Oils and Pastels by Margaret Dyer

"Bathing Beauties" were 2 little girls playing in the water on Tybee Island this summer. It's an 8x10 pastel on Pastelbord available at auction on Daily Paintworks. Here's a link to view the auction: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/429618

My Wednesday classes at Spruill Art Center in Dunwoody (north Atlanta) begin September 23. There's still room in both morning and evening classes. Call Spruill to register. http://www.spruillarts.org

I am home. It takes me a little while to acclimate to the eastern time zone, deal with the accumulated pile of bills and overgrown lawn, a horrific site when I got home (several neighbors came by to see if my lawnmower had been stolen). Yesterday I was busy from morning until evening trying to tame the jungle that appeared while I was gone, all the while intending to get onto the computer to thank everyone I spent the last two weeks with for an incredible time. I cranked out quite a few pastels during the workshop; I consider them demonstrations. So I'm putting them up on Daily Paintworks to auction off. Most of them, like this one, are 12x15 on Sennelier LaCarte pastel card. Bidding begins at $200. Click on the headline above or here to view the auction:  http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/427952 Now the difficult task at hand for me is getting into the habit of eating significantly less and losing all the weight I put on tasting every bit ...

Last night, Thursday, there was a chill in the air. Jerome lit a fire. People are feeling a little sad. It's almost over. It's Friday. Our last day here. Everybody has finished up their work. After lunch we will clean up the studio, move all the tables out of the way, vacuum, arrange our work on large boards propped up by easels around the perimeter of the studio, we'll set a table with champagne glasses, flowers, munchies, we'll clean ourselves up, and return to the studio to greet guests who arrive for the vernissage. As soon as I get photos of our evening, I'm packing away my computer. Tomorrow we all depart. A shuttle will be outside the front gate at 7:00 a.m., 5 of us will pile on with our luggage and newly finished pastels; I will be among them. Two more shuttles will arrive throughout the day to retrieve the rest of the students, leaving Jerome and Kippy with a quiet house again. And a clean studio. I think the vernissage is Kippy's way of gettin...

It's 11 o'clockish in the evening right now. I have just made my way up the stairs to my room after a dinner full of laughter and the most amazing lamb stew I've ever had. What started out as strangers a week ago has become a cohesive group of friends. There is constant laughter--almost annoyingly so in the mornings while I'm skipping breakfasts to have an uninterrupted shower and some internet time. I hear them all laughing down on the patio where breakfast is served on sunny warm mornings. Who laughs in the morning? I have not had time to write. Breakfast is served from 8:30-9:30. We're usually in the studio by 9:45. We break for lunch, then run back up to the studio. Lunch in the afternoon lasts a couple of hours. Back up to the studio until a little before dinner. We clean up a little, have a glass of wine, then sit for a couple of hours for dinner. We don't leave the dinner table until almost 11 some n...