Australia! Part Seven: Students, Art and a Whole Bunch of Photos

Each day, I traipsed down this set of stairs with my class supplies and materials. At night, I sat at the end of the stairs - the best place I found for WiFi reception. No matter where you were in the building, there was a killer view of the surrounding forest and birdwatching was at a premium, with cockatoos, ducks, crimson rosellas and kookaburras commonly flying by.

















My next class was Mixed Media Portraits. The class was filled with students bent on having fun and we laughed, joked and told stories as we worked through the class. The object of the class was not to turn out a face using a formula, but to create a one -of-a-kind face filled with character and emotion. We did warm up contour drawings and then moved ahead to draw a face upside down on printed paper to "fool" the brain into having no preconceived ideas of how a face was to look. After learning the basics of drawing a face, we moved on to create a face using the six colors of the rainbow rather than flesh - cool colors for shadows and warm for highlights. This was when the faces became truly interesting. A last portrait was created using all that had been learned in the class. Everyone created the most brilliant art, don't you think?

After an evening of show and tell, another scrumptious meal and a good night's sleep, I headed for my third class, Secret Garden Journaling. What a great group of ladies I had in this class!! I felt so blessed for the students I had throughout the retreat. All there to have a good time and all willing not only to learn but to share their own knowledge with others during the class.

After a day of journaling techniques, shared stories and an Australian geography and history class for me, here is some of the great work produced in class. I am amazed, but not surprised, by the incredible talent these students had. Many of them teachers or working artists in their own right, the art they produced was impressive.

This was an amazing class and I learned as much from the students as I taught to the class and you could not ask for better company than the ladies in this class. But now it was time for another great dinner and a bit of Trivia. I was a bit nervous in this competition. I knew very little about Australian trivia. But the questions were from general knowledge and our team of four started out well...two Americans (Leslie and me) and two Australians (Sonja and Fiona), but we were always just short one question it seemed and we missed out on the great prizes divvied up to the winners. And Lucy, I will forevermore remember that ebony is not just wood, but a dense, dark wood....Thanks so much for being in the tough spot of scorer.

Laurie Mika and sister, Leslie

Laurie and I

Bevlea, Laurie, Eva and ?

Seet Lucy scoring the trivia answers.

Bevlea asking the hard questions.

Eva, me and Jen Crossley

All too soon it was time to go back to our rooms and pack. Tomorrow is our last day of class and we needed to be checked out of our room by 9 AM.

Karin and Dawn

Eliza and Robyn

It was hard to believe it was time for my last class, Dolls for Big Girls. I could not believe it was time for the retreat to be over, when it seemed it had just started. And what a great class it turned out to be with much laughter as we created and put together our dolls. Unfortunately, before we could properly paint and cloth our creations, it was already time to be out of our classroom and no photos were taken of our creations. It was incredibly sad to be saying goodbye to everyone, but I know we have the best intentions of staying in touch, because the one thing I know, is that I am coming back to this country again one day and have a longer look. Though I have only been here a short time, I have felt at home here from the moment I stepped off the plane.

Annette

Sonja

Kelsey and Maryse

Nick, Dawn and Kelsey

Thank you, Bevlea, for having me over to teach and taking a chance on someone you did not know. Thank you, Eva, for housing me, feeding me and dragging me around the country side (especially the opportunity shops and bird haunts) and for being as wonderful and down to earth as you are. Thank you everyone for your warm welcome, shared laughter, good humor and warmth. Thank you for the presents and most of all, for the friendship you offered a complete stranger, making me feel welcome in a strange land. You are all amazing and I had the experience of a lifetime. See you all again one of these days. XOXO Jan

Australia!! Part Six

The afternoon of opening night for the Creative Soul Retreat, Eva drops me off with all my luggage at my room at a Country Place. I take a nap to ensure I have plenty of energy for vendor night, which I have been looking forward to all week! How fun to see the art of a whole new group of talented artists! I also have to get organized for the next four days of classes. I soon meet the fabulous retreat owner, Bevlea and her assistant, Lucy, who give me a warm welcome to the group and am shown the room I will be teaching in for the next four days.

After a scrumptious dinner, which flew by in a haze of nervous anticipation, the vendor fair opens. I am introduced to the wonderful work done by Australian artists who are impressive in their talent. So hard to make a decision....but I select a three pieces of jewelry to take home...

A beautiful etched "booklace created by the talented Jen Crossley. I loved her pieces and it was hard to decide what to buy, but I loved this "family" and took them home with me. And who could resist her house charms shaped like small birdhouses...I ordered one that should be coming to me soon...something to anticipate!!

And from the lovely Ro Bruhn, I bought these gorgeous earrings that shimmer and gleam in the light as they dangle.

And from the wonderful Chris Atkins, this beautifully cast bronze walnut on a twig, with a pearl inside. And of course, there was the incredible jewelry of Susan Lenart Kazmer and polymer clay art of Laurie Mika, fellow Americans who taught at the retreat, as well to drool over and that filled me with inspiration and a sudden urge to lock myself in my studio and start creating. But soon it was time to say goodnight and get some rest before the next day's class began.

My first class up is the encaustics class. I have worried my way over the ocean hoping I will have no problem getting my beeswax into Australia, but all went well and I am excited to teach in this medium that I have come to love for the versatility and range in which it can be used. I have a great class, who is eager to learn and, thanks to Elizabeth Harms, a skillet and griddles to heat the wax.

We first created collages on MDF board and then covered the surface with a layer of fused wax. And then the fun began. We used colored beeswax, oil pastels, grease pencils, foil, cutting tools, transfers and layers and layers of wax to finish our encaustic pieces.

The lovely Eva, whose help was so invaluable to me during the retreat and grand hostess supreme, took a bit of time off from the retreat to try her hand at encaustics.

Kaye Wolf, from Australian art magazine, Get Creative, was able to join the class for the day.

At lunch, Elizabeth ran into town to buy a bottle of orange shellac to use on our encaustic pieces to create patterns in the wax. With a coat of shellac and a few matches(well, actually the whole box), we created amazing patterns in the wax.

And, voila!! The finished pieces were amazing!! It's so inspiring to teach a group of talented artists such as I had in my class and I learn as much from my students as I teach. And I am always up to a "what if" suggestion and a little experimentation and unorthodox use of materials!

The class flies by in an instant and all too soon, it is time to stop our fun and get ready for dinner and a bit of relaxing at the end of the day. I am so impressed with the students here. So open and down to earth, full of laughter and comradery and curiosity in how far they can push their art, sharing new techniques as they invented them. I look forward to my next class, Mixed Media Faces, and dinner with new found friends.