Day 1: Anticipation

I'm home from five glorious days of art-making at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in SW Portland, which is always a treat. But the best part is getting to study under Pat Wheeler, an artist from Maine, who I consider not only a teacher but also a friend. This was my fourth year taking this class with Pat at OCAC and I plan to sign up again for next year. The class, Painting From the Intuitive, involves a process of applying limestone clay to wood substrates and then staining the compound with thin washes of acrylic paints. And so much more -- scritching, scratching, embedding, sanding, waxing . . . .

In the past, I have done blog posts at the end of each day, but I must be getting older (say it isn't so) because I was too tired to post nightly. Then I wondered whether I should do one big massive post or five smaller ones covering each day. I asked my Facebook friends and hands down I was told to do five individual posts. The two dissenters said they wanted one long one so the photos would be in chronological order. Well, I solved that by doing my posts in reverse order, which made them in chronological order. Kind of backwards as far as blogs work, but makes for a nice transition in telling this five-day story. My words will be few as I like to let the photos reveal the experience.

It all began on Wednesday, May 30th.

     
Meanwhile, what else was going on . . . lots of boards drying, good food, and demos.