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Study with the Masters
ATA’s 2012 Members Retreat
Whether your ideas come with the force of crashing waves or percolate in an undercurrent of gentle motion, discover the expertise that Master Weavers Archie Brennan and Jean Pierre Larochette will impart during ATA’s 2012 Member’s Retreat. A confluence of ideas and inspiration will offer participants a rare opportunity to learn from and interact with each of these esteemed instructors. Don’t miss this opportunity to gather with old friends, meet new friends, and immerse yourself in an ocean of tapestry, creativity and fun.
ATA’s Educational Retreat will be held July 22-24 at Chapman University, Orange, CA, following HGA’s Convergence 2012. Check in at Chapman begins late Saturday afternoon. Both private and shared rooms are available and include all meals.
"Marc II"
You Won’t Know Where You Are Going Until You Get There
Archie Brennan
Rather than preparing a design on paper beforehand, I have long been fascinated with having the actual weaving process suggest and direct the design, find the imagery and influence the journey up and across the warp. A new world opens up. Then let your sketchbook react to what you have woven!
Participants will set up a long narrow warp and chose a subject that invites an open journey. You will be surprised at how this approach encourages inventive, creative thinking that explores the inherent language of tapestry.
Front and Back: A Hands on Workshop
Jean Pierre Larochette
Participants will view the fundamentals of cartoon designing, such as the relationships between the elements of composition, scale and format. Weaving from the front or back? A guide to understanding tapestry structure. We will be viewing techniques of geometry and free forming; methods of color shading; large format/small format concerns.
Participants are encouraged to bring a sample of their work for an open discussion on the characteristic of different approaches. These conversations will include brief presentations by invited guests.
The Instructors
Archie Brennan became an apprentice at the Dovecot Workshops in Scotland at the age of 16. His apprenticeship lasted until 1954 after which he traveled and studied in France until 1956 and did graduate and post graduate studies at Edinburgh College of Art from 1958 until 1962. From 1962 to 1977 he established and developed the Graduate and Post Graduate Department of Tapestry and Fibre Arts at the Edinburgh College of Art and in 1963 became Director of the Dovecot. He lead the design team for embellishing New Guinea’s new parliament building and served as a consultant during the formation of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop in Australia. Since 1993 he has lived in the United States where he continues to weave, teach, and spread his love of the medium in as many where ways as possible while continuing to ask himself “I wonder what would happen if . . . ”
Jean Pierre Larochette was born in Buenos Aires, the son of Armand Larochette, a third generation French Aubusson tapestry weaver. Jean Pierre apprenticed at his father’s workshop and in 1963 and 1964 studied, and worked under the direction of internationally known French tapestry artist Jean Lurcat. Jean Pierre was co-founder and director of the San Francisco Tapestry Workshop and taught at the San Francisco State University textile program in the 1970s and 1980s. Jean Pierre has collaborated with his wife and designer, Yael Lurie, for over four decades and across three continents. Based in Berkeley, California, they have exhibited and taught internationally. They have completed numerous commissions for temples and have works in public and private collections through out the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.
