Hello everyone,
I hope all of you are getting a great start to 2019!
January tends to be a month where many artists (including myself) do a lot of planning and dreaming about what can happen in the coming year. It is a "back to the drawing board" season for me, but in the best sense possible! And I am full of inspiration and new ideas.
I am still ironing out some of the big plans for this year, but for now here are a few exciting things to note:
I have added a new workshop! On Saturday, February 23rd from 12:00 - 2:00 I will be teaching a watercolor workshop on painting roses. The workshop will be held in a beautiful studio space in Uflora (Newberg, Oregon). The cost is $65 per person and I will be capping the class at 10 people. I will be bringing all of my favorite supplies for you to use and I will be teaching a couple different approaches to painting different varieties of roses. I know it will be a great time! Please let me know if you are interested because I have a feeling these slots will go fast.
This March I will be returning to Nicaragua! A dream I have had for a while is to bring some of my favorite supplies along with me to bring to my friends in other countries. I have realized what a privilege it is to have nice materials! So many of my friends in third world countries have never seen real art supplies before. Most of them create art with whatever they can find - often times house paint and even nail polish! I am excited to see what artwork comes from this. Stay tuned on this one... I am planning a whole show around this concept in the near future!
Lastly, I have been getting a lot of great of great feedback from this last years Europe show! Thank you to each of you who have encouraged me and bought paintings! Looking into the future I am planning a new trip based around the requests from those of you hoping to get your own painting from abroad. For me this is a very fun aspect of my painting travels - in many ways it is all of you who help me decide where to go! So far I have gotten requests to paint Ireland, Salisbury, the Lake District, and the rugged countryside of Scotland. To me this looks like it will be another trip to the UK which makes me very excited!! I do not have dates of travel yet but if you are interested in a piece from any of these places mentioned, please let me know!
As I sit in a coffee shop writing this letter to you as the slushy snow/rain falls from the sky, I am dreaming of the Arizona sunshine. This last week, I had gotten the amazing opportunity to study under an incredible artist, Daniel Keys, at the Scottsdale Artist School. It was good for the soul! Now I am excited to play around with my new Rosemary paintbrushes and all of the new techniques I learned in oil painting.
(Here is a painting from my week at the Scottsdale Artist's School!)
So many paintings are just waiting to be created and discovered. I am looking forward to another year of sharing my journey and my artwork with you!
Cheers to 2019!
~Christine Joy