Three classes of mine coming up soon!

Now that the big adventure in England is over, I'm looking to the Fall, to classes I'll be teaching in October and November.

My 3-day class at the Budding Art Ideas Workshops at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, will be Oct 5 - 8, and you can get a $50. discount by registering by 30 days in advance. This is the first year of this exciting art workshops program, held in U of M classrooms. I'm very excited and hope you'll come! Note that this class is a half day on the first day, followed by two full days, and then a last half day, Tuesday into Friday.

Here's a piece much like what you can hope to finish during my class at Budding Art Ideas Workshops. Actually, I finished it two weeks ago in England, at my Festival of Quilts 3 day masterclass.  You'll actually be able to finish one of your 18 x 22" paintings into a quilt in your class, so that's bigger than this one.

My piece above, "Garden Hug #1," about Michelle Obama and Queen Elizabeth meeting in England and hugging (also magically in the White House vegetable garden), is 13.25"h x 16.25"w, is quilted mostly by machine, and is for sale now for $900. plus shipping.  Let me know if you want to buy it.

It's the last of four "Garden Hug" pieces I made last June in a tiny series, with the first quilted one going to the SAQA online reverse auction last year. You can check out my piece "Heal the Gulf #1," in this year's SAQA auction, with my piece being in the last group of works being auctioned, starting October 4. (The first group will start bidding on Sept 20, the second group on Sept 27.)

This is at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens at the University of Michigan, where our classroom will be for the Budding Art Ideas workshop.

This is the kind of works you can learn to make in my class at Budding Ideas Art Workshops: whole cloth painting with brush and airpen, both using fabric paint.

My 3-day Life Drawing class at Valley Ridge Art Studio, outside of Muscoda, Wisconsin will be  October 26 - 28, 2010. This drawing class is my first time to teach drawing since when I was a graduate student at Kent State, teaching Drawing I and II to undergrads. I think every artist should know how to draw realistically, and this is definitely a learnable skill, like any other. You can do it! Valley Ridfge is such a beautiful place, and oh, what a wonderful director! Out in the beautiful middle of nowhere! Peaceful to the max! Please come!!!

My students last year at Valley Ridge, Pat and Sue, using airpens (which are NOT part of this year's drawing class.) Give me a couple of days, and I'll make a new, realistic drawing to put here, to show you what you'll be doing in my class at Valley Ridge THIS year.  :)

OK, now it's Sept 4, in the evening, and I've just finished this drawing of my friend Rita and her daughter Jess, who just had her new baby, Ash David, on August 28th.  I was over to see them the other day and took a bunch of pix. I used one of my photos and altered it a lot, drawing it freehand with pencil on paper.  This is what we'll be doing in the class, but working more often from life than from photos.  I try to only use my own photos, when I draw from them, and I don't trace.

If you're taking my class at Budding Art Ideas, bring a few of your own photos of people or things you want to draw, but don't bring others' photos!  For realism I do use erasers, which I never do when I do my freehand funky and looser style of drawing. But man, for getting someone to look like themselves, in a photo kind of way, you have to have that good old kneaded eraser in your hand, keeping it warm and ready to work!

The Valley Ridge studio is well equipt!

This is MY dog Blondie, who lives and is boarded for me at Valley Ridge!

This is the river at the bottom of the Valley Ridge property, a safari well worth the effort to get to, to enjoy this scene!  This is pretty rugged to get to, but you can take long walks on the quiet and hilly country roads at Valley Ridge, and last year we walked every morning and sometimes in the evening, too.  So relaxing and good for you!

The secret of Valley Ridge Art Studio is that there's this Monkey Muse, who's in love with Topo Gigio, the little Italian mouse that used to be on the Ed Sullivan Show. Kathy (the owner / director of the school) often consults both the monkey and the mouse, and becomes infused with artistic genius, having absorbed their ancient wisdom!  This particular sock monkey is more psychic than an Eight Ball!

If you like, go read my August 2009 blog entry about my last year's class at Valley Ridge Art Studio.

My four day class at Art Quilt Tahoe, at Zephyr Point, Lake Tahoe, Nevada will be held Nov 7 - 13, 2010. It's at a really cool and earth Presbyterian retreat center, which AQT started using last year, and which I've only heard super good things about.  I love AQT, and this time we'll be right on the lake itself! Imagine what a good time it'll be, to be with this crowd, high in the mountains, along a gorgeous lake, making art!

Here are some of my favorite students at Art Quilt Tahoe, the last time I taught there, in 2008, when we had to wait for the one time all week when we could be at the lake.  NOW the whole thing's at Lake Tahoe's shores!!!

Expect to finish quilting one of your paintings in my Art Quilt Tahoe class, much like this piece, which is sort of a fat quarter size (18" x 22" plus the little border.)  You'll be using fabric paint with brushes, airpen, and optionally markers, for those who end up disliking the airpen. (You either like it a lot or you don't!) This piece was done all with fabric paint this year.

Carlene and Judy of Hand Dyed of Sebastopol are two of my favorite vendors at the incredible vendor mall at Art Quilt Tahoe. You can find almost everything you need for your class supplies there, except for some of the weird stuff I ask you to bring. Sorry!  Still, just look at that hand dyed loot!!!!

That last time I taught at AQT was right after Obama won the Presidential election. Many of us were just plain supercharged, and I was so happy to stand with my piece in the AQT faculty show.

Fearless leaders / owners of Art Quilt Tahoe: Walter and Judy Bernard.

Please also consider taking a class from me at my home in Wooster, Ohio. I'll be posting the Turtle Art Camps schedule for my 2011 camps by Oct 1.