Another fun time was had by me at the Art and Soul Retreat in Portland, Oregon.  Lots of informative, fun classes and wonderfully creative students. Portland is a great place to visit so I stayed over a few days to spend time exploring the city and nearby sites. Lucky for me one of my students, Linda Carroll, volunteered to take me on a tour of the Columbia River Gorge. It was a beautiful drive up to Mount Hood and along the Columbia River, full of waterfalls and majestic landscapes. Every cherry tree in the Hood River Valley was in bloom in nearby orchards… simply breathtaking. If you ever have a chance, visit the valley in mid-April.

   Linda and her daughter, Callie, were in my Chalkboard Art Workshop, we worked on art journals and wood panels. I love working with the cradled wood panels, these are available from many companies and have a variety of surfaces to work on. The ones I used for this class are not pre-gessoed. Apply chalkboard paint in two coats, add images to the surface with a good glue stick or gel medium. Add lettering and finish with a Sakura white GellyRoll white pen for fine lines and a Sharpie water-based white pen for heavier lines. It’s that easy and the results are fabulous, this would be a good way to experiment with Zentangle too.

    While in Portland our daughter Ashley drove down (she is in the Navy near Seattle) to visit and explore Saturday Market. What a treat with all types of people and art. I quickly discovered my day usually went better when I started it off with a good, hearty breakfast of VOODOO DONUTS! They come in a whimsical pink box and there is always a line of people. The tag line on the box is “good things come in pink boxes” …so true.

      I had to stop at this Chinese restaurant to have my picture taken with the giant Panda momma and baby. As some of you might recall the logo for Design Originals, the book publishing company I owned for many years, is a panda. The original logo almost 30 years ago was a momma panda knitting a baby panda.