Welcome guests

Summer in this beautiful valley means we can welcome guests from near and far, and this past week was no exception.

Alice Saltiel-Marshall and husband Bill arrived here on Wednesday evening, just in time for an appetizer-filled happy hour on the deck.

Alice, Rochelle, Bill, John

No tomfoolery took place, as usual.

Alice, Rochelle and I tore off at 5:50 to play with Brandy Hunt at Creative Fix .  Alice took this photo at the stencil workshop. 

The next day we spent up to twelve hours playing with the techniques and products we learned.  Alice looks pretty chipper early in the game!

Here I'm working on a joint Alice/Win project - Rochelle fell in love with it, and is now the proud owner of the only (first?) joint Daltiel (or is that Sinn?) mixed media painting.

By day's end, the studio was a riot of colour, starts and stenciled everything!

The following couple of days were a blur of markets, shopping in Nelson, lunch at Skimmerhorn winery,

Bill and Alice on the Skimmerhorn Winery deck

more eating,

and crazy photo ops.

I must say, we live a charmed life here in the valley, and never more so when we can welcome such good friends.

Tomato Time...

...has hit the back garden, and they're b. e. a. u. t. i. f. u. l.

John's heritage tomatoes range through every possible combination of colours from yellow

to orange

to red

 and from stripes

 in every combination

 to subtle blends from one colour to another.

They're not only candy for my colour pig eye, they're beautiful mandalas when cut open for eating, and the taste is beyond incredible.

This week the first deliveries will go out to Skimmerhorn Winery for their bistro, and soon more will follow to the Real Food Cafe.   Make sure you get to both places for a taste test!

How are you getting your colour fix for the summer?  Hope it's an amazing one.

Play time

seems to be a constant when one is 'retired'.  We've had another gang-buster time this past week with Alice Saltiel-Marshall and her husband Bill.

From the Skimmerhorn Winery to Crawford Bay and back again, we've filled four days with more activity than one could think possible.

Just before we went in

Drooling over remnants at Barefoot Handweaving

After many visits to Barefoot Handweaving, I was astonished to learn one could purchase a baggie of remnants for $4 - score!

 We burnished copper,

we shared stashes,

we painted papers,

 we played Bobbsy Twins with our stamps, paints and embellishments,

 and were colour pigs (although I feel we're young enough to be termed piglets) extraordinaire.

It was like being in another world.

This is my favourite done by Alice,

Love Letter to Gaia  Mixed Media by Win Dinn

and my personal favourite done by yours truly.

Company's coming...

and going, going, gone.  So it's back to 'work' today, after a spate of visitors over the past week or so.

One of the most difficult things about mothering is watching an offspring in pain.  One guest this week was daughter Rochelle, who was (and is still) recuperating from having three wisdom teeth surgically removed.  Due to complications, she is still experiencing pain and the frustration of slow healing.  She had hoped that a few days here would result in some studio play time, but the pain kept her from that except for a couple of hours where she spent some time culling through supplies for the perfect pieces to add to a start.

Rochelle looks much better in my paint shirt, even on the floor!

Another pair of guests were Sue and Graham Woolgar.  Sue is an artist friend from Red Deer, AB and we spent a couple of sunlit days checking out the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area (photos below by John), Skimmerhorn Winery, Baillie Grohman and the local markets, including the Creston Farmers' Market.

It's at times like these that I envy my realistic artist painterly friends, who can so beautifully capture the elegance and organic spendour that is our natural habitat.  I look forward to seeing what Sue will do with the myriads of photos she took of the Creston area.

Do let me know what's happening in your painting life!  In the meantime, it's back into the studio for me, to play with more mixed media.