On Saturday, Sept. 22, I signed up for something a little different for me. Mary Beth Shaw paints textured abstracts that just blow me away, so I decided that it was time for me to play with some acrylic paint again. The name of this class was “More is Less.” We began with a gessoed substrate (bookboard for me, wood and clayboard for most others) and applied different textures with glue and stencils and a product she sells called “wood icing.”.Then we kept layering on a natural palette and more texture and voila! Some really great work came out of her classes.
Ricë told me that I could expect Mary Beth to be entertaining and funny. Those expectations were met! I highly recommend her classes.
This time I took quite a few photos.
A photo of me (imagine that!) and the beginnings of the panels. I picked some wild fennel seeds and stems in Benicia which is what I used for the texture in the bottom on the bottom right panel.
^How mine came out at the end. I was very pleased and not a little surprised.
^Classmates’ work.
^Other students playing!
Midway through this class I was overwhelmed with the possibilities of this playful, easy technique. I get like that. After being “on” for two days, I suddenly had to retreat and process it all. Otherwise, I would have and could have kept doing this for the rest of the evening, a choice which Mary Beth graciously extended to us.
slowly she turned 