REMINDER....

The next meeting will be held 9 January 2010 in the Azalea Room at Baptist Medical Park at 10 am. See the side bar for meetings scheduled in 2010. See you there.

Members only Christmas Party...

It is always fun at our Annual Members Only Christmas Party - you never know what these ladies will do or say during this party!! We eat, we drink (non-alcoholic), we exchange ornaments and then we play Dirty Santa. Everyone brought such nice gifts this year, it was hard trying to decide if you wanted to get dirty or not. Here are a few snapshots of the ladies having a good time.

Christmas Party

I hope to see all of you at our Annual Member Only Christmas Party on 5 December 2009 at 5:30 pm. The newsletter will be mailed out this week with directions. Please come with up to five ornaments to participate in the ornament exchange and a Dirty Santa gift. We always have such fun so I hope to see you there.

We have a winner!!!

We couldn't wait any longer. We asked Joann Ford, a fellow vendor at the Wright Street Methodist Church to pull a name for the Santa raffle and the winner is - drum roll please - Sherry Mize!! No one was more surprised than Sherry that she won. She said she never wins anything so this was a good one for her. We are all very happy for you, Sherry. A big Thank You to all the members who went about selling those raffle tickets - a total of 238 tickets were sold.

The Craft show went well also. We set up Friday morning - no small feat since we are all getting older and slower but we did it on our own. The show started at 1 pm on Friday and we did really well the first day. Then on Saturday we managed to do as well even though we were threatened with rain all day. Luckily, it held off until we were packed up and ready to go home. We received a lot of nice compliments from customers and we had such a wide selection - happy snowmen, cute Santas, decourpage boxes, scrapbook items, angels, stars, Santas and snowmen painted on just about anything and everything. The large tree we were able to get this year helped in showing off our ornaments. There was no shortage of volunteers to man the booth and of all the booths there we had the most variety of items and I think we did the best in sales also. Our chapter owes a big Thank You to Francis, Sherry, Julia, Janice, Jane T, Crystal, Barbara, Sue, Lucy, and Brenda for putting this together for the chapter. Also, to Pat for donating some of her ornaments.

ROS STALLCUP SEMINAR IN JANUARY 2010

We have selected the pictures of what Ros will be teaching at the seminar in January 2010. For members, sign up now, for non-members, we will start accepting reservations on 1 November. We already have several out of town members who are on the list for this seminar. For those of you who have not painted with Ros, she is great fun. She is a very loose painter but you will enjoy her techniques. This seminar will be on 30-31 January at the Baptist Medical Center on University Parkway starting at 9 am. For the out of towners who have not painted with us before - we paint in a large room with great lighting, tables are 30"x60" with two painters to a table, plenty of room, no one is squashed together. We have a long buffet table for our lunch and extra tables in the back of room so you do not have to eat where you paint. We have a sink in the room, coffee pots in the room, two restrooms right outside the entrance door, a security guard on duty (we are usually the only ones in the building), lots of paved parking, a vending area, and a shaded area outside for those who smoke. We are within 5 minutes to the local hotels, Target, Ross, and Kohl's. The interstate exit is about 7 minutes from the BMC. If you would like to stay with one of our members instead of a hotel, please let me know once you have signed up and I will see what we can do on this end for you. Linda is our Seminar Chair and can be reached at phillin@aol.com or you can call me at (850) 969-9524.

Paint In with Sherry

Our next meeting will be 3 October at 10 am. Sherry will be teaching the Ghost girl and will provide the paint, surface, instructions, and pattern. Bring your regular painting supplies and a dish for the pot luck lunch. This will be a cute display for the fall holidays. See you there.

Santa for Raffle

This wonderful handmade Santa will be raffled off between now and November 21. The proceeds from this raffle will be used to fund seminars and classes for our chapter. Raffle tickets are $1.00 each. His face is handpainted and he sports a pair of glasses. His coat is a beautiful jacquard fabric of red with gold threading. His hair and beard is made from mohair and his fur is real mink. He is weighted to sit on a table or chair. He is about 25 inches long (body length is 15 inches). Members will receive tickets and photos in their next newsletter. We ask our members to make every effort to find a new home for this little guy. We will have the drawing at 4 pm on 21 November after the Wright Street Methodist Church Christmas Creations Art/Craft Show.

Guess who's coming in January????

Ros Stallcup - yippee. I have taken from Ros several times and truly enjoyed the experience. I am sure you all know who she is - she has authored more than 18 books - Gran's Garden. We have yet to select the photos because we just completed the booking transaction but I will post them as soon as they arrive. The dates are 30-31 January 2010. Seats are limited and we will open registration to non-members after 1 October. So, you know what that means, register now to ensure you have a seat in this seminar. We have already received interest from several out of town painters. If any one of you would like to offer our out of town guests a place to stay during this seminar, please let me know so I can coordinate with Linda. This will be the first seminar of the year and Linda is checking on several others - one being Margot Clark, possibly Jeanne Downing, or Connie Parkinson. If you have a particular artist in mind that you would like to have a seminar with, please let us know. Linda makes every effort to bring in artist that are a little different and will offer something new for you to try whether it is acrylic, oil, or watercolor.

Please keep checking back with us for updates. Until then, keep painting - we will need your ornaments for the craft show at Wright Street Methodist Church.

September Paint In

Actually it is going to be 29 August due to the holiday weekend but we will still be meeting and painting. I will be teaching an ornament that I know you will enjoy painting. I wasn't able to put together a project with everything going on at home (Allen was hospitalized with a collapsed heart valve) but I will be able to do the little ornament. I have completed the newsletter and it has been sent out but you may not get it before the meeting. So, bring your regular painting supplies and I will furnish the paint, pattern, photo, and surface. Cost will only be $3.00, the class fee for the club and the cost of the surface. Lunch will be pot luck. We will start at our normal time of 10 am. There are several things on the agenda we need to discuss during the meeting, i.e., craft show, Peggy Harris, quilt raffle for next year and the new board. Please come prepared with comments and suggestions. Look forward to seeing yall.

Painting with ACDA

Our chapter hosted the second part of our ornament paint in last Saturday. Unfortunately, I was not able to participate but I understand everyone had a great time and we had members teaching that had not taught before. On 15 August, the Azalea City Decorative Artists will host the second part of their ornament paint in. While I do not know what everyone is teaching, I am going to teach a Santa on a 6" clothespin. Too big to put on the tree but they are really cute to clip Christmas cards to. Hope you can join us - if you want to ride with me, call or email me and we can carpool.

August Christmas ornament paint in

Hope all of you can make the Christmas Ornament Paint In on 1 August. This is our usual meeting date but we will be painting the ornaments instead. I won't have time to do a newsletter this month so suffice it to say this is the only info I can get out to you before the meeting. Please pass it on to others if they do not have email.

I am back from the Houston Art Expo and it was a nice trip over - we followed Lucy right into Houston. The show was not as big as National, of course, but just as much fun. We saw all the usual "Big Brushes", Priscilla Hauser, Delane Lange, Peggy Harris, Tom Jones (the painter, not the singer - however, I would have been more excited to see the singer), Ginger Edwards, Janelle Johnson, Pat Lentine, and many more. I took only three classes (signed up for four but was bumped from the Delane Lange class - too many people, not enough surfaces - a long story). I painted calla lilies and a gold fish. The gold fish was painted a bit unusual but I know you are all going to love painting it in November with Peggy. I wish you could have seen the paintings in the auction - they were all beautiful. We went to a bar-b-cue (I am not a fan of bar-b-cue) and the food was delicous. And, of course, you know the best part was the sales floor. I didn't see anything new to report to you, mostly the regular things - lots of brushes and packets, a whole lot of wood items, new painting totes, painting with texture paste (I may demo this in the next few months), fabric painting and some products like Magic Mix that we have not used before. I think they had close to 500 attendees and since most were in classes when the sales floor was open, sometimes you almost had the place to yourself.

Although I knew we were going to Texas, I did not expect to find so many people from foreign countries working at the hotel. We had Luke from the Congo for our porter, Simon from Ethiopia was our shuttle driver (he has sinced learned what "Scatch Off" means), Omar from Russia was our TV repairman, Sandy from the Philippines was our plumber (no, we did not stop up the toilet or the tub - the tub didn't drain properly), Juan from Mexico was the air conditioning man, and we had someone from the Checkz Republic to help with the fridge but I don't remember his name but when he brought the fridge to our room he took one look and said "I had better get a bigger fridge", and then there was Lorraine from the east Indies as our waitress!!! We got to know all of them and I think we were a bunch of crazy old ladies to them.

I had some uplifting moments like when Fran and I were in the elevator with a woman in one of those motorized vehicles. That thing takes up a lot of space but we managed to get her in and then out. I helped her with her painting tote so she could haul tail down the long corridor with her painting tote pulled behind her. I got back in the elevator and just walked out of it on our floor leaving my painting tote in the corner of the elevator. Of course, when I realized I didn't have it in the room, I went racing out trying to find it on one of the five elevators. First, I tried the one we came up in but everytime I pushed the down button a different elevator door opened. Finally, I took one down and asked the front desk if a tote had been turned in. No - it was't there and I am almost in tears. So, I stood by the elevators running from one to the other pushing the down button and then pressing any floor number to get the elevators to go up so I could check the one we were in. I noticed several odd looks from some of the people in the lobby - but you know how possesive painters are about their supplies and I just knew my tote was still in that elevator. After about 7-8 times the elevator I wanted opened but no tote. I started thinking about all my valuables in my tote - my palette knife I have had for 23 years (given to me by Priscilla Hauser), my stylus from when I first started painting, my clip board I just recently finished, and Lord have mercy, my 1" square box of blush powder and my Krylon 18K gold pen - things I just can't live without. I went back to my room to just sit down and perhaps have a good cry but the ladies (Fran, Debbie, and Tracy) said let's go down and try again. Feeling a bit desperate, I told the desk clerk who I was and what I had lost - and thank the Good Paint Fairy - someone had turned it in. I guess it goes to show we have some wonderful honest people out there - or someone took a peek into the tote and saw the big mess and figured it wasn't something they needed (they didn't see the hundred dollars I kept hidden for the just in case - and it has since been removed). Whatever the reason, I am so happy to have it back. I am a firm believer that when you do good it always comes back to you.

That is it for my trip - I will let the others fill you in on what all they did and I will be posting pics as soon as I unpack everything.

Please come Saturday prepared with a variety of painting brushes (especially smaller ones) and your regular paint supplies. Each teacher will provide a surface, pattern, photo, etc. for the usual packet fees. Most do not go over two dollars. I may not be able to attend since my nephew is visiting and he leaves for the airport that day. If I have time I will come in afterwards. Happy Painting, yall.

Christmas in July Ornament Paint In

Our Annual Christmas In July Ornament Paint In was held 27 June and as usual, we had a really great time thanks to Julia, Linda, Joan and Brenda. We painted Santas on a sled, Snowman on a star, a Santa on a wooden fork, and we made a moose pin/magnet. Unfortunately, we ran out of time but will host our second paint in 1 August. The attached slideshow shows everyone concentrating on their painting - and a few just talking.

We will have our Annual Ornament Paint-In this Saturday, 27 June at 10 am. Please bring your regular painting supplies and a covered dish to share. The teachers will provide a surface to paint on, paints, pattern, photo and instructions. Teachers for June will be Linda, Brenda, Jane T., and Julia and possibly Joan Scheet. Cost will be for the packets only (about $2 each) as the teachers have generously waived their teaching fees for the paint-in. Brenda will teach the Santa on a 3"x12" wood sled. Julia will teach a Santa on a 3"x10" wood fork. Linda, Jane, and Joan will surprise us with their projects. If you want to teach a project, there is still time. Contact me at angelbrush1@yahoo.com or give me a call. I will post the August projects next month.

DATE CHANGE FOR ACDA

PLEASE NOTE - THE ACDA MEETING WAS HELD AS POSTED IN THE NEWSLETTER ON 13 JUNE. I INADVERTENTLY LISTED IT AS 20 JUNE ON THE BLOG. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE MISTAKE AND HOPE IT DIDN'T CAUSE MANY OF YOU TO MISS THE MEETING.

Peggy Harris Seminar

7-8 November 2009 - 9 am - 5 pm
Cost: $75 members/$85 non-members

Who wouldn't want to paint with Peggy? Not many, I am sure. Our chapter hosted Peggy in 2007 and loved her so much we asked that she come back again. Peggy is renowned for her cute animals and she makes painting so much fun. She is so enthusiastic about painting and you can tell she loves what she is doing. She will be here 7 November 2009 and will be teaching "Plain and Fancy" - the prettiest fancy tail goldfish on a surface of your choice. She will teach a pretty water lilly and green frogs on Sunday, 8 November. Seats are limited so make your reservation now. The registration will open to all other chapters and non-members after 1 July 2009. If you are interested in attending this class email our Seminar Chair at phillin@aol.com or Brenda at angelbrush1@yahoo.com

Azalea City Decorative Artists
We will be painting "Bugs" with Janice this month in Bay Minette, 20 June at 10 am. Bring your own surface (no fabric), something like a flower pot or a metal pot would be nice. These are simple little projects and there are several bugs that are not on the photo that will be included in the project. Janice will provide a packet with instructions, patterns, etc., and the paints will be shared. As always, bring your regular painting supplies to include several small brushes and something to share at lunch. Bay Minette is only about a 45 minute drive from Pensacola and if you would like to ride with someone, email me at angelbrush1@yahoo.com.

Painting Apples with Julia

Julia will be teaching this beautiful fruit tray at the next Sea Oats meeting, 6 June at 10 am. Bring a surface of your choice, basecoat it with Black or Black Green, the size of the surface should be at least 10"x13". Hobby Lobby has 30% off all unfinished wood this week (get coupon online), you should be able to find something nice there or at Michael's (coupon 40% off in paper) or at Joann's Fabrics (40% off coupon in paper). Julia painted this on a wood tray. If you are using unfinished wood, basecoat it with a 1:1 ratio of Black Green and wood sealer. This will take at least 2 coats, sanding in between coats (use brown paper bag or a fine grit sandpaper). If you need any further instructions, email me at angelbrush1@yahoo.com.

Julia will provide paints, pattern and instruction. Lunch will be pot luck.

ACDA
Julia will be teaching an ear of corn rolling pin at the next ACDA meeting on 16 May at 10 am. She will provide paint, pattern, instructions, and photo. You will need to bring your regular painting supplies and a surface to paint on. Cost will be $10 per person. Rolling pins can be purchased at Winn Dixie or Walmart or bring a surface of choice. If you don't want to ride by yourself, check with other members and share a ride.

Ladies, our next meeting will be Saturday, 2 May at 10 am. Jeanette will teach a floral design on a photo album. Bring your regular painting supplies, (to include several small flats or angle brushes and a rake or comb brush). Jeanette will furnish paints, pattern, photo, and album. Lunch will be pot luck. See you there.

With great sadness...

Vicki and Julia August 2008

One of our members, Vicki Saeger, passed away yesterday. Vicki had only been with us a short time before finding out she had Lou Gherigs disease. But she came to the meetings and the seminars as often as she could. One of her great loves was painting Santas, which she had her own vision as to what they should look like and she was not persuaded to paint any differently. Even her Artist Trading Card had a Santa painted on it. We are going to miss her.

A great class.....

Our class with Jill MacFarland was great. We painted angels and mermaids and everyone was so happy with their pieces. We talked as much as we painted and we laughed even more. We seem to have a very happy chapter. Jill was wonderful and we all learned a few new techniques. I posted my mermaid and several of my net friends said that Jill's mermaid looked more innocent than mine. As I posted on my blog, it was hard to paint mine any different with the rap song "I like big butts" running through my head. So mine has an ample fanny but that's OK, I like her anyway. Now I am off to work on finishing my angel. Hope to see some of you at the Mary Wiseman seminar in Mobile.

Jill MacFarland Seminar UPDATE

Some of you wanted to know the size of the projects we are painting. According to Jill the mermaid is on a round 12-13" surface - the angel is on a heart that measures 11" across at the widest point and from the center of the heart to the bottom point it measures 10 1/2". Of course, if you have a surface that is not round or bigger than those above, don't worry, you can adjust your pattern.

We still have a few openings for the Jill MacFarland Seminar scheduled next month - 4-5 April 2009. We have opened up the spaces to other chapters in our area so we hope to see a few new faces there. Please check the post below for the photos. I believe the Angel will be painted on Saturday and the Mermaid on Sunday. You can paint it on the surface of your choice. Please contact me by email - angelbrush1@yahoo.com or call 850-969-9524 if you are interested. More info on the class will be posted after I speak with Jill.

Hope to see you at the March Meeting

Our next meeting will be held at 10 am on 7 March 2009 at the Baptist Medical Park. A former member of our chapter will be coming in at 9 am with a lot of her wood and painting supplies that she would like to sell. She has returned to her first love, beading, and no longer needs the painting items. If you are interested, come early. Once the meeting starts the Trading Post will be closed.

Janice will be teaching a small flower pot after the meeting. Just bring your regular painting supplies, she will furnish the pot, instructions, and paint. If you have not signed up for the Jill MacFarland seminar you still have another chance at the meeting. The projects are shown below.

Margaret will be here with the project photos for the Mary Wiseman seminar to be held 25-26 April in Mobile. The cost is $35 a day. As soon as I get a copy of the photos I will post here. Hope to see yall Saturday.

Christmas Party
Members Only 2008


I promised to post the photos of our Christmas Party. We all had a great time with lots of handpainted ornaments, Dirty Santa gifts, and wonderful food. Hope you enjoy....

Christmas Party 2008

Our monthly meeting will be on 7 February 2009 at 10 am. After the meeting Lucy will teach a watercolor rose. You will need to bring the following brushes: 1" flat, #3 or 4 round, #7 or 8 round, and your regular painting supplies. Lucy will furnish the paper, instructions, pattern, and paints. Lunch will be pot luck. Hope to see you there.

Jill Jill MacFarland Seminar 4-5 April 2009

I have had a lot of interest in the Jill MacFarland seminar scheduled 4-5 April 2009. We still have openings so if you want to register for this weekend class email me at angelbrush1@yahoo.com. The cost will be $65 for the weekend (the price is the same for one or two days). As always we will have a potluck lunch and on Saturday night we will take Jill to dinner and everyone is welcomed to attend. If you are coming from out of town and need information about the hotels or the Naval Base Lodging, email me and I will get that to you. I will also add the info to this blog. Linda is still working on what surfaces we will paint on, sizes, etc. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful facility to paint in with great lighting, comfortable chairs and plenty of space. It is within a mile of the interstate and can be found without much difficulty. Once you have signed up you will receive maps and any other pertinent information. You can view Jill's other projects at www.jillmac.com.