July Newsletter: Thank God for summer vacation
Work on view now, fall watercolor class, and other news
Hello, friends!
I’m nearly a month into my summer vacation and it feels AMAZING. Even though I spent last week at a conference thinking about school, it still feels like school was a million years ago and like I still have a million years before it resumes again. Ah, summer. I don’t know how people with normal jobs cope with working for twelve months of the year, I really don’t. It’s inhumane.
As you probably know, I’ve been working through The Artist’s Way this summer, and if you’ve been reading those weekly posts on the blog section of this Substack, then you already know all about what I’ve been doing, so I won’t bore you here.
Did you know you can control what posts you see from me? If you haven’t been getting my weekly blog posts and you would like to (or vice versa), you can adjust your settings. Here’s Substack’s guide to doing so.
Okay, now onto some news!
Learn watercolor with me this fall
I am happy to share that I will once again be teaching Watercolor Fundamentals for Two Bridges Art Academy this fall. Classes take place via Microsoft Teams on Thursday nights from 6 to 9 PM, so you can attend from anywhere! We will work on the basic skills that every watercolorist must master from controlling the water-to-pigment ratio to color mixing to creating textures and more. Each class session includes a live demo and opportunities for individual feedback. You can register here.
Work on view now and coming soon
You can see my watercolor collage, “News of the Day,” at the Fitchburg Art Museum in Fitchburg, MA, now through September 7 as part of the Regional Exhibit of Art and Craft.
This collage was inspired by a February vacation trip to Jay Peak, Vermont. As I rode the ski lift, I noticed how the birch trees looked like they were made of layered newsprint. When I got home, I had to try to make trees from newspaper and see what happened. The foreground trees on the left are made from pages from the New York Times magazine (from a story about Prince—do you see his ear in the tree?!), and the one of the right is from a full page ad for a car (notice all the chrome?!). The focal point tree is made from strips of newspaper glue together to mimic a birch tree.
My most recent painting, “Pocasset,” will be in the Celebrating New England show at the New England Watercolor Society in Plymouth from July 11 through September 3. I painted this one entirely on location a few weeks ago when my hubby and I kicked off summer vacation with a week on Cape Cod.
And finally, my painting “Crystal Brook Farm” will be on view at Arts Worcester as part of their annual THE ONE exhibit from July 24 through August 24. I painted this on location in Sterling, MA last August with the Central Mass Plein Air group.
That’s all for now, friends! I hope you are all finding opportunities to enjoy summer, to get outside, and to be creative.
Cheers,
Diane