Making a living doing what you love to do

If you live in the Corvallis area and want help with finding a way to be profitable doing what you are passionate about, there is a class called "Turning Passions into Profit Streams" that can get you started. The class, taught by Jan Weir at the Benton Center, provides lots of very useful information in an enjoyable and nourishing way. The class, which I attended this fall is available again for the winter quarter. Very worthwhile.
For more information visit Linn Benton's website or Jan Weir's site.

I have a master plan in the works for fulfilling my passion, but more on that later...

Carolee Clark and Donna Beverly

This afternoon I had a great time visiting with Carolee Clark and Donna Beverly in Philomath during their open studio. There were SO many wonderful paintings to see done by each of them and some done as collaborations. Two of the "Caradon" collaborative paintings especially caught my eye, but I'm not saying which ones...
You can see many of their wonderful paintings at http://www.caroleeclark.com/, http://www.donnabeverly.com/, and http://www.caradonart.com,
and take a look at Carolee's blog with her painting per day at http://caroleeclark.wordpress.com .

1st place photo

One of my photos got 1st place in our local VVCC camera club competion. It was taken at Ecola State Park on the north Oregon coast looking back toward Cannon Beach. Smoke from a forest fire had accentuated the colors.

Red Hills - painted collage

(Click the images to see larger versions)

A recent painted collage on wood panel with a detail photo (bottom) to show the detail and texture better. Handmade Japanese paper, washi, is combined with watercolor and acrylic to make this colorful, textural image.
Hmmm, I wonder which makes the better final image....

Nature Photographers of the Pacific Northwest

This past weekend I went to a meeting of the NPPNW at Evergreen College in Olympia, WA. The guest speaker was Weldon Lee, the well-known wildlife photographer, workshop leader and writer. The talks were interesting, entertaining and provided a lot of useful information. I was surprised to learn that Weldon never uses a tripod for his wildlife photography. He uses a Nikon 80-400mm VR lens that, along with good camera holding practice, is stable enough and allows him to move quickly when needed for action shots. At these times he also likes to "make a movie", holding down the shutter release as long as the action is going on or until the buffer is filled. The subtle differences between images can mean the difference between a good photograph and a great one. Weldon also likes to shoot with his camera in "Professional" mode (and he has a good sense of humor).

Thumbnail Sketches

One thing that I enjoy doing very frequently is making thumbnail sketches, small drawings about 1.5" x 1", in my sketchbooks (I especially like the Robert Bateman Recycled Acid Free Paper 5" x 7" sketchbooks). I usually line off one of the pages into 8 or so small rectangles. Using a pen, sometimes I sketch from some model or actual subject, but much more often I just draw fairly abstract compositions which come to mind. Sometimes these sketches become paintings or collages. Working this small allows me to try out a lot of compositions and ideas in a fairly short amount of time.

Artist entry opportunity

The Living River Exhibit at Jacob's Gallery in the Hult Center, Eugene, is a fund-raising exhibit for McKenzie River Trust. Entries, for 2D or 3D artwork ($30 fee for two pieces), must be submitted by January 30, 2010. This info comes from http://www.mckenzieriver.org/ and the prospectus is available at http://mckenzieriver.org/the-living-river-juried-art-exhibit.
The exhibit will be held April 2 - May 1, 2010.