My Week Away

If I could have managed time for blogging last week, I surely would have. I thought I'd catch up when I returned to my hut - when I'd make more sense. Still a tad out of it, I think I caught me a cold. Not surprising given at one point, I'm teaching in shorts with sunshine and 82 degree days - then painting outside in 43 degrees by the weekend. Wacky.

I arrived in Hilton Head a few days ahead of schedule - my guy and Petey joining me. Petey got the best seat.



The workshop began Monday morning - the studio we painted in was excellent, spacious and plenty of elbow room for 17 artists, my assistant Vince Fazio (from the Sedona Arts Center and also an artist) and me. Fabulous space - I really enjoyed it.

8 x 10"
my demo on Monday
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Some of my talented painters at work.

4 x 4"
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My demo on Tuesday morning - very quick, very loose
and painterly, the way I love to paint.

Another talented participant.

A quick note about the desktop easel Kris and others are using - my guy custom-made these for my students who were interested - he made 10 and sold out at the workshop. They're a deluxe version of the one I've used for the past five years - very sturdy, you can set it to a dozen different angles and it folds flat for traveling in luggage. A new batch will be built soon and I'll offer them for sale in my eBay store - so I'll holler as soon as they're ready to purchase.

8 x 8"
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A demo I painted on Tuesday afternoon, from a student's
photo taken around Palmetto Bluff.

Tuesday evening, Ben Whiteside of the Morris & Whiteside Gallery in Hilton Head, hosted a get-together for all of my students and guests at the gallery - thank you Ben. We really loved that experience.

A very talented participant who used her iPad as a tool to paint from.
Smart girl, I was so envious.

6 x 6"
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My demo for Wednesday, a happy dog I met on the beach.

Another talented artist painting from her own photo.

6 x 6"
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My demo for Thursday, a longer day in the studio,
so I spent a little more time with it.

Not only one of my talented participants, Jerry is also the writer of the award winning comic strip Zits, creator of Baby Blues and one-time cartoonist for Nancy - we were thrilled to have him paint with all of us.

A fabulous, unique painting done by one of my talented students.

5 x 7"
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My demo for Friday.

I'm not kidding when I say I lucked out with 17 talented, eager, friendly, optimistic artists.


I enjoyed every minute of the time we worked together. It totally inspired me to get back to my hut and start painting as soon as possible.

After the workshop wrapped up on Friday, I headed straight to Charleston, met up with my good friends, Neil and Karen Hollingsworth - both extraordinary painters.



Above Neil and Karen was the view from our terrace at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning - I'm off to paint in Washington Park, something completely new for me.

A Charleston artist, Rhett Thurman - painting in the park. Rhett and I shared a model that morning.



That's the tip of my head and several folks watching me paint in the park, including a Charleston artist, Tate Nation (second from the right). Great guy, great painter.

6 x 8"
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8 x 10"
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These are the two paintings I did in the park, which were included in the auction that night along with all the other artists who participated - proceeds going to the local public school's art departments - a great cause. On Charleston Today's website, there's a cool video of the Painting in the Park - take a look.

The auction was so exciting - a big Thank You to both the Morris & Whiteside Gallery and the Sylvan Gallery for representing my work in the event - makes me very proud.

For now, I'm happy to be back to my hut and have a lot of catching up to do. If there are future workshops scheduled, I'll post that info on the right hand column - also take some time to visit the blogs and websites of those artists who shared their time with me, both in New York and Hilton Head.

I'm grateful to those who joined me last week, as well as Vince Fazio for the help in not only arranging the workshops but assisting me and the artists during the week - couldn't have done it without you Vince.

Back to the paints ~