Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

On a recent visit to my home town, Townsville in North Queensland, I was really happy and super impressed to discover an arty place I hadn't heard of before...Renegade Handmade.  I visited this delightful  "handmade"  gift shop on a Saturday morning. It was  23 July 2016 - a warm day for Winter. The arcade was abuzz with people indulging in coffee and snacks, shopping at the fresh food market  and browsing and  enjoying  the various trendy and bespoke shops in the arcade. This scene was hardly the Townsville of my childhood and I am embarrassed to admit  that it surprised me that the atmosphere was so cosmopolitan , contemporary and "with-it". I applaud Renegade Handmade for its vision for both the shop and the markets - to offer "opportunities for makers to mix with shoppers in an environment that is supportive and nurturing of handmade."   That nurturing support was obvious - the art was well displayed, presented with style and ...

I am ashamed to say that It's been  a month since I returned from Townsville where I thoroughly enjoyed a week's workshop with Sherrill Kahn, celebrated artist and author, and I am just getting around to reviewing my photos.  The  sample of Sherrill's work pictured above is a good example of the art techniques and composition and design principles we learnt.   Having been inspired by Sherrill's  books prior to the workshop,  I had doubts about whether I had chosen the right class.as I have had very little experience with paint. However, I soon found myself experimenting with so many different techniques both on paper and fabric. Sherrill gave us many demonstrations over the five days, and we had plenty of time to try each technique ourselves. I have a pile of great samples! One of  my favourite techniques was to use inexpensive hair gel with paint .... this is still a work in progress, but I am working on this for th...