I apologize to be posting after the event...but I became so overwhelmed with preparation! I did almost nothing else for the two months before the event. I have a puppy now so except for her Open Studios was my concentration. It was a great turn out the first weekend and a good turn out the second weekend. All in all a very rewarding experience. So many people making me feel quite good about my efforts. I failed to take pictures during the event, but I did take the following pictures as we began to set up. I hope you enjoy them!

Yosemite Valley from the road to Glacier Point and Wawona

Beautiful, although not native Pink Dogwood

Here we have the native White Dogwood, found in many places all over the Yosemite Valley.

Here you find a few of my charming students enjoying their day.

My two favorite coastlines (I am sticking to coastlines I have seen in person) are Big Sur and the Amalfi  coast in Italy. This is a mixed media piece.

 This past summer I took a pastel workshop with Tricia Reichert who teaches locally at Cal Poly.  She's a very good teacher. She teaches drawing, watercolor, printmaking, and probably more...in addition to soft pastel. On the last day of class she told us of a new pastel society that was just starting up so I attended their meeting that very day and joined. It's a great group! Today some of us got together to paint birds. We are getting ready for the California Bird Festival in Morro Bay morrobaybirdfestival.org/ this coming January. I always wanted to paint a raven. It turns out they do not migrate. Google tells me that sometimes they wander south in fall and winter! Here's a link to the California Central Coast Pastel Society-3cps.org/

 I spent four days painting in Santa Barbara, taking a workshop from Barbara Jaenicke. She is a wonderful teacher and I had a challenging great time! Two out of four presentable paintings...not so bad for a beginner...!? Both paintings were done in the studio. We did paint en plein aire but those two did not survive! 

A WEEK FROM TODAY WE WILL HEAD TO YOSEMITE WHERE I WILL TEACH FOR THE YOSEMITE CONSERVANCY FROM MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY!! SEPTEMBER 17-22 and September 24-29. We are very excited as this will be our "Virgin" voyage in our new little Retro trailer and we will be carrying precious cargo in Robert's new Toyota Highlander, our 14 year old puppy, Dea!!! She has never seen Yosemite! Oh boy! All sorts of new smells and lots of fun for her and us! My paintings from these upcoming weeks will probably not be of the falls as I am guessing there will not be much water at this time. The Conservancy art experience has moved from near the valley store out to the Nature Center near the beginning of the trailhead to both Nevada Falls and Half Dome. The Yosemite Conservancy is a wonderful organization that supports not only art programs, but many other restoration projects in the park. Click on the link below to read about the organization and possibly become a member!!
www.yosemiteconservancy.org/about-yosemite-conservancy

Last week I finally got out to practice painting outdoors. I painted with the Thursday Morning Painters of San Luis Obispo. What a very nice group of people. We painted at the See Canyon Fruit Stand. So much fun!

Santa Cruz Art League  ​https://scal.org/weekend-workshops/