Painting Workshop in Wells

I just got back from an amazing four day oil painting workshop in Wells, BC.  It was with Susan Madsen, who's work can be found at http://www.susanmadsen.com.  Yogi came with, as did Rhean (hot pink mohawk life drawing model from earlier post) to puppy sit during the day while I was in class, and to have an adventure.  We took my camper and stayed at the Cariboo Joy Campground.  Interesting spot.  More about that later.  We all had a great time, met lots of wonderful new people, sang around the campfire and roasted marshmallows and weenies.  Here are a couple of the paintings that I did.  I'm now in love with oil paints.  We got back at about 2 in the morning, and I spent my day setting up an oil painting studio in the basement of Greg's building.  I can't say enough about how good the workshop was.  If you paint and you ever get a chance to go to one of Susan's workshops, do it.  It was inspiring, instructive, really well laid out.  Thanks Susan!

Canada Day Air Show and Fireworks

It's Todd's birthday today, but we celebrated yesterday, Canada Day, with a big BBQ at our place.  We had about 18 people for dinner.  Right after we ate, this fantastic little air show appeared right in front of us!  (Just like we planned.  Happy Birthday Todd ;-).  We watched from the deck, then went down to watch the fireworks from the beach.  The people are just starting to gather in this pic.  By the time we went down it was shoulder to shoulder.  Drunk teens, cops, families, jugglers, the entire cast, most with flags or glow in the dark rings around their necks.  The pyrotechnics were a bit weak.  I just kept looking at them thinking 'how would i capture that in my sketchbook?'  At the end Miss Lily (6) looked up and said 'is that it?'  If you can't impress a 6 year old, you're not that impressive.  But, fun was had by all.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!
Originally uploaded by sketchalina

I had a great time sketching in Gyro Park on Canada Day.  Yogi was with me, drinking my painting water and standing on my palette (I'm still picking bark mulch out of it), but being good company non the less.  He's still the friendliest puppy in the world.  Everybody loves him (especially me).

Of course right now he's driving me crazy - throwing his tennis ball under the love seat I'm sitting on, then barking for me to retrieve it. 'You're the retriever, Yogi, not me.  Oh, alright, just one more time.'