Program and Workshop Schedule

**  PLEASE NOTE LOCATION: LEXINGTON COMMUNITY CENTER (MORE INFO BELOW)**

We are so fortunate to live in an area where there is a wealth of talented artists. Among these is the amazing Newburyport artist, Douglas W. Johnson, who “paints” with beads, “Weaving Glass Beads into Art”. Doug’s work was featured in the February 2016 issue of Bead and Button Magazine, which BDI member, Sarah Beardslee brought to last month’s workshop to share with us.  Doug’s work is truly incredible. To quote B&B, “Doug has created more than 330 works of beaded art, each containing anywhere from 20,000 to more than 300,000 size 11 seed beads”. Doug has been creating loomwork tapestries for 45 years, but his passion for this work has not diminished. His work has been “…featured in print, on TV, and in corporate galleries.”

You will see samples of Doug’s work, and hear the fascinating story of how he was introduced to beading, and how his passion for his work has grown along with the size of his looms, and his finished tapestry canvases.

“From a distance, Douglas W. Johnson’s landscapes appear to be painted with dots of color, reminiscent of the pointillist technique Vincent Van Gogh used to create his renowned 1887 self-portrait, or the impressionism technique used by Monet to create his Field of Poppies at Giverny. But step closer and you’ll discover that Mr. Johnson’s works of art aren’t paintings at all. He has traded the brush for several thousand points of glass: tiny shimmering seed beads woven into breathtaking glass canvases.”