Fall Ceramic Happenings

Fall Ceramic Happenings

My first attempt at making a creamer, spout and handle. Casey, our Studio guru, helped me make the handle. The spout? Only till after the bisque fire, then I'll find out if it works or not. 

Our clay slop can

Casey's work table....I feel right at home....note the red high heel shoes to the left. 

Little bunnies all lined up the Raku fire on Tuesday...and a crow with a hat...update on Instagram next week.....  follow me at henstudio 
 

Two New Online Classes!

 I'm pleased to announce my two new online courses for you! 

Sign up today at CreateArtsOnline.

when you  purchase both courses in the bundle you'll get a discount!                                                

    

Learning to See- Drawing in Journals

And 

Poetic Watercolor Journaling 

New Garden Installation

New Garcia Collaboration ...my Hubby Jose and I designed and built this for our lower dry pond area. It's a chassis from an old truck minus parts that my husband stripped off with a welding torch. He added the wheel from a bike that my son John worked on. At the top..hard to see..but there are two more metal attachments. Part of an old hand truck that my Dad used. 

The video shows how heavy this thing was to carry! Scroll down to the end of this post to see my video of the guys moving this sculpture which weighed over 500 pounds. Our gardener Martin and Jose carried it from the front yard and used pulleys to hold it in place when it was cemented into the ground. My son adjusted the pulleys till it was time to add the concrete.

I made the ceramic pots for assorted plants while my husband handmade all of the chains and attachments. 

A true collaboration of love

 

 

Summer Musings

 So here we are in the thick of summer. My least favorite season. I spend my time gardening, (which means mostly watering), teaching, making stuff out of clay, and painting. And then there is the occasional house cleaning stuff....ha! Another least favorite thing to do. 

Be sure and check out my WORKSHOPS  and HAPPENINGS pages for details on where I'm headed next to teach and where I sell stuff. I have local CLASSES too.

I've been gearing up for the OMA plein Air festival in a couple of weeks. Here are my paintings so far....We have to have our canvas/paper stamped at the beginning of the week, then paint on location. Then, turn in our 2 best works on Friday for jurying.  

My Artist friend Deena and I 

Queen Mothers and other news

 Just finished preparing my latest installation 

Una Congregación de Reinas Madres

a congregation of Queen Mothers and their children based on motherhood as a metaphor for bravery, thoughtfulness, love, caring, and joy. The arrangement will be in a spiral depicting the cycle of life. 

The Fallbrook Art Center Guild Exhibition will show this work June 12 to July 11, 2021. Each piece will be priced at $400.00 plus CA tax. Please contact the art center for more information for interested buyers. The sizes range from 15" to 16" high. 

Other news...only one day left to sign up for my online workshop sale! Use code SPRINGSALE10. 

Here are some snippets from the group. 

SOLD! 

SOLD!

Spring Rings New Happiness

 Happiness abounds with thoughts of new Spring classes on the horizon. I'm offering local classes in Escondido and Fallbrook School of the Arts. The Fallbrook class is on site. The Escondido classes will be online Zoom till further notice. 

I have a new class listed........Travel Journaling- Drawing and Watermedia. Travel Journaling is a great way to learn how to draw and paint. Learn how to work in a watermedia journal with watercolors, color pencils, watercolor pencils, pens and inks! 

And just a reminder...I have an online course for all of you also! 

EscondidoAdult School       Spring to Summer 2021

  located at 220 West Crest Avenue, Escondido, CA 92025.

 Just north of Mission between Broadway and Escondido Blvd near the end of the 78 Freeway.

760 739-7300

New Class!  Travel Journaling- Drawing and Watermedia

April 13 to June 15   Tuesdays 1:00pm to 4:00pm

a class for all levels This Class will be held online with Zoom due to the pandemic. This means you can sign up from anywhere in the USA! 

Let’s face it. We yearn to travel to far away lands , see new vistas, and celebrate life.Travel Journaling is a great way to document these trips whether or no you can actually travel! You will learn basic drawing techniques to capture favorite places, objects, flora, and views. Work with watercolors, watercolor pencils, gouache, pens, color pencils and inks to create everlasting memories.
These drawing methods will ease those ever present inhibitions. Learn how to blend beautiful color layers and create light to dark mixtures with watercolor and inks.

Mixed Media approaches in Watercolors and Acrylics 
Starts in April according to Pandemic conditions. This class  will be online with Zoom. This means you can sign up from anywhere in the USA!

10 weeks fridays 9 - 12     Starts April 16 to June 18
   For intermediate to advanced painters.

Experimental Watermedia approaches will be explored with watercolor and acrylic with a focus on composition, negative painting, and textures in still life, landscape, and figurative works.   Build up layers with translucent hues and simple printmaking techniques.Metaphors and messages can play a thoughtful role in your works with added bits of collage and text. Be prepared to loosen up and experiment with different resists and textures to build up the surfaces, paint translucent layers, and create extraordinary shapes.

Fallbrook School of the Arts

Contemporary Watermedia

April 19 to May 24

Mondays 1 to 4pm 

Winter Bliss

 Great news! My painting "The Government" has been accepted into the Western Federation Exhibition that will be held virtually this year. 

This composition derived from photos I took in San Miguel de Allende. Casa de las Ranas is owned by a couple who's Mosaic obsession has gone wild. We take our Tesoro del Corazon students for a tour every year...except in the time of Covid...sigh. (We canceled again this year but will return next year!). Anado McLauchlin is interviewed here

Every time we have visited I took photos of the same window sill in their studio. The streaming light plays so well with the little critters they've collected over the years. Here are a few photos of the same location.....

So, without further ado ...I present "The Government"

New Year, new classes

 I'm so happy to start this new year! We all needed a fresh start. I've got some great new classes coming up this month. 

I hope you can join me. Escondido Adult school will be on Zoom again. This means anyone can sign up! Friday mornings- 3 hours- demo and critique plus some awesome inspiration. Sign up asap...

Take a look on my classes page

I've also have a class starting Fallbrook School of the Arts in Fallbrook, CA. These are held at the school with all covid safety procedures. 

Here are some some of my demos from last quarter...oh and me demoing....enjoy!

Oak Tree Dr - Remembrance sculpture in my garden

 Sometimes you need to create as part of the healing process. It's been a tough couple of years with the passing of my Mom and Dad. Earlier this year, my Mom died at the age of 95 during the time of Covid so we could not have any services. My Dad died 4 years ago. 

I started this assemblage sculpture with a branch from one of our 150 year CA coastal live oaks at our family house. I brought it home, let it sit for the longest time until I decided what to do with it. The twist of the branch is quite beautiful. My hubby and I took off all of the bark, sanded, and varnished the wood. That slow process was comforting in a way..chipping away the grief. 

I started thinking about what to do with branch, what it needed to become. Birds are always one of my favorite things to draw and sculpt. Each bird has a different design and counts as members of my family. My sister thought of that..when I made the birds I didn't have that connection...thank you Nancy. 

When we were clearing out the garage at the family home I asked my brother if we could take the old vacuum cleaner base out of the garage. He said "what do you want that for?" "What are you going to do with that?"...he's a very practical guy. Of course he said that many more times to me while we were clearing out our beloved home for sale...yea..I love found objects..what can I say...

The vacuum was a built in system throughout the house...do they even make those any more? My hubby Jose added sand in the bottom of the canister for weight and made the marvelous connections for all the birds, wood and base. Thank you my husband of many years. 

The home is sold now...52 years of memories.