Memories of my quiet retreat

Well, I've been back for a few days now. Seems last week's rest and relaxation was months ago! But, there is something magical about taking the time to sketch and paint. I'm feeling it mostly like a deep meditation, where I get lost in the hues, shapes, colors, etc. In the midst of that journey, thoughts are suspended and I feel deeply connected to the 'All'....

 Driving through the sweet town of Upper Lake I was mesmerized by the beautiful fall foliage.

 And, while reading Matthew Fox's book on Hildegard of Bingen, her thoughts on Veriditis... the 'greening' of God... Inspired this leafy mandala. Here, I got lost in the many, many layers of green within each leaf.

Here is a rough sketch of my World Mark Resort at Clearlake as viewed from the dock.

And finally, here is some of the bounty I found at an antique shop in Lakeport. So many beautiful, delicate, delicious laces to create with! Looking forward to getting started!

 In this picture, you can see close ups of just a few of the amazing Victorian collars and cuffs I found!

My kind of vacation....

Ah... after the over-the-top month of December, both for creating art and SELLING art in my shop, Boulder Creek Antiques and Art, hubby and I are here at Angels Camp, enjoying five days of just peace, quiet, and art work.

 I just started another of Joanne Sharps Journaling classes. "My Awesome Life, 2014". A year of journaling. This page is off topic, but my intention is to create art, not to sell, but as an act of prayerfulness. Thus I decided to do a layout of the Buddhist "Loving Kindness" meditation.

 I LOVED picking up the watercolor brush! It's been about two years since I played around with watercolors. Ah... the delicious feeling of a brush loaded with drippy, saturated, color!

I started out yesterday by sketching and painting the undercoating of a sunflower painting in acrylics. This is a painting I'm doing with the intention of selling.... but, I'm trying to get away from the push of producing 'sale-able' art. The Art Journal is dedicated to ME... just for me... for my own pleasure. (Not sure I'm all too comfortable with that concept.)

 This is just the under-painting.... much more to do. But I got kind of bored and switched over to my art journal. Is there a message there? hmmmm