Pat Foss, local Englewood artist, displaying her art on Dearborn Street.
June 2012
Artwork of Pat Foss.
Pat agreed to meet me at her house in Rotonda West to discuss how she produces paper tole, 3 dimensional art.I have shown many an art show on my website, http://www.englewoodfl.us, and one of the artists that is unique in her presentation is Pat Foss. A visitor to the website asked if I would do an interview with Pat to talk about her paper tole, 3 Dimensional art.
Pat explained that paper tole was an art form that was very popular in the 1970’s and there were not a lot of people who were doing this in this present day.
Pat started her craft in 1999 and has created hundreds of 3 dimensional art. She joined the Englewood Arts Club who asked her if she would like to represent the club at a showing of art at Edison College, where she sold her first picture. She was hooked at that point and then began to look for places to show her art around the area. Her art has been displayed in shows on Dearborn Street over the years, in local banks, at the Englewood Playhouse and the Marie Selby Gardens.
Pat has been self-taught until taking her first class this year, where she learned some new techniques which she has incorporated in her craft. The new techniques include the use of crushed glass, which produces a sparkling effect, and producing simulated bark on a tree, which created a lot of admiring comments from visitors to her display of 2 Blue Jays in a tree. Pat starts the work with about 12 copies of a picture, the number of copies depends on the depth of final product, the more copies the deeper the effect which also results on a larger frame to hold the picture. She builds up the picture by adding layers to the base copy, cutting out sections with an X-acto knife, then coloring the back side and the edges with markers so that no white sections of the paper show, adding seamlessly to the depth of picture when added in layers. Final trimming of the cutout section is done, with a small pair of cuticle scissors, before being glued on the base with an acid-free craft silicone. The base copy becomes the background and you build up the picture to the middle ground and the most detail (and parts) to the foreground.
Pat has been teaching her craft for 7 years at the Arts Center and will be starting new classes in October. Pat’s classes will be limited to 5 students, so that each student can receive individual attention. The classes will be divided up into 3 groups – Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced – with the Beginner and Intermediate classes lasting 1 day , all supplies provided (with the exception of the frame) and the student goes home at the end of the day with a finished picture. The Advanced class will feature a 8 x 20 picture of a Blue Heron and is accomplished over a number of days which including homework. The last day with Pat includes showing the students how to put the paper backing on to complete a stunning portrait.
For more information on classes contact Pat Foss at:
frostbite51@comcast.net or call (941) 662-7191
Visit Pat’s website at http://www.pfpapersculpture.com to view Pat’s art.
