Farewell to Some Excellent Cookies... Hello to 2010 and a Workshop

This is one of our batches of 2009.

Greetings, and best wishes to you.

Here we are. Where did the last 2 months go?

A new year is at our doorstep. I will be both relieved and sorry to see the last excellent cookie of the season disappear (We baked...and baked...)!

What a year it has been.

I have always loved this sort of 'in-between' time, at the end of December. In this week, the world sometimes offers up the quiet of a pause, creating space for reflections on the past and imaginings of the future. A little of this kind of space goes a long way. I wish you each some.

Speaking of imaginings of what's to come…

It's time. Time to sign up for my hand-coloring workshop!

SEEING BEYOND THE PHOTOGRAPH

January 30 & 31, 2010

Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

Would you like to see what more you can call out of your images? Would you like to infuse them with spirit, give them texture, or turn them into a more personal expression?

Learn some ways that you can do this by hand, with just a few delicate strokes, or a complete makeover with the application of pastels, colored pencils, acrylics or oil paints.

I’ve been experimenting with color, evolving my hand-painting techniques, for over 15 years. When I've shown my work art festivals, I've often been asked if I teach. Finally, I’m ready to offer this workshop to share what I’ve learned. The two full days will be a mix of demonstration, lecture and supervised hands-on experience. You don't need prior experience -just curiosity, and enthusiasm!

Salt Spring Island is lovely and quiet in the winter. The historic building (Mahon Hall) where we will meet, is warm and cozy, and is in the middle of the harbour village of Ganges.

Mahon Hall The view from from Mahon Hall

Treat yourselves to a creative weekend, and start your new year off inspired!

The course is limited to 12 participants.

If you would like to sign up, and for payment information, please email me at:

amy@grainofsand.com

Or phone: 250-537-4489

When you’re signed up, you will receive a course outline, optional materials list, directions, and lodging info, if needed.

Fee: $225 -includes all materials.

Participants are responsible for travel, lodging and meal expenses. Feel free to phone or email for lodging or travel recommendations.

For a bit more info: www.grainofsand.com

Calendar Season

Recently, I bought a weekly 2010 planner, and I noticed that

January is "International Creativity Month"!

I decided that makes it the perfect time to offer the first of my two day hand-painting workshops of 2010.

Over the years, I've been working extensively with oils, acrylics, pencils and dry pastels on my images. Before I consider an image "done", I almost always take it to the easel and look at it for a while....waiting to hear from the image itself, if it needs anything more. Sometimes I leave them alone, but rarely. I love to involve my hands in my artwork. Every image is different. Some, I just embellish with a few delicate strokes, while others get heavily painted over every inch. If you've always wanted to try hand-coloring your photographs, and are interested in the workshop, check my website soon for registration details. The first workshop of the year will take place Sat & Sun, January 30 & 31, 2010, here on Salt Spring Island

Fall is calendar season.... I just received a box of 2010 wall calendars I worked on for Sellers Publishing, with images of Venice, Paris and Tuscany. The original images are each 11x11 inches, on fine art paper, hand embellished with pastel and pencil.

The finished calendars look really nice. I packaged one of them up right away, to mail to a friend who was walking in Florence with me when I took one of the photos. It will be a fun surprise for her. Each image, in fact, holds a personal memory, and transports me back to those moments and places.

2010 will be the sixth consecutive year producing images of Europe for Sellers Publishing. As a result, I have accumulated hundreds of finished originals! Someday soon, I will post some of my favorites from the collection in gallery links on my blog. Stay tuned...

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September Exhibit

The last few weeks, aside from canning applesauce, I've been preparing a series

of images for an exhibit, which will be up for the month of September here on Salt Spring Island.

The show is called “Salt Spring, Real and Imagined”. The images are about spirit of place. 

The series has been, and continues to be, inspired by a photograph I made of a heron in Ganges harbour, just after moving to the island with my family in 2004..

The image of the heron felt like a mysterious and timeless sort of "welcome".

That voice, and that which we sense in any given moment, in relationship with our surroundings, beyond what we see, I feel might be coming from the spirit of place.

I printed the series of 34 images on waterproof canvas panels. 

If you're in the neighborhood during the month of September: 

Salt Spring Coffee Co. 109 McPhillips Ave, Salt Spring Island, B.C. Tel: 250-537-0825

Cherries

A great year for cherries.... It's rare that the birds

to have their fill and leave enough, still, for eating, pies and preserving. Fabulous!

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Evening at the Beach

Summer Grass

Some of the colors of early summer, here on Salt Spring...


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Wild Field, Salt Spring Island

Every day, in this eager, vibrant season, the fields and trees look different than the day before.

Dogwood

Dogwood tree-  Fulford Harbour, Salt Spring, May 2009

Spring Blossoms

May is such an overwhelming, abundant, inspiring, month of flowering! I took this photo a few day's ago on a walk. There is something especially delicate and poetic about blossoming branches.

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A Road Less Traveled

A favorite from a small series of trees and roads.

I took the original image in France.

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Butterfly in Tuscany

A personal favorite from a summer drive with my daughter in southern Tuscany. I had intended to photograph the village in the distance....

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