Apple Blossoms

The apple orchard is in full bloom and looks quite beautiful this time of year. Some artists are coming over to paint and I will post pictures as soon as they are available. Here's a preview of what's to come.
Happy Painting!

Sidetracked Artist

After 2 years I decided to begin writing again. I haven't been sidetracked from art. On the contrary, I have diverged to other art interests, too many art projects, and just too much fun!
In the summer I give a large chunck of my time to teaching high school students arts and crafts at a camp in the Columbia Gorge. This summer we made lavender wands (my son David and I cut almost all the lavender out of my garden), leather bracelets, and bottle cap art necklaces. We also did "guerilla painting" (more on that later). This year was amazing so I decided to post a few pics!

Be Creative

Last week I decided I needed a new entertainment center to house my vcr and dvd's, but I didn't see what I wanted in the stores so I decided to check out the Goodwill and see if there was something there I could fix up "new". My daughter inspired me recently with a dresser that she painted and got new hardware for and wala! A like-new dresser. Could this be my answer?

So I went to our local used everything store and found a mid-1960's ish dresser, just the size I needed, made out of wood and not particle board. It was very sturdy. So we loaded it up on the truck and made a trip to the the local home supply store to pick up paint, new drawer pulls, molding and shelving board. Now I am on a role! This was Monday afternoon and by Monday evening I had taken out the 2 upper drawers and replaced them with shelving. I put a peice of molding between the shelving and the lower drawers to hide the gap. Took off the back and painted it all a dark kona brown. By early evening I had the whole projected completed with the help of my husband. Oh by the way, the dresser cost $10 and the supplies about $40. So I now have a like "new" entertainment center for a fraction of the price a new one would have cost. Hmmmmm..... I wonder what my next project will be?

Painting in Snow

At Christmas time our family took a trip to Mt. Bachelor to ski and snowboard. I took my little pochade box in hopes of getting a painting or two in. While the rest of my family was putting on their snow gear I was scoping out the best place to paint. I decided to sit near the windows of the lodge where I would have a good view of the mountain and keep warm. This was my first experience painting snow, and with the conditions constantly changing it was fun to keep up.

PAINTING IN WINTER

Painting in winter can have it's own set of challenges such as last Saturday. The group that I paint-out with twice a month were going over to Sauvie Island to paint in a tropical green house (a first for us). But that morning we had freezing rain and the road we would have taken there was closed. So I guess this weekend most of us stayed home and painted indoors. As for myself, I preferred to have friends over and paint out another day this week.