Home again

This will be the last blog post from my trip to the US. My normal life has started again, and I am even back at work.

Last weekend I attended a 2-day workshop with Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson called Paper painting. As I do have a soft spot for collage, this looked liked the perfect workshop for me. And it was! Elizabeth is not only a great collage artist, but also a great teacher and a lovely person. Make sure to check out her blog or take a class with her when you get the chance.

The first day we painted all kind of papers, rice papers, mulberry papers, book pages etc. Elizabeth demostrated all kind of techniques and then it was playtime! The second day we focussed on our collage with our own handpainted papers. We all had to do some homework before the workshop, we needed to bring a 12" x 12" painting of an apple, to be used as underpainting for the collage.

Here is my collaged apple, I am very happy with the end result and will sure use the new techniques in my future work.

And then to say goodbye to California, to summer and to say hello to the Fall/Autumn I will share a last image of the view from the back porch of the cottage in Penngrove.

Art-is-You in Petaluma

Wednesday my sister Anja and I went to our first workshop at the Art-is-You art retreat in Petaluma. We both picked the same class to start with, 8 Objects - 8 ways from Jane LaFazio. She showed us how to create a journal page with several objects, using several different techniques, from sketching with just a pencil to watercolors etc. It was a great day, and I even met some people I met at the CREATE art retreat in Irvine last year and the year before :-)

At home I finished another page, using only shells.

And I really liked the continiuous drawing exercise. I sketched a sunflower in pen and added the watercolors later. I got the sunflowers from another attendee in class, she bought some flowers for the workshop and gave me the bunch as she had to leave early.

And before the flowers are all wilted.... another sketch in watercolors

A quick sketch of the wine country Sonoma

Yesterday evening we went to the doodle party at Art-is-You. We got a foamboard tile and a pen, and several stencils to use. It was fun, we created, had some lovely cakes (yummie) and had a great evening.

The left tile is mine, the tile on the right is created by Anja.

The next few days we will attend some more art workshops, and then it is almost time to leave.... We will be flying home on Monday. This has been a great trip and I am sure we will be back.

Last sketches for my trip

I am in the last few days before my trip to the US and I am busy. Not only with work; we had another go-live scheduled during the weekend, but also with preparing for my trip to California. I will be flying to SFO this Saturday and will stay in the Monterey area for almost 4 weeks. The first 3 weeks I will work in the mornings and sketch/paint/go sightseeing and relax in the afternoons. I hope to fill some sketchbooks with my travel sketches and I will keep you updated as well.

My sister will join me after 3 weeks to spend the last week in Monterey with me and then we travel up to the Sonoma valley, where we will stay another 10 days before heading home. We both will attend the Art-is-you art retreat in Petaluma, both for 3 days. Lots of fun to look forward to!

Some of the sketches I did in the last weeks:

A pen and watercolor sketch in my handmade watercolor sketchbook 5 1/2" x 7 1/2". For the WetCanvas WDE (Weekend Drawing event)

A pen and watercolor sketch in my handmade watercolor sketchbook 5 1/2" x 7 1/2". For the WetCanvas Animal and wildlife challenge August

And a painting of Maria in watercolors  in my Moleskine watercolor journal (A4). For the WetCanvas WDE (Weekend Drawing event)

My next blog post will be from the other side of the world, I hope you will join me!