Abstract Improv: Alcohol Ink on Yupo Paper with Leslie Santapaul

Explore the vibrant, unpredictable world of alcohol ink in this expressive abstract workshop focused on improvisation, movement, and discovery.

Working on Yupo paper, participants will experiment with transparency, texture, and flow using alcohol inks and tools that encourage play and creative risk-taking. This process-driven class is ideal for artists of all backgrounds who want to loosen up, explore abstraction, and embrace surprise.

• Alcohol ink techniques and safety
• Working with transparency and layering
• Letting go of control and responding intuitively
• Creating abstract compositions with movement and flow

• Yupo paper and tools
• Brushes, alcohol, gloves, table covers
• Tables and chairs

• Apron
• Starter set of alcohol inks (details provided after registration)
• Optional snacks or drinks

• $45 workshop fee
• $12 materials fee
• $57 total

Artist Statement:

A writer, by education and occupation, I turned to art to express what language cannot convey–the expansive, energetic force that animates life. The swirling forms in my work as well as the juxtaposition of vibrant warm and cool colors suggest action and change.

Three domains have influenced my work over the last 20 years: the plant kingdom (I was a landscape designer,) the ocean (scuba diver) and fire– (pyromaniac?)

Fire can be comforting, horrifying or re-generative–the slow burn of de-composition. All life contains this fire or its potential. The transformation of matter to energy sustains life and decay after life.

When I discovered yupo paper,* a slick material made from re-cycled plastic, I tried, in succession: watercolor, thinned acrylic paint, and recently, alcohol and acrylic inks. The flow and unpredictable movement of paint or ink on this new, “paper” gave me the means to express the transparent, vibrating essence of my subconscious constructs. A hip young artist once called my work, “low-brow surrealism.”

My paintings rarely start from a photo reference or from a drawing. I apply shapes of color to the paper, work the wet ink or acrylic with a variety of tools and sooner or–sometimes much later–the subject appears. My delight is in the discovery.

Biography:

I returned to art when I moved to Smith Mountain Lake in 2001. Before that I had careers in public and corporate television. I wrote articles for the Southampton Press (Long Island, NY) and for the New York Times. At the same time, I started a 20 year vocation in landscape design.

I am largely self-taught, but have participated in a number of workshops. I have also taught workshops in my abstract techniques. I currently live and work in Roanoke, VA.

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Host or Publisher Art Project Roanoke