"Arts to Remember"

Today was my last day creating art with residents at various assisted living centers in Olympia as part of the "Arts to Remember" program. Selected art pieces will be on display at the annual Arts Walk in downtown Olympia October 7th and 8th.

This year I went to two locations, Merrill Gardens and Olympia West. We created mandalas and several different still lifes in craypas and watercolor. The challenge was to relate that everyone can do art and that the art does not need to be realistic. I even got to a point where I "outlawed" any negative talk about one's art creation. But, that was short lived.

Today, I brought a bouquet of strawflowers from my garden. First time I have grown them and what amazing plants. The shape of the leaves and flatness of the stems are as as unique as the flowers themselves.



Here is a close up view of the strawflowers



The bouquet that became the subject matter of today's session.


Closer view



I attempted to explain that we would be doing an Impressionistic version of this bouquet; my demonstration....


Anyways, they said that they had fun!

Painting in the Berkshires

I just returned from the East Coast immersing myself in the fall colors.

We did some "peeping"* in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York. I also attended a workshop at Kripalu entitled Yoga and Painting in the Berkshires with Linda Novick. Linda is an artist and art educator as well as a certified Yoga instructor, but best of all, a totally fun and supportive person to be with.

There were eight of us and our days revolved around morning and afternoon sessions of creativity and plenty of time to enjoy nature and do yoga. The food was outrageously good and healthy; glad to still fit in my jeans after the five days!

I dabbled with new media; a form of encaustic done with craypas and hot wax and I added colored tissue paper, as well as a return to pastels. Nature was intoxicating and I did several plein air paintings.

Here I am in my element.....



I created these wax paintings using craypas, tissue paper, leaves, and hot wax.





* "peeping" is a New Englander's term for driving around looking at the beautiful fall color of leaves.

Mandala Class

A small group of students signed up for the Mandala Class I teach at The Evergreen State College extended education program. Actually, small classes are fun and more intimate.

The other evening I brought the medium of craypas to explore and had the students create a mandala for an hour and fifteen minutes. They were amazed by the meditative quality of the process of creating a mandala. The students were open and able to gain insights into their art and their process.

"This is fun!" rang in unison when the class ended.

Usually I do not create art myself when I teach class as my tendency is to go off into my own creative world and neglect others. Feeling the desire to create a mandala, I asked the student's permission to join them.

I found myself enjoying the flowing shapes and tried to reframe from a blossom flower type image that appeared, but then I gave in to it. I have not decided if it is above ground growing or in water..........what is your feeling?



Growing