Valley Ridge with Flora Bowley

 My friend Pam and I have just returned from 3 days of painting with Flora Bowley. The workshop was held at beautiful Valley Ridge,with amazing hostess, Katherine Engen. I've been to Valley Ridge once before and the property and studio are just amazing. So beautiful and peaceful. Katherine is moving onto new adventures, so Pam and I took advantage of the studio time, knowing that things are changing for Valley Ridge.

Flora's class was just amazing. It was not about pressure or perfection. It was very calm and peaceful, full of gratitude and appreciation. A wonderful way to look at life and present a workshop.Makes me want to incoporate things differently when I teach as well.

Her painting style is a process. It might take 3 days to paint a picture, it might take a week, a few weeks or more! In the beginning of the class, we were all ask to make a commitment about our goal for her class. Mine was to not to get caught up in walking away with a "masterpiece" (just not realistic). I can get easily frustrated when painting for the "magic" to happen and my goal was to just be patient. Every morning, we would recommit or remind ourselves to our goals. great philosophy to keep  yourself on track! I left feeling peaceful, content and grateful.

It was also a treat for us all to have Flora's mom and sister, joining in on the fun. It was their first time taking a workshop with her - how cool is that?

 here's a little section of one of my paintings, a bird soaring to new heights.

 I flew into Chicago, where Pam picked me up. Then we drove 4 hours to Wisconsin. We had fun along the way and of course did a little antiquing.

 

 for my birthday present (Happy Birthday to me!), Pam painted this sweet little picture for me. I feel so lucky to have a piece of art created by my dear friend. It's titled, "She waters her garden daily". yep, that's me!

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The rest of the post will be visual . I'll let you imagine the rest of the story as it unfolds through my photography. enjoy!

 

As always, thanks for tagging along!

So how are the post holidays going for ya? me and tuck are still congested from our colds. what is it with colds these days where you don't really get "sick" but have a few symptoms for a day or so, but then you are left with weeks of congestion? today the wind is blowing something fierce so that is causing allergies and headaches. last night i finally watched "Dark Knight". dillon had an improv show, so he and jeff were gone, so i thought that'd be a good time to watch it without interruption. so me and tucker watched it. i thought it was okay, but i'm a chick. i think it was more of a guy movie. plus i didn't really get the ending where he chose to be hunted. guess i missed something..... anyway. i got this birdfeeder for Christmas. it is called a "cardinal feeder", but i've yet to see one cardinal fly in there! (but they do eat what is falling on the ground...) right now we've got yellow finches, house finches, chickadees, wrens, nuthatches, sparrows and the tufted titmouse flying in for snacks. i actually watched a chickadee sit still and hang out by herself in the feeder yesterday morning. chickadees are very active and i have never seen one just "sitting" before. it was cool.