Teaching another wonderful landscape class

The class I taught this weekend went really well. Saturday was a good day for me as far as my memory and word retrieval goes, and I felt pretty put together. I spent a lot of time last week preparing for the class when I was not doing more snow removal.
I don't remember ever having weather events disrupting normal life for such a long stretch of time. So many roofs have been collapsing around here it is scary. We got most of the snow off the lower roofs but the high ones still have massive amounts. I jump at every creak the house makes. This week was somewhat warmer so people started having problems with roofs leaking. Having a roof over one's head is taking on a whole new aspect. Driving is also still messed up by all the snow. The lanes are so narrow and the banks are so high that sight lines are terrible. My Dad got the first dent in his new van by cutting a corner on a driveway too tight. The compacted snow is like concrete. And more snow is on its way...sigh.
I did do just a bit of felting. I finished fulling my fish dish. He still needs eyes and some tweaking but I kind of like the way the colors blended. I am thinking that the fish might look nice with some beading.

The fish that I put in the Huyck exhibit is displayed by being hung on the wall. It looks cool like that and kind of reminds me of the 'trophy' fish. I didn't get to go to the opening on Friday since I knew I would be too tired to teach the next day but here is are a couple of photos that were posted on facebook. I hope to get there soon.

See the red dot next to my underwater painting? 'Seeing red' is developing a new meaning for me. :)
I also took time to wet felt another landscape. I find it helps to get me ready to teach the landscape class if I have made one just a few days before. It is not done (that is becoming a theme) but I can see some potential if I fix some things and as usual I learned some things. I think that learning is one of the driving forces in my life.

One of the things I am learning is how rewarding teaching can be. I get to meet some fantastic women, talk art and felt, and feel like I have something to give. I heard some wonderful things during my class. Things like "this is so much fun" and "I can't believe I made that!" or 'I am very happy with it" make me feel good. I also love to hear the students figure out for themselves what might improve a painting. But the best is when they come in on the second day saying that they saw things in the world around them that they never noticed before. If I can get students to really 'see' I feel like I have given them something that goes way beyond the ability to create a nice picture. I also felt honored to have the very talented fellow teacher and feltmaker Jean Gauger take my class. She took some great shots of the class, some of which I am sharing here.

Pat's...

Karen's

Brenda's

Sue's

Deb's

Jean's

Lindy's

Barbara decided not to do a landscape. She created an illustration for a story instead.

 

 

We were all pretty tired by the end of the weekend but I think every one was happy.