Art Journey Retreat 2008 - Day 1 and 2

Finally home and straight back in to work. So much to process, think about, change and do. And start planning for 2009!!??
Naturally, when you are running an event like this, you learn more with each one, and this being only our second large retreat, we learnt SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much. There are so many things we will do differently next time, and many things will stay the same. Itis a huge learning curve for us and I do admit, there were moments when I seriously considered this being our last retreat.
But we received lots of lovely comments, praise and constructive criticism, that we will do it all over again next year.

Day One was a wildlt chaotic affair, with getting confused on the Melbourne train system (never did figure that out!!), setting up stock, doing registrations and having two classes. The classes run by Ro and Jacky went very well and all the girls who joined in had a wonderful time, were full of enthusiasm and creative energy.
Check out Ros blog for photos from her class.
At the end of the day we had to move all the stock in to one of the work rooms so it would be secure for the remainder of the weekend. We were so incredibly lucky to have the huge help of Corinne Davis, Mandy Woodham and Di Thomas. These three girls were our life savers, our sanity and our saving grace. Thankyou so much to all of you from the bottom of my heart.

This is the beautiful Corinne in the class room modelling Mandys apron.

And here they are with Jacky, these girls kept us smiling through the difficult times and laughing hilariously through the night.

Day 2

This day I did Misty Mawns class and all I can say is WOW!!!! I had so much fun, I did not want to pack up at the end. I really could have kept playing all night long. Mistys techniques are fantastic and though I had trouble with the faces, I plan on practising lots and lots. It would be very easy to do a week long project with Mistys as you could easily spend a day just playing with backgrounds with out doing any of the other things.
Here is Mandy hard at work.

And here is the entire class, hard at work. Lots of paint flying around in this class!


The beautiful Ro and Misty discussing techniques.

And the work of the very talented Debbie Baker. How gorgeous is this???

My work buddy, Mandy and Misty. Misty was a truly wonderful teacher with a gentle manner. She encourages you every step of the way and is so very talented at what she does.

This is a piece that Misty made during class. Love it!!!

And another piece created during class.


I had such a great time in this class and came away so inspired. I learnt more techniques in this one day than in a year of reading magazines. Nothing quite compares to learning from the creator. I found Misty to be a lovely teacher, very hands on, going through techniques step by step, and then going over them again. There was alot of ooohs and aaahs at the demo table and cameras going off like a press conference! All the students seem to be very impressed and some awesome work was produced that day. I am very happy with what I got done, but really need time to play in the comfort of my own studio with all my pwn products within easy reach. Hopefully get to play today and tomorrow!
Will try and post again this afternoon.