Painters at Painters weekend - the tradition continues

It was my favourite "girls" weekend at Painters Lodge at Campbell River - a great celebration of art featuring over 30 top BC artists... four of us enjoyed a fabulous weekend of companionship, art demos, art panel discussions, gallery viewing, cocktail parties, buffet brunches, dinners, great scenery and inspiration. Hundreds attend each year and Bob Wright of Oak Bay Marine Group as art patron has definitely created a special atmosphere.... "brush with the artists"...http://www.painterslodge.com/lodge/events/painters-at-painters  for details

My 10th year now, and you always learn something new....

my favourite demonstrations and panels... Brent Heighton, Janice Robertson, Phyllis Serota, Catherine Moffat and new artist Mark Heine.  It was great to reconnect with Mike and Nancy Svob too

wonderful weather on top of all that...

An inspiring workshop at Whistler with Brian Buckrell

Last week  8 of us collected in Susie Cippolla's garage for an intense workshop week with Brian Buckrell -  great company, great instruction, great environment for creativity!  new tools developed and major fun experimenting!

visit Brian Buckrell's blog for his review of our workshop experience for the "WHISTLER OUT OF BOUNDS ARTIST WORKSHOP"
http://brianbuckrell.blogspot.ca   May 20th post: Whistler Out of Bounds Artist Workshop

some of my efforts... in progress

 we all had to paint "Fissile"  as a starting exercise.. my small piece above

Brian's demo piece next... he is such an inspiration

followed by my rendition of the same scene....

two more workshop pieces in progress

OPUS PLEIN AIR Competition - 2nd place Winner

OPUS art supplies had a great plein-air day in april... we gathered at the downtown vancouver store on a saturday morning, given a canvas and map and told to return five hours later... I went down to the heli-jet terminal and painted away.... came away with a surprise second place showing and  $250 gift card...

my easel, set up and finished piece are shown below.. what a fun day -  interacting with spectators was the most interesting part of the day!

visit the web link below for a full description of the day , more photos and complete list of winners

http://opusartsupplies.com/how/videos/opchallenge2012

LAS VEGAS Plein Air Conference - I attended in April

What a gathering.... 500 fellow outdoor painting enthusiasts gathered at the Red Rock Resort in Vegas for four days of inspiring demos, instruction, plein air painting and comraderie.

A fabulous setting, great organization, tons of information, and inspiring instructors all contributed to info overload and a great week.

The colour pallette is so different down there. Came home very inspired !

Eric Rhoads, publisher of Plein Air magazine and conference organizer is pictured with me  " I made art history".....  the largest gathering of plein air artists ever!

art history in the making -  Plein Air publisher Eric Rhoads and I below

winter 2011 - Painting up a storm

Following the Gabriola Island painting workshop in the fall and a drastic turn of events I dove head first into painting in January... first with my amazing fellow whistler artists, Sue, Doria and Andrea, and then in class with Janice Robertson and her great group!   Painting and skiing and friendship has been very helpful this spring!

some samples of my studio work

Federation of Cdn Artists spring session finishes -Janice's last formal class

We were so sad to see the end of regular term sessions with instructor Janice and the great group of artists in the class... over five years the group has grown close and it has been a pleasure to share in everyone's artistic journey.... we compiled a goodbye album of our works and presented it the last day.. such a great group.. we will still reunite I'm sure!   Good news: I am now an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists....enabling me to enter juried competitions...