PORT ANGELES — For centuries, art students have traveled great distances to study under the great masters.
Pablo Picasso in Paris, Vincent van Gogh, in the Netherlands, Michelangelo in Rome, Karen Sistek in Port Angeles.
While Sistek might not call herself a great master, for the past few years students from across the continent have been arriving to study under the 65-year-old silk painter.
“Canada, Florida, Georgia, Missouri,” Sistek listed the places where they come from for future weeklong courses.
This week’s star student, Yoshita Ahmed, 41, arrived Friday from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Why are artists traveling from around the world to learn from a Port Angeles housewife?
“It’s a new technique,” Ahmed 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 those lines disrupted the feel of the finished product, Sistek said.
Until Sistek made an accidental discovery seven years ago that changed everything.
Sistek was looking for a way to keep silk ink from spreading on the silk material without the stiffness of the lines, to make a crisper line of paint, she said.
She was experimenting with starch and hairspray, when she ran out and wanted to start a new painting.
“All I had was a bottle of Magic Sizing Fabric Finish spray,” she said.
After a complicated fabric preparation process, which includes a framing technique invented by her husband, Rick, she sprayed Magic Sizing on the material.
And found that she could do everything she wanted to do on silk.
Her new technique stopped the flow of the dyes and produced a watercolor effect.
Since then, Sistek has created delicate dragonfly wings, velvety iris petals and luminous leaves on her silks.
Her silk banners have been displayed in the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution, and currently is featured in six galleries nationwide.
Since that discovery seven years ago, Sistek has become well known in the silk art world.
Students began to arrive from around the world, ready to learn something new.
Ahmed, a silk art teacher in Dubai, has been a silk painter for 17 years, she said Sunday.
For the past two years, she has been trying to get Sistek to travel to Dubai to teach a class there, but Sistek resisted.
“When you have this out your window, why go anywhere else,” Sistek said, gesturing to a view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, rolling clouds and Vancouver Island mountains.
Sistek traveled extensively when her husband was a pilot for the U.S. Coast Guard and has no intention to leave the area again, she said.
With the world between them, Ahmed studied Sistek’s website, which includes a lot of detailed directions but doesn’t show small things, like the way Sistek holds the paintbrush.
“It’s totally different,” Ahmed said.
Learning Sistek’s technique without actually working with the artist in person wasn’t possible, she said.
So, Ahmed decided to make the trip to learn the technique and bring it back to Dubai herself.
“She’s not coming to Dubai, so I’m taking her [technique] to Dubai,” Ahmed said.
Today, while Ahmed’s first painting is prepared for framing, the Sisteks plan to take her to Hurricane Ridge.
“She going to put her feet in the snow,” Sistek said.
Ahmed has been to the famous indoor Dubai ski slopes but said that the snow was too obviously manmade.
Hurricane Ridge will be her first experience with the real thing, she said.
Sistek teaches silk painting classes at Peninsula College but also offers several different courses in her private art studio.
In addition to the weeklong sessions she offers to visiting students, she also offers classes for small groups (six or more), semi-private courses, private classes and a “Fast and Fabulous” one-day course where students can paint their own silk scarf.
For more information on Sistek’s art and classes, visit her website, www.karensistek
studio.com or phone 360-457-3559.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
