First Week's Culmination

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Fridays, the last day of a workshop, are always busy. Everyone is working with determination to finish what they’re working on, while, at the same time, I felt weary with the intensity of the week.

Salminen gave his final lesson on landscape painting and making a surface reflection. In one lesson, he demonstrated perspective, shadows, reflections and wet pavement. It was a skill packed lesson that would have been tried by much of the class if he had offered it earlier in the week. The artist at the next table tried it with good results.

My conference with my instructor was helpful in determining some small adjustments that made the painting a much more effective statement.

The painting was hung with those of my class and the other five classes. Got all gussied up for our big “opening” and cocktail party. Followed by the white tablecloth dinner, we ended the evening with DJ Larry and dancing.

Saturday morning was filled with good byes to friends who were departing. I was anxious to get off the Springmaid property after a week here and started asking around who had a car. Asked a new acquaintance, Kathleen Conover about her plans. She told me that she & Dennis were going to Charleston and invited me to join them. I was thrilled!

As the sun broke through the day’s rainy start, we got to know each other on the two hour drive. Kathleen and Dennis spend the winter in Pine Island, Florida where Dennis has several boats that he loves to take out in the Gulf of Mexico. Kathleen is an artist (see her website at www.michstudio.com) who paints wherever she is, in Florida or in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by Lake Superior, homebase for the pair.

On arrival in Charleston, we set out by trolley to see the historic district. We marveled at the beautiful architecture that is distinctive in this southern city. After visiting the Slave Mart Museum, we agreed that just being in that place left you feeling the evil of the acts committed there. Galleries are a big part of the city’s vibrancy and we visited several. To add to the authenticity of the experience, we had dinner at Gullah Cuisine, sampling dishes indigenous to the African American community.
(Photos-top to bottom: my painting that I exhibited at our gala show, classmates Joseph & Sue with their abstractions, Charleston.)