Design, Interpretation and Inspiration at Art Van Go - part 2

 Kevin and Viv at the front of the shop and studios

We had a FAB 4 days at Art Van Go. It's a terrible place to teach - Coffee and tea are served regularly, lunch is arranged and chocolates are served in the afternoon just in case your blood sugar levels are falling!!! One of the great things for me is that there are always gorgeous paints and materials to play with that I haven't had a chance to discover before. The shop really is an Aladins cave. I also had a chance to see  a preview copy Gwen Hedley's new book Drawn to Stitch - it is fabulous - it will be out soon and I would recommend you get a copy as soon as you can.
 
 
I was amazed that in the short space of time since I last taught with Viv and Kevin that they have created a great garden down the side of the studio. I was thinking we could have great parties and barbeques there - Yeeha! there is plenty of room for students to sit out and enjoy the sunshine and there is excellent wheel chair access.

 prints from Jenny's blocks

 Lynne's flipped and mirrored design


After 4 days of very intense work the girls on the course produced some excellent work. I was very impressed with both the quality and amount of designs they produced. After they had taken sections from their original design sources printing blocks were made. some of the girls also tried flipping and mirroring one or two of their designs to great effect.

one of Sandy's designs flipped and mirrored

 Anne's design flipped and mirrored along with a print sample

Pam found it hard to work with curves after a life of working with straight lines, but look what she did . . . . 

Sue's positive and negative prints(left) and an over print using both blocks

On the 4th day the girls were encouraged to print and stitch into fabric. We had a good chat at the end of the course with a lovely show of the work. I can't wait to get back there to teach again. I will be adding next years workshops to my diary next week. I just need to confirm things with Viv.
Sharon's print in the process of being outlined with chain stitch

We all had such a great time. Viv and Kevin are wonderful hosts and along with all the help you get from their happy team, you cant fail to have fun there.


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