Too tempting to resist...

All week long I was dreaming of two totally quiet days in my studio, catching up on projects and enjoying some time for me... then, on Friday, a friend/client stopped by the office and asked me to join her on a visit to the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT (http://www.contemprints.org/). It's a place I've always wanted to visit and, even more tempting, we were going to be allowed to visit a class in progress by the master printmaker, Ron Pokrasso. Well, that offer was too good to pass up!

So, Inge and I headed to CCP. Inge knows every back road between here and Norwalk, I think, and we enjoyed a fabulous ride through the countryside. The autumn leaves were beautiful, most especially a lovely low growing shrub (the name escapes me) with leaves ranging from deep burgundy to all shades of pink to almost white - they were everywhere!

Once at CCP, I got to meet Inge's friend, Grace, who I believe is the Director, and Ron Pokrasso, who graciously allowed us to observe the goings on in his class. I've never done any printmaking and it was interesting to see what is involved.

Another temptation that I could not resist (I am such a pushover!) was signing up for the CCP event called "Monothon". It is an annual event with printmakers from beginners to expert signing up fo six hour sessions during which they crank out as many prints as they want. I've always wanted to participate but was intimidated by my complete lack of printmaking knowledge. Well, my little excursion with Inge has gotten me over that... we are signed up - our session is Tuesday from 1:30-7:30. They even feed us lunch and dinner! Even better, CCP provides a Master printmaker to do the printing and an assistant to clean up and fetch supplies. Monothon-ists get to just concentrate on their work.

In keeping with the purpose of my blog, I have taken out my book on Monotype and will be doing some cramming before Tuesday. The book title is "Monotype, Mediums and Methods for Painterly Printmaking" by Julia Ayres (Watson-Guptill). I'll post photos of my work later in the week - I'm really looking forward to this!

Back to my excursion... after we were done at CCP, Inge took me to the Silvermine Center for the Arts, which was nearby. They have a large, bright gallery exhibiting many more examples of monoprints and a good number of encaustic paintings. The grounds were beautiful, I see it as being a peaceful and lovely place to take classes.

I had a great time with Inge, she is such an interesting person with great knowledge of art, books, architecture, local history, plants and trees. I've known her for about twenty-five years (she used to be my landlady) but this is the first time I got to really appreciate her. It will be fun to share a studio with her for the Monothon!

I arrived home, abandoned all the projects I was going to work on, and took out my sketchbook to start planning for the Monothon. Markers and pastels were spread on the desk and I enjoyed several hours of drawing and planning. It was lovely.

Today was spent at the office, helping Steve, who is heading out of town on a hunting trip on Tuesday. I wouldn't have had much fun in my studio thinking of him sweating over getting things done before he leaves town. It was a productive day and he really appreciated my being there.

I remain several weeks behind on my weekly blog projects but, for now, that's just the way it goes... the purpose of "Bookworm 52" was primarily to get my creative butt moving, not being married to a schedule. I'll catch up, after the Monothon!