Seattle International District Photo Crawl

This weekend, we had a Seattle photo crawl in the International District. Last year for our first photo crawl, we went to Pike Street Market. You can read about it HERE.

GWEN organizes our experience and makes little journals for us to use with our photos. We bring our cameras, Pogo printers and journaling supplies for a fun, creative day. JAN and I came up from Portland. DAWN, Lynne and LOUIE joined us.

Dragon Fest activities filled the streets with lots of vendors, food booths and people.

We spent three hours exploring the International District with our cameras- Chinatown and Historic Japantown or Nihonmachi.

We walked up the hill to see Kobe Park and the community gardens. We met at the Panama Hotel Coffee and Tea Room for lunch. We had a big table to print our photos and work in our journals.

My back journal cover has a Maneki Neko or Japanese good luck cat with "good luck" in Kanji stamped on page.
For a fun activity, organize a photo crawl in your neighborhood.

A Weekend in Port Townsend, Washington

Port Townsend, Washington holds a special place in my heart. I've traveled here to Fort Worden for ArtFest many times. This weekend, I shared this favorite corner of the world with my book group friends to celebrate one member's 60th birthday.

We stayed in Col. P.W. Phisterer's Officer's Row house, built in 1904.

The sky became as important as the landscape with ever changing cloud formations and colors.
a spectacular sunset Friday night.

walks on the beach...


views of Mt Baker in the distance and Whidbey Island...
a little bit of heaven on earth to share with you.

Lan Su Chinese Garden

May celebrates the peony collection in the Lan Su Chinese Garden. The Chinese passion for peonies makes them China's official national flower. A friend and I visited the garden early this week. Many of the tree peonies had finished blooming. Peony bouquets filled the Hall of Brocade Clouds.

I really liked the colorful peony seed pods which I observed for the first time. What inspires my passion for peonies? their vibrant colors, lacy petals, beautiful centers, imaginative names?
The walled garden, located in Portland's Old Town, offers a serene nature respite to the hectic urban environment that surrounds it. "Between Lake and Mountain Lies True Meaning".


Each season brings a different feel and look to this scholar's garden. In Lan Su's study, we found his Four Treasures- paper, brush, ink and ink stone.
This garden is one of Portland's treasures.

Fun with Pogo Printer Photo Manipulations

Did you know that you can play with the Polaroid Pogo Printer to manipulate photo prints similar to what one could do with old Polaroid camera prints? These three photos are double exposures of the wallet-size prints. My friend, Gwen, got me to experiment with my Pogo printer after reading her blog post Here.

The first photo combines Santos and peony photos. The second photo layers a photo or my new
bicycle over a series of six collaged map 10x10 canvases for a new project I'm starting.
The third double exposes a photo of a large white tissue flower from Monticello Antiques with another peony flower photo. It's fun to experiment with the effects of doubleand triple exposures, layering light and dark photos, patterns and solids. Click on the photos to get a larger image.

Check out the variety of ways Dippold and Hippoyard manipulate their Pogo photos.
Their creativity and originality are amazing. These little printers are great for journaling and creating new images.

Celebrate Spring

"Spring belongs to those who love the heart of spring; they plant seedlings, talk to the trees, and tend to the flowers thirst for rain." This quote is from my perpetual calendar by Flavia.
I read the daily saying each morning and it's a great way to start my day and attend to the present season.

ArtFest brought me into contact with artists from all over the world and US. I met with one of my favorite blog buddies, Lorrie. Shared meals and evenings with PAC sisters Tammy, Debi, Tory, Dayna and Suzanne and the Gussies- Catherine, Celeste and Michelle. Marilyn came from California. Thanks to everyone for making a great experience.

My favorite class was "Story Painting with a Punch" with Gina Armfield. We used our own photographs in our paintings. This six-inch Buddha statue sits on my desk. He reminds me to live in the present, be calm and mindful.

Photo Shop Online Course with DJ Pettitt

DJ Pettitt offers an online course using Photo Shop. I've wanted to update my skills and learn to use more techniques and program features. The program contains so many tools that I feel like I'm just skimming the tip of the iceberg. Here are the layers as I ordered them bottom to top. Each layer has an adjustment layer and/or filter.

Layer 1- crumpled paper-

Layer 2- view from Anne Amie Vineyard-
Layer 3- peony photo from The Peony Place

Layer 4- close-up peony photo-

End result with all layers and adjustments-

Hughes Water Garden Sketch

Today we sketched at Hughes Water Gardens- one of my favorite places to visit.

Art Retreat, Kitchen Spirit Doll & Journal Stencils

Each Spring our Portland Art Collective members attend a retreat at Menucha in the Columbia River Gorge. It's a time to create, enhance friendships and enjoy nature. Below is a photo looking west just before sunset.
The sunset on this hot day colored the sky.

I finished a kitchen spirit doll for Mme Corbel Elisabeth, our five star chef at her Keraret Bed & Breakfast in Plouguiel, Brittany. She loves dolls and I promised to make her one.

Then, Cynthia and I got our our spray paint and stenciled in the calm morning. I took my journal that I made (see here) in January and sprayed away. I like how the red paint integrates the cover.

Here is another page with the red paint stenciled on to it. The red paint on the dark yellow on the left really shines.

This page, I sprayed with yellow paint.

Here's a page from my black and white journal.

If you are interested in stenciling, Mary Ann Moss is offering her online Stencilry class this month. I highly recommend it. It's full of resources, interesting videos and lesson plans.

Peonies & Roses Bloom

We're having warm weather and the sunshine brought out the peonies and roses this week. The Peony Place is a a farm sitting on a hill over looking Mt St Helens southeast of Portland.

The varieties and colors of these peonies never cease to amaze me.

If it stays hot this weekend, they won't last too many more weeks.

In my garden, I love to grow roses and here are two of the first blossoms. "Double Delight" boasts beautiful variegated colors and a lovely fragrance.

"Dainty Bess" always remains so delicate.

For NW gardeners, the end of May and June is time to reap the bounty and beauty of the earth in these flowers.