Boating in the moonlight

Sunday night we celebrated my son Ian's birthday by taking him and his fiancee, Ruby, on a "Moonlight Paddle" on River Lake, a tributary of the Columbia. Despite all my stepfamily and my partner being avid kayakers, I had not even stepped into one before! It's never too late, and I had a wonderful time. Can't wait to go again. The event was put on by Ridgefield Kayak who did a wonderful job.

I don't have any photos yet, but the "Wabi-Sabi" piece below is an impression of how I felt as we paddled in the light from the full moon with small lights clamped onto the back of each boat. We paddled up to a beach where we picnicked and roasted marshmallows. The area where we were was once home to about 900 Native Americans. It must have been so incredible then...

Moonlight Flit

I made above piece by pouring on self-leveling gel medium, troweling in extra heavy medium and letting the piece dry. Then I added re-inkers and acrylic paint. The colors wouldn't come out right in the photo, but it gives you an idea.


I've been making Wabi-Sabi samples like mad for my upcoming teaching at Art Unraveled. Below is one of my favorites.

Big Love

(Re-inkers, acrylic paint, acrylic medium)

Another Chance for Altered Book Workshop

Anyone want to make an altered book on July 30 or August 1? An art lover from Texas will be here in Portland on those days and would like to attend "Altered Alchemy" with other students. Please let me know here if you'd be interested!

New Encaustic Work

Lessons of History 20" x 16" Encaustic/Mixed Media




detail of above

Shipwreck
20" x 16"
Encaustic/Mixed Media

Demeter Wept
Encaustic/Vintage Book/Mixed Media

The Medium (New Version)

12 " square
Encaustic on Panel

Return to Blogland with a Few Pictures

Catching up before I leave for Art Unraveled in two weeks. Hope you're all having a wonderful summer!

Carol and Rob with Cannon

Once again my family trooped out to my stepdad's woodlot for the annual 4th of July picnic and shooting of the cannon. You can see the tiny cannon at the bottom left of the picture above. It came from a 19th century riverboat and was used to signal that the boat was coming around the bend. Though small, the cannon is Loud!

We all have to plug our ears

My grandson and I had a great time recently at the OMSI members' night. We viewed the Einstein exhibit and Dexter got a chance to see himself as a TV weatherman.

Dexter as OMSI Weatherman

Dex in Space

This past Sunday Marie Schumacher, a wonderful singer/songwriter/music director, held her birthday party at my studio. She and six other women experienced my workshop, "Journal to the Center", an introduction to visual journaling.

They started with preparing painted backgrounds and then received a prompt for their first page.

Birthday Girl in foreground

Some of the women said they tend to be more left brained but once they got going their creativity blossomed. One attendee said her mind was filled with the exactness of measurements for her current kitchen remodel. She took off once she found out what a little bling can do!

Before bling

After bling!

A delicious unifying yellow

Subtle purple and lively green make a great combo

A soft glaze brings this bright collage together

Bits of red make this page pop

Marie's lovely "older and wiser" pages

This page creates depth with lights and darks, writing and images

An unusual and compelling use of space brings movement to this page