Upcoming Workshops at Portland Pottery
Maureen Mills:
Slip and Resist Decorating
Techniques
This
workshop will cover a variety of slip and resist decoration
techniques – singly and in combination, to alter surface
appearance and color. Students need to bring a piece of
leather hard high fire stoneware, sponges and brushes.
Maureen has an MFA from the University of Nebraska, teaches
at the Manchester Institute of Art, owns the Pottery at
Strawberry Banke and has a book on Ceramic Surface Design
scheduled to be published in July of
2008.
Saturday
July 12th 1-5PM $60
Chris
Archer:
Moving Beyond the Jar: Glaze Formulation at Cone
5/6
Chris
will discuss basic glaze chemistry and glaze formulation
processes for potters working at cone 5/6. He will
demonstrate how to make triaxial blends, line blends, how
to use a triple beam scale, and discuss safety
considerations for working with glaze materials. This is
the perfect workshop for high school teachers who wish to
move beyond opening a jar of glaze for their students and
for those studio potters who always wanted to develop their
own signature glazes. Chris teaches at the New Hampshire
Institute of Art and is an exhibiting
artist.
Saturday
July 26th 1-5PM $60
Tacha
Vosburgh:
Painting the Fire - Sagger Firing and Terra
Sigillata
Serendipity
– the by-word of pots licked by flame to bring out wondrous
colors and effects on the clay surface. Students will need
to bring a bisque fired pot, no larger than a soup bowl to
fire. We will learn how to work with Terra Sigillata and
the sagger fire process. Tacha received her BFA from the
Maine College of Art and has been teaching workshops, doing
glaze and firing research and exhibiting since 1975. She
has also had her work published in American Crafts,
Ceramics: Art and Perception and in Pomegranates, Mirrors
& Meanings: Ruminations on the Women’s Clay Movement.
Saturday
August 9th 1-5PM $60
If
you have any questions, please give us a call at
207.772.4334 or visit our website at
www.portlandpottery.com
posted 6-26-08 PMA Biennial
DOWNLOAD ENTRY FORM
HERE
DOWNLOAD ENTRY FORM
HERE
posted
6-4-08
HAND-MADE POTTERY FOR
SALE AT:
PORTLAND
POTTERY’S ANNUAL SIDEWALK SALE & OPEN
HOUSE
Portland,
ME. . . Portland
Pottery and Metalsmithing Studio is hosting its Annual
Sidewalk Sale & Open House beginning
Friday June
6th from 9am –
8pm. Come check
out great pots, get a tour of our studio, watch pottery
demonstrations, and enjoy some refreshments! The fun
also continues on Saturday June
7th from
9am-5pm.
A
portion of the proceeds from this event will benefit The
Roots Cellar. For more information and/or photographs
call Portland Pottery at 772.4334
posted
5-8-08 COMMON GROUND FAIR POSTER CONTEST
Each
year, MOFGA hosts an artwork contest to find an
illustration that captures the essence of the Common Ground
Country Fair. The winner gets $1000, as well as the
satisfaction of seeing her/his creation on posters and
t-shirts all over Maine and beyond! We chose the artwork
for 2008 last August. Grace Keown, of Dixmont, won that
contest with her illustration of a red barn and hayfield.
The contest is open only to Maine residents and MOFGA
members (regardless of residence). If you are not yet a
MOFGA member,
click here to join.
Welcome!
Artists may submit two entries. All entries must arrive in
the MOFGA office by 4 p.m. on Friday, August 8, 2008. We
generally make the final selection in August but it may
take us a couple of months so be prepared to leave your
submission(s) with us in the MOFGA office for a while.
MOFGA will retain full rights to the winning design.
MOFGA will feature the winning design on the 2009 Fair
poster, t-shirt and promotional literature. A profile of
the artist will appear in this newspaper. MOFGA also sends
out a press release focusing on the artist and the artwork.
In addition to these promotional benefits, the winning
artist receives $1,000.
While we do not want to discourage creativity in any way,
we do want you to be aware that the Artwork Selection
Committee disqualifies many absolutely outstanding works of
art simply because they do not fit our technical
requirements. The Committee considers how artwork will look
on a poster, a t-shirt, and other Fair promotional
materials and merchandise. Artwork must be beautiful as
well as practical for it to work as our poster/T-shirt
design.
Here are some suggestions on how to make sure your
submission will be usable:
- Do not use crosshatching as shading - Very, very fine pen lines, spaced closely together in a crosshatching technique, are not cleanly reproducible on cloth. Unlike paper, t-shirt fabric is textured. The fineness of detail achievable is therefore limited in comparison to what can be achieved on the smooth surface of paper.
- Stay away from large geometric borders - Frames or borders using large geometric shapes, which must be precisely controlled during printing, will often become skewed or distorted on fabric. T-shirt fabric is not dimensionally stable like paper, therefore during the printing and handling process the material will shift and large geometric shapes become distorted.
- Avoid watercolors - Soft gradations of color, such as what is seen in watercolor-work, are exceedingly difficult to reproduce in the T-shirt screen-printing process. Screen-printing as a technique is a stenciling process that relies on modulating the density of a spatter pattern of fairly large flecks of color to simulate gradations of color. The spatter flecks make watercolor reproduction onto a T-shirt inexact. When possible we will avoid selecting watercolors as winning entries.
- Don't use too much white - The Fair T-shirts are printed on colored fabric; they are not printed on white. Thus, whenever white or pale tints of color are used in original artwork, white ink must be printed on the shirt. All of the subtleties of pale color seen in original artwork will not be reproducible on Fair shirts.
- Dimensions should be roughly the same - Entries definitely do not have to be exact squares, but your submission should be pretty close in height and width dimensions. Panoramic artwork does not fit well on our shirts.
Applications for the Artwork Contest are posted below and available by contacting the Fair office at cgcf@mofga.org or 207-568-4142.
If you would like us to return your submission by mail, please include either $5.00 (regular mail) or $10.00 (registered mail), along with adequate packaging. If you would like your piece insured when we send it back to you, please call the office to determine what extra charge will need to be assessed.
Below are links for downloading guidelines and the application form for the contest.
- Artwork Contest Cover Letter (Word doc)
- Artwork Contest Guidelines (Word doc)
- General Guidelines for Participating in the Fair
- Artwork Contest Application (PDF)
call for artists
posted 2-26-08 Portrait Group
There is a new portrait group that will be meeting every 4th Thursday in the Stroudwater area. The first session will be on Thursday Feb 28 from 10-1. There will be a clothed model present. The cost will be 10.00 per session. This is not a workshop and no instruction is offered but I'm sure there will be plenty of helpful advice available if needed. Bring a lunch. For more information and directions to the location contact Donald Drake at ddrake3@maine.rr.com. Don is a board member of Pastel Painters of Maine but all media are welcome in this group. You can also contact SEA member Kay Daughan at da38902@yahoo.com
posted 12-8-07 CALL for ARTISTS
Call for artists: High traffic healthcare office in Falmouth. High ceilings/large open space - great for showing medium to large pieces.Prefer still life, abstract, geometric pieces vs. living subjects/portraits. Venue has a SOLID history of SELLING pieces. Contact lorirae@wetpaintstudios.com for additional information or to submit your link - submissions will be for 2008 & 2009 show.
Still available 5-8-08 Studio/Gallery space at 144
Cumberland Ave.
Commercial space available for rent in the space where the
"People's Free Space" has been.
Available NOW
900+ square feet on 1st floor
terms negotiable
call 775-1208 for more details & to check it out.
6-21-07 • BACK Country Art Trips ... Check it OUT!
www.backcountryarttrips.com
WHAT'S THIS?
Backcountry Art Trips are instruction-based workshops
for a dventurous artists
and artistic adventurers of all ability levels, led by
Maine artist Michael Branca.
Lots of information and the complete vision are online at
www.backcountryarttrips.com
SPREADING THE WORD
Please let us know if you have an opinion about receiving
or
not receiving these announcements by responding to:
backcountry@mikebranca.com
Also, any assistance in passing the word along to
potentially interested folks would
be greatly appreciated as we get this exciting new program
off the ground. Thanks!
Michael Branca
207 - 443 - 4718
www.mikebranca.com
www.backcountryarttrips.com