The Delicious "Taste Of Ashland"

This is an annual Ashland event . . . the Taste Of Ashland, a city wide sampling from restaurants, bakeries and caterers as well as various wineries (and even an organic Vodka!). This year their kick off event, the "Gala" which incorporates the "Quick Draw"(where artists create, ready for hanging, a piece of artwork in just one hour and auctioned off for fundraising) took place at our new "Ashland Art Center".

Since this is where I have my second floor studio I was present for the wild, gregarious and thrilling evening. There were drink and food samplings everywhere, two bands and 17 artists who participated in the "Quick Draw". I chose to watch, paint casually and take photos while encouraging my peer artists. It's one of the decisions I did make to lessen stress in my life (now, believe me that lil inner critic squawked about my not participating, but I'm acknowledging those comments and moving into happier, healthier commentary) and I got some hilarious images.

You can see how packed the space, even with three floors, was with celebratory guests and artists. Guest began piling in at 7pm and flooded every open area. Artists had been decorating the entire day in prep and psyching up for the "Quick Draw". At 7:30 the "Quick Draw" began and here are a couple of our artists at the onset of the event.

People milled around nibbling and enjoying watching the artists sweat it out. The public was requested to refrain from talking with the artists but, you can guess how well adults sipping wine, vodka and festivities followed requests!

Most artists finished on time and with all the flurry of energy and spontaneity ~ we had only one disappointment in the art creations. Susan's sculpture ended up being a bit to moist and just collapsed onto the floor. Our artist maintained an optimistic attitude and smiles, as you can see. My nearest neighbor, Sylvia Trujillo, completed her rolling hills oil piece and it sold immediately for the full asking price!

What a night to remember ~ ~ and, perhaps I'll take part in the "Quick Draw" next year. We'll see . . .

Journal Catchup

There have been many fun distractions here in life - one was a visit from a longtime friend of my husband's with whom he used to go to elementary school! So several days focused on play and touring.

The first evening of their visit we spent in Ashland experiencing their "Quick Draw". Local artists have volunteered to sketch, paint, mat and frame up an original painting in their favorite media to be auctioned off to raise money for local a art association - all in about an hour. Our guests seemed to savor the process and wondered why any artist in their sane mind would volunteer for that. But, now that I've seen the process, I just may be one of the insane volunteers next year!

The next day we traveled to Crater Lake, a must on all tourists lists. Amazingly, there was still up to 15 feet of snow surrounding the lake. We had to hike up a snowbank to peer over into the lovely blue water. Now Gaye and I got adventurous, and another spectator joined us, in hiking across the snowbank to see an infamous tree I wanted to share. My journal entry here shows that twosome smiling and sinking into the snow at various points. They were both great sports. The outing ended with sandwiches in the new cafe recently completed at Crater Lake. It was definately a story for their travelblog.

Now, I'm doing more sketches and paintings that are recent happenings in my life and will add the text to those here in the next few days. I relish this catchup time when I flip back through the pages and wonder at how full and good life is. More soon!