Thursday, April 30, 2015

Follow your bliss. We've all heard this. 

This is ME totally blissed out by painting!
Last weekend I did so by being a "repeat offender" attending a workshop with Artist Dreama Tolle Perry  in Lexington, KY.  It was indulgent to go back for a third time and I loved every minute of it.  Dreama has a unique way of painting and using color that has really resonated with me.  I am NOT a tonalist.  Yes, values are important but gee whiz, color is fun! I have attended workshops with Dreama twice at the Artists' Attic in Lexington and once in Carmel, Indiana. (pronounced Carmle, not CarMEL).  Some people go to Spas, I go to workshops!

I was blessed to be able to stay with a friend, rather than deal with the Lexington area hotel situation complicated by race season at Keeneland and the Rolex, a 3 day cross country event at the KY Horse Park.  It was great to have a quiet retreat after painting each day. Well, except for the thunder storms. My friend's german shepherd is afraid of thunder storms...

On the first day we painted tulips, from reference material supplied by Dreama.

Dreama used a big screem during her demos so we could see what she was doing.

My painting, Step 1: transparent, colorful underpainting.

My painting, Step 2: begin layering opaque colors & DARKS

My painting, Step 3, add finishing touches.
I made a few additional changes after this & still have to take the final image.

Source image provided by Dreama.
As you can tell, I really enjoyed myself!  Three days seems about perfect for a painting workshop.  I met women from all over the US and a lovely husband/wife team from Calgary, CA.  There was even another artist from Cincinnati.  We enjoyed driving home together after the workshop.

I am grateful for the many blessings of my life as it is today. 

Start where you are
Love what you have
Do what you can