ArtFest

Have you heard of Artfest? It's like a summer camp for grown ups, all about art and friends, and hosted by Teesha and Tracy Moore. I've wanted to go since I heard about it two years ago, so last winter I signed up! If you haven't seen Teesha's blog, you are in for a treat. Super prolific artist, and all around fun creative person, with a fab studio.


The trip started with a journey to Seattle by train! I met up with some fun Artfest goers who kindly gave me a ride across the ferry to Bainbride Island and up to the Fort at the top.


I haven't taken a ferry anywhere in years. I was surprised how fast the ferry went! It was a smooth ride. Windy and gorgeously sunny.


Artfest is held at an old army fort. Great location, nestled in the woods and right on the beach. Gorgeous little towns on the Olympic Peninsula. We have room mates, yummy food 3x a day, and there's planned activities every night-- bon fires, wild art journal gatherings, and moonlit walks down to the beach.


Here is the mini castle at the fort.


There's me enjoying some much-needed sunshine and fresh air right on the beach. Early Spring in Washington, we'll take all we can get.


The first day, I took Lush Layered Canvas with Roxanne Padgett. We had a GREAT time painting. I've been dreaming about painting on fabric lately, making my own prints to use in my work. I set myself up for two full days of painting with her and had such a great time.

Here she is about to cut up our communally printed cloth. Everyone used this to (artistically) wipe off their excess paint all day. Look at the results! Roxanne cut it into strips and we each got to take one home.

She's wearing the cuff/coffee cozy I made out of my favorite linen scraps and a new silk screen print.



We had a whole table to ourselves and were careful not to get paint on the gorgeous floor of the USO hall. Neat space.


I had a wonderful time in Roxanne's class. She is a great teacher, lots of fun, and gave us plenty of her personal attention and ideas. I was grateful to get to pay a materials fee, rather than haul a zillion bottles of paint. She was very generous in sharing with us.

Here's one of my layered pieces. Print, stencil, paint, writing, paper collage, crayon rubbings, and what else? A little soul perhaps......


This one was my favorite of the four large panels I finished. I can't wait to cut them up and sew something!