September Art Retreat

 Last week I went to Samish Island for a painting retreat.  Most of the artists were doing watercolor and many had sold their paintings in galleries.  There were so many different styles and beautiful paintings.  I did mixed media paintings with acrylics.  It was a great time.  I liked the constructive comments I received from those experienced artists on ways I might improve.

 

The scenery was beautiful.  We stayed in a cabin which included a bathroom.  It's been along time since I slept in a sleeping bag, but not too bad since I had a mattress to put it on.

 

The meals were wonderful.  We had 3 meals and dessert in the evening.  Thursday night we watched a movie.  Something about the Marigold Hotel.  It was funny.

 

 

 Everyone received half a table to work at.  My spot was next to Carol who was sitting by the window.

 

Carol, Carla and Joanne

 

 work room

 

 This was one of our meal times. 

 

Dessert on our last evening.

 

My bed.

 

 I love this photo.

 

 

 I saw deer.

 

 A picture of the lodge from the beach.

 

 Pretty sunset

 

Looking towards the point, taken from my cabin.

Photos with reflections fascinate me.

 

 

Now for my paintings.

 

I did this painting on my last day.  Sometimes I really like it, then other times I think I need to change it.  I don't know yet if it's finished or not.

 

 

I really like this canvas.  It was painted on the 2nd day of the retreat. 

 

 

This was a journal page.  It helped loosen me up for the canvases.  I'm really happy with it.

 



September fun

The weather has been fabulous this month.  I visited my mom for several days, attended a Ladies Tea at Jubilee Lodge which was lots of fun, worked on several artsy craftsy projects and I'm now packing for a 5 day Art Retreat at Samish Island. 

I just finished knitting and sewing together this doll.  It was a pattern from Lion's Brand yarns called a Sally Doll.  She's cute but sewing her together was a pain.  When I was on a cruise to Alaska I met a gal who was knitting one of these dolls and at that time decided that I had to make one. Now she needs a name.  Any suggestions?

 When I was cleaning out some of my supply cabinets I came across 4 glass candles that I had purchased after Christmas last year.  I decided to decorate them to make space in my cabinets for other things.  This is the candle I kept for myself .  I gifted the others to some very special friends.
To decorate the candles - I first removed the label by soaking in warm water.  Next I tore several strips of fabric which I glued onto the jar with mod podge.  I brushed several coats of mod podge over the fabric, then made a flower to tie around the candle.

I bought a new book called "The Collage Workbook" by Randel Plowman. 

 He inspired me to try to create a collage from scraps that I have collected and stored in a small box.  I had fun making this.  You can see how it looks framed, in the photo below .

Getting ready for Samish Island retreat.

My mom gave me this flower arrangement.  I really like the way it looks in my bathroom.

This video was taken by my son Trevor of his granddaughters at their birthday party.  My great granddaughters, Payton and Taylor just turned 3.

Stamping, collaging, doodling, cardmaking, and a photo.

Just returned from a visit with my mom, she is so beautiful, I included a photo at the end of this post.  We had a nice visit but I have a hard time seeing her fighting the back pain and depression.  I know it will take time but she will get better.

 

 

These are some journals I made using manila folders, decorative paper, stamps and fabric for the covers.  For the insides I used a collection of different papers, envelopes, and stapled the papers to the inside of the cover.  I used duct tape for the binding.

 

 This was one of my projects from the "21 Secrets Workshop".   Diana Trout's workshop included all kinds of doodling and collage games.  So much fun to see where they take you.

 

I used one of my carved stamps from my last post to make this card.  The half yellow and green circles are decorative tapes I bought at Target in the children's art supplies.  The green woven circle is from one of my placemats that got damaged.  I punched some circles from it.  I have been inking it and stamping texture on some of my paper projects.

 

 

Me and my beautiful Mom at Applebee's.