Oh the joy of having like-minded friends, who at the drop of a hat, will arrange their schedules to sit around a table with you and play.

I include this photo of Sharron and Joyce because it's a perfect reflection of their friendship, but also so you can see what they really look like. In my renderings of them I have taken artistic license and chosen to stray from reality.




Making art with others, while you laugh, tell stories, and look up to see the ocean before your eyes, surely is what heaven is like. If you believe in that sort of thing.

There must always be blind and semi-blind contour drawings.


In her usual easy-going manner, my sister, the artist who nudges me by example, enticed me on this trip with her trees. So I had to try. The presence of a chief tantalizer is important in any art retreat. Someone to encourage you past the point of struggle to that one small success that pushes you onward.

Then I went back to other things. Cherries in bowls, birds, treasures from the sea, a study of eye glasses.




And then, for some reason, on Sunday, after reading the NY Times and seeing the amazing Wendy McNaughton's work, I somehow go the idea that I was not only completely capable, but likely could excel at capturing my whole body in a sketch.

It's all in the eye of the beholder, but seriously, that is exactly what my knees look like.