Studio Sunday-More Inspiration from Mike Gold

Mike Gold's Contemporary Scripts workshop for Masscribes was full of inspiration. I went with some trepidation as I hadn't taken a calligraphy workshop since 1988 and rarely work on calligraphy for more than a few hours at a time. There was nothing to be concerned about. I'm not sure why I had a picture of myself glued to a table and not moving from 9 AM to 5 PM. There was lots of instruction and demonstration and we worked in concentrated bits of about an hour at a time. Mike was a fabulous teacher. He was teaching attitude and approach more than technique. He said, "Don't just make letters. Make art." He was generous, thoughtful, and kind. I had such a good time!

And the good times continue back home in the studio. I spent a couple of hours yesterday playing with a ruling pen and ink with pastel highlights to make this piece for the postcard show at the Newburyport Art Association. I picked up my 5" x 7" piece of heavy watercolor paper a few weeks ago at the NAA and will be delivering it today. All of the postcards will be on display starting November 28. Each sells for $30. and the artist will only be revealed after purchase.

The postcard was inspired by an exercise Mike gave us using black paper with white gouache (my tablemate Sharon Eisman was so kind to share her supplies, I came with only black and brown) and pastel highlights. Our instruction was to use Roman letters and play with their arrangement, angle, etc. Here's Mike demonstrating:

And here are the pieces I did at the workshop:

I look forward to working more with material from the workshop and sharing it with you.