Foster Warriors™ “uncover their hidden Van Gogh's” with a visit to the art studio of world-renowned painter/sculptor Paulin Baron Paris
Foster Warriors™ alumni and mentors had the privilege of attending a day of art at the Los
Angeles, CA studio of world-renowned, multi-disciplinary French artist Paulin Baron Paris
(“Paris”), and his daughter Sabine, also an artist.
The day began with coffee, doughnuts, and informal chatting while looking around his art-filled
studio. Art and artists can sometimes seem intimidating, but Paris and Sabine made us feel right
at home, like two friends we had known for years. Once the group was fully assembled, Paris
delighted us with a brief history of his life in art, how he got started and what inspires him. He’s
an engaging, funny, down-to-earth speaker; we could have listened to him tell stories all day.
But that was not to be, because…
The main event was up next – Paris and Sabine taught the Foster Warriors™ a technique called
straw marquetry. Thought to have originated in the 17th century, it’s a process of taking straw
which has been dyed various colors, splitting it open, pressing it flat, and gluing it onto objects
in whatever creative design the artist chooses. Its applications are limitless. One visit to Paris’s
website will show just a few of the many ways you can use straw marquetry to create beautiful
objects. The group then spent the next few hours making art.
One of the many goals of Foster Warriors™ is to help our alumni “uncover their hidden Van
Goghs”. Exposing them to art in this way – relaxed and casual, yet informative and participatory
– was a perfect, no-pressure way to introduce them to a world they may have never set foot in.
The other beautiful thing about spending a few hours doing intricate, creative, sometimes
repetitive tasks such as straw marquetry is that they are fully-immersive. So much so that
afterwards, one of our alumni, Abril, commented “wow, when I do art my mind is clear of any
other thoughts. And I have a lot going on”.
As an added, unplanned bonus, Paris took the Foster Warriors™ to a neighboring art studio,
that of another world-renowned artist and teacher, Robert Wilhelm, who took an hour out of
his Saturday to give us a tour of his studio and talk about art.
To say that the day was inspirational is an understatement. We all left there with full hearts, a
new art technique under our belts, pieces we each created, and new friends in Paris, Sabine
and Robert.
