Three Rivers Workshop

Just returned from a fab weekend in Three Rivers, CA where I taught a 2 day watercolor batik workshop provided by The Arts Alliance of Three Rivers. I taught a wonderful group of gals at St Anthony's Retreat at the east end of town.

Thank you Elsah Cort (who also organizes the Three Rivers Studio Tour)  for all of your hard work! And thank you Beth for being my marvelous assistant! 

 old patina signage along the road.....

 My demos in the works 

 The gals collected wild flowers for me ........

 Jeri's words of wisdom with warm, inviting colors. She included a strand of Sari cloth for a design element. 

 Jennifer's energetic work with twisting Blackberries 

 and Elsah's piece with metallic doodle calligraphy lines and beautiful colors

Santa Ysabel hike journal

 This week's hike was up in the San Diego Mountains near a town called Santa Ysabel. Santa Ysabel Preserves is a beautiful place to hike and journal. My drawing was quickly done...no time for details so I ended up drawing doodle lines in some areas. We each wrote a poem about our experience.....mind the spelling......

Home from Asheville

Just arrived home from Asheville, NC for a week full of artful adventures with friends. Asheville is such a great town filled with galleries, delightful restaurants, and antique shopping. 

  My friends and I stayed at a great B & B in town called the Beaufort House. Southern hospitality at its best.........

 old stones from the garden.....a Master Garden......

 Ceramic sculptures from the River district.....great coffeehouse just down the street.....

 this gal greeted us at Origami Ink, a clever little paper works shop that sells Noodlers Ink pens....

 Dinner at the Grove Park Inn with the gals......

 Margaret....on the right....seems obsessed with a little plastic toy.....

Here's my cousin Steve with one of his Assemblages....love it! Steve lives in Asheville and we have been able to reconnect with my travels to his town. He's a kindred spirit....loves rusty stuff just like me......

Direct Interaction

Save the date for my new exhibit.........

      “Morning at Elfin”                               watercolor

Direct Interaction

An artist’s observations afoot at Elfin Forest

April 10 to June 30, 2012

Elfin Forest Interpretive Center Honoring Susan J. Varty

A partnership of the Olivenhain Municipal Water District and The Escondido Creek Conservancy

   Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve

Reception for the artist     April 14        4:30pm to 6:30pm

our mini workshop for San Miguel de Allende

Laurie Mika, Jane La Fazio, Leslie Harris, Lynn Leahy, and I spent a wonderful day together in my garden last week creating the book pages for our Tesoro del Corazon project that we will be teaching this Fall in San Miguel de Allende. These gals had way too much fun painting paste papers and crinkling Masa paper! Our reatreat is full this year and many are on the wait list. Be sure and keep in touch by signing up for our blog posts about a future retreat in 2013!  

cups and bowls

I'm a lucky girl....Richeson  Fine Art Materials sent me a big box full of art goods to experiment with and to share with my classes! In the box I found Richeson Pastels, pastels papers and boards, acrylics, and more!
Here is a sampling from my Pastels class demo I did on cups and bowls....this support paper is very "toothy" and a dream to work on. I just read that it will accept watercolor washes so I'll try that next.
Huge thanks to Richeson!

Create in California ....Registration opens today!

I'll be teaching 4 fab workshops at Create Orange County California in May! Registration opens today.....
Check it out!  
Here are some tid bits........

Happy Holidays Everyone!

The Holidays are here...bring in the cheer! Wishing peace and joy for all.......

Santa Ysabel Hike with friends

My art friends and I hiked at the Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve on Friday...an absolutely beautiful day. The day just beckoned us to sit under the Engelmann Oaks on this dry, windy late morning and paint the surroundings. And to finish a perfect outing...lunch in town, Julian pies, and shopping at Santa Ysabel Gallery and Weaver's shop.....

an absolutely magnificent oak at the top of the ridge

The trail head starts near the Santa Ysabel Mission off the 78 in Santa Ysabel, CA. You need to open the gates to pass through the cow pastures...you can see the mission behind the curious cows........

Candy Wrapper Book...part 2

While recuperating from my bout with Bronchitis I managed to finish my Candy Wrapper book.

 I used embroidery thread to embellish the covers with some stitches that I kinda remembered how to do back in my hippie days.... I  added a hand milagro....good thoughts for stitching....and some flying bird charms. The wrap tie is a fabric scrap  from old sari cloth.

 This detail shows the binding. I taught this binding in my Fall  Book Arts Class at Fallbrook School of the Arts. The 2012 classes will be posted very soon! My next Book Arts class starts January 26 -1 to 4pm.