Dorothy Caldwell Extravaganza 2

The first Dorothy Caldwell workshop last week was called "Human Marks," in which we explored many ways of putting marks down.  We started with paper and india ink.

Here are our brush marks, put up on the wall together to make a "quilt" of marks.

Then we attached our brushes to long sticks to make the lines less controlled and predictable.  We experimented with pale ink washes and wet-into-wet.  There was a stiff breeze as we worked so some of the papers went skittering across the parking lot; a dish of ink overturned onto one of the paintings; mostly we liked the accidental effects.

Here are the finished papers on display.

We cut and folded the papers into stand-up accordion books.

Here's the best part -- when I took my book out of my bag at home to show my husband, I realized that it had a little red mark on its front cover.  I didn't put it there, and in fact I can't recall anybody in the room who was even using red.  But it's perfect!  Gives the book a very oriental flair, don't you think?