An Incredible Week

 I am finally home from a beautiful week at Empty Spools Seminars.... and have a few pics of some of my students work from this week...  They were mighty productive for sure.  Most all painted more than one piece.  There was even some quilted pieces that went home. Now thats something!!!

So much talent and enthusiasm in one room.   I'll post a few pieces here.  First our birthday girl... what better way to spend a week celebrating with like minded artists.  Kelly owns Ihaveanotion.com... ...an online notion store. It's quite an extensive product list... lots of cool threads, etc.  Happy Birthday Kelly!

I LOVE Kelly's piece... Is this not a cool hunk of an elephant?!!!! Click on photos for enlarged view.

Kim J. had a  bicycle photograph she had taken in Europe. You can somewhat see the process here... upper left a portion of her 8 x 10 reference photo appears... To it's right... a tracing on acetate of her photographed bike. What is not seen here.. is the enlarged black and white  drawing of her tracing... it's underneath her fabric.  Kim also took a smart and scientific approach to prepping to paint something so intricate...    She did a 'rough draft' of sorts to figure out the challenges ( it's on the right and the photo below.)  Then she painted the real deal.

The rough draft has reminder notes to herself...

Almost finished.  Many professional artists approach new territory this way. Nice job! 

Helen completed 3 pieces... 2 smaller exquisite bird studies. Helen had never painted before... REALLY!  This process and her eye for detail match up beautifully.  Update: Helen's 3 pieces are MIA... Please comment here if you see them anywhere. 

"Pretty bird!" 

Her first piece was larger ( appx 18" x 24" ) of a flower from her yard.  Very nicely done! 

Kim S also had never painted.... Santa has a secret here!

Thanks to Helen for sending me a photo of Kims bunny. Is this not incredible?! 

I'll post more later. For now... I need to get dressed  up and off to a 25th year birthday party for my Wanabe Quilters friendship group.  So much talent in that group for sure. I joined them in July, 2000. What a lucky gal I am to have been invited in.