I have just had the most wonderful Thanksgiving week with family and friends. Used the leftovers to make a turkey Shepherds pie, it was delicious and I will be eating that for a few days to come. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and now we have some creative time before the Christmas madness starts!!! Enjoy!! We just finished our 2021 Alegre Retreat after 2020 had to be canceled and 2021 had to be postponed to November. It was really fun and we all enjoyed the resort in November, usually it is in April! The weather stayed nice for us and the camaraderie was extraordinary. We are now taking signups for Alegre Retreat 2022!! April 3 to 8.
A series is a group of works that continues an idea from one piece to the next. It is a way to create unified pieces that give an individual voice to your work and to get deeper into your work through technique, design and color. A total of 6 pieces will be made in 18 weeks.
4 Sessions: February 26, March 26, April 23, May 28 This is my one and only Zoom class. I demonstrate four different ideas for coming up with your own original artwork: composition with line, abstracting reality in two steps, grid work, and distorting the still life. Great demos and explorations of others’ work. All classes are recorded and available for review until the end of the year. Limit of 100 participants. Class timing was chosen to make it easier for those in Australia and New Zealand and other time zones to join in.
Here is a recent review: “YOU are a Wonder Woman! I DO love your teaching. Today’s class was content rich, quickly paced which works best for me, intriguing assignments, great use of the Zoom format and perfect opportunity for Q and A. I really am intrigued with how you combine Painting and Fabric Art. The photos from other classes at the end were GREAT. Thanks for keeping the videos up for all 4 months. EXCELLENT class in every way. I can’t wait to get started on the assignments. Thanks very much for doing this.”
I will be teaching Working in a Series at MISA, Santa Fe May 9th-May 13th, 2022
I will be teaching at the Empty Spools Seminars in Pacific Grove, California. Session 1 will be held February 27th to March 4th for Jumpstarting your Creativity, and Session 3 will be held March 20th to 25th for Watercolor to Quilt class.
Here are some of the best images from the 2021 Alegre Retreat
Dolores my otter is back in her spot in my living room. She looks beautiful with her quilt made from my first two lines of fabrics created for me by Lisa Ellis. Stunning corner if I do say so myself.
Plein Air Painting in the redwoods and my four pieces on the gallery wall at the opening
My niece got married and we were all gifted saris to wear to the wedding.
My newest quilt based on the grid work series that I am working on, inspired from a watercolor painting, Rede-Portuguese. My dog was keeping me company while I stitched up the back!
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to everyone! Neighborhood decorations are already going up and this yard is one of my favorites!
Hi to all! I have returned from my first teaching job in what seems like forever!! I taught watercolor to quilt in Santa Fe New Mexico for MISA, Madeline Island School of the Arts. It was great! The students were delightful. I enjoyed it very much and since I lived in Santa Fe for 25 years it was great to be back and see all my friends and family. Lots of hiking by myself around town and a beautiful hike in the Mountains with my two Granddaughters, a visit through the window with my two grandsons, window shopping and photos along canyon road of sculptures and doors. Pictures are at the end of the newsletter.
Two Online (Email-Based) Classes Starting
Color and Composition, begins June 7, 2021
Join me and 10 participants for a dynamic online class focusing on color and composition. This is a personal in-depth study.
Working in a Series, begins June 17, 2021
A series is a group of works that continues an idea from one piece to the next. It is a way to create unified pieces that give an individual voice to your work and to get deeper into your work through technique, design and color.
Hudson River Valley Workshop, June 6 to 11, Hudson River Valley New York Next month I will be teaching at the Hudson River Valley Workshop. I have taught here every year for years and just love it . A beautiful B&B with gourmet food and a big classroom.
I will be teaching a class based on paintings, this one being with acrylic paint. We create several canvases in a chosen color scheme then cut them up to make a composition. We then transform that composition with fabric to create a wall quilt. Here are some sample stitched paintings.
Here is the link to learn more about the Hudson River Valley workshop: Learn more and signup.
Virtual Zoom-Based Class
Jumpstarting Your Creativity, 4 Sessions: July 3, August 7, September 4, and October 2
This is my one and only Zoom Class. I am in the middle of the first one that started in February and I will be presenting it one more time starting in July. Limit of 100 participants.
Here is a recent review: “YOU are a Wonder Woman! I DO love your teaching. Today’s class was content rich, quickly paced which works best for me, intriguing assignments, great use of the Zoom format and perfect opportunity for Q and A. I really am intrigued with how you combine Painting and Fabric Art. The photos from other classes at the end were GREAT. Thanks for keeping the videos up for all 4 months. EXCELLENT class in every way. I can’t wait to get started on the assignments. Thanks very much for doing this.”
It is Spring!! I am so excited!! I have things blooming, had my fruit trees pruned, and my lawn is mowed.
Here in this newsletter are many things to get you back up and running while this pandemic is forever changing. I got my vaccines so I am raring to go and get back to teaching. Here are some learning possibilities to inspire you!
Two in-person classes at two of my very favorite places to teach.
MISA, Madeline Island School of the Arts, May 10 to 14, 2021 in Santa Fe New Mexico!! I love teaching there because I used to live there and have many friends and family there so I have a really great time in class then get to visit good friends in the after hours.
I will be teaching Watercolor to Quilt where we spend the first day making fun little paintings. (No painting skills needed. We are just allow the watercolors to do their thing.) Then we pick one small portion of one of the many paintings created and make a line drawing of it and enlarge that to make a wall hanging that will look just like the painting. Here are some examples of some of my favorite watercolor painting quilts.
Here is the link to learn more about The Santa Fe MISA workshop. Learn more and signup.
Hudson River Valley Workshop, June 6 to 11, Hudson River Valley New York I teach here every year for years and just love it . A beautiful B&B with gourmet food and a big classroom.
I will be teaching another class based on paintings, this one being with acrylic paint. We create several canvases in a chosen color scheme then cut them up to make a composition. We then transform that composition with fabric to create a wall quilt. Here are some sample stitched paintings.
Here is the link to learn more about the Hudson River Valley workshop: Learn more and signup.
Join me and 10 participants for a dynamic online class focusing on color and composition. This is a personal in-depth study.
Working in a Series, begins June 17, 2021
A series is a group of works that continues an idea from one piece to the next. It is a way to create unified pieces that give an individual voice to your work and to get deeper into your work through technique, design and color.
Jumpstarting Your Creativity, 4 Sessions: July 3, August 7, September 4, and October 2
This is my one and only Zoom Class. I am in the middle of the first one that started in February and I will be presenting it one more time starting in July. Limit of 100 participants.
Here is a recent review: “YOU are a Wonder Woman! I DO love your teaching. Today’s class was content rich, quickly paced which works best for me, intriguing assignments, great use of the Zoom format and perfect opportunity for Q and A. I really am intrigued with how you combine Painting and Fabric Art. The photos from other classes at the end were GREAT. Thanks for keeping the videos up for all 4 months. EXCELLENT class in every way. I can’t wait to get started on the assignments. Thanks very much for doing this.”
I won Best of Show at the Redwood Art Association Spring Show! I also received an honorable mention. This is our big Art group in Northern California. It was a mixed media fine art show and I was the only quilter that entered and I won Best of Show! Whoo hooo. This was a virtual show and I didn’t get to peacock around the opening as there was no reception. Here are the two quilts, Water Lilies and Daisies, and the juror’s comments which I found really interesting?!
Waterlilies Juror’s comment “I like that these waterlilies are multi-functional in that their gestalts allow for a variety of reads from parasols to cherries to brown diamonds to butterfly petals to hills and even tv antennas while still allowing for monochrome memories of the stages of bloom. In conversation with recent contemporary art while occupying a world of its own.”Daisies Juror’s comment “I like that these daisies could be windmills, speakers, explosions of spring or all three at once. I also like that they’re somewhat technical flowers in the way that the darker petals are interwoven with plaid. The proto-cubist tabletop and vase are excellent samples of forced perspective and the exploding greenery around the petals is dope as well.”
Picnic Table and Planter Boxes
I have been covering my picnic table ala Dolores!! Dolores is my otter that I created for a fundraiser in my area. Here is Dolores and the Picnic table (table is a work in progress).
I love my planter boxes and was thinking of covering them in fabric too but that is going way too far with fabric collage so I had to tell myself no. So now just waiting to put the plants in and watch them grow.
Enjoy your Spring, may it be the start of some wonderful things in your life.
