The watercolor workshop is over and I am home. I thoroughly enjoyed the teacher, the other ladies, and the lessons from the workshop. This was actually the first ever workshop at the Russell Farm Art Center. Charlie Boren, the wood sculptor and owner of the farm is an older man who has wanted to share his farm with other artists – it was a perfect setting for art with great facilities. About 20 ladies attended the watercolor class, which is a lot for a workshop, but you know how I love people. It is amazing that people can be so diverse and yet have art as a common factor. I do have to say that if I was not the youngest lady in the room, I was one of them. One of the first ladies that I met was an older, beautiful lady from Pensacola, FL, with a son who lived in the Ft. Worth area. She reminded me of a Southern gentle lady – made of porcelain.

Then there was the rowdy group of ladies (my favorites) who run together from Arlington, TX. They paint together and call their group CBC doing some very interesting work as a group. Included in the group was a lady originally from Toronto, and one from New York. One of the ladies also had an art blog. She told us about her son who was part of a band called "Gringo Revolution." She said that the band had put out word for their young lady fans to come to their concert wearing "Daisy Duke" shorts and cowboy boots. This artist/mother said, "Wouldn’t it be funny if we (the CBC ladies) dressed in our Daisy Duke shorts and showed up at his concert?!" I like the way they think!

There was another group of ladies who drove down together from Kansas. I knew they were a good group when one of the ladies was mumbling to her self about the "damn rose" we were painting. I teased her about it going from just "a rose" to a "damn rose."

Then there were the two beautiful sisters – one from the Ft. Worth area and the other from CO. Physically, they looked like Bonnie Hunt, but the one from CO reminded me of a typical older hippie with the straight hair, no make-up, jeans, etc. They both drove convertible Mini Coopers and stuck pretty close together.

There was another lady from Calgary, Alberta, who was visiting her old high school friend. The friend lived in Weatherford, TX, and raised cutting horses, and also attended the workshop. Both were friendly. The one who still lived in Calgary told me to look her up and come paint with her if I ever got back to Canada. She said she lived near Leighton – out on the prairie with a great view of the Rockies. I would love to take her up on that offer.

The ladies at my table were all from the Ft. Worth area. Lucy and I went to supper one night so that I did not have to spend the evening alone – what a very nice thing to do! She had been a second-grade teacher for 24 years. At one point she started talking about Texas Teacher Retirement funds and Social Security. I had to work hard at following her conversation, but I was worried that she would start talking insurance or tax laws and my eyes would roll back in my head and I would fall over. June, who sat next to me, was a 77-year-old lady. She was very nice, but did not really like to talk while she painted and was maybe a bit anal, which reminded me of some of the people in the Duncan Art Guild. I guess every group has a few of those types. Linda was very friendly, very willing to help out, had lots of interesting info, but was a bit of a loner. I should mention the ladies who were putting on the workshop and very helpful – Margot from Yorkshire England, originally, and Sharon – a real cowgirl and western artist.

In all, the ladies were all fun. By the third day of the workshop, we were all good friends exchanging email addresses and such. I hated to leave, but I took off a bit early to get through the Ft. Worth traffic before rush hour.

These are my attempts at painting as loose as the teacher, Janet Rogers: We started with flowers. Then we moved on to portraits. I did several studies trying to get the skin values right. We also did a quick gesture drawing and painting - I liked this exercise.