Door County 2016

 I have been in contact with a friend from college who was in art education with me.  She lives in Oregon in the summer.  In our recent conversations, she has indicated to me that she wanted to learn more about plein air painting, so I looked at our calendar and the Door County Plein air event was the same week as our mutual sorority reunion.
        I invited her to stay with us for the week and we could attend both.  she accepted but said she want to take a workshop on plein air, if possible.  Two of my friends from KC were bringing their KC students to Door Co., and they were teaching a workshop, so we joined them!  We painted with them for 3 days and joined our sorority sisters Sue hadn't seen for 50 years.  All in all, it was a great week!
       

Tammy doing aa demo at the sister Bay dock/

My college friend, Sue and Me at Kangaroo Lake.

My quick Paint entry that was sold at the evening reception.

"End of the Season"  10x20, Painted this after we returned from Door Co. from a photo I took last October.

Stem's Plein Air Event at the Overland Park Arboretum

Monet Painting in his Garden, Bronze Sculpture

 After all our winter travels, including a quick trip to Door County, I hardly caught my breath and it was time for the annual Stems Plein Air Event that I had entered earlier in the year.  It is always scheduled around Memorial Day and during the 10 day event,  the flowers were in full bloom at the Arboretum.  I have done this event for several years so my goal for this event was to do something different, and I think I succeeded in doing just that.  I have always admired the bronze statue of Monet painting in his garden that is positioned in front of the Monet Bridge.  I decided to tackle that and set myself up behind the statue on the grass.  As I concentrated on getting the proportions of the statue correct, I noticed many other artists were painting the garden in full color.  As I looked at my predominately bronze painting, I decided to paint the entire scene in bronze hues.  I titled the painting, "Monet-chromatic".  Not sure everyone caught it but I enjoyed being a "wordsmith" for a change.

Painting Monet in his his garden.

"Monet-Chromatic"  11x14.

"Bucket List Cruise"

      Once again, I had the opportunity to travel and teach watercolor on another cruise.  This one was a 15 days cruise through the Panama Canal!  Gary and I jumped at the opportunity to see such an important part on our history and to learn more about how it was built.  We weren't disappointed as this special cruise had experts on the subject to enhance our experience.  We visited Cabo San Luca and PuertoVallerta  enroute, as well as a few stops in central America.  All in all, it was a wonderful "bucket trip"  Of course, I had my traveling watercolor block with me and took time to record a few special spots.

My classes were very interesting because the people on a cruise such as this were interesting.  May from Europe and didn't speak English but art is such a universal language, they all caught on!

This arched rock is at the entrance to the port at Cabo San Luca.  I snapped a few pics as were were arriving and painted this on the deck.

I saw a lighthouse  going through the canal at the Gatun Locks. Gatun Lake is in the background.  It was a challenge to feature the lighthouse and to include one of the locks at the same time. 

February on South Padre Island

      We have spent 2 winter on South Padre Island but haven't returned since 2011.  Our son and his family moved to Austin, TX ao we decided to go back to South Padre to visit them along the way and to have them come over to the Island for the Presidents Day Weekend.  We booked a 2BR condo  at Bahia Mar, to accommodate them and we were pleasantly surprised with the beautiful sunrise view we had each morning.

 We got up several mornings and took our coffee out to the lounge chairs provided along the Gulf and enjoyed watching the sun rise!

Had to capture this pleasant experience on canvas!

By day, the views were equally amazing!  I loved setting up my plein air easel and painting the view!

           I found a plein air group to paint with towards the end of our stay.  We are going back next year and I hope to paint with them again.  We went to a channel in Port Lucie where the shrimp boats come in and I enjoyed trying my luck with a colorful one that caught my eye!

I found a little Gallery called  "Seas the Day"  that featured a silversmith and had many artifacts from the island for sale. He had consignment paintings on the wall and I asked him if he would have room for mine exhibit there  He said "yes", so that is where my South Padre paintings can be found.  

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My how time flies!

      I just had occasion to go back through my blog archives and I realize how valuable a permanent record of my retired life is!  It was great to revisit our trip to Europe in 2010 as well as the many other excursions we have been blessed to take.
      Recently, I have fallen into the "trap" of posting my work on Facebook.  Its easy and the "instant gratification" is incredible.  But I have no record of these posts, except to find them occasionally show up on my Facebook feed among all the other activities we do.
      The reason I set up this blog, was to record my artistic and travel journeys, that I might be able to show growth as an artist and a lifelong student of art.  I didn't realize how much fun it was to look back at these experiences 5 years later!
       I am going to try to "begin again" with my activities starting in 2016. This year, like many in the past, has provided us with opportunities to travel to South Padre Island, and to take a "bucket list cruise"  through the Panama Canal, where I, once again, taught watercolor classes onboard.
      We were blessed to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary and our trip to Door County this summer was a big part of the celebration.
       This year has also been a year of commissions.  I was asked to paint some scenes from our resort in Door County for my niece as special gifts, and I was also commissioned to paint a statue of the Holy Family as a going away gift for a special nun in our parish.
       I participated in the Stem's Plein Air event in Overland Park this Spring and also took a workshop with a friend from college during the Door County Plein Air Festival. I will post a few pics from each of these events, and vow to keep up with this project in the future, if not for the enjoyment of my subscribers, at least for the record! I'll begin with the commissions.

This statue is in the sanctuary of our Nativity Parish.  It is the "Holy Family", the namesake of our parish.  Our pastor asked me to paint his statue as a parting gift for Sister Kathleen, who had spent several years in our parish and was returning to her convent.  No pressure here! 

This is Tiger Lily cottage and Bailey. My niece just purchased this cottage and her sister asked me to paint her dog and the cottage.  The only way I could do justice to both was to do a "near and far" composition from our pier.

My niece and her husband purchased the 100+  cabin our our property and she asked me to paint her family on the porch for her husband's 50th Birthday gift.  It was an honor to paint such special place for him.