Mira M. White Art News

Sunday, February 3, 2019

About my Workshops

I need to talk for a bit about my workshops.

I conduct a variety of them: encaustic, soft pastel, oil and cold wax, mixed media

In all of them I am focussed on introducing processes and methods of working.

The variety of mediums all require slightly different approaches. I am a materials girl. I am not concerned with having people work like me. In fact, I would prefer that they do not.

It is wonderful to come to a workshop to learn about a process. It is doubly wonderful to leave with a finished product. Does that always happen. No.

I believe that to bring artworks to completion requires time and a gestation period. Workshops are periods of new learning and immersion. We often don't know how to bring works to completion for months, sometimes years.

A great number of artists conduct workshops. And other artists take workshops to get inspired or to learn another artists technique- to pick their brains, so to speak.

It is a dilemma. I spend years working on a method of working. Teaching it exposes it to the public and offers it for " sacrifice". I spent years developing my graphite work, did not share it or teach it- and then I did- what happened was I saw lots of pseudo mira's being produced. It's hard-- Where does ego leave and generosity of spirit remain?

We live in a tumultuous time in which everything is photographed, mimicked and copied. We strive to make ourselves known. I cannot compete with artists who have a formula for producing a "finished product."

I do not know what else to say....

Saturday, November 10, 2018

The Abstract Beauty of Black ( and all the shades of Grey) Workshop

We were a small but mighty group! 4 wonderful participants.
First Day:
1.Large Black gesso and Sumi Ink studies on lengths of butcher paper and large drawing paper( I got great paper on Amazon by Bee- 5 yards @36" wide-- and rag!)
2. Then we proceeded to work outside with charcoal powder and buckets of water. Wonderful, wild effects, but very messy ( images follow)

Second Day was devoted to exploring possibilities with Graphite Powder
Third Day began with a group process in which everyone worked on everyone's 8"x8" 8 ply museum board. I photographed a couple of the combinations. Remainder of the day devoted to finishing works- Here is a random sampling:

Melinda Di Sessa

D
Kaia Dercum

Group process

David Woodward

Cheryl Cahn

Group at Work

Studio

Sunday, June 3, 2018

More pics from my Wondrous Wax Workshop in Mendocino, May 2018

More Paint

Dear Mendocino

The color set up

Our Wax Paint Heating Up

The First Day

Demo/ Marion

Marilyn at work

Group Supplies

Sharon at work

A moment during graphite pours

Graphite Pour results

Linda at work

A Moment during graphite pours

Cheryl at work

Saturday, June 2, 2018

My Wondrous Wax Encaustic Workshops: An Update

Hi there,

I am finally getting here to post some process images from a number of my encaustic workshops- those included are from November 2017, March 2018 and, just finished, May 2018. Here goes: