“You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” 

-Khalil Gibran 

I recently attended a watercolor workshop and can say it was amazing on so many levels.  Our amazing, generous, kind, hard-working and talented artist/instructor was Joyce Hicks.  I was grateful to have been able to join the Walloon Lake Art Group, so friendly, funny, welcoming, very inspiring and they too were amazing.  And if you have never been to northern Michigan.........you can't know how truly amazing and beautiful it is.  

Joyce demonstrated every morning and after lunch spent one on one time with as many as she could editing photos we brought to the workshop.  This is from one of my photos.

 Joyce has a book recently released called Painting Beautiful Watercolor Landscapes-Transform Ordinary Places into Extraordinary Scenes.  Great information and so pretty to look at.  These are a few pictures from our workshop.

    It begins..........                                                  

 we take a break........

almost finished.............

"There's no place like home" -Dorothy

Been gone a long time from this blog and from home a bit with three totally different "adventures"
I attended  a watercolor workshop on beautiful Mackinaw Island the first part of this month.

Victorian homes adorn the bluffs and I look forward to trying to paint this in the future.

If you look very closely and use your imagination, you can see the Mackinac Bridge on the right.

 

 Our instructor was Helga Flower, not only a talented artist, but a beautiful  and generous person.  I am blesssed beyond words to know her.  While on the Island, we stay at the Murray Hotel, owned and run by Pat Pulte, an artist in his own right.  Helga's style is very loose and she loves to experiment with whatever is around her....she is not afraid of anything!  I, on the other hand, am comfortable to keep dipping my brushes in my watercolor palette and leave the rest of that "stuff" alone.  But she pushed my to try new things.  We took out old paintings and scissors and created what we call fractured paintings.  

 I wish I had taken pictures of some of the other artists, they were so very different, every one of them.

A week on the Island and then a 4 day trip to DesMoines, Iowa with my best friend since 45 years ago!  We visited with her parents and helped go through a lifetime of "stuff" 
Then, back to Kalamazoo to pick up my brand new granddaughter, Harper, her brother Harry and my daughter, Kate to drive to Kentucky to visit my other daughter's family. 

Home now and could hardly wait to get back to my paints.  Here is what I matted today.

I promise, not so many words next time......just paintings.

Life is good and full of surprises, happy happenings and lessons worth learning. I am living in a new place in a new space with all the faces that I love nearer to me now. I have just returned from a week of watercolor workshop with Helga Flower on beautiful Mackinac Island. I am refreshed and excited to pick up a paintbrush in my own studio (a.k.a. sunroom) My Kodak digital failed me just days before my trip so am posting a picture from a workshop of years past......same place, same faces. This one is of Helga.