Louise Fletcher's 2023 Find Your Joy Course

Wrap-up week has arrived for Louise Fletcher's 2023 Find Your Joy course. This is my second year of study with Louise and it has been as enriching, in different ways, as last year.

I've done a lot of work in the class. Strike that! Actually, I've done a lot of PLAY in the class. Playing is the perfect way to discover one's buried areas of delight without judgement by unabashedly breaking out favorite, old, new and unused tools, paint, pencils and pens, crayons, watercolor, markers, stencils, pastels -- you name it - and using them to create on a substrate of one's choosing (paper, canvas, wood panel, fabric, etc.). The most important part is allowing the platy to be what it is, to be open to what it has to teach (especially if one doesn't like it), identifying the parts you like that prompt new explorations, and detaching from result--because it's all about the process.

That said, these are some of my favorite efforts, from the many exercises, since mid September.

Some of the things I've learned I enjoy include the following among others.

*Working with a larger-size palette knife and Rigger brush as tools in applying paint.
*Applying a first thin layer of paint as a source of light that the additional paint layers don't cover.
*Using the green that results when black and yellow are mixed.
*Doing free-form line-making in a random and fast manner.
*Aiming for depth in the work, and if, by chance, illusion occurs - all the better.

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Visiting The Hague and Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Paris!

Since late March, I've been planning an international solo trip that included meeting up with friends. The planning is what makes a trip an adventure, and it was definitely fabulous -- now that it is in the rearview mirror -- so to speak. During my two weeks abroad, the sights visited included the: Mauritshuis, a lovely art museum (The Hague, Netherlands) Binnenhof (The Hague, Netherlands) Delft (Netherlands) Kasteel de Haar, a castle (Haarzuilens, Netherlands) Museum Speelklok (Utrecht, Netherlands) Walking Tour of Amsterdam (Netherlands) Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Dutch Resistance Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) De Oude and Nieuwe Kerks aka old and new churches (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Anne Frank House (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Sainte Chapelle/Conciergerie (Paris, France) Giverny - Monet's residence at one time (outside Paris) Versailles (outside Paris) Musee d'Orsay/VR Event titled 1874 Impressionists First Exhibition

New Project in Progress

I'm working on a new project with multiple layers and shapes of different colored organzas. It is an interpretation of lighting on an ice rink...from a show I recently saw. There is a lot more stitching to do, but I like how its coming along. I'm learning organzas are not easy to work with especially when you layer them and have overlaid edges. The fabric also tends to ravel easily. This post also linked to http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com .

Concertina Dazzle Days

If you don't know what a Concertina Sketchbook is, it is folded paper (back and forth) that looks like the bellows of an accordion when done. Concertinas can be home-made or purchased, and they are fun to work in. The photos above are of three continuous two-page spreads from my own Concertina (the one on the right - the latest). The mark-making was done with Sharpie markers, Posca pens, Micron pens and Sakura PenTouch markers. All the shapes and color choices in the images above were spontaneous as well as the details. There was no plan. What I like about these is that each two-page spread collaborates with the next one and so on (as the designs spill over from one spread to the next). As new ones are created, they add to the wonderful visual feast. One of the things I love doing with these also -- is to crop sections and digitally mirror them to form symmetrical designs. The results are occasionally delightful. In fact, this one was made from such a process and has a n

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