Wednesday - Day Three - Watercolor class

I woke this morning to a clear, cloudless sky - beautiful, but not good for spectacular pictures.  Since we thought it was going to thunderstorm yesterday (it did not) a bunch of us went back into town to take more images for painting.  We took a lot of shots of the harbor, then hung around a bench in front of the bank, looking a little like monkeys on a log.

A huge bonus for Kathy and me was that we met the gentleman from Saugatuk who owns this great little Cape Cod on the harbor shore.  He was out mowing his lawn, we struck up a conversation and he invited us in to see the inside.  It started out as a log cabin and when he restored it on the outside he totally saved the log interior.  It is right out of House and Garden or one of those shows on HGTV.  SO neat!!

I didn't ask to take pitures of the inside because I thought that would be impolite, but I was so tickled to see it. 

I finished my first painting of this house.  I love it because of the flag on the garage out front and the lifesaver on the red door.  Also, the great flowers -  cosmos, snapdragons foxgloves and geraniums on the porch.

Day TWO - Tuesday - Watercolor Class

Well, I am back on my (somewhat) standard Beaver Island schedule.  I was in bed last night EXHAUSTED at 9:30.  I have had too much sun in the last two days and it has wiped me, my face and my lips right out.  The next thing will be a great big cold sore - I can feel it coming.  It is 6:00 a.m. I have been up since 5 and down in the computer lab since 5:30.  I am watching the sun come up out the big lakeside windows and the sky is pink and orange behind the clouds.  It is supposed to rain and thunderstorm all day today so it is going to be an all studio all the time kind of day.  I have TONS of images from which to paint so that is fine by me!
Yesterday, after the rain in the morning, was gorgeous!  Just gorgeous!  We started class while it rained

then in the afternoon we loaded up the vans and headed into town.  Since it was SUCH a beautiful day I decided to take photos so I would have things to paint.  I walked from the north lighthouse and the old Coast Guard Boathouse all the way around Paradise Bay to the ferry dock at the other end of St. James (about 1 1/4 miles)

By the time I got all the way around the bay it was HOT, I was even more sunburned and I was pooped.  But I had some GREAT images.  But, sadly, I mysteriously hit something on the camera that changed the settings (I have no idea WHAT) and some of them came out sort of pastel tinted black and white.  Fine for ME, but some of them were promised to the people in the pictures (of their boats and houses) and they look pretty crappy.  I will just have to send them along with an apology for my stupidity . . . .

WATERCOLOR CLASS!! Day one - Monday

It was a BEAUTIFUL trip up on Sunday - perfect weather for the boat. I sat out on the deck all the way up and sunburned my face SO BADLY that I can hardly stand it. My lips are the most sunburned. We had thunder this morning at 5am then the skies opened up and it POURED!! Now it is noon and beautiful again - typical Beaver Island weather.

Comfy night - only FOUR of us in the dorm. It was very quiet and (since the Bio kids left last week) very CLEAN. There are only 11 people registered in the class, and about the same number of independent painters. Nice class, only two new faces.  I am using the new paper that I made in Sally's class for my paintings.  It is a real challenge learning what it will do and what I can do with it.  We'll see. 
The battery was dead on my camera and (of course!) the charger was up here on the island. Charged everything up last night and I am ready to go with photos again. Also, there is more computer time with this class (while things dry) so I will get back to blogging with photos.

Day 12 - Going home (FOR NOW)

My first session class is done and the papermakers and raku-yakis are going home.  It is time to take our leave of Clawed, the Screaming Yellow Invader Frog.  Trudy and I are going to take a very neat, very fast trip off the Island today at 5pm

then she will take off tomorrow (Saturday) for L.A.  I am going to make a quick turnaround with Kathy  on Sunday for round two of Beaver Island - the WATERCOLOR CLASS!!  more later . . . . . . .

Day TEN - Wednesday

FINALLY!   A full work day!  Just time spent on getting our 5 required projects finished.  AND our little keepsakes for the party on Thursday. 

One of my final project books included the little fired clay piece that we did in collaboration with the clay class.  It was the inprint of a fern "disguised" as a tree.

The other one is a folio to hold watercolor paper.  I made the paper, but it is NOT good watercolor paper.  Maybe I can use it as sketch paper.  Anyway, it was fun to do and looks pretty nice.  We have our final critique and "art show"  on Friday before we leave the Island. 

Day Eleven (Thursday) - Clean-up, Tear-down Day

This is a sad day . . . today we tear down the pulp vats, clean up our areas and prepare to go home.  Always such a bittersweet day -- we have done so much and grown so close in such a short period of time.  It is going to be hard to say goodbye tomorrow. 

Trudy got ALL of her firing done - quite a feat, considering all that she set out to do.  She has already set up her large water feature installation for the show tomorrow.  She is going to haul it all the way home to California to install in the garden of her new studio. 

After we finish cleaning the studio we put the finishing touches on our projects then head up to Sally's "condo" for our "social hour".  We nosh on goodies, have a few giggles, then exchange our keepsakes.  And we sit for a combined "family portrait". 

Day Nine - Tuesday, 28

Another beautiful Beaver Island Sunrise to start the day. 

 We have a guest lecturer, Tim Barrett from Iowa University, who is a world reknowned papermaker, paper researcher and who, co-incidently, is a Beaver Island resident (when he is not in Iowa). 

Trudy's raku bowl comes out of the kiln and is drop-dead gorgeous.  The colors and luster are amazing.

Day Eight - Monday -- FIRST CRITIQUE DAY!!

Today was our first critique in papermaking class. Sally gave us all a "container" and we had to make a book out of it. Very cool assignment and very cool results!!!

This is the way mine finally turned out.  I was pretty pleased with it - it went from a little jewelry case to a book that tells the story of being an undiscovered treasure trunk of virtues.  Deep.

Trudy is rolling right along with her clay projects.  She is making a water feature for the garden outside her new studio.  It is quite a project! 

Now she is also making some cast slip jewelry that she plans to raku fire.

Here is the "gang" doing what we do BEST - THREE times a day . . .  EAT!!  And this is a sunrise photo that Tru took down at the water's edge, braving the hordes of mosquitoes.