Back from Mexico

oh...the sights and sounds and happenings in San Miguel de Allende were awesome! Our Tesoro del Corazon retreat was a adventurous, creative, passionate week of mixed media and sharing! Our students were from Canada and USA this year. We laughed, drank some marvelous margaritas and still had time to paint!
Join us next year...same place, same time of the year...our retreat sells out very quickly so if you are interested in signing up please contact Leslie for notification. You'll see a link on the right side of the home page......

 Our project this year 

Santo Royal 

Our wonderful creative students!! 

 Lynn Leahy and I at the Instituto 

 Parrocha  at night...waiting for white owls to fly...I saw 2 this year! 

 Evelyn and her hubby all decked out for Dia de los Muertos

 and our last night farewell dinner at the Instituto ....a grand time had by all......

VIrginia Beach Art and Soul

Virginia Beach Art and Soul...a beautiful spot to create. My students designed and painted  amazing works! We did have a challenge with the weather...Hurricane Joaquin threatened  to hit but stayed off the coast. Lots of rain and wind as the days progressed but we painted and created till we dropped! 

I'll be teaching next year 2016 in Portland and Minneapolis!

My Demo for Animal Cracker Portraits 

 

 My demo for Color Pencil Journaling 

My demo for Paper Quilts 

and so the week ended and I flew back home to CA in the wind and rain....I was hoping to bring some home with me to our drought land.....sigh...

Rancho Bellota in Baja Mexico

 just returned from Baja, Mexico where I taught a watermedia workshop at the best Horse Ranch ever! Baja Rancho Bellota is a working, off the grid ranch in a secluded 2800 acre beautiful valley. Raul and Caroline Agular are the owners and gracious hosts of this wonderful place.
Save the date! May 5 to 8, 2016....I'll be teaching here again! 

Here are some fine examples of student work. We all had a great time...and the ranch dogs did too! 

a hike we took after painting....I want this rock in my garden....sigh.....

and of course we took off to Guadalupe Valley to a couple of wineries. This was my favorite...Vena Cava. Artful and creative use of materials abound...the roofs were old boats and the awning was made out of irrigation tubes....

and here is our wonderful host Raul with timely Margaritas while we painted on location...just a little spoiled! ..

we rode off for a two hour ride up and down the canyons in the late afternoon. What an experience! My horse was very good to me since I haven't ridden in many years. The views were magnificent! 

our art workshop leaders Ellen and Liz in the sunset.
...and Gabriele...a real Mexican vaquero

Adios! Till next year in May! 

An Illustrated Journey

Registration opens today for the trip of a lifetime to Southern France 2016! 

Join Lynn Leahy and Helen Shafer Garcia for an extraordinary week in southern France. Live the palette and imagery of Toulouse Lautrec’s artworks, historically ingrained in this region while we reside in the medieval village of Durfort.

Our adventure will begin at La Cascade, a beautifully restored home and art retreat on the river Sor. Imagine starting each day to the relaxing sound of a waterfall , a sumptuous meal, and the anticipation of beginning your creative journey.

 Space is very limited to 8 students......

All Details here

Pastels in the making

My local classes are starting back up for Fall this week. I teach Pastel on Friday afternoons in Escondido. I love the transition from Watercolor and gouache to Pastel.

Have a look see...you may want to join us if you live in the area...if not...you may just want to break out a set of pastels that have been buried in your art stash.......and play.....

This pastel started out with  a charcoal drawing on brown art spectrum paper. I painted with gouache watercolors to build up complementary colors for high contrast. Hummm....I need to finish this one.......These paper mache dolls were at a factory in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. 

These are little studies for a workshop called Drawing the Lines that I'll be teaching next year for Art and Soul Minneapolis 2016

And 2 steps from a demo on backlit figures.