Tom Fong ( 4/4-5/2013  SCVWS ) Very productive 2 days.  Tom did 2 paintings per day and students did as well.  Tom paints with a very "loose" and intuitive style - big brush, big paper lots of paint. Interesting technique of dropping paint into already wet paper/image; Nice for flowers.

Thomas Schaller ( July 8-13/2013 Art in the Mountains).  Excellent week in Bend OR doing plein air painting along side the Deschutes River.  Tom has been a professional architect for most of his career , producing amazing paintings full of detail and extremely realistic in design and perspective.  Of recent he has moved into the more fluid and intuitive approach similar to Castagnet and Zbukvic.  He puts a lot of focus on making the painting reveal the light.  He has a wonderful teaching rapport.  Most enjoyable experience.  I would also put a plug in the Art in the Mountains organization -  they did a excellent job in putting this workshop on.  Bought one of Tom's paintings.

2012 , April - SHOWS  Donated an ocean painting called "Wild Surf" for a fund raiser by the Triton Museum and it sold.

2012 , May - July  - CLASSES  I joined the Pacific Art League , based in Palo Alto CA.  Studied with Robin Scholl who incorporated pastels into her watercolors,  and Ray Mendietta on figure painting.  3 paintings :  Sierra Water,Seaside Cypress and Canyon Sunset were hung in Ray's student show during August.  

2012 , September , WORKSHOPS I attended a 3 day workshop by Dale Laitinen at Lake Tahoe CA.  First experience with plain air painting - add many new dimensions to the process of painting.  Much harder.  But Dale was impressive and very effective in teaching.

2012 , September , SHOWS Submitted to the "Scapes" and "watercorks" shows of the Society of Western Artists and hosted by PAL.  Did not get in the shows but did join the  Society of Western Artists.

2012 , October SHOWS The annual member show of the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society ( SCVWS) opened.  I entered "Rough Seas" with a for sale tag on it but no takers.

2012 , November SHOWS LGAA held their fall juried show and my painting "Echo Lake" was accepted.  During the check in process , I learned that I had overlooked a weight limit requirement ( 5 lbs) and my nicely frammed & matted with Plexiglass painting exceeded that limit and was turned away.  A lesson was learned about careful reading of prospectus.

2012 , November ,  WORKSHOPS I attended a week long workshop conducted by Tony Couch and held in Laguna Beach CA.  The best part was Tony's morning demonstration paintings and lectures.  He talked and painted in a seamless fashion and one heard what his though process was at almost each brushstroke.  He focused on principles of design, in particular "VALUE".  I think it finally sunk in my day 5.

2013 , Feb SHOWS  Painting "Echo Lake" was accepted into the SWA ( Society of Western Artists ) Feb-Mar show and displayed in the Redwood City SWA Gallery.  It sold on the last day of the show for $300.  This is the first sale at that price level.

2013 , Aug SHOWS  - Submitted "Far Away Rain" and  "From a Distance" to SWA 63rd Annual show.  Did not get into but competition was very high for this one.