J. C. Campbell Class

It seems I've been burning the candle at both ends recently. Out of the last 24 days I've spend eight of those days at home. The at-homes days were scatter here and there. I've enjoyed teaching and my trip to Houston but am now paying for the stress with a sinus infections. Don't get me wrong I would do it all again I'm just feeling a little sorry for myself right now. (besides it's rainy and I always feel better on sunny days.)

This beautiful red oak tree decorates the parking log at the Fiber Studio on the Campus of J. C. Campbell Folk School. I have never been to Campbell when I wasn't inspired by its beauty.

The title of my class last week was "Personal Places: Portraits in the Landscape". This class combine two classes into one. A landscape class and a portrait class. Both are quite an undertaking for a week class but the two together makes for a very intense class. This group came through with flying colors. I'm going to break this post down into two or three sections. Today I'm going to post about the landscape sections.

I like to start this class with the landscape for several reasons. It is a simpler class than the portrait one and it also gives me a chance to see how each students works with fiber and how she/he sees fabric. It also provides a canvas for the portrait.

Susan C. chose a photo of her friend Ellen to create in fabric. Ellen's home is in a word "homey". She has wonderful antique pottery and furniture. She does a lot of quilting so Susan wanted to portray her doing just that.

Because I exchanged many emails with Susan before the class I knew that she had experience with landscapes. I asked her if she would like to begin her piece at home by working on the quilt in the photo. She did just that and gave herself a little hands-up on the project. Her quilt will show up later in photos to follow.

This piece is being worked on by Donna D. Donna wanted to make a portrait of her granddaughter. The setting is a lake that means a lot to their family. Donna seemed to start off a little slow and then I turned around and looked back and she had the whole forest finished.

Jane O. sent me a photo with three of her grandchildren included. I usually discourage more than one portrait in a beginning class but as long as the student realizes that they won't be able to get more than one made I don't object. Besides, I loved this photo and wanted to see Jane work on it.

The beach means a lot to Jane's family. The kids were sitting on steps that went down to the beach. The steps were out of focus and would have made a really interesting abstract background. However, Jane wanted to have the experience of making a landscape so we chose a scene from the beach. Jane will thread paint sea oats on the sand dune.

I've gotten too wordy and will post more later.