Welcome to my web site.

It is the first of May at this writing. I have some very exciting news. For those of you who are familiar with the conference that I put on in Santa Fe, Alegre Retreat this will be very happy news. Alegre Retreat is back! The new and improved Alegre Retreat will be held in Gateway Colorado just an hour south of Grand Junction. The first one will be May of 2009 with two teachers, myself and Fran Skiles. We have an exciting schedule planned for you. If you are interested in receiving the registration and brochure information please send me an email and I will make sure that you get one of the first brochures sent out. This will also give me an idea of the interest out there. Following this little introduction is a rough draft of the brochure. I couldn’t wait to get the information out.

Please check out the website for Gateway Canyons at  www.gatewaycanyons.com

Please let me know what you think about all of this by contact me at katiepm@aol.com

Until we meet again

Sincerely

Katiepm

ART QUILTERS RETREAT

With

Katie Pasquini-Masopust and Fran Skiles

May 31 – June 5, 2009

Please Join Us

Attend a five day workshop with leading fiber artists at the new Gateway Canyons in southwestern Colorado.  With limited enrollment, each program offers participants an extraordinary opportunity to explore the subjects in depth under the intimate tutelage of the instructors.  The daily program is designed to give participants maximum exposure to their chosen subject and the experiences of the instructors.  In the evenings, participants will be invited to lectures by the artists and performances by local artists.

About the Resort

At the confluence of the Dolores River and West Creek in western Colorado is a new luxury outpost in the heart of the American west – Gateway Canyons.  Here you will find a destination offering lodging at the Dolores River Inn and Kiva Lodge, exceptional dining and recreational activities to match every interest from snowshoeing, mountain biking and climbing to rafting and kayaking.

TAKE YOUR CHOICE OF CLASSES WITH TWO ARTISTS

Abstract Design; Transforming the Still Life

with  Katie Pasquini-Masopust

The students will work from an all white still life, recreating it in abstract drawings and paintings to learn about value, shadows, texture, highlights and different kinds of perspective.   We will add color, exploring many different color schemes and their impact. Then images will be projected on to the still life to create color, texture and drama. The goal is to create abstract designs so drawing skills do not have to be strong. Several renderings for quilts will be the end product of the first two days of class. Then we will choose one of the designs, consider its color scheme and composition, enlarge the drawing and begin the quilt. Explore different construction techniques from turned edge applique to fusing.

Painting, Printing and Collage with Cloth and Paper

with Fran Skiles

The essence of the work in these five days is learning and following a process of intuitive thinking. You will be building five collages, beginning with simple marks and shapes; each day building layers of paint, stitching, paper and silk. You will be building shapes, structure and texture into canvases using hand or machine stitching. We will work with and have demonstrations in simple silk-screen, painting, ink applications, resist, etc. and layering of photo transfers and other papers onto canvas. I will guide you though the different steps. The finished product is always a surprise and changes many times. On the 4th and 5th day the collages will be “talking” to you, so to speak and demanding changes and your attention. This is a process loaded with fun. You will learn to trust in the process and the outcome. 

About the Instructors

KATIE PASQUINI-MASOPUST

Fiber Artist Katie Pasquini has traveled the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and England teaching contemporary quilt designing. She has changed her style over the years, starting with traditional works, next creating Mandalas followed by dimensional quilts. She then moved onto landscapes, fracturing them and adding transparencies and color washes. Her most recent work is based on her acrylic paintings. She feels as if she has returned full circle to her beginning as a painter. Painting now with fabric. Katie teaches in a relaxed but energizing style, passing her extensive knowledge of design and the art quilt on to her students.

FRAN SKILES

Fran Skiles has a BA in Clothing Design from West Virginia University.  She has been involved in quilt making for the past twenty years and currently works full time in her Fort Lauderdale studio making paper and cloth collages. In 1993 she was invited by the British Crafts Council to participate in a year long traveling American Art Quilt exhibition.  In 2000  her work was included in Art Quilts: America of the Millennium, an invitational exhibition in Strasbourg France.  She has exhibited in Fiber Arts International, Visions – Quilt San Diego, and Quilt National, winning Quilt National Best in Show in 1997.

The six day/five night package includes:
-          A choice of accommodation in the Dolores River Inn or Kiva Lodge
-          Four and one-half days of instruction
-          Two evening lectures
-          Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily starting with a Sunday evening welcome reception through Friday breakfast
-          Round trip airport shuttle from Grand Junction to the resort
-           
Each class is limited to 20 participants.

History of Alegre Retreat

Katie Pasquini Masopust started Alegre Retreat in in 1990 at the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She wanted to bring an ideal artistic setting to provide the utmost in art quilt instruction to the art quilters of the world. The retreat was held at the La Fonda for five years and then with a year rest reopened at the Sweny Conference Center in Santa Fe. It was held there for 10 more years before it was closed due to the remodeling of the Sweny Center. There has been a three year brake before it was picked up by a faithful participant Maureen Hendricks. The Hendricks have built and education center in Gateway Colorado, an hour south of Grand Junction. Katie will be the  facilitator of the New  Alegre Retreat to be held at the Gateway Canyons Resorts.

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