Workshops Schedule 2012

Watercolor Evolutions
Saturday, March 31, 2012  ::  9am - 4pm  ::  $50
Sportsman's Club, 550 Nichols St., Norwood, MA
Registration open now!

In this class you will learn characteristics of this creative and challenging watercolor medium through demonstrations and practice of specific techniques. Come & enjoy!

In Lorraine's words: Born and raised in Rhode Island, I have always been an artist and found drawing and painting nature to be my life's passion early on. After studying the studio arts in college, graphic design was my profession for 30 years. I now use those tools to translate ideas into fine art. An enthusiastic artist, designer, and photographer, I believe that the practice of "art" is a total experience of body, mind and spirit.

To register:

Mail your name, phone number, email address and a check for $50 payable to Masscribes to: 
Kay Johnson, 80 Francis Horn Drive, Kingston, RI 02881.

Or, for your convenience, we're happy to accept debit and credit card payments via Paypal. Go to www. masscribes.org

Experimenting in Watercolor

North Kingstown, RI Residents: $45 Non-Residents: $55 

When: 6:30–8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, May 22 – May 29; June 5 – June 12 

Where: Beechwood CenterEach class will be a focus on a specific technique in watercolor with assignments in color mixing, special effects, and subject matter. Still life, landscapes, and working from photographs will be discussed and demonstrated.
Instructor:

Registrations due five days before the class begins.  No refunds will be given within 48 hours of class start. 

Small classes, first-come basis. 

Email tab@nkartscouncil.org

Mail registration forms and checks to:

North Kingstown Arts Council

North Kingstown Town Hall

80 Boston Neck Road

N. Kingstown, RI  02852 

A Collection of Miscellaneous Pieces of Nature and Found Objects

hung on my wall in the studio I use in Costa Rica, 2012

vines, wire, pine needles, string, dried flower

Self-portrait without the wrinkles...

watercolor 30 x 15

first attempt at a self portrait

Rented a car today, (a rollerskate kind of car) and on our way to the La Paz waterfalls and Poas Volcano...

then off to the Pacific tomorrow on an adventure to Playa Dominical. Painting on the way and the goal is at least one painting a day! And photographs galore ....Yipppeee!

Feliz Anos

Ok, a new year ahead of us...I wonder what is in store, excitement is in the bones. Friends have come and gone and their spirit still lingers inspiring (me) to live life to the fullest as possible and be kind..ok...some of my favorite things in the whole world are, my husband Cathal, spending time with AJA, coloring with Hudson Jai, fireworks, swimming, potato salad, cookies, cucumbers, sunshine, fruit drinks, music, a gentle breeze, friends, laughter of children, a smile, a new app, colors, finding a nest, beach combing, giving a gift, a joke. a bike ride, orchids, a call from Mom and Dad, purple, Italian bread, meatballs, strawberries, paper, photographing flowers, people, landscapes, painting in watercolor, sharing, bamboo, swans, a book, old buildings, architecture, a walk in the country, smell of rosemary and lavender, traveling to new places, a watercolor, the ocean, a boat ride, a picnic, ginko leaves, white lights, irises, roses, lilies, nasturtiums, mango leaves, mimosas, margaritas, pine cones, colored stones, driftwood, birds, curly sticks, eggs, lunch with Gayle, campfires with Neil, a hug, photoshop, moss, candles, hammocks, sand castles, almonds, chocolate, shrimp, a nap, lobster, parrots, teddy bears, skirts, lotus, ribbons, the internet, my iphone, my RAV, Edgemere, turkey, mashed potoes, maps, Costa Rica, Greece, London, Amsterdam, Ireland, Scrabble, antiques, blankets, guacomole, butterflies, clouds, lighthouses, humming birds, to be continued...

New Years Eve we had a visitor in our studio here in Costa Rica, my knight in shining armour-my heroe, Cal (always been my heroe).... but again saves the day with his mighty sword-broom and armor-chair and strength, determination to save his lady (me) from the likes of a nasty tarantula. This picture is the document that it really did exist..see that black speck in the corner, it's a gigantic tarantula! Gone out the door..and don't come back!!!! I am sitting on the bed taking pictures....eeeking, he says be quiet your making me nervous! He is the best husband ever.

Photograph from Edgemere...was cleaning out some of my photos on hard drive and cropped this one and had to share it, this is in our backyard in Rhode Island.

Gazpacho...garlic bread, red wine.....mmmmm good, practicing my alphabet, journaling and calligraphy tonight, went for walk up to the top of mountain this morning, then down the hill to town for una cafe con leche...practicing my Spanish as well all the time (but I can not do this in Espanol)....friends gave me some medicine for my annoying cough, enjoying my new BOSE speakers, now that I have the cables to re-charge them with...had a tour of Pat & Willy's orchid collection...I think I changed my clother 5 times today, one for morning chills, then took off sweats, put a skirt on, then changed to go to town, then back and put more comfy clothes on to paint in, now PJ's..typical day in the life of me.....here in paradise....gazpacho was deliciouso. I brought my soup blender down here with me along with my garlic press. I know, pathetic but I am here for 3 months...we have the prayer flags up in the studio...and I am still in a bit of chaos here, painting outdoors and indoors, monotypes in the back studio and a gigantic easel with beginnings of paintings, a huge nest is my still life, and looking for more kinds of nests, (sticks and stones) for this theme, lets see where it will take me....started thinking about last year and this is actually a really good place to see the unusual nests for my inspiration, one I found made with horse hair, another made of just dry grasses, another, of this paper-like material, another looks like fungi, another in geometric patterns..."I am a bird, I am a bee", ...OMG, the study of nests is becoming an obsession. Is that ok? Yes Lori it is ok. Get out of your rut and explore some new paths in your painting. I have to have these talks with myself..the life of an artist...everything has a purpose ya know! mmmmmmm..

The Allure 

(inspiration for recent paintings)

photograph by LBB

The brugmansia's slender, fluted bells proffer
their deadly champagne, their alluring, toxic flowers
dangling as if they'd been gassed, angel's trumpet 

they're called -as deadly as the single carbon
bound to oxygen you inhale, motor running.

(excerpt from poem, Cloud Forest by Lise Goett)

I forgot how to paint...trouble in paradise!

And I don't like the this blog... I can not get it to look right, bear with me I need to re-design this thing. They changed my original template, I am working on it.

Pedro & Bella Dona

It rained today, off and on, and I have this stupid cough. I slept really late this morning, felt so groggy rest of day. but, in- between raindrops I went for a short walk, to see what kind of "stuff" I could find like sticks, stones, flowers, ya know ....stuff......Carlos was just finishing up a chore with a refrigerator in one of the studios, so I practiced Spanish with him....anyway, walking along with him, he leans down and pokes a stick in a hole and calling "Pedro, Pedro".........I'm going.....huh? There is crab living in a hole by the steps, in water from a drainage pipe, the crab kept reaching out for him and the stick...couldn't believe it! No kidding. Pedro, the land crab.

Christmas Festival of Lights was Saturday night in San Jose, it was awesome, lots of pagentry and fireworks, I love fireworks...train ride this Wednesday up north on a day trip...working on a large painting of a flowering tree. I will show progress....time for bed...I have got to slow down....lol...it's just because I don't feel good and it's raining and I want to curl up and read...poor me.

Drawing, planning composition, color choices

Some color harmony, yellow green, salmon and determining shapes.

Festival of Lights brings over a million people into San Jose

Can you believe it? 1 million ...OMG

Beginning at around 3 in the afternoon on yesterday, flocks of family and friends crowded into the streets of San Jose for the city’s annual Festival de La Luz, or Festival of Lights! Every year the event brings over a million people out to share in the Christmas festivities and celebrations. The tradition has continued here in Costa Rica for more than a decade. Ticos celebrate the tradition to remind their children and future generations of the importance of the holiday spirit, the significance of family and friends, and to pass on the traditions of the past. The lights of the festival represent the beginning of the holiday season and hope for the New Year to come. The event ended at around 11:00 pm and fireworks marked the beginning of the Christmas season event! It is one of the most important holiday events in Costa Rica...This was my first time...Susan, Jane, Carl, Wayne, Bernarda and her family came, we ate, we walked, we rang in the Christmas season...and we had an adventure we won't forget...floats, marching bands, lights, fireworks, acrobats, clowns, pagentry, puppets, colors...I know I lost a few calories with all the walking we did too from one end of city to the other....yahoooooo..I didn't bring my camera, I was afraid someone would grab it.