Art Workshop: Painting with Plants, with Artist Nicole Salcedo

The creativity of nature is vast and unending. I want to show attendees of this workshop how they can harness materials that are readily available, and create fun and experimental images. I will do this by showing them how to print/paint with leaves, branches, and rocks. Using these natural materials instead of traditional brushes yields fun and exciting imagery, and opens them up to a playful process where mistakes and messes are welcome. Painting with plant matter brings a focus onto the patterns of nature as well as the potential for a new relationship to these materials. I hope attendees can walk away with a new perspective and appreciation for dried leaves, random pebbles, fallen branches, and other plant materials that we would otherwise ignore in our day-to-day lives. Free copies of Gay’s book will be distributed to workshop participants. All ages welcome. No artistic experience required.

Gain a new artistic appreciation for patterns found in nature. Mistakes and messes welcome.‌

Nicole Salcedo, born in Miami, Florida, is a multidisciplinary Cuban American artist. Nicole’s work opens up pathways that offer a deeper understanding of the inherent connection between humans and Nature. Her methodical yet intuitive mark-making offers a gentle visualization of interconnectedness and the oscillation of cosmic energies throughout our lives. Using drawings, object design, sculpture, and film, Nicole creates energetically charged work that invites the viewer to slow down and open themselves up to subtler realms. Nicole studied fibers, performance, and object design and earned her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2010). Nicole has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami (2016) and the Patricia and Philip Frost Museum of Art (2019). Nicole is currently in residence at the Bakehouse Art Complex.

This program is presented as part of the 2023 NEA Big Read Miami