River Garden Studio

art is the dance of a paintbrush

The last two weeks have been so busy... I have been immersed in my family.  Last weekend we went to Corvallis, Oregon for a visitation to the college so my son could see it first hand...  

He wants to major in Forestry and since his other passion is jazz this seems to be the perfect college for him... he loved the campus and the town the moment we arrived.  By the time we left we all wanted to go back to school...  I didn't get any photo's of the college... we were in a whirlwind of talks and tours... but I did do some art and took some pictures on the road...

 

I took this after I finished writing on this journal page... when we begin trips together I am so filled with warmth and creative energy... the two tins are filled with my Caran d'Ache crayons that I have hardly ever used until then...

 

Pine and fir trees are replaced by oaks, rolling hills and fields... we climbed down into the valley and rains replaced the snow.

When we picked up my daughter I picked some leaves to draw while I was in the car... she even had some roses still blooming...

 

 

 

 

 

When I got home I was still playing with pages...

 

 

  
And finished the cover of my barely there journal...

 

We just had two days of school last week... and yesterday was Thanksgiving.  It was a lovely day with Mandy and Eric visiting... We took a walk down to the river to take photographs of them with their dogs for a Christmas post card... These are a few I took while Jim took the "real" ones, his camera is much more fancy than mine...(!)

 

 

Though winter is not yet here this day was almost colorless... the water was like glass... so still and quiet. 

Don't forget to visit The Atered Page Secret Sunday...
 
 

there is magic

 

 

 

 

 

 

this art that we love

 

"Watch Over Me"  is a new collage I began this week in a new art group that I started at my new school... originally it was to be an art club for a handful of 6th graders... but then some of my middle school students from last year,( and their mom!), found out about it and the group started to change.  

Another teacher asked me if maybe we didn't have to ask any of her students yet... so it was just the five of us... and on Thursday afternoon I found myself surrounded by these lovely art spirits... and I was renewed.

 

This week my son had a jazz festival up north... and I took this picture of him holding his stand up bass... he got home just in time for dinner... also renewed.  His music is to him as my art is to me...

 

Here he is playing his mandolyn that he bought for himself with money he earned this summer.  He picked it up amazinly fast...

 

This is Mandy... now in 9th grade... from our art group... I loved watching her design her page... thinking and pausing... It is wonderful to me how we all approach design so differently... some more intuative... some more planned... some just bursting with ideas...

I began the group by talking about art journaling... and I put out some supplies... pages from a calligraphy book, old maps, graph paper and colored bits and pieces from my scrap drawer... I showed them how to use medium... and from that point there was no holding back... next week I am going to have them carve some stamps and sew into their pieces...

 

These are the hands of Trish... tomorrow I will take a picture of her project and show it to you here...

 

And some of the little girls in my class...jumping and throwing crunchy yellow leaves at recess...

 

I worked on pages in my "barely there" book that was a gift from Lynne... She is now selling them at her amazing heArt shop at Etsy... The muslin pages are so much fun to work on... and the way her textures come through is wonderful.

 

And to make my week even better I received this glorious necklace in the mail from Kathleen... I won her giveaway!  The postcards are of her own art work as well... her collages are beautiful...

 

And a new canvas...small... called "I am by the river." The house is one I painted that sits across the river... and the bird a swallow that I painted last weekend, cut out and found a home for here...