PORT ANGELES — The group in Karen Sistek’s art studio Wednesday demonstrated how small the world has become, as students from three continents gathered for a silk painting course and discovered they had closer ties than they could have expected.
Three of the students — a Green Bay, Wisc., resident who originally hails from Cape Town, South Africa, a resident of Cape Town and an Australian discovered their paths had connected on two other continents.
For Karin Bashkier, 51, of Green Bay the trip was initiated by her friend and fellow student, Evelyn Degouveia, 51 of Cape Town as their “Safari in the U.S.”
Bashkier planned their reunion road trip, starting in San Diego, traveling up the coast to British Columbia, then east to Yellowstone National Park.
The moment Degouveia noticed Sistek’s west Port Angeles studio was along the route, their plans abruptly changed.
A class at Karen Sistek Studio was a must, Degouveia, a painter, said.
Degouveia has been painting on fabric for years, beginning with a cotton base, and was taught in the Portuguese tradition, she said.
She painted at least once a week, then her instructor retired, and she began looking for other concepts.
She found Sistek online and was hooked by the imagery created by Sistek’s unique technique — one of few major innovations in silk painting in recent history.
“I put her on my bucket list right away,” Degouveia said.
Sistek has said the art of silk painting has been pretty much the same for hundreds of years — painting fabric with a gentle blending of dye caused by the nature of the silk fabric.
The only way to “stop” the spread of the dye was to draw lines on the material — but Sistek found those lines disrupted the feel of the finished product.
That is, until Sistek made an accidental discovery 11 years ago that introduced a new technique to an ancient art.
She was looking for a way to keep ink from spreading on the silk material without the stiffness of the lines and to make a crisper line of paint using starch and hair spray.
She found herself out of her usual materials, leaving only a bottle of Magic Sizing Fabric Finish spray.
After the fabric preparation process, which includes a framing technique invented by her husband, Rick, she sprayed Magic Sizing on the material.
The chemical stopped the flow of the dyes and produced a watercolor effect, and allowed her to do everything she wanted to do with the silk and catapulted her status in the silk painting world.
Sistek’s silk banners have been displayed in the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution, and in galleries nationwide.
Visitors travel from around the world to learn Sistek’s techniques and sometimes find unusual connections.
As Bashkier and Degouveia prepared to depart for the Canadian leg of their trip, they met Sue Saunders, 70, of Gosford, New South Wales, Australia.
Saunders at one time lived in Cape Town, and as they began to compare notes, they realized that one of Degouveia’s friends who moved to Australia lives only a few blocks from Saunders’ home.
They decided to stay to take the class with Saunders, who experimented with alternative colors for her painting.
“I’ve learned a lot from Karen,” Saunders said.
Once she returns home, she will be able to introduce the techniques to the two classes she teaches at her own studio.
Saunders said Sistek’s willingness and ability to teach is not common in the art world.
“There are not too many artists who will share their technique. They usually guard their own way of painting,” she said.
The only member of the class who didn’t have Australian or South African connections was Linda Smith, 67, of Port Angeles who is a veteran of classes at Sistek’s studio.
She began with a basic silk scarf class and now has a handful of paintings hanging in her home, each created in Sistek’s classes.
“She is the most awesome instructor,” she said.
Most classes have a Pacific Northwest floral theme, but Smith said she has “snowbird” aspirations and requested the Southwest-themed cactus flower project.
Bashkier, a database administrator, said she is an artist in the stick figure tradition, but was making headway on the unfamiliar techniques.
“I threw her into the advanced project,” Sistek said.
That included a two-handed painting and blending technique that Bashkier said she was surprised she picked up easily and embraced.
“I am amazed at what I have managed to achieve. I’m blown away that I could do this,” she said.
Bashkier credited Sistek’s teaching techniques for her instant leap into advanced projects.
For more information on Sistek’s art and classes, visit www.karensistekstudio.com or phone 360-457-3559.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
