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.

Trip Photos

I haven't left YET. I leave at 2:30 in the morning so I have just enough time to throw a few more things in the stuffed suitcase.

I just had an idea which may or may not work. I'm going to be posting images via my camera phone of my trip directly to the site: www.keenescene.blogspot.com which is where my husband and I usually post images from around the town of Keene NH. Well it will have a vacation this week to Alaska I guess! I'd post them here but I thought of it too late to reprogram the camera phone. I don't know when I will have reception or not, so it may or may not work, but its worth a try! So I'll see you all soon and hopefully you all can have a peak from time to time of maybe the workshop, some glaciers etc!

Here's that address again! www.keenescene.blogspot.com

Time to go

Well I've finished getting everything ready for my mother doing 10 days of babysitting duty while my husband and I are on board the Sun Princess Alaskan cruise and workshop with me, Ann Kullberg and Anne De Mille Flood. I've cleaned out every cabinet, pantry and cupboard. I've painted all the walls except for the stairwell, which I am having wallpapered while I am gone. I've cleaned out the garage, but unfortunately did that first so its messy again. I've spring cleaned our 1/2 acre yard, picking up all the branches, cleaned out all the plant beds, the veggie garden, the kids play house, etc. I'm, for the lack of a better word - pooped & ready to get on board and draw and relax. I have not however finished packing for the trip... Here's a little peak at one of the harbors we'll be docking in in Juneau Alaska via webcam.

I get back on the 30th and we will be busy right from the start. There is a new art gallery: Monadnock Fine Art Gallery at 99 Main Street in Keene New Hampshire. They will be opening while I am gone. I won't have anything displayed there until I return and create a few more pieces to give them a good grouping. Its very exciting to get a gallery right in our town and I'm equally excited to be included in it.

& then there's that photo I put with this post. It is the window for Trikeenan Tiles on our Main Street in Keene, NH. They make handmade tiles that are just gorgeous and also make very interesting window displays from time to time - this photo was from the town's Pumpkin Festival last year. They also are one of the businesses that donate window space each year to local artists for Keene New Hampshire's Art Walk. There will be artwork displayed in most windows down Main Street and around the circle where people can walk and view art at their leisure. Jess Westa Ventura and I will be working on sidewalk pastel paintings on Wednesday, June 6th during Artist's Demonstration Day. ArtWorks (the art school I teach at) is again hosting the Art Walk reception Friday, June 1st, from 7-9pm. The address in 30 Washington St if you can come.

Birthday Portrait

This is a little aceo sized (2.5" x 3.5") portrait of my niece for her birthday. My sister-in-law had everyone in the family draw a picture of her that she will frame up all together in one frame. She did it for my other niece and it turned out really fun.

& yes she is really that pretty!

Art History around town

I don't think this is the post you would guess it is from the title. The other day I jogged down to a local park in Keene, NH - and was admiring the park's carved wooden sign. We have a couple of very talented sign makers around here but I don't know what their names are. I've just seen their work around town. This sign is beautiful and this photo doesn't do it justice as it was just a camera phone. There is line work carved into the wood resembling the woodcuts from old books and then there is paint washed over it all which has worn off over time leaving almost a metallic look. The rippling water is just beautiful in person as are the trees in the background. That's not really why I'm posting this though. I was staring at this sign for a while with this niggling feeling that the people just seemed so familiar when it dawned on me! They are the people in one of my most favorite paintings of all time - Gustave Caillebott's Paris Street Rainy Day which I had the pleasure to see every day one summer when I worked at the Art Institute of Chicago where the massive painting hangs. You can even see that the woodcarver left a bit of the man's umbrella in there.

I'm not sure how much artwork I'm going to get to do this week as I have more gardening and more walls to paint inside but I'm hoping I will get to do a bit.