Cricketts Inky Art Blot

We arrived mid-morning for our few days in Venice. It was exciting to sail in on our little boat and then switch to a Vaporetti to find our hotel. Luckily, our apartment was located close to the Vaporetti stop, so the cases did not have to be rolled too far. The apartment was at the top of the building and had a quirky little roof top terrace, which required climbing through a window to access. The location was incredible and we were just steps from San Marco Square! Sketchbook in hand, I spent 5 days exploring and painting. The city was full of wonders (and sighs), to inspire me.

One of the downsides to blogging while traveling, is that wifi sucks and my phone can only post about 2 or 3 images at a time! I will use this reminder to keep my posts short. The kids and I had a picnic watching the barges. Lady Macbeth kept Caity under control, while I did some sketching in the gardens.

What better place to visit in Shakespeare's 500th year, than Stratford-Upon-Avon? A few days into our Summer, I took my girls into Stratford. Last summer, they enjoyed seeing "As You Like It" it at The Swan. We took a look at the list of plays, but they were The Bard's less fun, more adult plays. We did check out the latest costume display while in the building though and made plans to see "The Comedy of Errors" in a couple of weeks time at The Globe, London. We also stopped to chat to a lovely English Bobby and the kids discussed differences that they see with police officers back home in the States. I was impressed by the discussion they had with him over US gun control. THEY were impressed by the lack of guns carried by the officer! Outside The Swan playhouse, we fed the local namesakes and watched the barges coming through the locks. It struck me that mooring up for a Champagne performance in The Swan, would make for a very pleasant day. I added it to my

We made crazy vehicles in Michael DeMeng's workshop. Here are a selection of some of the works in progress: Here we had a critique with Michael discussing everyone's progress. I loved this steampunked up critter! This is the cool studio by the harbor that we worked in for four days, pretty cool view! Later in the day we had a project with Tracy and Teesha Moore with a bunch of artists from different workshops.

Last week my hubby and I went to Petaluma on an art retreat. It was more of an art treat! This is me looking smug because we had arrived at the hotel! Yes, I brought costumes ;-) We love the art of Michael DeMeng, so signed up for four days of working with him. Here are examples of his work (photos from his blog). He is represented at Blumfields Gallery in Boise. We actually bought the "Babbage Yabba Birdhouse" and spent some time under Michael's direction making our own versions. This is mine (awaiting a beak). Below is my husband holding his creation.

I have entered an art contest for Wine Hill Hotel, called "Wine is Art". The winning art piece will be used for the wine bar and it's publicity materials. The artist also gets to exhibit in the hotel for a year, which makes it an attractive proposition, so I figured that I might give it a try. I headed up to St Mary's Art Center to use their beautiful press. Prior to arrival, I had scratched a drypoint etching into a plate and prepared it for press work.  I also had a clear plate the same size to add a monotype. The next stage was to add, then run some leaves on blank paper through the press on the inky plate. The clear plate was then discarded and then the inked and now flat leaves were laid onto the drypoint plate. The drypoint was inked up using a heavy amount of brown, the leaves were almost completely black. This was done to add some visual weight to the activated edge of the print and to emphasize importance of the wine i