Smooth First Week

School started Wednesday and it ended up being a very good start to the school year. I hope that my classes continue to go so smoothly! My students were very attentive and respectful and seemed very interested. I know the first few weeks of school the students are on their best behavior, but they just seem better than usual. So I am hopeful that that will continue.

I was not able to work on my Cafe drawing as much as I had hoped this week, but I am posting this update. I hope to get more of it done this week. Maybe even close to finish, but that is probably more wishful thinking. I woke up with a headache Friday morning that became worse during the day, and by Friday night I had to go to bed early because I felt so bad. I felt better Saturday and Sunday and worked quite a bit on it. I need to go back and fix some areas, do some touch ups, and just refine some details, then hopefully be finished!
Have a good day!
~Beth

Almost time for School!

School starts back next Wednesday, but teachers started back this past week with in-service workshops. Most of the workshops that we have are pretty long and boring. After 26 years of attending workshops for teachers, I have to say that they get very monotonous. But today was a little different. The district actually planned for the district art teachers to get together and discuss art lessons and issues that we deal with. Being the only art teacher at my school, it is nice to get with other art teachers! We had a lot to talk about. It is very motivating to get with the other art teachers and I'm beginning to be ready for the new year. I just don't understand how the time during the summer just flies by!

So after sitting in meetings for the past 4 days, I am exhausted from meeting. So I didn't feel up to working on my Paris Cafe drawing today, but I did work on it some during the week. So I will show an update and hopefully by the end of this weekend I will have more progress to show.

♥Beth S. Macre © 2009♥

No title yet, but I'm thinking about it!

I will be working on this today, because next week I probably will not have the time or the energy to work on it. I am having fun with this and wish I could just work on it all the time! I will definitely be using the UArt paper more.

Have a great weekend!

~Beth

2009 CPSA Exhibition in Duluth, Georgia

Gee, its taken me all week to think about what I was going to talk about in this post about the CPSA convention! I usually have a photo to go along with everything, but there are a few things that I just didn't have the appropriate photo to go along with the story!

I came back from the Colored Pencil Society of America Convention on Sunday and I've been trying to catch up and recover all week! It was a wonderful week spent with other colored pencil artists from all over the country and even Canada (Teresa)! I enjoyed getting to see artists that I have met at previous conventions, online artist friends, and making new friends as well. I left on a Monday to pick up my traveling buddy, Toni James, at the airport in Memphis. From there we drove, well I drove, Toni read the maps, to Georgia. It seemed to be a very quick trip, but I'm sure that had more to do with the fact that Toni and I talked the entire way, across 3 states! We had lots to talk about, so the time flew by! We were given the nicknames of Thelma and Louise for the adventure that we were taking, however, we behaved, unlike the movie version of Thelma and Louise!

We were able to get to our destination with the help of preprinted maps to Duluth and some additional help from Charlene, the good lady on Toni's cell phone! She gave us turn by turn instructions to the hotel! (I must get one of those phones that can give me directions!)

Tuesday and Wednesday we had the privilege of going to the Presidents forum as representatives of our CPSA Chapters, where we learned about what other chapters are doing as a group. We also took a trip over to the gallery to view the exhibit. If you haven't seen a colored pencil exhibit in person, you should try to do so. This show is an international show, with the most amazing work in Colored Pencil. The CPSA website has the winners pieces posted here: 2009 17th Annual International Exhibition • Atlanta, GA•

I also attended two colored pencil workshops while I was there. I like to attend workshops to get ideas for myself, but also for my high school art students. Both of these workshops were full of ideas that I can take back to the classroom. The first one was taught by Betsy Holster, who gave us many ideas on how to be more creative with our work. She had a table full of supplies that we could use to experiment with. It was a lot of fun to play with the supplies and techniques. Then I went to the workshop given by Pat Averill about rendering water with various techniques.

In between the meetings that I attended were the other activities such as the members meeting where we viewed a dvd of all of the entries for the show and they gave away many art supplies as door prizes. There was also a silent auction of small cp works that are donated by artists who have been in the shows in previous years. The banquet on Friday was also a highlight of the week. After the banquet meal, the awards winners from the show were announced. Those are listed in the link I gave previously.

Saturday morning was the only free time that I had all week, so we had a late breakfast at IHOP and went to Joann's Fabric and Craft store. I didn't buy anything, but I did get some ideas for some drawings! Saturday afternoon we attended the Artists reception at the Hudgens Art Center where the show is on display. It is a must see if you are in the area!

Finally, Saturday, after the reception, some of the artists from ScribbleTalk got together at Luciano's Restaurant. We had 2 tables of ST members and guests. The food was wonderful, but the visit with online friends was even better! Its great to get to know people that I've talked with online for years!

Sunday we left Duluth, for our drive back to Arkansas. This time we took a different route, taking us through Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, and into Arkansas. The weather was great going and coming, but while we were in Duluth it rained off and on all week, but it did keep the temperatures cool and comfortable.

This week I've been catching up on sleep, rest, putting up art supplies and all of those things that don't get done while away from home. But I have been working on my Paris Cafe piece as well, so I hope to have an update on that soon.

~Beth