Welcome to The Aristocrats
“Al a Carte”
I am breaking up my class “The Aristocrats” in to mini classes! First up… 'The Dame”. My personal fav!
A cut and paste mixed media class for all
I am thrilled you are here and are ready to join me on this creative journey into the art of collage! I started fooling around with art 10 years ago all because of an art therapy session. If you’ve ever had any sort of psychotherapy you may have been encouraged by a therapist to fill a tool box with positive copings skills when life gets hard. My tool box is overflowing with art supplies! After 10 years of numerous online classes, YouTube’s, books, lots of practice and epic fails I still practice art primarily for mental health. Art lifts us up and is an excellent outlet for emotions in all forms and mediums.
All my life I have loved re-arranging things to make them new and different. Collage became the pinnacle outlet for this passion in taking something existing and retelling it through artistic expressionism.
In these mini’s I am celebrating my love for the aristocratic women I love to watch on TV and Film. I am a huge sucker for any BBC/PBS show or series featuring British debutantes. I cannot remember how many times I’ve watched Pride and Prejudice. And it has to be the one with Colin Firth;). I almost re-named the Duchess, Daphne, after watching Netflix’s Bridgerton! I loved Downton Abbey until they killed Charles!!! Why???? I was enthralled with Phillipa Gregory’s historical fiction The White Queen and the television series to boot. These ladies did not necessarily live a quality life at all. Don’t get me started on the Boleyn sisters or Game of Thrones! I also love the villainous queens like the White Witch from Narnia, Maleficent with Angelina Jolie and Charlie Theron as Queen Ravenna in Snow White and The Huntsman. I could go on and on but I won’t or I’ll lose you:). I am also a hopeless romantic and that peeks through my art often and most definitely manifests in lesson 3 with The Dame. So please do find your inner nobility, leave the present for a little while and IMAGINE your Empress, Duchess and Dame. And always remember art is for fun! Don’t take yourself too seriously. I surely don’t and that’s what makes it a joyful practice.
In these mini’s I will be sharing my techniques with collage on canvas with my beloved Venetian plaster. This ancient medium creates a unique texture and combined with acrylic inks and glazes it becomes something truly marvelous.
The ladies we will be creating in this class are posh and elegant. Each one carries her own aristocratic title. We will use royalty free photographs of women and recreate them in dreamy collages with eclectic details ranging from modern, black raspberry dreadlocks to a more classic, genteel debutante. We will transform the girls infusing strength and beauty and integrate them in dramatic scenes with a touch of romanticism. So let’s get started!
Love Kate!