Artist Studio Series: Katherine

Posted on July 29, 2014 by lksukany

I went to the Katherine Strause art exhibition Arkansas Homemakers: Home Demonstration and Extension Clubs at the Arkansas Studies Institute Butler Center Galleries. There is a piece about this Katherine Strause art exhibition in The Arkansas Times.

I haven’t actually met Katherine Strause in person, but I did feel like I met her here through her art. I was immediately wowed by her paintings – the color, composition, brush strokes, and paint application.

There were so many details I like about Arkansas Homemakers: Home Demonstration and Extension Clubs .

I liked the paint application on the butterfly woman’s face in “4H” as well as the flowers at the bottom right corner of the painting.

I liked the paint application of the foliage on “Home Demonstration Agent.”

I loved the dress pattern on “Feeding Scratch.”

Speaking of loving dress pattern, there were so many great dress patterns in “Does Anyone Still Wear a Hat.” I also really liked the stylistic portraits.

In “Bow and Arrow” the paint application is excellent. The color scheme in this painting and the pinks are delightful. Also the color and patterns on the dress are great.

Specifically, the compositional element of how the yard tools cross on “Smoke” caught my attention.

Because I am a fan of ladies aprons, I liked “Subversives.”

I really enjoyed myself!

Katherine Strause Artist Studio

I contacted Katherine Strause shortly after experiencing the delights of her work. She accepted my Facebook friend request! I asked her if I could post about her show and if she was interested in showing her artist studio. She said yes!!!

Katherin Strause Studio – Katherine writes about her studio below.

“My favorite part of the studio is the isolation. It’s in the attic so only occasionally is there an interruption.”

“I usually have old movies on a little TV. The studio is only used as the studio.”

“My routine would be: have a looming deadline, search for images to use, stretch canvas, prime etc., draw and trace to get images onto the canvas, paint but try not to overpaint which is the hardest part.”

You can see more of Katherine Strause art on her website at www.katherinestrause.com or strause.wordpress.com.

Art for an Anniversary

Posted on July 25, 2014 by lksukany

M and I have been going to the Mary’s Homegroup with Grace Church since 2011. Doug and Sue Mary work with Family Life and so their specialty is marriage studies. They have been great to M and I and have invested their time and prayers in the lives of the couples under their leadership. The Mary’s have been supportive of my art, even coming to my University of Arkansas at Little Rock Master of Arts exhibition in December 2012.

They have been supportive of my mission trip to Romania in June 2014.

I fact, they have us in their home every two weeks providing dinner and a space to spiritually grow.

Their 40th anniversary was this year on July 18th and I wanted to do something that would be special for them. I asked them to send me a picture of their wedding day.

I started working on a painting for them.

Once finished, M and I went to their house to deliver their anniversary painting.

Happy Anniversary Doug and Sue Mary! Thanks for all you do for your community.

Printmaking Workshop Part III

Posted on July 10, 2014 by lksukany

In the Printmaking Workshop Part II, we left everyone’s linoleum block carved, stored, and ready to print.

I covered the tables with paper and handed out (with my lovely assistant Barbara Jones) printing paper, envelopes, palette paper for ink, ink, brayers, wooden spoons, paper towels, stamps, and an ink pad.

Everyone put their aprons back on and I gave an inking and printing demonstration.

The printing process just took some getting used to, but everyone did a great job! They rolled the ink on the palette paper (which next time, I would just use cardboard strips instead of palette paper because the palette paper is pretty thin and shifts a lot when rolling out the ink). They rolled the inked brayer evenly onto their carved linoleum blocks, and transferred their image using a wooden spoon (rubbing the back of the paper on top of the block using the flat of the wooden spoon).

Once the prints were a bit dry, they stamped inside of their cards.

I had 4 out of 12 participants finish their blocks the whole way through.

Some of the finished prints!

We took our “artist” picture together.

Photos: Courtesy of Jessica Zimmerman Belote

Printmaking Workshop Part II

Posted on July 8, 2014 by lksukany

I made it to Romania with my suitcase full of supplies.

In Printmaking Workshop Part I, I talked about the supplies needed for the printmaking/artisan card making workshop. Now I had arrived, and I was ready to teach how to make prints, and had willing and eager participants. I even had some guys in my class, which was a great surprise!

I (and my assistant Barbara Jones) handed out everyone’s aprons (courtesy of Sara Bowyer, Stephanie Sue McDonald Baker, Beckie Sudduth, Maryann Baroody, Anita Davis, Mindy Clark, and Denise Nesbitt), drawing pencils (2b), erasers, pencil sharpeners, transfer pencils (6b), sharpie markers, drawing paper, tracing paper, linoleum blocks, and linoleum cutters.

I instructed participants to draw the outline of the linoleum block and to draw an image inside of the block outline on their drawing paper. For those who were not comfortable drawing, I had some drawings made up that they could trace.

Once they drew their images, they transferred them to tracing paper.

They flipped the drawing on the tracing paper to transfer the pencil marks onto the linoleum block.

Once the image was backwards on the linoleum block, they went over their image using a sharpie marker.

At this point I demonstrated the proper way to cut (away from your hand and yourself at all times). I assisted in cutting.

Once everyone’s blocks were cut, we cleaned up our work space and stored the finished blocks for the next session (the printing).

Photos: Courtesy of Jessica Zimmerman Belote

Printmaking Workshop Part I

Posted on June 18, 2014 by lksukany

I am leaving for 10 days on a trip to Mures, Romania. I am going with a group from Grace Church to serve the orphans at Livada.

While there, I will be working as a summer camp group leader helping to create new and happy memories with the kids from the state group homes. We will be visiting the kids that are at risk of abandonment who live in the nearby Gypsy villages.

I also have an amazing opportunity to teach a printmaking – artisan card making – workshop (with the assistance of a translator) to a group of 10 girls over 16 years old. The girls often send out cards to their sponsors and to help with fundraising, so I will teach them to make their own cards!

To prepare for this trip, I ordered and packed the following supplies.

Supply List
Block Printing Supplies
14 Block Print Ink – Black (1lb) all other colors (1.25 oz) – silver, violet, turquoise blue, white, yellow, green, brown, gold, magenta, orange, blue, and red.
5 Linocutterset (comes with 2 handles and 6 cutters)
5 Soft Rubber Brayers 3inch
4 Artist Working Knife (for spreading and mixing ink)
2 Palette Pads 9×12 50 sheets
14 Mounted Linoleum Block 5×7
4 Mounted Linoleum 4×6
10 wooden spoons (for printing)
1 pack of cardstock (for printing on cards)
1 pack of envelopes
trash bags
hand cleaner – soap
small plastic cups (for water and clean up)
papertowels
working aprons (hand sewn and donated by friends in my community)
stamp letters and ink pad (for message inside the card)

Drawing and Transfer Supplies
10 Pencil Sharpeners
20 Drawing Pencils (10 of each 2 b and 6b)
2 derwent Inktense Pencil Black
10 White Plastic Erasers
5 Sharpie Black
1 Stainless Steel Ruler 18in (for taring paper)
2 Newsprint Pad 9×12 50 sheets
2 Drawing Pad 9×12 80lb 50 sheets
1 Tracing Pad 9×12 25lb 50 sheets
1 package of white card stock paper 110lbs
1 box of 6 9 envelopes

I am bringing also a sample block already carved and some print samples.

I have packed the workshop in a suitcase a little under 50 pounds.

When I return, I will blog about the specifics of the printmaking – artisan card making – workshop, and any art, music, or writing experiences I have along the journey!

Paper Opera

Art, music, and stories.

Tag Archives: #art adventures