A herd of turtles

A good art space is inspiring. It makes you want to make art. 

photo by Heather Malone

Karen Gerhardt's studio is, without a doubt, one of the best art spaces I've ever been in. After our tour, I couldn't wait to go downstairs and start painting.

Unlike the overglaze china paints Karen uses on her realistic horse sculptures, we used decorative art glazes on these bisque turtles.

There's no "snot on glass" effect with these. They mix with water rather than glycerin, and rather than sitting on top, the paint sinks right into the unglazed porcelain.

Because the paint dried almost as soon as it was applied, the entire turtle could be finished in one session.

But here's the rub: The color of the wet paint is not even kind of related to the color it will be after its fired. For reference, this is my turtle after I painted his skin parts. 

And here he is before he went in the kiln.

At risk of spoiling the big reveal, this is how he ended up. Crazy, right?

photo by Karen Gerhardt

To help us navigate this very complicated issue, Karen had numbered all the colors and created a key. This helped us see what we were aiming for even when we couldn't actually see it.

Some of the colors had chunky particles in them. These melt in the kiln, producing wonderful, arty effects.

It was really fun watching everyone paint their turtles and trying to guess what they'd look like after firing.

After we were done, we took group pictures.

There's Angelo's, with mine in the background.

Here's the rest of them, along with some bonus pumpkins and acorns.

Who knew painting turtles could be this fun? Thank you again, Karen. That was perfect.

Stay tuned for the big, post-kiln reveal!

Westerly Design studio tour

Yesterday, Karen Gerhardt opened up her home to ten, lucky, local hobbyists for a studio tour and turtle painting party. 

I rode up with Heather Malone and Syd Stocker.

We were the first to arrive, but just barely. As soon as everyone was assembled, Karen took us up to her studio.

It's a big, bright, beautiful space.

photo by Heather Malone

Almost immediately, everyone whipped out their phones and started taking pictures.

There is just so much to see.

Most of Karen's collection lives here. 

There's little bit of everything, from custom glazed chinas to...

to original finish Breyers.

There are resin masters of all her sculptures...

including bits and pieces that became Breyers....

and some of those Breyers themselves.

We also got to look at her newest piece, Meridian, the Irish Draught.

He is fabulous.

At one point, Teresa Buzzell elbowed me and pointed at Karen's top-half only Cleveland Bay resin. She asked, "Wasn't that unpainted last time we were here?"

I couldn't remember, so we asked Karen. She said, yes, he was naked until 2020, when she painted him for a certain online show. Heh.

Of course, this isn't just a collection room. It's also a working studio.

We peeked into the airbrush spray booth, 

photo by Heather Malone

ogled the china molds...

and checked out the china painting station.

Oh yes, snot on glass. I remember this.

After we'd had a chance to look around, Karen gave us a quick overview of the china pouring...

and piecing processes.

I will share most of what we learned in upcoming posts.

Finally, because Karen is the way she is, there were also some fun giveaways. I didn't get anything from this pile, but don't worry. I did not go home empty handed.

I think most of us could have happily spent the entire day checking out the wonders of Karen's studio.

photo by Heather Malone

But the turtles were waiting.

Eventually, we headed back downstairs.

It was time to get this painting party started!

TurtleFest

Today was all about driving,

learning,

revealing,

painting,

friendship,

Karen Gerhardt, Vicky Kitzman, Angelo Žunić, Teresa Fedak, Eleanor Hightower, Dana D'Ippolito, Jennifer Buxton, Teresa Buzzell, Syd Stocker and Heather Malone

Wally...

and turtles.

I am the best kind of exhausted. I will write more tomorrow, but that was definitely worth the o'dark fifteen wake up call!