Upcoming Demo, Spring Tulips

Well I'm all packed up for my Demo tomorrow at Dots & Doodles in Astoria at 2pm. Should be an excellent demo. I've got a handout with my suggestions for tools and equipment you need to start out and I'll have what a starter set would entail sitting out at the demo so people can see. I also have some beginning exercises for newbies to try out should they want to get started right away. There will be lots of samples and paintings to touch and feel that I will hand around and there will be a demo - which I'll try to get through in 1 hour (and if I don't finish there, I will do so at home in my studio and I'll post it here). So come and have a good time looking at interesting encaustics.

Here are 2 pictures of tulips I planted this fall. The light here in the wintertime is so weak and overcast that I wanted something really bright and cheerful to see from my windows. These Appledorn varieties actually entice me outside nearly every day to see how they are doing.

I have a painting friend who told me the story of going to a workshop in Arizona and there really learning what color was and how it could be used in the landscape -- and how it just rocked her world because up until then she never had really understood how thin and weak the light is here in the northwest especially during winter and spring days. When she came home and stepped out of the airplane it was absolutely a shock! So below is an example of a shot I took out here on the coast which is such a typical shot during this time of year - not only is the light thin and weak but many of the plants and all of the grasses lack color - for us they live in that dun colored hibernation until spring has really turned into summer. Even if the sky is blue and the sun is out, it looks like this. Which of course is why a good dose of spring tulips in the very brightest colors I can find is a necessity for the spirit!

On the other hand, you notice that the walker is wearing shorts - such is life in the mild marine Northwest - not too hot--not too cold ---just right!