Workshop Weekend

I spent a long weekend in the Big Smoke, aka Auckland, for a workshop with Jeanette DeNicolis Meyer.  Jeanette hails from the United States but spends a fair amount of time in NZ.  She is a very talented woman, and I say that not just about her art, but about her teaching skills.  Not everyone can teach as successfully as she does, keep the workshop running smoothly, attending to everyone's needs and catering for all skill levels.  Yay for Jeanette! (In fact, this is the third workshop I've taken with her - because I know how great she is!) So if you ever get a chance to take a workshop with her, you should seriously consider it.

Our workshop was titled: Working Toward A Series: Design Basics and Beyond.

We worked with line, shape and texture.  Colour - with hue, value, intensity and temperature.  Design principles.  Symbols and evocative objects.  Composition and story telling.  And through it all, Jeanette wove examples of working in a series and how and why you might go about doing this.

I used my iPad mini throughout the class to take working photographs.  It made it really easy if I wanted to refer back to a previous composition and has a much bigger screen than my camera (no, I don't get a kickback....darn it!)

The group of participants was lovely - most from Auckland with one other from out of town - Hi Shirley!  A wide range of experience and backgrounds, which makes it that much more interesting.

So I had a great time.  Exhausting, lots of brain work and I collapsed in my motel room every night but so glad I went.  And Auckland put on the good weather for me too!

The drive down was lovely too.  I visited three quilt shops on my way, so keep your eyes open for a blog post about them.

Ciao for now.