“The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.”
- Vincent van Gogh
This past weekend I took classes from the famous Donna Downey. I have followed this gal for years on her blog and felt like I knew her personally. She was an absolute joy, Great teacher, down to earth, and totally fun to be around.
The classes were held at My Heart's Fancy a wonderful store in Oklahoma City. This was my first visit to the shop, it is packed full of great stamps, stencils and paint supplies. If you are in the area you should check it out. The first class I took was Paint like an Artist. This was a canvas painting strictly using stencils. Using stencils (lots and lots of them) and acrylic paints I learned how to use color to create depth and texture. Then the class learned how to isolate pieces of your background design to build your design in the foreground. Here is my painting below with the stencil of the lotus flower in the middle.
Next class was using pan pastels. we learned about the tools, as well as how to sketch, draw and transform simple designs into dynamic and colorful pieces of art. This was my first time to try using pan pastels. They were a little intimidating, but I am going to continue playing with them.
My favorite class was the last one...the class was entitled, "she is strength" poppy collage. It consisted of creating a beautiful, textural piece of artwork celebrating strength and beauty.It was a great weekend with my traveling buddy, my art sister, Sheryl. So glad we went, it was a great escape for the weekend.

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