Cagan Crossings will be hosting their annual Winter Celebration on Wednesday, December 14th, and there will be lots of entertainment, vendors, etc.  We will be having an Open House at the Artist's Boutique, and you are all invited to attend.  Stop in between 4 and 7 pm and have some refreshments, meet our teachers and artists, and sign up for the door prize. 

And remember the Artist's Boutique at Cagan Crossings when you are looking for a special gift. All our gifts are hand-crafted by local artists.  Most are one-of-a-kind.  We also carry gift certificates for classes.    We've got lots of new Christmas items for sale, including my new series of Florida Birds Ornaments.  Stop in and do some shopping at our Boutique.

Here's an early Christmas gift for you.    I just signed up for a free online workshop put on by WetCanvas.com.  If you can spend the next 3 Saturday's from 1 - 3:30 at your computer, you will probably learn a lot from this artist.  It can't hurt to learn about how to paint water! 

Remember, it is free, but you must sign up in advance.   Here's the information and the link to register.

Essentials of Painting Water with Johannes Vloothuis

Dates | Saturday, December 3, 2011- Saturday, December 17, 2011.
Time | 1:00PM-3:30PM EST
Cost | FREE!

click on this link:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/461425225

Join Johannes Vloothuis, our resident artist, in another exciting and popular live online session. Many artists want to know how to paint water convincingly. This 3 week course will give you the answers and make it look like the water in your paintings moves. Johannes will delve into this extensive and seemingly complicated topic and make it easy for you to be able to paint water in all its forms, such as, water reflections in still and moving water, lakes, rivers and streams, even rocks or logs under water, to the point that it feels like you can dip your foot in it or take a swim. (Seascapes and waterfalls to be given in a future course). Learn more about Johannes Vloothuis and view his work here.

November update

Well, the marathon portrait workshop and certification are over until next year.  We had lots of fun and painted lots of portraits in the Cagan studio.  I did something a little different.  Instead of painting with normal colors, I painted a portrait of my brother and sister in law in sepia & earthtones.  They play and teach blue grass music and have a music store in Spring Hill, FL, and I painted the picture they have on their website as a portrait for the store.  I'll be giving it to them on Thanksgiving day.  Hope they like it.

Also, as a reminder to my students to the importance of practicing your painting so you can get better - Recently, my sister gave me back a portrait of my mother that I had painted when I first started oil painting lessons in 1981.  I wanted to paint that portrait, and I was so proud of it, and my mother put it up on her wall for everyone to see.  During my mom's assisted living & nursing home days, it got lost & I forgot about it.  When I viewed it again, I was amazed at how BAD I was back then!  Instead of throwing it away, I am sharing it with my students.   I repainted the same portrait.  Look at what years of practicing and learning the proper methods of finding shadows and highlights can do for your paintings.  So, persevere, my students.  You, too, will get much better with time.

Reminder:  This Saturday is the Giraffe in the oil painting class.  I have heard back from Barbara and Jack that they will be in class.  If you want to take the class, make sure you email me at alckathyc@juno.com  to let me know.  I need to bring a primed canvas with the pattern on it for you.  Thanks. 

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. 

Last year, I sent out a number of $10 restaurant.com e-gift cards through their Feed it Forward program.  It's FREE and you can send food to as many as 40 people per day until Dec. 25th.  What a great way to thank people or give someone who is down on his luck a night out on the town.  You may be getting one of the ecards from me.    Here's the site, check it out in case you want to send cards, too   https://feeditforward.restaurant.com/