Saturday, March 1 | 10 am-3 pm

Instructor: Sue Schlabach

Sue Schlabach will lead a workshop as part of the group exhibition Scaffolding and teach methods used to create the birds in her installation piece Murmuration. Participants will create small mesh and wire armatures to cover with layers of felted flax. Participants will learn the adaptable ways flax can be formed sculpturally into works that can later be painted, gilded or left in their natural coloration (after a few days of drying time). Schlabach will share about her experience growing flax in Vermont and her work with the Belgian artist Germana Tack who developed these artistic methods and taught them to a group of Vermont artists in early 2024. This workshop includes conceptual processes, hand-building, use of sharp tools, fiber-handling and use of water-based adhesive. $15 Materials Fee applied at check-out

Sue Schlabach is a Vermont-based plein air painter, photographer, and fiber artist. Her paintings capture the landscapes around her home, featuring the distinctive cerulean skies, drifting clouds, and migrating birds of the region. Schlabach begins her pieces en plein air, finishing them in her studio, allowing the elements—such as rain—to leave their mark on her work.

Influenced by travels to the British Isles, France, Mexico, and India, her art reflects diverse palettes and textures. Her Mennonite heritage and farming ancestry inform her fiber work, along with her ongoing interest in migratory bird populations. In 2022, she began growing flax, learning plant-to-linen processes, and exploring felting techniques taught to her by Belgian artist Germana Tack.

In September 2024, Schlabach curated a flax art exhibit featuring her work and that of ten other artists, held at a historic Vermont church. Her work is displayed in Vermont galleries and held in private collections across the U.S. and Canada. sueschlabach.com