I'm home! I am so glad to be back in a warm, comfy bed, but I am already so home-sick for Squam.
I  have never been to an art retreat that was so exhausting (and cold!),  but so mind altering. If you get the chance to attend, please go. I met so many new friends - I wish I could have brought a few home to play with.

Rustic. Just assume that it will be freezing cold and your room will only have open screens on the windows... and you will be fine. Yes, sleeping in a hat and scarf does help.
Oh what a view! (from our cabin's screen porch.)
Squam Lake has lots of little inlets - the camp sprawls around a bunch of them.
"Sticks & Stones" Class - we had a half hour to integrate some clay into the environment.
"Sticks & Stones" - mud creatures.
"Sticks & Stones" - next we had to create something out of sticks. I made a temple for a horned stick god I found in the woods. The pathway is made from chips of mica. It looked much more impressive in real life.
"Sticks & Stones"- close-up of the horned stick god.
"Sticks & Stones" - my big installation was an archway with a pinecone carpet. It seemed like a good idea at the time... but I couldn't feel my fingertips for 2 days after bending down the saplings and tying all those knots.
This is Brandi - she does amazing pet portraits (www.paintedrabbit.com)
"Painting in a Day"- I re-interpreted my mud creatures onto canvas with acrylics and torn paper. Now they are roguish slugbabies.
And one more time. The slugbabies have gone cute. Well, cuter.
The last class was "Three Tools"- I learned to use a jigsaw, a drill and a tape measure (and a hammer!) I decided to make a dining table for my ... ah, my daughter's dolls. I learned to woodburn too!
I brought the table back to the cabin and sat in the sunshine painting it until it was too dark to see anymore. Aah life is good.
Sat. night was the Squam Art Fair. Large blocks of glowing ice lined the walkways.
Jonatha Brooke was selling her albums (and dressed in bottle caps). She is so amazing. She sang us a bunch of songs she wrote with Woody Guthrie. :-) If you aren't hip to music, ask your kids, she even has a track on "Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure" - oooh!
The Square Peg Breakfast Club. Funny how the introverts tend to eat near the edges of the dining room. Caryn, Shelly, Carrie, Me, Retta. There were a few others who were fun dining companions, but they didn't survive til Sunday morning.

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Art & Illustration Travel