Throughout the unpleasant events that have taken place this year I was forced to “feed my soul” to maintain some sort of reasonable sanity. Unfortunately the drama has not ended and new business challenges have raised their ugly heads, but escaping to new art classes has really nourished me.
It never ceases to amaze me how silver linings can be found in the darkest clouds. Due to a cancellation of a demo by one of my favorite artists, Pat Dews, I chose to take her workshop just to meet and watch her work. And work she does! I‘ve never met anyone with so much energy and generous creativity. She pulled me out of my “pits” and pushed me to create again. Not only did I acquire some new techniques, I also made two new wonderful friends, Pat Dews and Shirley Shepherd.
Shirley lives near the Atlanta area (I wish she were closer) and has a wonderful studio in her basement that her handy husband, Dave, built for her. I had the privilege of going to there to paint with her. Shirley introduced me to a new plastic painting surface called Yupo. Can you imagine trying to paint with watercolor on plastic? Yep, it slips, slides and has a mind of it own. This challenging stuff really forces you to free up and play. The outcome is never predictable, but always unique, guaranteed to get your mind off of anything but creating. I became so excited by this that I took another workshop taught by Lala Streett, and got lost for two days in slippery paint. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to “Feed the Soul”.
