Back from Journalfest

I am finally unpacked from our trip to Seattle and Port Townsend. We spent 2 days in Seattle. We ate some amazing  food - new favorites are  Flying Fish and Crow. Both meals were unforgettable. We walked everywhere and saw the Picasso exhibit at the SAM. I had to laugh when I looked at the pictures I took....a little like "wierd" Seattle.

The sprout eating gekko

This was a window display. The reflection on the glass made it ghost - like.

A haunt...

We travelled to Port Townsend with a mandatory stop at the Steamliner Diner in Bainbridge, for their famous buttermilk biscuits. Journalfest was great. I love the smaller groups, classes and relaxed atmosphere. I had Julianna Coles for the first day. She is an energetic teacher and really encouraged us to be more brave,take risks with our journal pages. Here are a couple paged I worked on...

This was a cool technique using carbon paper - do they still make it??

A warm-up

A drawing of Judy Wise drawing me....

I spent the next 2 days with Carla Sonheim. What a wonderful experience. She is so relaxed and has so much to share as a teacher. Here are a few of the pages I did....

I love the conte crayon as a drawing tool. This was a drawing made better with gesso and collage.

My "one liner" lion

My Picasso Dog - he looks a lot like my dog Max...All together a great experience, well worth the effort to attend. 

Artist Studio Tour

Working off my favorite advise - "Say YES, then figure it out..." I agreed to be on the Artist Studio tour for the Grants Pass Museum of Art next weekend (September 11-12th from 10am-4pm each day). Once I agreed, as usual, things started getting bigger than I thought. My husband graciously helped me build a path from the driveway to the studio, so folks would not have to use the stairs. I have cleaned and re-organized - realizing more of that is needed once this is over. Just when I thought I could take a breath, a reporter from the local paper asked to visit and do an interview. She also did a video, which is on the papers website. Here is the link:
http://web.thedailycourier.com/video/vidpage.html?v=090210Studios The process was pretty fun and I am once again glad that I said YES!

Exquisite Corpse...

I was doing some research on the Surrealists and found this neat site based on the "Exquisite Corpse" game.
Drawn and Fold Over . If you go to the site, you can start a drawing and email it to your friends to finish. When it is done, you get an email back showing you the completed drawing. I started one and emailed it to my grand-daughter. It was fun to do it together.

Awsome Abstracts

I just finished a class by a southern Oregon artist Janet Bocast: http://janetbocastfineart.com/
I am not an abstract painter in any way, but I am pleased with my results. We did an ink pour to start off the painting and went at it from there.

the pour....

the finish!

Here is another...

and my final piece - a full sheet of watercolor paper.

I will be doing more with what I learned. I see some people in there......

New Journal Pages

I have been playing in my journals more this summer. It seems there is so much to do, I have less time to get into bigger pieces of art. This one was an experiment with alcohol dripping and negative shapes.

These two are back to my "people". Collage fodder from my trips, pen, pencils and watercolor crayons.

This one is killer fun. I took a lesson from Carla Sonheim's new book "Drawing Lab." The exercise is to draw with an eyedropper and ink. I added a little white paint pen and black marker. 

Flower Obsession

Lately, I have been obsessed with painting flowers. Abstract flowers in glass vases...small 5x7"

and large 20x20"

Not sure where I am going with this, but I am having fun and they make me happy!

Maybe something even larger??

Oregon Coast

We picked 2 days in June to take advantage of the Oregon coast. Bad luck for us it was VERY wet!

We stayed right on the water - literally. Complete with Tsunami warnings. It was magical, despite the weather. We came across an outdoor "art gallery" which was amazing.

You can see the rain pelting down, but these huge sculptures, made of fiberglass demanded some attention...

There were some amazing views of the rocky coast.

And some really awesome eating. My favorite was this place in Gold Beach.

I had a gourmet chicken burger with provolone and basil mayo. I was in foodie heaven!

It was a nice break, but I am glad to be back home and ready to get to work in the studio.