Create Chicago workshops

Oh what fun we had at Create Chicago....
My workshops were filled with happy campers....we let the creativity flow....
thanks to everyone for a great week!

 a beautiful 3 mile hike before my workshops started.......

 Color pencil journaling

 Animal Cracker Portraits.....

 Planed and Folded Wooden Book

Create Chicago in 2 weeks!

It's almost time for Create Chicago! I'll be teaching 3 workshops and have some delightful offerings   at the vender show on Friday night.....

"Owl Prince" 

Helen Shafer Garcia

Planed and Folded Wooden Book

 Off to Random Arts next week to teach some fab workshops  on August 8,9,10 in Saluda, North Carolina! "Owl Prince" is a sample work for Color Pencil Surfaces. He is a youngster so I thought he should be a Prince with his grand crown. Come join us at Random Arts for these great workshops!

Mr. Organic Crow

Juneau in June

Alaska has always been on my bucket list so when my friends Mary and Margie invited me to teach up in Juneau I jumped on it! The gals were beyond gracious and excellent hosts. They took my friend Beth and I everywhere ...the best trails...the best coffee joints...the best tram...well ...the only tram in town! I captured some of our adventures in my journal...and some photos as well.......enjoy...

 Journaling at Jenson-Olson Arboretum 

Mary, one of my hosts, is hidden by the pink lilac bush....the island in the background is the Shrine of St. Therese...we held the workshop in one of the cabins on the shoreline. 

here's our workshop students...happy campers! 

the City Museum held an exhibit called "The Empty Chair" about the forced resettlement of the Japanese community in Juneau. The artist invited people to make paper cranes as part of the assemblage. My friend Beth and I failed origami......but we tried! ...we blamed the instructions.....

finding the best coffee cups to collage.....

Mary took us to the Gold mining museum and Maggie took us to dinner after a hike. 

This is a combo of the two places...

and here are two guys that really were not sitting together in the restaurant. 

Waiting for our whale watching tour...

Mendenhall Glacier 

our hike at the timberline on Mt. Roberts

Harv and Marv's whale watching tour was the best! Small fast boat...there were only 5 of us including our wonderful and kind Captain Steve.  Highly recommended! Yes...that is a pod of Orcas! 

11:30 at night....summer solstice 

Thanks again Margie and Mary for a fantastic week in Juneau! 

Images from Idaho

Spent a glorious week near Sandpoint, Idaho with art friends who are so gifted and just super nice! We created paintings at Catherine Earle's workshop for 3 days, shopped till we dropped for Johnny Was clothes, ate beautifully presented meals by our host, Donna Stewart in her gorgeous mountain hilltop home, worked in our journals, hiked after a picnic on the beach.....shall I go on? What a perfect week! Life is good........
Catherine just opened her solo show at Art Spirit Gallery....beautiful works!

Heads up on my gigs for the rest of year...sign up soon!
Random Arts, Saluda, North Carolina
Create Chicago
Create Texas
Create Seattle

working on my paintings created with Catherine's techniques

Our art gang...Deena, Catherine, and Donna...oh and me! 

Donna's lilacs in her mountain home

Donna's grilled Copper River Salmon dinner...did I mention that she's a master chef? 

Catherine's kitty

Farmer's market day

Mineral Bay on  Pend Oreille Lake

Hike above the bay

Our spring has been a challenge in the San Diego area with the drought and last week's fires. We are thankful that we didn't need to evacuate. Some of our friends did but thankfully, they returned to their homes which were untouched by the fires.

I was the guest demonstrator for the San Diego Watercolor Society the night before the fires started. I shared my techniques with a enthusiastic crowd. I worked on this painting some more later in the week...

I started with a value drawing in my journal. I love to draw and it's important to me to develop a value and shape arrangement. this painting started with pencil lines and  a couple of Tombow pens. The pens are water soluble  and make lovely value changes as an underpainting. I used a dark blue pen which cooled off a major area of the shapes. 

The  photo was taken at my friend's casa. Donna Stewart served a beautiful luncheon on her outdoor metal table. This was the centerpiece....fruit from her garden on a glass plate. There were holes in the table top so I repeated some of them as a random pattern. There were great shadow patterns that ran across the surfaces....that added to the challenge!