Anne Bagby Workshop ~ Artists' Showplace ~ Texas Art Blog

Approximately 5" square image made from a collage of handmade papers from the Anne Bagby workshop held at Artists' Showplace. This example was placed in my journal. I made the face area from a page of the 1924 The Outline of History by H.G. Wells. I like some of the text to show.
Anne

Project on a 12" square of deli wrap of handmade papers done Saturday, colored and stamped and collaged. Anne said keep it simple and watch your values. This was anything but simple and it was too much the same value so I added lots of line work. Today I covered a 7" x 10" journal with the page. On the inside I'd pasted a Dan Burt drawing from his workshop. This journal will be used for drawing more than journaling. Anne says she takes the paper out to cover the journals but I worked around the rings and ran a line of paint connecting the edges. Not as neat but it's still together from someone who can't reassemble a ballpoint pen.


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A trip to Aggie land for a wedding and seeing my first bluebonnets.

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Still on the move but time to check out Grace Haverty's sketches. Packing, packing again for the Bagby workshop and it is a 3 day from Thursday to Saturday.
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Anne's card, her chop, some instructions and my small work for my journal. See the stamp at the left of the image...it's an Anne Bagby original I won by using the most line - hope she doesn't ask for it back after she reads this post. Some of us Southern girls in watercolor workshops find great comfort sipping a cup of Earl Gray and applying a watercolor or two but mixed media artists are a different breed. They work really fast and do what's called "speed collage". I'm a Southern Texan. I work slow, talk and hear even slower and like to have time to inquire about my neighbor's Mama occasionally. Don't let Anne Bagby's diminutive size mislead you. She's a one woman dynamo, spewing forth tips, orders, suggestions, and ideas in a rapid lively way and hence the notation in my journal of "General" Bagby. I may have exaggerated a little when I wrote in my journal she said "Move it, Nancy" but I sat at the front table and was under her all seeing eye. At times she did remind me I needed to forge ahead.
I was glad I'd ordered her DVD from Creative Catalyst as I was a little more prepared to know what to expect. We cut out stamps and made our papers on Thursday and Friday and worked on our projects on Saturday - when I got to have a cup of tea while working. I've learned new paper and stamp making techniques, met a fascinating new instructor, made some new friends and visited with some old ones at Artists Showplace. They have a great facility for workshops and provide individuals with nice long tables and the owners are helpful and encouraging. Restaurants are close by and there is plenty of parking for unloading art supplies.
Another treat was Anne's show, Prototypes in Paper in the gallery and we could view many of her 12" canvases. The show will hang during March.
Thanks, Anne, for your patience and explanations. On Saturday, we packed away our supplies and cleared off the tables leaving only our handmade paper and our projects then each student had a show and tell time. The hand stamped and painted papers were amazing and beautiful and now for more projects with our wonderful papers.

On Friday night a student of Anne's, Dianne Hicks, stopped by. She has been to France with her and taken other workshops in the states. Her web site is a treat.

I've included a slide show of some of the activities during the workshop:

More Watercolor Roosters ~ Iron Horse Inn ~ Art Journal Pages

Watercolor Rooster #2 with an Acrylic Background
9" x 11"
I have not tried this before - mixing acrylics and watercolors but my watercolor background became muddy so I just painted it with acrylics. I would have tried gouache but they were at home and I was at the Iron Horse Inn with my CBC sisters.

Watercolor Rooster #3
9"x11"

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It rained a lot so it was a great time to splatter, the Courthouse Square in Granbury has been described as one of the most complete examples of a late 19th century courthouse squares in Texas, the Iron Horse Inn was a great place for a long weekend spent painting and eating. You can find more recipes at Bed and Breakfast. Theresa at the Iron Horse has shared a wonderful recipe for her baked oatmeal that I will post soon on the Artists Food Network. We had a great lunch at the Merry Heart Tea Room on the square and a visit with a Tarleton alum at the Rio Grande Mercantile. For more Granbury information click here.

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Don't we hate, hate computer problems and here I am pulling out my non-existent red hair. I thought my desk top computer had fried but after hauling the cpu to Fry's and troubleshooting with APC, I found out the battery back up had malfunctioned. Thanks APC.Com for sending me a replacement and I'm now up and running and thanks to a guru grandson who spent several hours out of a busy life attaching wires to batteries and finding where all the right plugs went. Here's my new travel laptop and then to try it out heading out to San Marcus on the Pickle Parkway after a stop at Heitmiller's Steak House in Elm Mott. A fun trip to Smitty's Market in Lockhart to eat Barbecue off a piece of paper. In the next post I'll include a slide show of some of the fun images from this favorite place for really good barbecue.


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I went with a friend to the Austin Medical Center, a visit with Stan and Joyce and enjoyed seeing beautiful orchids filling their house and greenhouse. We visited Texas State University to see the Lonesome Dove exhibit on the first floor of the Alkek Library while the 7th floor was under construction. It just makes me see red when I think about what a big, big mistake Larry McMurtry made when he killed off Gus in Lonesome Dove. I was so bummed when he died. Lonesome Dove's duo, Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Woodrow F. Call, our loved Texas Rangers turned cattle drivers, can be seen again at the Wittliff Collection and it will help preserve our cultural heritage of the Southwest and this unforgetable series. I thought it so interesting to see Deet's pants in the exhibit. They were made from an old quilt with leather patches on the inside legs and knees. Thanks to Mr. Wittliff to making this collection available. If you love Lonesome Dove please check out this collection. There was also a wrapped fake body, minus a leg that was Gus..not my favorite part because there should have been a Lonesome Dove 1, and 2 and 3. On to Lincoln and lunch at the Elm Creek Cafe, to College Station and a Rehearsal dinner at the Ozona Grill and Bar. Texas Monthly had a December issue about the 40 best small town Texas cafes and the Elm Creek Cafe was included. Later I'll include a slide show of some of the sites and from the museum collection.

Roosters ~ Sister Chicks ~ Iron Horse Inn ~ Granbury, TX

Rooster #1 (there's more on the way)
9" x 11" Watercolor on 140 lb. paper

Six "sister chicks" of Canvas by Canvas have been on a weekend painting retreat at the Iron Horse Inn in Granbury. At one of the last paint outs at the Lake House I took lots of good "fowl" pictures and decided this was the time to experiment. It was a cold, rainy time but Cindy, Karen, Maryann, Barbara, Connie and I did not care what the weather was about once we got unloaded and set up in Theresa's and Paul's Artistic retreat studio. Theresa is Irish and it was fun to hear the owners talk about their travels and Theresa is also a fellow blogger. We enjoyed wonderful breakfasts and met a young couple, Dr. Jason Moore and his wife, Amanda, who are doctors. See their photo in the slide show below and chickens, and more chickens. We ate at Babe's Chicken on Friday evening and there were chickens in the rafters and we were supposed to be celebrating the two members' (who didn't come) birthdays. But that has never bothered us with a birthday celebration so we had our very own proxy birthday girl, Maryann to do the chicken dance and blow out the candle. We had great food at Babe's and a whole bunch of fun. Betty and Margie sorry you missed your birthday celebrations.

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Not one of my better days with clear beverages and a tooth crown, and a "procedure", a trip to Strawn to eat at Mary's Cafe where she serves chicken fried steaks that hang off large white platters with lots of white gravy, the brick smoke stack at Thurber. I got a note from Fealing Lin saying that she's going to be having a workshop in Dallas soon. I painted with her in a Tuscany workshop with Ted Nuttall. You will enjoy looking at Fealing's and Ted's watercolors on their sites. I needed a new travel brush.

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A blog joke about early bloggers, a joke about big arms and email checking, (I relate to both of them), Myrna mentioned the Precise Pen in a post and I also like that pen for a pen sketch before adding some watercolor and it gives some diluted lines and interesting color. I have the "smaller laptop" bug, and Granbury packing taking some journaling supplies and next post I'll show some slides from the Tony Saladino critique.
Myrna also wrote a nice tribute to artist Al Zerries.

Mouse over for the slide show captions.

Small Acrylic Landscape ~ Art Journal Pages

Small Acrylic Landscape
8" x 8" Ampersand on Gessoboard with 2" deep cradle

The plain birch plywood strips can be used as is but I decided I wanted a light stain on this one. Next time I will make a note to myself to not be in so big a hurry to get to the painting and mask off the area to protect the sides. I got a few drips and splatters but sanded them off. I bought these from a friend and wanted to see if I'd like painting on them. I think they give a nice professional look to a painting.

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What to do when No. 1 son says, "I'm leaving for China Monday?" Play sick or feign a heart attack? All of those options ran through my mind. He was going alone but meeting someone to tour some factories. On Tuesday, that little TUJ inset was a "Thank you Jesus" when he called to say he arrived. Wednesday an eye check and the last one was 2004 and there is a pattern here of not good follow up on my part. I will have cataract surgery on both eyes later, much later. Much needed broom and mop work in prep for a house guest.

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My house guest, Andy, was in for a jewelry workshop. She's the owner of Kickapoo Creek Jewelry and she brought lemons with real leaves from her sister's home. Oh, happy day, we went to DFW to welcome home our Indiana Jones. Monday is time to get away from reality and enjoy TNT's "Saving Grace" about our Oklahoma neighbors. Remember I mentioned a pattern..well here we go again - a teeth cleaning and I got the question "I hope you've been seeing another dentist since your last visit was in 2006." "Well, no. You quit sending me those cards so I quit coming." I did break off a sizeable chunk of a jaw tooth last year but it didn't hurt and I didn't have dental insurance so..and in the p.m. some CBC members hung our show at La Cima.

A slide show about the welcome home at DFW and our CBC paintings hanging at La Cima. Some of the acrylic paintings have a glare as the lighting was not the best and I had to use a flash. Enjoy.

The Best Robe ~ Acrylic Figure ~ The Prodigal Son ~ PCPC Arts Festival

"The Best Robe"
16"x 20" Acrylic with collage on gallery wrapped Canvas

My second entry in the Park Cities Presbyterian Art Festival is based on the prodigal son theme, Luke 15:11-32.
A hungry and penniless young man longs to return to his father. The compassionate father has been waiting for his return and welcomes him back home. The son asks and receives forgiveness for wasting all his money. The father was so happy his beloved son has returned home he asks his servants to bring "The Best Robe" for him, a ring for his hand, and sandals for his feet in preparation for a great feast. Great rejoicing occurs when lost children of God return to Him, our Father, and ask forgiveness. My previous post showed the first entry, The Birds of the Air.
The festival will be April 25-May 3 at 4101 Oak Lawn Avenue, across the street from the church. The top works in each category will be honored with a ribbon. The "Best of Theme" and "Viewers' Choice" winners will each receive a cash award of $1,000. Some of the artists in the metroplex area might consider the show for next year as it is a well run, professional show presenting Biblical themes.