The past week, actually seven full days, was spent painting in a beautiful wooded area on a small lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. It was very special, living in a cabin with a wood burning fireplace, eating meals each day with 300 other artists, and enjoying the creative energies that flowed there at Kanuga. This was my tenth year at Kanuga, and next year we'll be celebrating the 25th anniversary of watercolor/watermedia workshops there.
Mike Bailey from California flew in for the week and did a watercolor demo for the whole group on Monday evening. Next year, he'll be one of the instructors at Kanuga.
This August, future participants will select their instructor for 2010, choosing from twelve unique artists. Nick Simmons will also be one of our instructors, teaching how he uses fluid acrylics. You can check out all the teachers here. Be sure to email them to send you the info and registration before August if you're interested in attending.
The classes fill up very fast.
Miles Batt added four days worth of art instruction to my brain, but it's not all soaked in yet. He's amazing. AMAZING. Should be a National Treasure. He's brilliant and way beyond most artists' thinking, including mine. It was tough to keep up with him, and I don't think many people will ever be able to figure out how he thinks. So creative!
The last two days of the workshop, we enjoyed being with a smaller sized group of artists painting on our own, with individual consultations from a couple of well respected professional artists, Carrie Burns Brown and Linda Baker. Their guidance will make a good difference in my future work.
Linda will also be one of the instructors next year. Next year's line up of teachers is really good.
Soon, I hope to post some of my work painted during the week. One of my paintings was a throw away, one very mundane, a couple are ok, but there's one that I am absolutely nuts about.
The little green cabin was where our classroom was. Hollies with brilliant red berries were growing wild everywhere, and the huge weeping cherry was in full bloom. We had a great facility and excellent lighting and work areas. 
For people who don't want to 'rough' it in the cabins (kind of like church camp,) there is a lodge with hotel-like rooms, too. Did I mention that the food was great? And no kitchen clean up. We were spoiled. Looking forward to next year already....
As promised, here's the next phase of this painting. There's quite a bit more to do to pull the composition together. I don't care for the browns too much and must adjust the shapes the darks make. I actually liked this painting better in yesterday's post but knew it wasn't that strong yet to be finished, so I'm pushing it around a lot.
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