Friday 23 May 2008

Yes I'm back but not fully functioning yet!

Well I am home safe and sound from my travels (4600 kilometres of flying) and I had a wonderful time. Exhausting, stimulating, eye-opening and wonderful all at the same time. Quite apart from the pure bliss of time spent with one of my sisters and my son, the whole art retreat experience was a terrific experience - I learnt so much - about people, about myself and of course about art! Misty Mawn, Traci Bautista and Nina Bagley were all just fantastic and I can't really express how much I enjoyed my workshops with each of them. They were all so different and I can feel myself getting ready to go down different paths as a result.

Keron Lee very generously hosted four of us interstaters for several days and my thanks again Keron for providing us all with such a wonderful opportunity (and also for taking us on such an incredible shopping spree!!) May the blue bird of happiness sit on your shoulder evermore. It was terrific to finally meet Keron after a year's planning, to meet Jo Wholohan after years of art exchanges and to catch up again with Gaye Todd and Kasha Rolley, both of whom I had met on previous art related trips to Queensland a few years back. We all had a lot of fun together! As I live in a fairly remote location the vast majority of my contact with other Australians artists comes from these at-best annual excursions around Australia so I really try and make the most of them! I caught up (all too briefly) with other friends too - Jen Crossley, Coralee Barker; Ruth Kelly; Karin Hutchinson (don't forget to email me your blog address!!), Danielle D'Onofrio, Stephanie Grant plus lots more and met lots of other wonderful people - Abby, Nadine, Jacky, Dot, Shirley, Kirsty, Mandy x 2 plus lots more.

Thanks to Jo & Jacky from Artistic Journey for their second ever Art Retreat! I know you guys learnt heaps from this one and I am sure there must have been some awful "organisational" moments for you - not an easy task to organise so far from home and on such a scale! It was a fabulous three days and I am so grateful that you took the gamble a second year running and bought us such wonderful overseas artists as tutors. I'm looking forward to 2009 already!!

At the moment I have stuff everywhere - there are art supplies that I decided at the last minute not to pack (space considerations more than anything!), stuff I took, stuff I bought, etc etc and I really want to get to my desk and do some creating but I really need to get everything into some sort of order (or at least off the family room floor and dining room table!) So that is what I am trying to do but I think I'm still coming down from the "high" and I just can't settle at anything!!

(me and Jen)

I tend to be an "in the moment" sort of person so I took very few photos but there are heaps on other people's blogs so I don't feel too bad about that aspect. The picture just above is of Jen Crossley (we could be sisters hey?) and myself in Nina's Sunday class - thanks for sending me the photo Jen.

The picture at the top of this post is my main piece from Friday's workshop with the incredible Misty Mawn. There is an unfinished snap of it on Jo's blog and as you can see from my scan below, the finished piece now needs some retouching as a result of damage on the way home (nothing quite like a bit of dampness to make things stick where they shouldn't - she really isn't meant to have white and blue specks on her face and in her hair!!) This workshop was a real stretch for me (and I think a lot of others as we don't tend to paint faces even though we all love using paint) but I really enjoyed it and learnt so much. I need to practice while I remember some of it!

14 comments:

Ev said...

I saw the picture on Jo's blog and I think you give MM a run for her money, it is quite soulful. I am looking forward to seeing your other creations.

Jen Crossley said...

Your work from Mistys class is awesome and everything I thought it would be beautiful.
It was so great to see you again hopefully next time it will be longer
Jen

Dot said...

Hi Debbi

I was very happy to meet you at the retreat and see your artistic prowess in action (in Misty Mawn's class). The piece you made is beautiful Debbi and I loved seeing it up close.

You have a lovely energy about you and I hope we get to meet again one day!

artisbliss said...

So glad you're back in blogland, and glad you had such a wonderful experience. I know what you mean about painting faces--it is really work for me, although I'm not too bad at it.

How is your knee?

Anonymous said...

Great artwork, lucky you to have such a great retreat.

Danielle D said...

*waves* It was so great to see you, Debbi! We had a great day on Sunday.

Natalie B said...

Gorgeous Debbi. Would love to learn the art of retouching photo's like that. MM is so clever and you've done such a wonderful job with this piece. the retreat sounds fabulous.

Joanna said...

Wow Debbi, it's a beautiful piece!

Jo Wholohan said...

where do I begin dear deb... it was so awesome to meet you finally!!! Love this peice you made in Mistys class!!!
Hehe im still wandering around in a daze and its been almost a week LOL

sharon young said...

Hi Debbi
GREAT to have you back, Blogland isn't the same without you.
You sound as if you had the most fantastic time, your piece is really beautiful, you should definitely continue with the face sketching, you obviously have a talent for it.
Thanks for your lovely comment on my post, I'm looking forward to taming the Dremel too.

Jacky said...

Hi Debbi, your Misty Mawn piece is just beautiful...you did such a beautiful job on the face.
What a fantastic weekend of art...so lovely to share some of it with you.

Gretz said...

I'm so glad you have put that piece on your blog alhtough the image deosn't do it justice - the colours are so vibrant. What a wonderful piece - I really love it. I am going to gave to practice the face painting I think!

Night Owl Designs said...

Hi Debbi, Really enjoyed reading about your trip. Sounds like you had a blast!

Ro Bruhn said...

So glad to catch up with you again Debbi, if only briefly. The work you did is fabulous. I love the journal you made in Traci's class.