Lisa Bebi's Paint Over class

Lisa giving us instructions.

What a wonderful day we had yesterday. Lisa Bebi came to my home to teach nine of us her Paint Over class that was featured in Somerset Workshop Spring 2008. (She had about a 15 page spread in the magazine.) We were all to bring several canvases and our "inexpensive" paint and photos we wanted to feature on our canvases.

Linda, Kathie and Georgia at printer/scanner

She brought her scanner/printer and also demonstrated how to easily re-size a photo and because of her technique not to be concerned with the pixels. And, most importantly how to use Ink Jet copies.

Diane, Kathie, Jen and Debi

We learned a little bit about painting the flesh colors and shading. There is so much more to learn. Lisa really needed a longer day to impart all her knowledge on this subject. But, she was there to help us and encourage us as we tried something new.

Debi working on a canvas of her mom

Here is Jen working away on one of her compositions. She die three in all. She thoroughly enjoyed her day away from teaching and just relaxed.

Kathie with her husband's dad

Kathie did such a great piece and she was so worried the day before. She took home my Somerset Workshop Mag to look over Lisa's work. We all thought Kathie's was the best even though truly no one was judging. This was a learning time and our first attempt at what Lisa has been doing sucessfully for a very long time.

Elena and her family

Elena had never done anything like this before. She is our scrapbooker extraordinaire and maker/designer of darling chip board books. Plus she is the Traveling Princess!

She thinks she will go outside the box with her canvas and add some dimensional ephemera and glitz and bling to her work. Great job.

On the left is Georgia with the photo of her husband and his twin. Georgia is also a twin. She also was my first teacher where I met her and made my most favorite piece, my Genealogy Doll. We have becomeBFF!

Linda's First Communion

I took a class from Linda in wire wrapping where she is the Queen! Her work has been featured in various altered art magazines. She is currently taking some servious art classes herself and is displaying a mask she created for her class. I unfortunately didn't get a photo of the canvases she was doing in Lisa's class.


On the right is Diane with her baby, Chloe, the pug. She is the Queen of color and techniques. If you need to know how to do something or what are the directions, she's got them. She brought some other wonderful canvases that she made in Chris Cozen's class. Diane also teaches in the San Diego area.

Also present was Bet. I don't have any photos of her canvases. One, I really liked but when I was ready to take a photo she was sanding off the Eifel Tower. The other one of her family, Lisa was working on the flesh colors and giving it a base.

Lisa Bebi and me

Here are the canvases I am working on and are not finished. I couldn't wait to finish them and then post.

The canvas on the right is my natural mom, Irene. She was born in Poland.

The canvas on the left is of my natural father, Joe, (I was adopted). He was very handsome and born in Italy.









This canvas is of me and one of my dollies. I have painted not painted my face yet, nor figured out what I am going to do for the background. I have not glued me down yet. So, truly a work in progress. But, my legs and arms have been painted.

Art Meetup at Jackie's - Switch Plates

Light Switch Plate made at Jackie's

It's been a long time since we have gotten to play at Jackie's. Before, we had always been in her garage. But, since her addition downstairs, she has taken over almost the entire 2nd floor of her house for art. It's everywhere! And she shares everything!

The project this month was to make a plain switch plate more attractive with our art. She supplied us all with a typical switch plate. I thought there wasn't enough room for me to create and therefore made mine a lot bigger. A couple of other ladies agreed and followed along with my lead.

What I really loved was seeing all that those who just worked with the actual switch plate and produced beautiful pieces. They can be see on Jackie's blog.

I started with a set of cards I found in Jackie's stash that were designed by Claudia Hellmuth. I cut the two ladies out and then had to find a background(s) to collage with Golden's soft gel. Jane supplied some of her black tape with words to add some contrast. And the piece d resistance was Jane's little pink teapot which she graciously allowed me to confiscate for my canvas. I brought it home to my husband, Ernie, and he cut it in half for me. I love dimensional pieces. The pink frame you see is just for the blog to set it off from the background.

Since I actually don't have any light switches that have this opening like the plate Jackie gave us, I then proceeded to make another plate cover to fit the light switch with a dimmer for my art room. Below is that creating.

Light Switch plate made at home

The best part was getting together with friends that come together at Jackie's to play. Jackie provided refreshments on this hot day and Melanie once again out did herself with her Madeleines made from scratch. I had to have one in spite of my diet. So yummy. Can't wait for next month's Art Meetup!

Leonard Cohen Concert

My son, Erik and me

My children, Erik and Kari, were raised on Alba, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

When Bob Dylan was in town at the Cox Pavilion at SDSU, Kari went with me to see him. We had amazing seats considering he only faced our way throughout the entire concert. He never faced the front where people paid a small fortune and the other side of the Pavilion only side his back side. I think we ate a small Mexican Resturant. Can't remember, but we had a blast.

When Erik told me that Leonard Cohen was going to be in town at the Copley Symphony Hall, I immediately purchased tickets for he and I. (My husband hates Leonard Cohen music - prefers Du op and 50's music even though he is only 1 year older than me).

We decided that we needed to dress up a little for the concert considering the artists and were glad that we did. We went to Kensington for dinner at the Bleu Boheme for dinner. Erik's wife's Christmas party had been there and they thought it was fabulous and it was. It was sauces and French Cuisine. This was unfortunate since it was the 2nd week of my diet program with Lindora (I have since lost 14 lbs!).

Leonard was amazing. He received a standing ovation before singing one song. It started at 8 pm and we got out a 11:30! He came out for 3 encores and played a total 7 addition songs. He is so respectful of his musicians, taking off his Fedora which he wore throughout, when ever one of the other artists were featured.

I did purchase his CD from the London concert but think he did not have this incredible Spanish/Flaminco Guitarist with him in London. His voice has mellowed with Erik prefers. I like his raspy smoker's voice of when he was younger. When he came out he said he was probably the only Jew Zen Budhist we would ever see as a preformer. The evening was everything we hoped it would be. You could hear everyword and understand him. He is a very spry 74ish old man. He also recited some poetry. And each time he left the stage, he skipped!

The photo at the top was taken in our garage before leaving. Not a very pleasant backdrop. I scanned the front of the t-shirt I bought there that said, "Ladies XL" which I can't bet my big toe in but it made a great back drop for the photo, I thought. I then download a Free 14 day trial from Fluid Mask 3 for the cut-out of Erik and myself. I'm not sure I am going to purchase it when the 14 days are up. I didn't think it was any easier than Russel Brown's method demonstrated on his Quick Selection video.

I don't know if this is Leonard Cohen's last tour around the world, but at least we got to see him and enjoyed the concert immensly.