Saturday, March 1, 10:00 AM-3:00 PM

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One-Day Workshop Description:

Sue Schlabach will lead a workshop following up the group exhibition Scaffolding and teaching methods used to create the birds in her installation piece Murmuration. Participants will create small mesh and wire armatures to cover with layers of felted flax. Participants will see the adaptable ways flax can be formed sculpturally into works that can later be painted, gilded, or left in their natural coloration (after a few days of drying time). Schlabach will share her experience growing flax in Vermont and her work with the Belgian artist Germana Tack who developed these artistic methods and taught them to a group of Vermont artists in early 2024. This workshop includes conceptual processes, hand-building, the use of sharp tools, fiber-handling, and the use of water-based adhesives.

Sue Schlabach is a Vermont-based plein air painter, photographer, and fiber artist. Her paintings capture the landscapes around her home, featuring the distinctive cerulean skies, drifting clouds, and migrating birds of the region. Schlabach begins her pieces en plein air, finishing them in her studio, allowing the elements—such as rain—to leave their mark on her work.

Influenced by travels to the British Isles, France, Mexico, and India, her art reflects diverse palettes and textures. Her Mennonite heritage and farming ancestry inform her fiber work, along with her ongoing interest in migratory bird populations. In 2022, she began growing flax, learning plant-to-linen processes, and exploring felting techniques taught to her by Belgian artist Germana Tack.