from art journaling to art

Tesoro de Corazon ~ treasures from the heart. (The name of the art retreats my friends and I do in Mexico.)







I love leveraging images from my sketchbook to create something else--stamps, thermofax, stencils, stitching..





I'm teaching a 6 week, online class called "Watercolor Sketchbook: Designs from Life." It doesn't start till March 29, but you can get started "Sketching & Watercolor: Journal Style" on January 24 on joggles.com and/or download or buy my DVD "From art journaling to art." OR, just get started! go on over to The Sketchbook Challenge blog and get inspired.

Walking & Watercolors on the French Riviera

Walking & Watercolors along the French Riviera

Sept 10-16 Join your Blue Walk host Carlo, and our very special guest Jane LaFazio, for a spectacular week of “Walking & Watercolors” along the French Riviera. 

The Blue Walk offers an extraordinary opportunity to spend a week on the Cote d’Azur, leisurely strolling its gorgeous coast, meandering through its best-loved towns, and enjoying classes taught by our artist extraordinaire, Jane LaFazio. 

Using a pencil, a pen and a small set of watercolors, you’ll illustrate the details of your French Rivera experience. Jane LaFazio is known for her fun-loving, supportive instruction, and she will teach you to draw and paint in your own style, as unique to you as your handwriting.  You'll learn how to capture the subject in pencil and then add watercolor in a quick and intuitive way. 

Each day we’ll stop along our walk to draw and paint the details that capture your interest - just quickly, and on small 5x7” journal size pages.  Our stops could be a colorful French flower market, pausing along a shaded seaside promenade, or lingering at an outdoor cafe sipping cappuccinos.  With the Cote d'Azur as our backdrop, inspirations are limitless.

At the end of the week, we’ll compile a small book with your pages and memories of the Blue Walk tucked inside.

Click here for the Itinerary 

What’s Included:

· Six nights at our unique art-inspired hotel in Nice with lovely gardens & pool

· Art classes with Jane LaFazio

· Gorgeous guided coastal walks

· One-week unlimited use train pass to get us to and from our walks

· Daily buffet breakfast

· Cafe lunch in Menton’s town square

· Picnic lunch in St. Jean Cap Ferrat

· Welcome dinner

· Farewell dinner

· All customized itineraries and maps

· Visit to the Ephrussi de Rothschild Villa & Gardens, St. Jean Cap Ferrat

· Visit to a local artist’s studio in Nice

· Visit to Cours Saleya, Nice’s colorful “Marché aux Fleurs”

· Visit to Antibes “Marché Provençal”

· Assistance of your hosts throughout

· All hotel taxes, fees and service charges

$2850  Price is per person, double occupancy,  land only.

Single supplement available - ask for details

For more information, click here. Or email Carlo Roberts

in my sketchbook: pods!

I'm enjoying working in my sketchbook during these last two weeks of December. It feels good, and quiets my mind and nurishes my soul.

My sketchbook: Shells

  

Stitching and a workshop with Patti Digh!

If you know me and the way I work, you'll recognize my process of just working on one little square at a time. I love working small, with no real plan, and only a slight idea of a cohesive color scheme. I'm doing this now, in preparation for a workshop I'll be teaching with Patti Digh (author of Life is a Verb) on March 17 in San Diego. I'm making many more squares than we'll create in the workshop, but I'm just enjoying it so much. 
Here's info on the workshop  The Geography of Loss: Creating an art quilt map of your journey through grief.   And to you, my lovely blog readers, I've offering a $50 discount if you use this code Friend2012.

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico Art Retreat

Mixed Media Mosaic Libro de Ofrendas cover by Laurie Mika

I'm teaching again in San Miguel de Allende Mexico in October 2012. My friends, Laurie Mika, Helen Shafer Garcia, Lynn Leahy and I are teaching 4 days of workshops during the Dia de los Muertos. We've created a fabulous project! Wait till you see it! In fact, you can see it right here and get the details of the 9-day retreat. Thirty students maximum and we've already got 15 registered....There are more photos on our blog Tesoro del Corazon.

In my sketchbook: Poinsettia

Is the addition of the stitched felt leaf clever? Well, I added it to cover up a drawing on the page I didn't like!

Going to Cuba!

Husb and I are traveling to Cuba in early January. (We're going with an education based tour company, Cuba Cultural Travel.) I've always wanted to go to Cuba, ever since I visited Key West, Florida, many years ago. I saw Hemingway's house, and was told he also had a house in Cuba--and decided then I wanted to see Cuba.

I'm preparing a small journal for the trip, since I want to draw everything I see. 

And of course, I had to include Fidel in my journal.

As I was creating the map, it was interesting to realize not only how large Cuba is, but how close to other places we've visited, like Key West, Jamaica and Turks & Caicos.

Sashiko meets prayer flags

Fabric fun! I bought these gorgeous fabric squares from designer Marcia Derse at the Houston Quilt Festival. 

And I have a new Babylock Sashiko sewing machine to play with!

I'd planned to completely stitch the squares down, but when I completed the top, they reminded me so much of prayer flags, I had to stop there. (You know, The Prayer Flag Project)





The stitches are gorgeous. I'll be playing with the machine a lot more, to see what it can do!