My Family Takes My Workshop

I think I could start nearly every blog with "puleeze excuse the long delay between posts!" or "sorry this is so long in coming." So, to avoid such inane beginnings, I'll just, from now on, ignore the eonic lapses between the times I get to the writing.

It's not that nothing is happening to blog about -- too MUCH is going on. F'rinstance, my family just had a big reunion a state away (in Idaho, 500 rangey Oregon sagebrush miles from here, some of it along The Oregon Trail). The trip takes all day to travel, but the fall colors were gorgeous. I always stop in Vale, a tiny Oregon town with wonderful murals painted on most of the buildings, to rest and admire the once-upon-a-time scenes.

The reunion consumed a full week since I stayed with my brother the printer and not only got my family visiting done but also oversaw the printing of some Campsite Critter Guides (a sideline to my book business) and a batch of one-page lead responses which I'll send to the multitude of people who requested more information about the Costa Rica journaling workshop from my ad in The Artists' Magazine. Go take a look!

At any rate, here are my sibs: David, Elsie, Diane, Laura, and myself.

Now, normally, a family reunion is just lots of related people talking and reminiscing and getting reacquainted after a long period of intermittent, fleeting, or nonexistent contact. But this one (in addition to all that good stuff) was pretty scary.

Actually, it's not that I have scary relatives -- it's that my sister Laura talked me into giving my watercolor pencil workshop for all the siblings while we were all together. Now, doing a workshop for strangers has gotten to be a pretty comfortable prospect. But doing the same workshop for the people one holds most dear and who once gave one advice from on high and/or participated heartily in sibling rivalry with one, and for whom one wants to shine (and, I admit it, to impress just the teensiest bit) -- well, that's pretty daunting. But I figured it would be great practice and a quick way to add a bit more polish to my delivery (I don't feel I have a class properly groomed until I've given it ten or twenty times) so I agreed to give the workshop.

In the end, it turned out to be great fun for all of us. We all stayed at my brother David's house, and I gave it twice, because not everyone could make the first class, right there on the kitchen table and using my workbooks which I always bind with watercolorable paper in the back. The table was a little crowded, and we only had three hours for the class each time, but I am pleased to say that either I have a phenomenally talented family (including sis-in-law and a nephew) or I'm hitting the right note with the workshop. Or maybe both.

Here are the results, and since I didn't get around to asking each one if I could put it up on the blog, I won't identify who did what. Aren't they FINE? By the way, the models are an apple from the tree in the back yard, tomatoes and red peppers from Marcia's garden (these are heritage tomatoes, orange and purply-green), one of Marcia's nasturtiums, and a gourd from the grocery store. Actually, that isn't the same apple because the original got put in a salad. But this one was close.

I think they're pretty terrific for three hours work, including the introduction to right-brain drawing, drawing the subjects, then coloring them. Click on them for closer views.

By the way, for the Nature Journaling Workshop, which I talked about in the last post, I still need to make a third workbook. I was going to just use the watercolor pencil workbook from the Nature Sketching Workshop, but I decided there are things I need to condense and add to make it work better for the Nature Journaling Workshop. I now have a journaling workshop scheduled for January in Ashland (Oregon) (the actual date eludes me) which will give me time to tidy up any loose ends before I give it again in Costa Rica.

So. until next post....keep tuned! And if you want to be notified when these infrequent posts happen, click on the little box in the right-hand panel that will notify you when a new post comes up so you can come and read it. It's a handy little gizmo.

Cheers, fellow artists, and adieu!

What am I DOING!

I'm hearing fireworks -- even out here in the woods. It's supposed to get up to about 100 degrees today, so I didn't go to the parade. Anyway, I have WAY too much to do. I just sat down to do an inventory of my ongoing projects and discovered that I have

• a workshop to develop from the ground up (although I've begun the planning)
• two workshops to give within the next two months
• 23 full page illustrations to design and execute and 125 spot illustrations to rework (from bitmap to halftone) before the end of the year for The Southern Swamp Explorer.

Yikes! That's about one full-page illustration and 5 spot illustrations per week. I have started doing the spot illustrations on my laptop in the evenings while I "watch" TV. Actually there isn't much watching going on, just listening and an occasional glance up to the screen. It helps that most of the stuff is reruns so I can run pre-stored visuals of the storyline through in my head as I listen and illustrate.

Here's one of the big illustrations I finished a couple of weeks ago. I've done two since then, but I don't have them in jpg form so this will have to do. It's a mink in a bog, with pitcher plants and white-topped sedge and sphagnum moss (click to enlarge). I posted it to Flikr.com, where you can upload your stuff to share, then revised its front paw after a viewer suggested it needed improvement. She was right! See for yourself!

So my days are exceedingly busy, with filling orders and illustrating and keeping up with the business matters of running a business (Nature Works Press) (and sometimes blogging, like now), then quitting that at about 5 (when I'm pure stiff from sitting in front of the computer) and going down to Plant Oregon Nursery where I weed, prune, and do trouble-shooting "runabouts" on the golfcart until dark -- about 3-4 hours, then I come home and illustrate in front of the TV. I usually don't make it to bed until around 11. (I'm not whining, honest! I am just floored that I have so much to do!)

Now, tomorrow, I'm hoping to post my Journaling Workshop class plan, and see if anyone wants to poke holes in it or make suggestions. I'm hoping for some real feedback, so if you want to take part, feel free!

Remember last week I took a journaling class to get a feel for what should be in one? Well, Elaine Frenett just sent me a photo of the painting she was doing for that journaling class. She noted that the painting wasn't quite finished but that the text was, and that she hoped to finish it later after her show this Friday and send me the results. Here 'tis. Click on it for a closer view.

Elaine's show will be one of the highlights of Ashland's July "First Friday" tours -- on the first Friday of every month Ashland galleries and other participating entities throw open their doors to the public from 5 to 8pm. People walk from gallery to gallery, and it's a delightful sort of community experience. Elaine's show will be in the Headwaters building at 4th and C Streets.

At any rate, here's the painting, and you can see how the text enfolds it comfortably.

Gotta go.