapes from an old dictionary page.

I hope you enjoyed this recent workshop review. Next time I'll take you on a short little tour along Nye Beach in Newport. And later on, us "girls" just wanted to have a little fun during our stay at the coast. Until next time, xoblenda