Creative Soul retreat day two

Day 2 of our retreat. This is the view of part of the lovely veranda at Amberley. The weather was a little cooler and overcast that day. Good for Victorians in the middle of a drought and we didn't mind because we would be inside the whole day painting. I had spent much of the night before drinking good amounts of Chivas with a certain royal woman who I enjoyed meeting very much. I had slept for the first time in days and woke with anticipation. This was the day I was most anxious about. Learning to paint faces with DJ was something I had never thought I could do but I had read DJ's blog and seen the happy faces of her previous students so I had faith in DJ if not myself.
She proved to be a most generous, gifted and gorgeous woman. If you ever get a chance to take a class with DJ, grab it with both hands. I had a ball.

Here is DJ's class sample. What a lovely idea to collage the canvas onto heavy weight watercolour paper with fabric and stitching. It certainly combines my two loves. Fabric and paper.

To add to the pleasure of the day, I got to sit with Julian Buttenshaw who I regard as a most talented artist. We had a lovely day chatting and getting to know each other a little better during this class. I sat between Julian and Joan McAlpine, another talented lady. How lucky was I?
Check out the view through the window. It was a beautiful, inspiring place to work in with oodles of natural light.

Six hours later give or take lunch and tea breaks we all had canvases to show. Can you tell I was pretty pleased? I really must do some more of these before I forget what I was taught. DJ really enabled us to see the face just as shapes and not be too imtimidated by what we were attempting. Everyone produced great work and seemed to be having fun despite their misgivings about their abilities. Most of us were out of our comfort zones but happy to have a go.

So here is my final result. I'm really happy with my first attempt. DJ complimented me by saying sign it. I still haven't but I will.

That night was spent socialising again. It was wonderful to make new friends with people like Christine McQueen and Kristy Campion and to get to chat with my roomie Denise, the famous guerilla knitter. Much fun was had with Kristy's new polaroid type camera and lots of phots were taken with the tutors. I will post some of them in the next installment.