She loves the luscious feel of silk, and uses it as her exclusive canvas for her paintings, wall hangings, and silk art clothing.

Meet Addie Chernus.

Addie’s colorful silk art has been exhibited and published nationally. It’s easy to see why in her paintings of the Taos pueblos that capture the colorful clothing and Southwest landscapes illustrated in this wall hanging, “Taos Women Gathering”.  She has recently self published an art book, “ADDIE SILK ART: Silk Painting Lessons, Art Book/ Lessons and Gallery.” And, if that’s not enough Addie produced a DVD on Silk Painting lessons.

Addie is responsible for the silk painting open studio for the Tahoe Art League on Tuesdays mornings, and she teaches silk painting at the Lake Tahoe Community College.  Addie has a special gift for silk painting and uses various materials and techniques such as resists,  silk and dye treatments, brush techniques, dye mixing, color theory, texturing and more.

Addie’s silk art paintings employ Habotai silk as the canvas and professional silk dyes as the medium. Addie works out the painting in her mind along with questions of size, techniques and colors. She always has a sketch book handy. The sketch is drawn on vellum using Plein Aire art, drawings and self taken photos. Silk is taped over the sketch and traced.

A water-based gutta resist is applied to the silk to delineate form and create containment areas. Addie paints in a watercolor manner employing lots of colors, in many layers, which mix on the silk. The dyed silk is steamed for 8 hours to set and enliven the colors. Addie paints on silk with dyes because she loves color, design and the luscious feel of silk. The goal of her silk art is to add happiness to the lives of owners and viewers.

For more information about Addie and how she is helping to shape the South Tahoe art scene, please visit her website at www.addiesilkart.com