Welcome to Mixed Media Studio with Chris Watts. Over this 2-day weekend workshop, Chris will introduce you to the many materials she uses in her home studio to create abstract art. She'll teach you how and when to use these tools as your art pieces develop, pairing materials, tools, and processes with a focus on your individual vision -- exploring and experimenting as you go.
As you arrive, you'll receive a free starter kit to use and take home. During the workshop you'll watch short instructional videos and instructor demos, then dive in.
Chris will start you with mark-making tools -- charcoal, specialty pens and pencils, inks, oil pastels, crayons, and more. Together you'll create collage papers -- drawn, painted, and printed with and without a gel plate using new techniques and unusual papers. For those interested, Chris will teach you hands-on how to carve your own linocut stamps, and you'll have access to her stamps plus commercial and handmade stencils throughout the weekend.
 
As the work develops, Chris will show you how to apply and manipulate water-based paints in unexpected ways, push oil pastels beyond their typical uses, and work with both transparent and opaque collage papers -- she brings boxes and boxes for your use. You'll also learn to create and weave asemic writing into your compositions as an expressive layer.
 
Throughout the weekend, Chris will be right beside you, helping you find exciting and often unexpected solutions.