I'm back from the cruise!

I'm back! What a great experience! Everyone was so nice, the ship was amazing, and the scenery was beyond description.

Here's me on the right with the other two instructors - Ann Kullberg (left) and Anne de Mille Flood (middle). I have to say I was a bit star struck when I met them and I tried not to show it too much. It's still hard to believe Ann invited me on the trip to teach with such great teachers and authors. I just regret I didn't bring my own books to have them sign for me - darn! I attended their classes but didn't have the supplies to work alongside the students. I just couldn't pass up learning how they do their workshops and colored pencil art though so I stayed and watched. They are both such good teachers, artists and businesswomen. Makes me want to go on that art business cruise Ann is doing, but I don't see a new vacation in a while!

I have so many photos I would love to share with you all but who wants to download them all. They really don't do the scenery justice because they don't show the all encompassing size of the mountains in the passage we were in, the colors etc. I will share with you a few and I'll upload them a bit later. For now here are some miniature (3" x 4" almost aceo's) plein aire drawings I did in each of the ports we stopped in in Alaska. I sat on the top deck and drew them. You can tell that in Ketchikan the weather agreed and I had plenty of time on the deck actually finishing two. In the other two ports it was cold and a bit harder to concentrate so they are less finished. You can see, especially in the Ketchikan drawings, that there are a huge range of colors in the mountains that the photographs just leave out.