A Scarlet Tanager flew across my pathway as I walked the
old logging road at Nature’s Home. Stopping to watch this brilliant red and
black bird, I marveled at the numbers of new birds finding shelter here.
Each year different types of animals
and birds decide to make Nature’s Home Preserve their home. This year our lower
greywater pond has become a refuge for hundreds of strange new frogs. Each frog
has a unique croak and ranges from the size of a pea that is mostly all mouth to
a giant soft baseball-sized lumpy toad. The pond, though small, holds an
uncountable array of life forms and has become quite beautiful. A dark green
lily pad mostly fills the pond, so the insects and frogs have a great landing
pad. The pond is totally alive with color, shades and movement.
This same kind of creative energy goes
into creating a work of visual art, so these woods, Nature’s Home Preserve &
Yurt Retreat, has stimulated the artist in me and has become my studio. Creating
artwork brings you into a world beyond day to day chores, a saving grace when
faced with troubles and worry. The sheer joy of creating something new
strengthens and renews my spirit.
With
this in mind I recently started my annual Summer Pastel Painting Workshop here
at Nature’s Home. Figuring to share my thirty years of experience with pastel
painting along with the stimulating aliveness of the woods, I put aside the
first Saturday of every month during the warm season for the
workshop.
Discovery of something
previously unknown or unseen gives a keen feeling of accomplishment and delight.
When hiking our nature trails searching for an inspiring scene to paint,
discovery is constant. This time of year washes of clear color lightens the
landscape with wildflowers like Fireweed, Bleeding Hearts, Pink Lady’s
Slipper and the Kelly green of tender new leaves. Wild birds, so intent on
feeding and building their nests, stay in position so you can sketch them. Even
squirrels stop their nosey chatter and sit still on tree limbs to study the
growing forest. Students of pastel painting become
students of nature in these workshops.
To view nature undisturbed gives the most profound esthetic experience. No
wonder people still attempt to capture this natural beauty on paper & canvas
and have since recorded human history. So far in this series of workshops, art
students surprise themselves at the creativity that bubbles up with each
encounter with a wildflower or distant mountain scene.
At
four years of age I took my first artistic stroke. I broke off a stick and drew
birds in the sandy dirt road that wound it’s way up to our mountain cabin. For
hours at a time I studied the wings of butterflies, crawdads in the creek, the
fireflies’ flickering lights and every wildflower within my short grasp. These
Smoky Mountains filled my young heart. Now, as a much more experienced
biological artist and avid hiker, I still wander the mountains and study the
splendor of the millions of living species around me.
This series of Wildflower Pastel Painting Workshops is a way
to welcome others to this unexplainable special experience in the woods. You
don’t have to be an artist to come, just realize that everyone is creative and
you are too! The workshops are the first Saturday of every month from 2:00PM
till 5:00 PM. To make a reservation call 828-293-2239 or email
artist@doreylsart.com.
Adult Art
Workshos
With
Doreyl Ammons Cain
Pastel Painting Series-
Discover that you can be an
artist! Learn to draw on the right side of the brain, experience brillant
color combinations, experiment with design and paint with pastels among the
wildflowers and trees of a nature preserve. Come the first Saturday every month
from 2:00 PM till 5:00 PM January through October. All materials are
furnished.
Pastel Workshops are located at Nature's Home Nature
Preserve near Bear Lake in Jackson County, North Carolina.
wildflowers like Fireweed, Bleeding Hearts, Pink Lady’s
Slipper and the Kelly green of tender new leaves. Wild birds, so intent on
feeding and building their nests, stay in position so you can sketch them. Even
squirrels stop their nosey chatter and sit still on tree limbs to study the
growing forest. Students of pastel painting become
students of nature in these workshops.
Adult Art
Workshos 