Mini-Tutorial, and Art Camp for Women Video

Head on over to the Art Camp for Women website for a mini-tutorial on how to make these PanPastel imaginary animals. Also, I made a short video plugging my upcoming workshop (October 11-14, 2013). Click the image below to watch it!

And while you’re at the site, sign up for the Art Camp for Women newsletter and you have a chance to win a FREE camp (worth up to $2,200).

I LOVED teaching at this venue last year and look forward to another year of getting to know more wonderful women in this more intimate setting.

Prints, and a Wonderful Book

Here are a couple of prints I made during the Gelli Plate class last month. I think they were my favorites from the batch of eight I worked on.

I just finished reading a wonderful memoir by Marie Williams: “Green Vanilla Tea.” I was so captivated by the story, especially in light of our family’s recent loss, that I read it all in one day, finishing late into last night. “Green Vanilla Tea” just won the “Finch Memoir Prize 2013” — well deserved, I think! Ms. Williams takes you right into the beauty and heartache of human suffering and love.

I just had to share!

Preview: Summer Online Art Camp

This is the third summer that I will be offering a series of online classes in the “Dog Days of Summer” Online Art Camp. These “camp” classes are intensive, one-week e-workshops that are high on content and energy; I make you work hard! (But it’s the “play” kind of hard.)

I can’t wait to put up all the details in just a few days (July 1). But in the meantime, I wanted to hint at what’s new this year:

This year we really wanted to add some variety to the lineup, and so we asked two of our favorite artists — Diane Culhane and Krista Peel — to let us host an online class for them!

Instead of three classes, you will have SIX classes to choose from over the three-week period (two classes will run simultaneously each week). You will be able to take 1, 2, 3, or even all 6 classes if your schedule allows!

Class descriptions will be released next week. I will teach two of the sessions, but the others will be taught by Diane Culhane, Krista Peel, and Steve Sonheim. (Yay!)

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Diane is a Seattle-based painter and art educator. I met her half a dozen years ago when I took one of her classes at “Artfest,” a mixed-media retreat that is no longer running. I think you will love her work and her class! See some of her wonderful, whimsical paintings at her website (dianeculhaneart.com) or in this recent article by quillpointart.com.

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Krista is a Philadelphia-based artist who I met about 15 years ago when we were both living in the Chicago area. She is one of my main art influences; as an artist she is so HERSELF, and taught me to embrace who I am as well. Check out her fantastic and varied portfolio at her website (kristapeel.com) or her blog.

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Steve and I just celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary! One of the most talented and creative people I know, Steve is a commercial photographer and author of the forthcoming book, “Creative Photography Lab” (due August 1, 2013; Quarry Books). Check out some of his images at his website (sonheimphoto.com).

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Have a great day, and check back July 1st! July 8th! 

Moving Slowly

I hope you are well today!

I’m moving extra slowly these days, but hopefully will be up and running normally soon. Not sure what’s up; just need some time to sit and think. Or, not think. Or, THINK about cleaning the house. I guess that’s what I’ve needed to do today, as that’s what I’ve done in the three hours I’ve been awake.

How about you?

This week I’m reading, “The Undressed Art: Why We Draw” by Peter Steinhart. I’m really enjoying it. He writes:

“Drawing is a way of communicating with the world, of listening to what the world has to say and answering back.”

I like that a lot!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

 

Quotes ‘n’ Doodles

Notebook doodles.

I spent some time this morning reading out of a terrific book titled “The Art of the Artist: Theories and Techniques of Art by the Artists Themselves.” Published in 1951 and compiled by drawing instructor Arthur Zaidenberg, it consists of short statements/essays on art by university and Artists League art instructors. Here are a few excerpts that spoke to me:

“[A painter’s] ingenuity is excited with the very limitation of the medium.”
— Marion Greenwood

“No matter how you paint, someone else walks in your canvas.
They call it influence.”
— Nahum Tschacbasov

“Why should a painting be easy to understand in a world in which
nothing is easy to understand?”
— Judson Smith

“I think there is only one way for all artists, and that is the indirect way.
The artist must be a creative person and have the attitude of a
creative person; he must find real purpose and pleasure in exploring the
nature of people and things; and he must develop his senses
through contact with sensuous things.”
— Doris Lee

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Have a great day!

Scribble-and-Erase Airplane Drawings

I spent some time scribbling in my sketchbook on the plane ride home from Colorado Saturday. Can you see the bear and the baby owl?

The trip was good. It was wonderful to see the family and important for all of us to say goodbye, I think.

I’ve felt a renewed sense of thankfulness for all the blessings in my life: health, family, friends… a beautiful city to live in, a job I just love, and, of course, Steve. I am grateful.

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I’m trying to change my habits somewhat. Instead of watching TV, I’m replacing that 20 minutes either by reading an article or watching some kind of creative video. Yesterday I watched “Over You,” an animated story about a friendship between a deer and a little ghost girl. Today I watched The Beatles’ last concert ever, the 1969 Rooftop Concert in London. I saw this giraffe video a few weeks ago, and it’s awesome….

Do you have any cool links to share?

A Goodbye

Christi Sonheim, Jill Erbsen, and Liam at the zoo in March.

A few days ago my son’s mom-in-law, Jill Erbsen, died of cancer. She was 55. (Here is the obituary in Salida’s Mountain Mail.)

Jill and I had a unique and special bond: we were both grandmas to little Liam.

Since the kids live in Seattle, I am blessed to see Liam (and now Ethan) on a regular basis. Over the last year and a half, Christi’s parents came out as often as they could from Colorado, often staying at our house. Yet… we would never see them, because, as Jill said once, “We have to get over there to drink up that little boy!”

As grandmothers, we complimented each other.

Jill was a practical, no-nonsense, get-it-done kind of person.

I am a more impractical, nonsensical, lay-on-the-floor kind of person.

Together we were a good “grandma” team.

I still can’t believe that Liam’s “other one grandma” is gone. I will do everything I can to help Liam remember her. Because everyone should have a grandma like Jill.

In Memory of Jill Erbsen

 

On leave this week

I’ve tried twice today to paint a little portrait to go with this post, but I just don’t have it in me.

A close family member passed away suddenly yesterday, and I will be away from my computer most of this week.

Please pray for our family. I will certainly share more when I feel I can.

If you sign up for any classes, it may be several days before I can send the links. Thank you for understanding!

Scrapbooking.com: I’m the profiled artist this month!

I’m so happy to have been asked by the wonderful Judi Kauffman if she could profile me for her monthly article for scrapbooking.com, “Meet the Artist.” She and I talked on the phone for at least two hours and I enjoyed every minute; she wrote a very flattering article and for that, Judi, I think you!

If you want to check it out, it contains about 20 art images documenting my art journey over the past 11 years. There’s also a “blob hunting” video in case you feel the need to draw some blobs today. Click here (and be sure to check out the other great content at scrapbooking.com).

And, here’s another Gelli print. It’s fun to work on these in the “cracks” of my other stuff.

“Dark Night,” acrylic on paper (gel monotype)

Happy Monday!

“Blue Landscape,” acrylic on watercolor paper (Gelli Plate monotype)

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I hope you had a terrific weekend!

Steve and I relaxed unexpectedly on Saturday, even though he had 30 hours of photo re-touching to do. When he told me, I asked, “Today?” He said, “This afternoon.”

And yet… we had lunch. We tried to walk to an estate sale while waiting for Liam to wake up (but gave up). We took Liam to the park, stayed and had dinner with the kids, and generally did nothing but hang out all day.

We sure needed it!

It’s very hard for both of us to take breaks (me more than him); I tend to be within feet of my laptop at all times.

But I’m trying!