running a wash, with caligraphy, Sheila Gaquin

As the leaves start changing to gold, the nights grow cooler and days shorter, you may find yourself thinking of taking a new class.  Is it the rhythm of so many years when we returned to school at his time?  At the community college in Oregon where I taught for 16 years, our non-credit enrollments were always highest in the autumn. Time to get back to school.  Sign up for a new course, join a choir or a book group.

If you have thinking about watercolor but can't find a class in your area or your time frame, you might consider an on-line course

Centering Prayer, Michele Needham

An important body of work by  Michele Needham is at the Orcas Island Senior Center for the month of September.  Although we have missed the gala reception, stop by the Senior Center, off of North Beach Road, during the month-- weekdays from 9 -4.

"Heh, heh. Let's just try a little green on the painting now" -by Steve Hamann

I was asked recently what I did when I am in a "stuck place," when nothing seems to be working. My immediate response was, "You are trying too hard."  You are trying too hard to MAKE art instead of enjoying painting.

Take a step back.  Take a step down.  Relax.  You don't always have to excel. Have you lost sight of your child?

You see them coming up over the hill, big white cumulous clouds rolling and building, beckoning for you to enjoy a lazy summer's afternoon. Isn't this one of the aspects of summer that we love?  For out mid-summer technique let's try them.

Clouds are so easy.  They are already there!  The white of your paper is your clouds. You just have to convince us by what you do around it.

Most of those who use the technique corner are from the Pacific Northwest and while some of this month's challenge will be specifically to you, there is no reason why those of you in other areas can't adapt these ideas to a show near you.

Yesterday the NWWS 70thAnnual Open Exhibition, 2010 catalogue arrived in the mail. This is an extremely strong show.

Paisley Madronas, my entry which was not included.

The spring publication - on line - of Shark Reef is featuring some of my paintings, see     http://sharkreef.org/   They are all  shown elsewhere in tis website but it gives me an opportunity to suggest you see the representative writing talent that exists in the Islands.

There are fewer than 10 commandments in watercolor. One of the most important is the answer to the question, "How much water?"

You need to always be asking yourself, "How wet is my paper? And with that amount of wet, how much water and how much pigment should I be using?"

Haven't you stood on a river bank and wondered how you would paint rocks under water?  It can be extremely complicated but is, in effect, exactly the opposite of The White Veil Effect and what you might want to try next. It is a question of planning and process.

Marcia Spees  

This month a 90-year-old Orcas treasure, Emily Reid, is showing her collection of teapots at the Orcas Senior Center. To compliment this collection, the well-known artist Marcia Spees was asked to hang prints of her Grace Series at the exhibit.

Have you wondered how to get the effect of people walking on a foggy beach -- some near and some farther away? Or how to show the illusion of gauze curtains?

This illusion is called the White Veil Effect. How to paint these may be the opposite of what you would think.