#31. Exploring Color and Depth: Advanced Dye Techniques in Pysanky - Jenny Santa Maria - Thursday July 23rd - 7:00PM to 9:00PM

Workshop Description:

Take your practice to the next level with this dynamic, exploratory session led by Teaching Artist Jenny Santa Maria. This lively workshop invites participants to bend the rules—using wax-resist methods and painting with dyes in fresh and unexpected ways. Working in a spirit of play and discovery, we’ll explore expressive techniques from spot-removing color, painting with watercolor techniques, and developing soft marbling effects that evoke clouds and water.

Jenny will share her signature approaches to achieving luminous color transitions and subtle tonal shifts that add depth, softness, and emotion to your designs. Participants are drawn into a process where the reveal remains surprising—even for experienced makers—showing how intuitive choices can carry the work somewhere unexpected. Open to all skill levels, this workshop encourages participants to expand their creative vocabulary, and reimagine what’s possible within this ancient art form. 

What's Provided:

• Handout
• Q-Tips
• Paint Brushes
• Paint Pallets

What to Bring?

• a pencil
• Medium and/or Fine Kistka
• Beeswax

Maximum Class Size: 25

Workshop Fee: $40 CAD per person
Please bring $40 CAD in cash, placed in an envelope with your name and the instructor’s name written on it, to the start of class.

About Jenny Santa Maria:

Jenny Santa Maria has taught at institutions including the Omega Institute (NY), Shelburne Craft School (VT), Grounds for Sculpture (NJ), and the Newport Art Museum (RI), as well as at universities and museums across New England.

Jenny’s love for creating batik eggs and developing new techniques is matched only by her joy in teaching and supporting the growth of others’ work. She was given an invitation to learn pysanky as a teenager by a family friend who wished to pass the tradition on to a daughter—an act of generosity that shaped her life and instilled a belief that the art form is meant to be shared, and ultimately promote a sense of shared humanity. She designs workshops to reflect the same family-oriented atmosphere in which she was taught, creating spaces that support both the work itself and the maker behind it.

She approaches the medium as artistic expression, meditation, and personal inquiry, while honoring its role as a living tradition. When she’s not creating work, she is spoiling her chickens with treats and harvesting wax from her four hives in anticipation for the spring. Jenny is based in New Jersey, USA and has taught pysanky at institutions including the Omega Institute (NY), Shelburne Craft School (VT), Grounds for Sculpture (NJ), and the Newport Art Museum (RI), as well as at universities and museums across New England.