BIO:  Ten Pound Studio has been a teaching studio for silk painters for the past seven years, at One Center Street, Gloucester. Silk painter, teacher and musician Stephen Bates, who retired from the Kennedy Center’s Opera Orchestra, teaches both experienced and novice artists the magic of painting on silk. There are currently thirteen Cape Ann silk artists taking part in classes and exhibits with Ten Pound Studio, each with a distinctive approach and vision for silk painting.  The group exhibits and sells a vibrant and eclectic collection of hand-painted wearable silk scarves, shawls, tops, ties, cushions, inspired silk sculpture, and silk paintings.
 
Silk painting teacher Stephen Bates said of the Studio, “Ten Pound Studio is a unique silk painting teaching Studio. As far as we know, there is no other such teaching Studio in the United States. It is made up of a group of individual artists with a great variety of artistic and professional backgrounds. It is exciting to me that the students are on different journeys.  Some are treating the work as part of their on-going careers; some do it for the experience of painting on silk to add to their artistic repertoire, and some enjoy silk painting for the pure pleasure it gives.”  Musicality and artistry are intertwined at Ten Pound Studio. “I bring musical ideas and images into the silk work at the Studio,” says Bates. Classical music during classes permeates the large white-washed Studio with its 20’ high ceilings and glimpses of the ocean from the tall arched windows.
 
Ten Pound Studio is a place where silk artists can experiment with different techniques, materials and artistic approaches, in an atmosphere of support and cameraderie. Each silk artist offers a reservoir of artistic and life experience for the others. Images range from visions of the Universe as seen from the Hubble telescope; to the problems of climate change; to fanciful abstractions, and imagery from nature.
 
The year-round group currently includes: Stephen Bates, Allyson Christopher, Christine Gauthier-Kelley, Jane Keddy, Axel Magnuson, Sue Niemi, Leslie Pearlman, Susan Quateman, Dona Shea, Lee Steele, Joan Wardwell, Candace Wheeler, and Connie Zaitchik.  This core group occasionally expands with summer participants and new students, to the extent that space and teaching time allow.
 
Contact: Susan Quateman, Ten Pound Studio, 978. 430. 9534, www.susanquateman.com
susiequateman@gmail.com