Hops Nature Journal Page

In our nature journaling class last week, we sat in a restaurant patio, basked in the sunshine, and drew hops. I love the Latin name for hops- humulus lupulus. Just as much fun is imprinting painted leaves onto the page. The leaf used for printing is added with clear contact paper in the left-hand corner. The juxtaposition of natural and geometric shapes adds interest. Happy Halloween everyone!

Art Challenge with Haiku as Inspiration

tossed stone

the pond's sound

skips through the trees

M. Cohen

Kat challenged art group members to create a piece of art using haiku for inspiration. I loved this exercise and took one of my acylic painted and textured backgrounds from Misty Mawn's class as a base. Using Misty's techniques, I transfered my photos of trees and fall foilage, added some stamped ferns and drew water ripples of the tossed stone. The forest is alive with fall color. Here are some of her other haiku for inspiration.

• Utter aloneness, another great pleasure in autumn twilight Basho
• In my dream, my dog has a whistle only I can hear J. Stevenson
• This cold night, nothing moves but stars J. Brown
• Alone, learning stillness from the sandstone M. Farley
• Eating alone, my alphabet soup speaks to me B. Duster
• New in town, the scent of unknown flowers Y. Chang
• All along the road, not a single soul only autumn evening comes Basho

New Work and Autumn Blessings

This fall I'll be in two shows. The first is the Clackamas County Craft Fair at the Public Service Building, 2051 Kaen Road, Oregon City on Friday, November 2nd 9am to 6pm. The second is the Portland Art Collective Show at the Multnomah Arts Center on Friday and Saturday, December 7th and 8th. My monotype prints will be on display and for sale. This summer, I took classes and an open studio with Marcy Baker. Adding my drawings into the prints with chine collé really makes them sing. It's very exciting to share this body of work with all of you.

I took my summer floral sketches and monotypes and made charms out of them.

An afternoon walk at the Leach Botanical Garden made me appreciate the change of seasons. We're fortunate in the Northwest to have long autumns.

Here's another nature journaling exercise with fall leaves. On my walk one morning last week, I picked up leaves, put them in a plastic bag, came home and marveled at all their variety in shape, size and color with pen and paint.

Where did summer go?

Here's two more months of my collaged 2007 calendar with activities full of good friends, art and books. What more could anyone want. Living the creative life exceeds all of my expectations and is wonderful. Every day feels like a vacation. I am so grateful to have these opportunities.

Another good book to read is Ricë Freeman-Zachery's Living the Creative Life- ideas and inspiration from working artists. She interviews fifteen artists and gleans their tips for becoming an artist and keeping at it.

Today, I also uploaded our Portland Art Collective Show card. Save the dates December 7th and 8th on your calendar to come and see the work of this wonderful group of artists. It's at the Multnomah Arts Center. It's a great way to find special gifts for the holidays.

Art & Soul 2007

Art & Soul just completed a week of classes and fun at the Embassy Suites near PDX. I enjoyed seeing friends and teachers from all over the U.S. plus take a few workshops. The creativity of this group always amazes and inspires me.

My goal this year is to improve my drawing skills. Barbara Roth taught the class 'U Can Draw'.

For fun Sunday night, I took Barbara Matthiessen's class. We drew blind self-portraits. We laughed at our picasso-esque renderings.

One day, I cashiered in the Art & Soul Store. The afternoon was very quiet so I had time to sketch Lorna's vintage ephemera and other goods.

Yesterday, I took another workshop from Barbara Roth. We drew and painted postcards with watercolor. These will be great momentos to send home from future travel adventures. Life would not be the same without all of my wonderful art friends. Each one gives to me so much. Thank you to all!