Weird and Wonderful Makes Great Art.

Annie Salness at work

Our 2015 Washington County Open Studios Tour artists are a diverse group of creative minds.  So, it’s not surprising that some of our artists create with some very weird materials. 

Here’s a little peek into some of the weird and wonderful materials our artists use in their art.

Both Amanda Houston, pastel artist and Susan Gallacher-Turner, ceramic artist are using copper in creative ways in their work.

 

Amanda Houston

Amanda explains how pastels and copper work together.  “With a love for copper and copper sculpture I tried using Copper as my surface ground to work on and spent about a year perfect a technique to get the pastel to stick to the copper. Pastel on copper is unique to me and I now produce about 30% of all my work on copper.  I also work on a variety of pastel papers and paint in the traditional format of oil on canvas.”

Susan Gallacher-Turner, porcelain mask

Susan weaves copper back into her work. “I love mixing media.  Over the years, I’ve worked in watercolor, acrylic, oils, pastel, copper sheeting, window screening, beads, fabric and now, porcelain.  I always think I’m done with a media and have moved only to have it creep back into my work.  Right now, I use leaves in my clay and add copper wire and window screening to my masks.”

Jo Reimer and Annie Salness creatively mix in vintage and salvaged pieces into their mixed media work and paintings.

 

Jo Reimer's studio

 Jo explains, ”I also use vintage office paper, old letter, notes and lists, my uncle’s old sheet music and 1918 collage yearbook as well as a few bits of commercial paper from the art store.”

“I like the roughness and unpredictability of salvaged wood,” says Annie Salness.  “ It’s a catalyst giving me variety in my mixed media work.”

These are just a few of the weird and wonderful ways to create that you’ll get to see on this year’s tour.  It’s October 17 and 18^th from 11 am to 5 pm and it’s FREE.  You can find a tour map and information on all of our 41 artists online at www.washcoart.org