Creating Collaborative Artwork At Yellow Barn

This month, collaboration is the name of the game for advanced students of the Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery. 

Feb. 2 through 28, 30 artists will be working on a large, door-sized painting in a relay style in the Chautauqua Tower first floor studio. The tower is also known as the “Stone Tower,” which usually houses just one resident artist per month. The public can watch the artists at work in person, and also watch their progress through photos displayed on the Yellow Barn blog and Facebook. 

The event, dubbed "Coming Together, Again," is the brainchild of Yellow Barn Studio manager J. Jordan Bruns.

“Last year we did a relay with the instructors; this time I thought it would be fun to see how our members do," Bruns said.

was on three paintings, while this year’s will be on one 72” by 28” piece.

“The process will go a little bit more unplanned -- last year we were doing a 'self portrait,' 'abstract' and 'landscape' -- and [will be] more of a pure ’collaboration’ where we work as a team,” Bruns explained.

“I hope that everyone works on the piece at different stages,” Bruns told his students. “If you decided to start off the piece, come back near the end and work a little more. Ideally we will have an artist working every day between February 2nd and the 27th.” 

The project will also include a journal where the artist on a given day can read entries on the previous artists' thought process.

“The journal is a place where artists can note what they want others to not disturb (if they are particularly proud of what they did), and possibly add suggestions on locations of where they would like others to improve what they did,” Bruns said. 

There is no set theme to start, “but if early artists have suggestions, it should be included in the journal. Whoever starts the process will get the ball rolling, but it might end up being a mix of representational and abstract --I hope!” he added.  

The process here overshadows the final product, and the journal will be pasted into the Yellow Barn blog so readers and the public “can feel included."  

The Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery has 600 members and offers 40 classes per semester.  Artists participating in “Coming Together, Again” will include Ann Bolster, Bernardo Frydman, Betsy Shelburne, Carol Bouville, Carolina Correa, Connie Boland, Cynthia Wokas, Deborah Wallace, Diana Jamieson, Elizabeth Edgeworth, Ellen Passman, Ellen Peachman, Ellen Schulken, Ginny Callanen, Francie de Peyster, Frederica Noland, Katheleen Nelick, Jane Thurber, Joan Mazer, Judith Johnson, Madeleine Schaller, Marian Mackerer, Mariana Kastrinakis, Marylouise Roach, Michele Suddarth, Michele Zugrav, Nan Fuhrman, Nancy Abeles, Parvaneh Limbert, Rebecca Salzinger, Sara Becker and Shana Rosen. Each of the artists has also been invited to hang one of their own paintings on the studio’s stone walls during the collaboration.

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“Coming Together, Again” will be open to the public daily February 2-28, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at Chautauqua Tower Studio, Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo.