Art in the Woods

The Salem Art Group held their very first art retreat at the cabin of one of our members, Katy Vigeland. The cabin is nestled along the Metolius River in Camp Sherman and is the quintessential cabin experience. Here's the view from the deck.

We set up our painting stations under the trees . . . and Tory's Radish the Amazing Circus Dog was set up in his playpen.

Tory taught Joanna basket weaving and both of them spent time visiting and weaving throughout the weekend.

I gave the ladies a plaster/painting demo on Saturday afternoon.

When not doing the demo, I was working on my own pieces for my upcoming show at Lunaria Gallery, Layers of Memory.

And then there was just general working, playing, and the usual mayhem.

Retreating in the Woods

I ran away to the beach with two friends (Steph and Tory) the first week of January. We packed up food, art magazines, books, chocolate, DVDs, and lots and lots of art supplies. We stayed in a cabin nestled on the hillside at Cascade Head and across the street from the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. It's a smallish hike from the parking area to get to the cabin, so we distributed our provisions along the path thinking that psychologically it was an easier and less physical task.


Here's a glimpse of how we spent our time . . . .








We partially scheduled our week long retreat the first week of January so we would have the opportunity to see Pat Wheeler, a favorite artist both Steph and I have studied under the past several years at Oregon College of Art and Craft. Pat has been at Sitka for a three-month residency and she is returning home soon (she lives on an island in Maine). Pat graciously shared all of the pieces she has been working on over the past several months. We were giddy with excitement and more than a bit inspired.






Another Sitka resident, Susan, is working on thousands of little ink drawings inspired by nature. It was a stunning display and only a fraction of what will be included in her finished project.


It was such a lovely day and we had heard a rumor about a special, magical beach that offers up a particular kind of rock . . . off the group of us trekked.















While I was at the cabin, I worked on a variety of projects: Heart art for Guardino Gallery's Heart of the Matter show, guerrilla art for the Salem Art Group, my 2012 Vision Board, and my contribution for the upcoming 100 Artists Show (The Art of Communication) at the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery. I'll be sharing more about each of these projects in upcoming blog posts.