Missy
Prudden
BIO
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I was born in Denver Colorado and spent many childhood years in the outdoors, hiking, skiing, camping and enjoying our beautiful state. I was fortunate to have also done some traveling with my family. I settled in Woody Creek after college. Here I have indulged my creative spirit with many classes in art (pottery, painting, drawing, sewing, knitting journaling, writing, and photography). In addition I enrolled in all natural history classes so as to know about the flowers, birds, geology, and geography of this area and places where I travel.
I have been fortunate to have traveled many places, near and far, and always been inspired by the nature, culture, and friendships of the people I have met.
Journaling has become the best way for me to reflect on and document my experiences in travel and nature.
My love of watercolor started 30 years ago and has included classes and workshops with a variety of teachers including Dottie Fox, Sarah Peterson, Meredith Nemirov, Liz Frazier, and Maria Hodkins. Most of these classes have been through Anderson Ranch, The Art Base, The Red Brick, and Aspen Center for Environmental Studies.
I was an elementary and middle school teacher for twenty years. Nature journaling was always my special addition to the curriculum. After retirement I have spent time teaching adults watercolor and journaling through the Art Base, Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, the Basalt Library, and privately.
I have shown my work in Aspen at The Red Brick, The Aspen Chapel, the Art Base, and in Glenwood Springs. My journals have been exhibited at The Basalt Library.
In May 2014 I arrived in Bariloche as the first artist to participate in The Sister City Art Exchange. I was hosted by Paula Fischer and assisted by other artists including Valeria Fiala and Ingrid Roddick. I have been involved ever since and have hosted both Valeria and Ingrid. It is a journey of art and friendship between two cities in opposite seasons of the year.
Journaling
For travel & nature
Objective:
Using Journals to document and reflect on travel and nature through writing and art.
Procedure:
1. Discuss and show techniques for drawing painting and composition in Journals.
2. Share some examples of my work and work of other artists.
3. Take a nature walk around the grounds of Hotel Tronador while tuning into our senses and looking for stimulating places for journaling.
4. Demonstrate a sample page.
5. Sudents go out and settle into a place to work on their journal.
6. Regroup and share, and reflect on student’s work and experience.
Soledad Escudero
BIO
I was born in Bs As, Argentina in 1961. I studied printmaking at St Anne Fine Arts School in Buenos Aires, while attending Kenneth Kemble’s art studio.
In 1985 I settled in Bariloche, Patagonia, Argentina, and worked as an English and Art teacher.
Since 2010, I have attended seminars and workshops by renowned curators and artists, such as Claudio Ongaro Haelterman, Rodrigo Alonso, Florencia Battiti and Daniel Fischer, among others.
I have also performed in Musicals for children and taken drama lessons.
My work was shown in Bariloche many times, in Buenos Aires as well as various cities of Argentina, in Málaga, Spain and in Berlín, Germany where I was awarded the Lufthansa City Centre Prize.
I have also given lectures and workshops in Bariloche and performed in prívate and public venues.
I belong to the Artists’ Association in Bariloche and I’m involved in several groups of Artists such as “Tres a la deriva” (Three adrift), “5 en transito” and “Iceberg”.
As a cultural manager, with “Agua Viva” (a contemporary art platform) we organized seminars and workshops in Bariloche.
I couldn’t define myself as an artist in any specific discipline, drawing, painting, sculpture, installation or printmaking… although these last years I feel engaged in textile art and performance, connected to nature and the wild outdoors. I enjoy trekking in the woods and in the mountains that surround me.
I perform in search of a spiritual and physical connection with the natural world through scents, textures and sounds, becoming one with nature.
Contact:
IG: @escuderosoleu
Facebook: Soledad Escudero
Performance art
Interacting with nature
Objectives:
To question ourselves on the role we play in/together with nature, experiencing emotions as we blend in with it.
Encourage students to play and enjoy while working, with respect towards the environment. Walk around observing what they can find on the ground, (without cutting or destroying), in order to produce an ephimeral piece which will remain in its place until decay or natural destruction are done with it.
Procedure:
1) show the students some examples of art pieces by “land artists” for inspiration, such as Richard Long, Robert Smithson and Andy Goldsworthy.
2) Share some of my work, too.
3) Walk around in the woods, mountains, lake/river banks observing and feeling, with an open mind and heart, in order to find the right place for their piece.
4) Recolection of materials, leaves, stones, twigs, branches…
5) Getting to work
6) Share their experience with the group.
Amy G. Beidleman
BIO
As an artist, I find inspiration in the natural world around me. Most of my work is created through direct immersion in various outside activities such as hiking and skiing. My art is a reflection of my deep connection to the places I experience, their shapes, colors, and textures, and the way they make me feel.
Years ago, I was smitten with watercolor painting when I saw Winslow Homer’s work in a collection of greeting cards, notably “The Blue Boat”. I work primarily with watercolors because I love the way they capture the fluidity and vibrancy of nature. I am intrigued by the transformation of a blank piece of paper into a painted space I hope the observer would like to be for a moment.
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Painting watercolor for more than just a hobby was always a dream of mine until in 2010 when a friend offered to sell the paintings as cards in their Aspen store. Now I have my cards in numerous shops as well as a customized clientele line. I teach art workshops, sell paintings in several art shows a year and online, and do commission work for businesses and individuals as well as volunteer as a curator for the Aspen Chapel Gallery. For over 20 years, I was CFO of a couple local banks. I am mostly self-taught, continuously studying and taking classes. When I took a workshop from Alvaro Castagnet, I learned the joy of being able to do two loves at once, painting while being outside or Plein-air painting. I have also studied with other well-known watercolorists such as Andy Evansen, Thomas Schaller as well as with our wonderful local artists. I have been in Aspen since 1978. My husband Neal and I have two children, Finn and Reed.
I support a number of non-profit organizations through the creation of artwork and donations of cards and sharing the joy of painting through teaching. Some of those charities I have workshops and art events with are ACES, Anderson Ranch, Aspen Chapel Gallery, Explore Booksellers, High Mountain Hut in Telluride, Independence Pass Foundation, Red Brick Center of the Arts in Aspen, Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers, and The Art Base and now the Sister Cities Program.
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FB – Amy Gilbertson Beidleman
Instagram - @amybeidleman
LANDSCAPES
Bringing the great outdoors In
Objectives:
The objective of this class is for the students to learn how to take their inspiration from what they see outside and create art by drawing, painting or with mixed media in the studio. Spending quiet time outside in nature is a gift to be enjoyed and helps to ground us. Learning how to capture that essence through art, further enhances that experience. Working with photographs, students will learn how to visually simplify and edit the image while designing the composition of their art, utilizing shapes, value, and color. What a thrill – to make visual poetry from nature = art!
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Procedure:
We will start first by walking outside and looking at the landscape, discussing how to translate inspiration or feeling into a vision. What are the skills that you can develop to better focus and how can you better notice what you see? What are the various compositions available?
Once inside and utilizing the photograph provided (we will work on the same image together) we will create thumbnail sketches or vignettes to determine composition using lines and shapes. Focusing on what interests you in these little studies is an amazing way to capture a vision helping you to better see. We will do a couple of exercises to explore the concept of value.
Color – the emotion of a piece of art –will be discussed how it shows warm versus cool tones in your work. We will learn how to be aware of common pitfalls of nature drawing. We will address how do you know when your piece is complete.
We will briefly discuss making art outside (Plein air) and recommended tools for those of you that might be interested. Plein air is a two for one experience - spending time outside in nature and creating art.
Ingrid Roddick
BIO
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I studied printmaking at La Plata National University graduating with a 5 year degree and, as a professor. I'm also an elementary school teacher. I've shown my work in Bariloche, a few cities in Argentina and also my artists´ books in Uruguay, Chile, Peru and Spain. I've had individual shows, been selected in group shows, salons and art fairs, I've also worked on commissions. My work illustrated articles in the Kansas Philharmonic Field journal “Grasslands of the World” in 2015. I've received awards in Bariloche and also in Río Negro province.
I work as an artist and I´ve been a professor at a Teachers College 28 years. I'm also active in different groups, “Asociación de Artistas Plásticos de Bariloche”, “Tres a la deriva” and “Iceberg patagonia"
In 2018 I travelled to Aspen, CO, EEUU as part of the Sister Cities Exchange staying with Missy Prudden and in 2019 helped host Reina Katzenberger´s trip to Bariloche and also Deborah Jones´ in 2022.
I frequently teach walking and mapping workshops, they are always different depending on the place and the people attending them. I had the pleasure of giving one in 2019 at the Art Base in Basalt Co.
I was born in the States, but I've lived in Argentina since I was 11 years old. I grew up with maps, books, knitting and embroidery; these objects are part of my everyday life and my artwork. I love making maps; through them I represent sense of place and belonging. Psyco geography has do to with this aspect of maps, how environment affects us and how this information ~and also emotions can be represented. I love travelling, especially by car as a copilot; I take pictures and draw while we drive. “Without sense of belonging, there are no distances, and without distances, there is no true journey", says Martin Kohan when writing about Walter Benjamin. Those distances sometimes have to do with emotions or just looking with “new eyes”.
MAPPING
sensitive cartography
“You are here… are you? Attentiveness when walking through nature”
Objectives:
Represent and communicate in different ways our experience of walking through nature experimenting with symbols and maps.
Procedure:
1. We´ll take a nature walk in the area of Hotel Tronador, attentive not only to what we see, but also what we hear, smell and touch, maybe also taste!
2. Through books and maps, observe strategies that maps have to represent different information.
3. Analyze maps made by artists and discuss their work. The artists include some from Argentina, and I will also show some of my own pieces.
4. Make our own maps being mindful of our personal experience during the nature walk.
5. Share our maps and what we became aware of during the workshop.