Valley Ridge Last Gasp

One more image from the student work done at Valley Ridge. Leslie sent me this one; I know I missed a few others too. Isn't it wonderful?

Kathy and I ran into this lovely visiting Australian at the local Walmart while we were searching for Amber Shellac for the class. A cheese head in Wisconsin!! Thank goodness Kathy could whip out her iPhone for this shot; somewhere in Sidney a village is missing its cheesehead. What a good sport. Of course I had that cheese hat on my head too before the visit ended.

Here is that shot of Bill and I relaxing with our gimlets at the end of both days. I'm still glowing as I remember so many sweet moments with my wonderful students and hosts. And praise be, my allergies have nearly subsided now and the pain in my rib from so much coughing is nearly gone. I believe Valley Ridge restored me.

Valley Ridge Part 2

I pried some more photos out of my dead little camera for you. What you will be seeing is all student work that came out of the class at Valley Ridge. The first few came from Kathy's Facebook site.

The spacious classroom. Each student gets their own table to work on.

Coffee creamer and sugar bowl in the studio.

Most of these pieces are 8 x 10" on wood panels.

The students brought collage materials and I provided a packet. I always like to find some things I haven't seen before to incorporate.

This woman (Jessica) did some pieces in small drawers that I didn't get a good shot of. I'll try to get that image for you later.

This isn't even all the work that was produced. These guys were on fire.

I like this shot because you can see the waxy surface. Mostly you can't see that in photographs.

Another one of Jessica's Medusas.

I told you Kathy treats us like queens. ;-D

Hey. Someone brought a folder made in Mary Ann's online class! Gorgeous, isn't it? Whew! Three hours on this post; tried to import the video Kathy shot but couldn't do it. Decided to post the photos for those of you not members of Facebook. Later!!

ps - Look what I found!! The drawers have waxed and faux gold edges. She found a little cabinet at the 2nd hand store and just used the drawers. Brilliant!!

Valley Ridge

Spring came to Valley Ridge just in time to welcome myself and 15 incredible women. Wisconsin cleared up my hayfever as long as I was there and I felt marvelous. Sunny, magnificent scenic beauty, red-winged blackbirds and two days of happiness. What a wonderful experience it was for all of us. This one goes up there with the best places I've visited.

Here are my hosts, Bill and Kathy Malkasian, preparing pot stickers for our evening repast. They treated me like a duchess.

Can you taste it? Sorry I didn't get a photo of the Gimlets that accompanied the pot stickers. Very nice. Almost too nice.

Kathy has great photographs of the students and work here at her Facebook site. (And more here.) There are also 2 videos; one of me demonstrating the amber shellac on wax technique and one of Michelle, a student, describing the work she accomplished. One of my cameras bit the dust halfway through the 2-day workshop and now my main computer is on its last leg so for the first time I'm posting this from my laptop and it's really clumsy.

Let me know if you get to Kathy's site and if you are able to view all the student work. It was phenomenal and everyone accomplished so much.

Valley Ridge is a jewel; Kathy gets such good teachers to come there and then treats the students so wonderfully, providing lovely food, small classes and a beautiful studio in which to work. I just sigh whenever my thoughts turn to my days there.

The beauty of my job are the people I meet - the hard part is saying good-bye to new friends with whom you so easily connect. As I sit here picturing your dear faces I send out a blessing and love to you and I thank you for making me feel so welcomed and fulfilled. It was heaven and you did excellent work. I just know there's going to be some more serious encaustic artists in the world now. xo.