Workshop Week continues.....

I know it looks like we are just having fun, but I promise we have been working hard all week- painting, drawing and talking about building a career in art, marketing and selling art. But, we did take time out last night for a Texas version of a low country boil.

Workshop Week

My fabulous workshop artists are here at the studio this week. I limited the group to five (the number I can fit in my studio). We started out with a get together Sunday afternoon and the promptly got to work Monday morning. The weather has been spectacular- actually cool and dry. Four of the ladies are staying at a guest cottage about a mile down the road from my home/studio and another has her RV parked on our property. Here is the group- left to right, Dottie ,Tifton, GA, Lisa, Bellingham, WA, Judy, Lafayette, LA, Sara, Brownsville, Minnesota, and Pat, Dallas, TX.






The ladies and my husband Steve enjoying a late afternoon "happy hour", along with an hors d'oeuvre of Dottie's recipe for "baked bacon".

Morning on the Flats
16 x 30
Private Collection

Just a few days until my workshop group arrives, so it seems we are on a merry go round here! I did want to mention that I've had one cancellation in the Skies class which starts May 7- so there is a spot available. I've also posted a new online class- Painting Water- which will start on May 14. There is information and registration for both classes here .

Busy Spring

In about 10 days I have five artists coming for the Advanced Workshop & Mini Mentorship here at my studio. They are traveling here from all points across the country, braving the difficulties of getting to Clarksville. In fact, one my students said that getting to Clarksville was more challenging than the logistics of her former job as field director for a state governor's political campaign!

So, we are in high gear here getting ready for that. I am also organizing my materials for the online Skies class I'll be teaching in a few weeks, and finishing up the last week of the Luminous Landscape class in progress now. I've got several larger paintings going in the studio, but none of them are in "postable" condition just yet. So, here are a couple of sketches by John Constable, the great early 19th century English landscape painter, who I have written about many times on this blog (see sidebar for links). Constable undertook several campaigns of skying during his career and left us with a record of not only the weather but the very heart of his art. Enjoy!

Painting the Night

Moonlighting
12 x 12
Available at Blackheath Gallery, London

Its probably no secret to those who have been reading this blog for a while that I love nocturnes. Like many of my visual obsessions, this one goes back to childhood. Like a lot of kids, I stayed out on summer evenings to catch fireflies and count the stars. But my most vivid memories are of a cottage on a lake where we stayed for a few weeks one summer. There was long dock with a covered boat house and screened porch where I could wile away hot summer nights watching the moon rise or the reflections of the lights from the other side of the lake.

These days I sometimes wake early to watch the full moon, huge and glowing, set outside my window. Here is a favorite poem that puts words to my fascination. Enjoy.

Moon & Water

I wake and spend
the last hours
of darkness
with no one

but the moon.
She listens
to my complaints
like the good

companion she is
and comforts me surely
with her light.
But she, like everyone,

has her own life.
So finally I understand
that she has turned away,
is no longer listening.

She wants me
to refold myself
into my own life.
And, bending close,

as we all dream of doing,
she rows with her white arms
through the dark water
which she adores

Mary Oliver