Fall Workshop Schedule Complete. Final Two Locations Added.

We're all REALLY hoping for a long, warm September. But a recent day of rain was a wake up call to all of us on Salt Spring. It was a call to action to finish outdoor projects that require dry weather, and for us photographers to record what we know will soon disappear until next season.

Every year, my inner squirrel compels me to freeze pesto and tomatoes, and lots and lots of green things from our own garden, and those of the great farmers of the island.

But, while I begin to think of rounding up flashlights and kindling and tomatoes, I'm also remembering what a good opportunity winter provides to get into a very creative zone in the studio. With a lots of images to work with, a few supplies, and a long rainy night- amazing things can happen. Pesto helps too.

Fuel your creative fires this winter with a hearty dose of inspiration....

The Alternative Photographic Techniques workshops schedule for this fall is complete, with a total of four locations!

Just added: Mendocino, California and Mt. Vernon, Washington.

Sept 25, 2010- Salt Spring Is, BC workshop is FULL *

Oct 2, 2010- Port Townsend, WA space available

October 16, 2010 revised date- Mt. Vernon, WA space available

Nov 13, 2010- Mendocino, CA space available

*If there are enough people on the waiting list for this workshop, a second date or a Victoria location may be offered. Please let me know if you're interested in being added to the waiting list.

For more information, or to register for any location: email: amy@grainofsand.com,

or tel: 250-537-4489

Scroll down to see workshop description. Content is the same in each location. Time schedule of the day varies slightly.

Port Townsend: Workshop

Alternative Photographic Techniques: An Overview with Amy Melious

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2010

Time: 9:30 am -6 pm + Optional evening Q&A, work sharing 7:30-9:00pm.

Fee: $125, lunch option add $12.

Location: Port Townsend, Washington

Space is limited

This one day intensive class is geared toward photographers who are curious about the world of alternative techniques. It will open the door for you to be able to create images that enhance your unique vision. This class is years of trial and err and tinkering distilled into one concentrated, information packed day.

All materials included. Basic Photoshop skills are a plus, not required.

Port Townsend Workshop!

Greetings!

Thank you to everyone who has registered for the September Salt Spring workshop, which has filled quickly. There are a couple of spaces left for those of you who are still considering.

In response to a number of requests from residents of areas far and wide, I have been working on firming up additional dates and venues for the Alternative Techniques workshop.

I am pleased to announce that the Alternative Techniques Overview workshop is a GO for

October 2, 2010 in Port Townsend, Washington!

The workshop will be held at the beautiful Fort Worden State Park, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

There have been only minor adjustment to the schedule given for the Salt Spring workshop, but the course content is the same.

To register for the Port Townsend workshop, please email or phone: 250-537-4489

amy@grainofsand.com

The Possibilities Workshop

News flash! New workshop coming up at the end of September.

This workshop is designed to answer the kinds of questions I am frequently asked about my work.

I think it will be a lot of fun, and inspiring for all of us.

Alternative Photographic Techniques:

An Overview with Amy Melious

Date: September 25, 2010

Time: 9 am -6 pm + Optional evening Q&A, work sharing 7:30-9:30pm.

Fee: $125

Location: Salt Spring Island, BC Canada

Space is limited

This one day intensive class is geared toward photographers who would like to explore the world of alternative techniques. It will open the door for you to be able to create images that enhance your unique vision. This class is years of trial and err and tinkering distilled into one concentrated, information packed day.

All materials included. Basic Photoshop skills are a plus, not required.

Some of the things you’ll know more about by the end of the day:

Photoshop: What is a Photoshop “tool kit”, and how do you create your own?

This topic is somewhat like deconstructing a recipe. I’ll share key "ingredients" that I use in working on my images. You'll leave with knowledge of a set of relatively simple tools that you can try, as well as a good understanding of what's possible, digitally.

That said, digital techniques will not be the primary emphasis of the day, rather a piece of the pie. It’s easy to get lost in Photoshop Land (in a good way). However, it is only one of the tools for making photographic artwork. So, instead of taking you through that door during this workshop, I aim to hand you a “key” to use on your own later, with the information I’ll give you as a guide.

Seeing what you want to say: Selecting and shooting images, intended for finishing with alternative techniques, requires getting in touch with your images in an intimate way. This is an important topic, where you will learn to identify and articulate what you would like to say through your images.

Printing surfaces: -Learn about the amazing variety of printing surfaces available to photographers today, and how to select the most appropriate ones for your images. Samples will be on hand.

Hand Painting-Hand painting techniques will be discussed and demonstrated. Whether just a few delicate strokes, or a total transformation, hand work has the power to add tremendous depth to an image through texture, color and spirit conveyed by the human hand. Participants will have the opportunity to experiment with hand painting materials.

Presentation options-When showing your photographs, how can matter as much as what: You will be introduced to a variety of ideas for alternative presentation methods. Samples on hand.

To Register: Pre-registration and prepayment required, by mail, phone, or email (my contact info below). Your space will be confirmed immediately by email followed by a mailed receipt.

Please provide your full name, mailing address, email and phone number.

Your confirmation email will contain the course outline, optional materials list, directions, transportation and lodging information.

Payment is due upon registration by Visa, MC, or check. Due to limited space available for courses, please understand that rainchecks will be offered, in lieu of refunds, for those unable to make the class.

Amy Melious:

Email: amy@grainofsand.com

Phone: : 250-537-4489

Participants are responsible for travel, lodging and meal expenses.

www.grainofsand.com

Photosynthesis

I ampleased to be included in the 10th annual Photosynthesis photography exhibit,

on now through September 7th, here on Salt Spring Island.

I have four pieces in the show. They're printed on linen, and hand worked with pastel and pencil.

I've always loved experimenting with different surfaces for printing. But, I believe I've found a favorite in the linen. It was tricky to work with, but worth the extra TLC it took to get good prints. The use of fabric lends itself to certain types of images. I don't see it working for everything. But for the right bodies of work, it's really lovely.

I also like working with linen in that it gives me an intriguing sense of connection to my ancestors, who grew flax in northern France and in Ireland for many generations.

Here are a couple of the images hanging in the current Photosynthesis exhibit.

Suspended Animation

I love the way photography weaves together with life as it flows on.

My daughters, my niece, and several of their friends are dancers. I have marveled at watching them grow, from tiny exuberant fairies, tip-toeing their way across the stage, into elegant souls powerfully expressing the passion that resides within. With creativity and intense vitality, they captivate the eyes, hearts, and minds of their audiences. I know my life is richer for having watched the girls dance over the years.

For the last several months, I have been photographing a budding dance company with whom one of my daughters dances. It is difficult to capture all that dance has to say in a still photo, because of the very nature of the art form being about movement. So, I try to find an instant within the dance, where our imagination is suspended, like the drop of water on the tip of a blade of grass just before it falls. There we might sense, a little anyway, the nature of the water....

Helix Dance Theatre was started in the fall of 2009 by two experienced, talented dancers (Sarah DeVito and Kortney Hunchuk) from Vancouver Island, on a mission. The results were stunning. Dance enthusiasts might want to keep an eye out for their tour schedule next spring.

In the meantime, watch some dance wherever you are. The dancers always appreciate an audience. Or...dance!

To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak.

~Hopi Indian Saying

Upper photo: Celina, Elya, Bronwyn

Lower photo: Emily, Kristen, Clare

Art on the Island

These butterfly "portraits" are two out of a series of 14 finished images.

Yesterday, I delivered them to Artcraft, here on Salt Spring Island, where they'll hang for the next couple of months, along with some other work.

Artcraft is a summer long exhibition of work created by diverse artists of the Southern Gulf Islands. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by.

The island also has and impressive, self guided studio tour (Salt Spring Studio Tour). The wonderful thing about the "tour", is that with a map in hand, you meander around the island at your own pace, visiting artists at their studios and gallery spaces at their homes all over the island.

Greetings

Greetings.

Here's an image from a series I'm working on at the moment. It's a celebration of the little things about human beings that have so much power and beauty. Each of us is absolutely unique in the world, and an amazing work of art.

Since my last post, I've been traveling, and have worked on a wide variety of things.

I'll share some of that here over the next couple of weeks, along with the recap from my workshop that already seems so long ago! Time flies.

Suddenly Spring

About two weeks ago, I noticed the first blossoms

of spring, on a single tree near my home on Salt Spring. Now, we are surrounded by flowers.

Every year, it's startling--in a good way!

Thursday, I was on Vancouver Island, about a hour north of here, and the

first blossoms were just appearing on trees there.

I realize that the parade likely passed weeks ago in places like California.

I've always thought it would be fun to plan a trip around following the blossoming.

Here in the north, we endure long, dark winters. It is true that it

is darkest just before the dawn. These cheerful little messengers of the coming sun are always a welcome sight.

Winter Branches

I love the austere poetry of winter branches sketched against the sky by nature.

Art Happens

Greetings. It's a quiet January day in the studio. Even the parakeet seems to be in a gathering her thoughts kind of mood.

Art is one of the best ways I know to sift through the experience of life. I think, in fact, that our lives are part of the artwork of the world.

I've been traveling over this last week, which was one of storms, earthquakes, and politics, work, ideas and family. Navigating my way through everything as best I could, the events of the week were woven together by moments of beauty : In the branches of a tree in a parking lot, in the sparkling sidewalk in North Beach, in the Chinese child huddled up against his fathers legs as they both press against a wall to wait out a downpour. It was beautiful how fast, and how much the world gathered up to rush and help Haiti. It was beautiful to hug family, to hear laughter, and to meet people who are realizing their dreams, and who are just beginning to dream.

I didn't have a camera with me this week. But that's okay. The art still happens.

Words, Paint, Flowers...

Thank you to all of you, for your words of enthusiasm, regarding the upcoming workshop! I look forward to working with those of you who have registered to attend. I think it will be inspiring for all of us. There are still some spaces, for those of you who are considering.
.
I've been thinking about which samples of my work I'd like to pull out and bring to my workshop at the end of the month.
This is one of my favorites. The blossom was incredible. A photo certainly could suffice to remind me of it. However, painting the print took me deeper, still, into the flower, creating a relationship rich with new understanding and awe. I got to know each petal apart from the whole, and in the process, discovered a rainbow of subtle whites, and pastels. In my attempt to keep the delicacy of the living flower, I tried to teach my hand to be sensitive in the strength and direction of my strokes.

"I dream of painting and then I paint my dream" - Vincent Van Gogh

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...

Support

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!

click to purchase

Evening at the Beach

Summer Grass

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


click to purchase

Wild Field, Salt Spring Island

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