Blog

To be a self employed artist means you have to multitask.  I would love to claim that I excel in doing many jobs at once but I do not.  The thinner I spread myself the harder it gets to focus on what is important.  I confess that I have posted about my exciting summer on my newsletter and Facebook but forgot about my blog.  So here I am to fill you in on what has been happening.

I taught a landscape workshop in Italy to a talented and fun group of artists.  The workshop was terrific because my friends Debra and Ivano Zamperla know how to run everything smoothly and make everyone feel at home.  We visited gardens and museums, villas and farms, we painted, we sketched, we drank wine, we had a very, very good time.

 After the workshop my husband and I traveled with friends to Venice and the Dolomites.  Venice was magical.  The history and beauty of the sights along the Grand Canal still haunt me. We drove and explored the majestic Dolomite Mountains.  The mountains and the lake in Alleghe were my muse and I did quick sketches to get color notes for larger studio work at home.

 There are many Italy paintings forming themselves in my brain. The studio if filling with small sketches of the light and texture of the country, I feel like I need to get these little paintings down before I work on larger paintings.

We returned late June and my studio looked like an art supply bomb had gone off, it was impossible to paint and I became determined to redo my work space.  It took ten days of sorting, tossing, and rethinking how to make the studio fit my needs.  I finally have systems in place that are working out.  The next blog post I write will detail my studio makeover

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A couple of weeks ago I taught a landscape workshop in Oscoda to a fun group of artists. I have known these women through my teaching at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center.  They are a talented and energetic bunch.  It is a teacher’s happy place to work with someone for a long time and to see their vision change and their skills grow.

Last week I went on a paint out/ girlfriend vacation to Lake Michigan.  We had a challenging evening painting a sunset and then spent the rest of the time visiting, swimming, and laughing.  Artist buddies are special.

That is all the news for now.  My next post will be on my studio makeover.  Usually after I teach a workshop my studio looks like an art supply tornado ripped through it.  My makeover is working.  This is how it looked after I returned from the Oscoda workshop and the up north paint out.   

So there you have it, my exciting summer so far.

Now I will retreat into my cool basement studio to paint.  I will write another post soon, I promise.