Member Websites

See more of our artists' artworks on their individual websites:

• Jane Berke: http://www.janeberkeart.com/
• Jennifer Ferris: http://www.jenniferferrisart.com/
• Lorra Kurtz: http://www.lorrakurtz.com/
• Jennifer Slavik: www.jenniferslavik.com/

Great Food and Fun!

WoW! What a great group of talented artists. Thanks to Jane and Jennifer for keeping us organized. It was nice to see old faces and new. Lorra

Lunch and Meet and Greet today, August 15, 2012

Hey all artists/chicks!!
Great meeting today and great food!!

Thank you everyone for coming and for all the enthusiastic input. Hope to see everyone at the studio in the coming weeks.  Painted at the Coop last week...
Cheers,
Jane

The Chicks Encaustic Workshop

A few weeks ago, Kim, Jennifer and I took an encaustic workshop with Sherri Rae Broyles in Sandy Spring.  It was great to try and experiment with a new medium.  We learned that this requires an entirely different tool set – ventilation mask, masonite or wood cradle boards, plain wax, parafin (to clean brushes), demar (hardener), blow torch or heat gun.  To color the wax, you can use oil pastels, R & F Pigment sticks, oil sticks or oil paints.  You mix these in individual tins.  The great thing is that you can save the tins of color for another time.  You heat the tins on a big griddle.  The goal is to keep the colored wax at 180 degrees since wax gets toxic around 220 degrees.  The first step is to brush several clear coats on the board to achieve a smooth surface.  Then it is time to start layering, photo transferring, embedding, carving and more layering.  The more porous the materials you use the better.  Once you have completed the piece, you can use demar as a top coat.  It was a fun medium to learn although we just "scratched" the surface.  Thanks to Jennifer for organizing.

Lorra Kurtz

Thank you Jennifer!

A big Thank You to Jennifer for organizing & writing the agenda for our meeting today! I love painting at our Coop! My first painting at the Coop...Champagne Wardrobe!

It has been amazing painting at the Coop lately...such fun and so easy to stay focused and really accomplish a lot! At home there are so many distractions, but at the studio, it is just paint, paint, schmooze a bit with the other chicks and paint some more!! Attaching paintings I've worked on the last few days at our studio...

Getting Acclimated!!

It has been a challenge to get adjusted to painting in a new environment. We have spent the first two weeks cleaning and organizing our Coop and then, for those of us who are totally indecisive, trying to figure out where to paint...front room or back , near the air conditioner or not, by the east or west window...too many choices...overwhelming for some reason. Finally parked myself somewhere, began to paint in earnest and loved having a space to create with friends/ fellow painters.

The above photos are inspirations for future paintings. The mergansers above were one day visitors to our backyard lake...migrated in and were swiftly gone. Hope everyone will bring many photos and pages from favorite magazines to The Coop to form a "library" of sorts to inspire us all. I recently painted some flowers inspired by such a torn page and attach it here. The "flower pot" is made of burlap and the whole project was great fun! Looking forward to mingling ideas and "knowledge??"at The Coop.

"Goldfinch in Orange" by Jennifer Ferris

"Goldfinch in Orange"

by Jennifer Ferris

Mixed Media on board

3.5" x 3.5"

SOLD

Color Theory DVD

Kim and Jennifer painted at The Coop today, and had a visit from Jane.  Mary Jane also stopped by to say hello.  Jane had lunch at the new bakery Breadtime just down the street and said it was fabulous.

While painting, Kim and Jennifer discussed looking in to a color theory DVD for a group viewing.  Please post a comment if you are interested, if you have any suggestions on a color theory DVD, or any other DVD topics.  Setting up our own little “workshops” like this is only one of many advantages of painting as a group.  I am sure we will continue to discover many more!

Painted Door

Many thanks to Jane for painting the door!!!  It looks great!!!

Moving Day

Our move-in day finally arrived on March 1st, 2012 and we all worked to make The Coop our new "home" for painting with friends.