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Thursday, April 07, 2016

The Start of an Epic Adventure

Our Beginning...The Start of an Epic Adventure

  How Did This Happen? 

'Quiet on the Marsh'      12x24
pastel     ©Karen Margulis
Today Marsha Savage and I hit the road for our road trip to the Plein Air Convention. We will be blogging about the trip on our blog www.twowanderingartists.com and invite you to follow us. We will be gone for about 3 weeks and I plan is to post to both blogs as often as I can. Here is the first installment of our trip blog:

During the Spring of 2015, Eric Rhoads sent a newsletter telling potential participants for the 5th Annual Plein Air Convention about a monthly plan to pay for the registration. I thought, why not! A great way to pay, and not such a hard knock on the pocketbook... and I love the West, so Tucson was calling me.

I sent emails to a few of my closest friends to see if they might be interested in going and sharing the trip. My friend, Karen Margulis, answered me with a resounding:

"Hi Marsha,
I am intrigued! I have been wanting to see Tucson and the Plein air convention was fun. I do like your idea of driving and spending some more time. I have a friend in Lafayette LA who paints and has an outdoor store .... We could also do the Texas Hill Country…April is perfect and you would love it! The scrubby oak trees and wildflowers are just amazing.

A bit of a crazy thought…..if we wanted to have our trip paid for we could schedule a couple of workshops along the way. I know I could get people and if we bill it as a joint workshop we would really get some interest! "

Karen talking to a
student about the river


I replied with what a fantastic idea and I was definitely interested and let's talk about it.

Her reply: "Yay! I think it sounds like the start of a plan.  I guess we should sign up for the convention so we can get the special price and then take it from there.  ...  and then we can discuss particulars. ...I imagine I could plan a workshop for the Hill Country. I had many say they would like to do it again and several who couldn’t come that want to if I have another workshop. I believe that our teaching styles definitely compliment one another and we stress the same things so we are definitely complimentary."

So, Karen and I are attending the PA Convention in 2016 and we are "team-teaching" plein air workshops in a couple of places on our drive out and/or back home. We have a 3-day plein air workshop on the drive out in Dripping Springs, Texas (the weekend before the convention). We hope to be in time for the Bluebonnets!

Students getting ready to paint!
We held a workshop this fall in Blue Ridge GA at my cabin to get started and hone our “team” skills. The class filled to capacity with 18-20 students in just over one week of posting it to our blog and on Facebook. We have created quite a stir with our "team-teaching" plan and are being asked about potential workshops in other parts of the Country.

Taking a Pledge. We'll talk about that!
"River Flow" 8"x10"
Pastel Plein Air     ©Marsha Hamby Savage

3 comments:

Sue Betanzos Designs said...

Hi Karen,

I live in Tucson and follow your blog. I Love your idea of team teaching and the trip with your friend. How I wish I knew someone to do the same thing with.

While you are here, if you have time to get together it would be great to meet. Maybe over a snack?
I live in northeast Tucson by Sabino Canyon. You can contact me via Facebook at SueBetanzosDesigns, or my website: SueBetanzos.

Along with the big plein air convention there is also a scratchboard art exhibit opening at the Sonoran Desert Museum as well as a really cool workshop with Linda Feltner in Tubac - all happening this weekend!
Enjoy lovely Tucson !

robertsloan2art said...

This is so great! Thanks for all the background and joint blog. Love both paintings. Karen, that profusion of flowers in the foreground is riotous and lovely, still leads right in toward the peaceful distance. Great sense of space.

Marsha, wow, that water looks as if I've got my feet wet just looking at it. Beautiful motion and intensity.

I love plein air and since I can't be there for your workshops, looking forward to tips and tidbits in your blog. Thanks for sharing this!

Charlotte Berwind said...

Catching up on posts and see my best side featured as one of the students. Best thing I ever did was attend your workshop! Lucky students who have met you along your epic journey!