My name is Laurie Pyszkowski and I am an artist living in Richmond, Virginia. Painting has become a full time job for me after spending many years previous raising my children and taking care of the home. I spend many hours in my studio painting and creating beautiful one of a kind silk art. I absolutely love it!

I started silk painting after I saw an article in the Artists magazine about it. I took a four day workshop from fabulous silk painting artist, Olivia Batchelder, in Laguna Beach, California. After the workshop I was absolutely and forever hooked! I had mostly dabbled in watercolor, but I think silk painting is like painting “wet on wet” only 1,000 times better! And I love how the dye gets more vibrant after steaming.

I am a big fan of Dupont dyes – I buy the large bottles of the primary colors – all from Dharma as well as the pre-hemmed silk scarves, mostly habotai and crepe de chine. I also use their water based Sennelier resist. And you can’t live without Synthrapol and the Identipens as well.

I love to network with other silk painting artists and am looking forward to attending the annual SPIN workshop in Santa Fe, NM.