#TheChiaroscuroCollection: An Art Collaboration with Allie Synder Dattilio and Beth Winterburn
I'm so excited to share this project! I've wanted to work collaboratively with oil painter, Allie Snyder Dattilio on something for years. Her landscapes take my breath away! I love the uninterrupted openness of her skies, fields, and waterways which remind me of the rural Southern scenes from my college drives through Virginia. Her use of color and brushwork are phenomenal! See what I mean?
After years of exchanging emails and daydreaming about what a collaboration between the two of us could look like, cue brilliant idea, Allie suggested an online show. When she proposed we include artist, Beth Winterburn (whose work I LOVE) I knew we'd stumbled onto the idea. I mean just look at Beth's work! Watercolor washes, bold brushstrokes, and gold accents!
We decided to focus on a united color palette, which allowed us to create a cohesive collection despite our varied media. On instagram Allie and Beth and I shared sneak peeks of our works in progress with the hashtag #TheChiaroscuroCollection
We set a date and encouraged communication should any of us need to make adjustments to that deadline-- an approach I deeply valued because in ceramics so many things can go wrong! Have I told you about how all three of my kilns went down last week? Or how all of my pink glazes started suddenly firing brown? Or that my fourth kiln, a dinosaur of a machine that I bought used five years ago was recently hardwired by electricians only to fail its city inspection? Or that said electricians had to return for five follow-up visits to make changes for the kiln to finally pass inspection two days ago? No? Well, yea. We've been having some major ceramics drama, so flexibility and understanding were major bonuses.
Working in this laid back, collaborative way provided a special opportunity for us to get to know each other better and to make artistic changes along the way as our work and relationships evolved. In fact, our original collection was proposed with a launch date of early February and was to feature a series of watercolor blues and greens-- colors we all expressed great comfort with. Instead, we opted to change the plan completely to a blush, black, white, gray, and gold palette! A totally different direction to the original plan, and one that presented challenges for each of us. Pink ceramic glazes are notoriously fussy (leave off my recent kiln drama), and I saw Allie mention that black paint offered a challenge for her in this post here.
Ultimately for me, this change was a welcome challenge with new problems to solve and new glaze applications to explore. I wound up using a small paintbrush much more than I usually do, to add in tiny details like black polka dots that melt and blur with my white glaze for a stunning effect I never would have discovered if it hadn't been for this push out of my comfort zone!
The collection launches this upcoming Tuesday, 3/7 on each of our sites. My portion will go live at 7 PM EST. Be sure to give Allie and Beth a follow on social media and explore the #TheChiaroscuroCollection hashtag on instagram!
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xoxo Lindsay