What's in Live Oak?

When I told someone I was going to do an art workshop in Live Oak they asked.... "there are enough people in Live Oak that would take an art workshop?? There's nothing in Live Oak!" Well, this past weekend I had the pleasure of going to Live Oak to teach a colored pencil portrait workshop and yes, there are artists there. In fact, there are lots of them and with quite a bit of talent! AND.... 6 people from Live Oak have been accepted to the upcoming CPSA International Exhibition in Atlanta this summer so I'd say Live Oak does have something good going on.

What a wonderful group of ladies. They were funny, kind, sweet, generous and like I said - amazingly talented. In fact a few of them had me wondering what in the world they were doing there. I want to take a class from them!

Cathy has such an intuitive way of working where she uses so much unusual color in her portraits. She is an inspiration to me!

Suzanne working on a large portrait of her daughter. I'm hoping she'll send me a photo of the finished piece.

Anda was just whipping out this portrait of her hubby. She's great at capturing light.

Marilyn's portrait of her little great-nephew is going to be a stunner.

 Can't wait to see it when it's finished.

If anyone ever asks you- what's in Live Oak? Tell them about all the fab colored pencil people who live there and tell them to get some fried chicken at the Dixie Grill.

Goings on

What the heck happened to February? It was a busy month and looks like March is going to be even busier! Lots of projects to work on. Getting started on the project for this month's Friday Painting Party.....

We're going abstract this time. Some of the ladies want to loosen up and try something different so I'm having them play with tissue paper to texture their canvas and then we'll play with color and design.

This past weekend I went back to Macon to pick up the work from my show. While there I met with the gallery director at the Macon Arts Alliance Gallery, Heatherly Wakefield. She checked out the show before we took it down and made a selection of pieces for me to take to her gallery so she'll be carrying my work there. How cool - I now have a gallery rep in Georgia! Since I brought some work back to the studio I had to rearrange, of course. I did a new arrangement on the studio wall...

So what else is happening this month? Working on my entry for the CPSA International Exhibition which is coming up this summer right here in FL. The convention activities will be in Daytona Beach and the exhibition itself will be in Ormond Beach at the Ormond Art Museum. I'm so excited! This is the first time the CPSA show and convention will be in Florida. The deadline for entries is March 31st so if you're one of my colored pencil followers, get coloring.

And...... I'm teaching a 2 day workshop down in the Villages the first week of April so I need to get busy prepping for that. It's all about painting landscapes in acrylic. It'll be a fun time. There are some very enthusiastic painters down there. :)

So, that's what's going on in my studio.... what's happening in yours?