I am part of the Watercolor Society of Oregon (WSO) and every year there are two conventions, one in the Spring and one in the Fall. About 2 ½ years ago I volunteer to co-chair the Fall 2017 Convention. Over the years I've been working on venue spaces for the weekend long convention and the week long workshop the juror does.

This convention's juror is Paul Jackson. He does amazing watercolors and I also volunteered to be his assistant during his workshop (I can learn, but my first duties will be to assist and run errands as needed).

I really wanted to create a couple new paintings for the art show that coincides with fall convention, but with the move and no studio set up, I decided to look through my current line of paintings. Back in November 2015 I created a new body of square watercolors that featured the Drum Horses and rescue horses that I love to visit. I had two favorites that I hadn't entered in shows yet, so I decided to enter them.

Last night I received an email stating the 156 artists entered 276 paintings for Paul Jackson to jury and only 80 are chosen to be included in the show. To be in the show is a great honor, and I'm excited to announce that "Holly" has been selected to in the 52nd Fall Watercolor Exhibit Columbia River Colors at the Mount Hood Community College's Visual Arts Gallery!

I am not only excited that she will be in the show, but also that Paul Jackson chose her out of hundreds and that I will be learning what I can from him the week after the convention during his workshop!

​I will be posting more details as the time gets closer. And if you enjoyed this journal entry, please leave a comment and share it with your friends!

In June I relocated from Gresham to Salem, not just because it was in the path of totality for the eclipse, well, it was definitely a perk. I could have watched it from my own front yard, but instead my husband and I left in the morning hours (to bypass potential traffic) to spend the day at my family's farm near Brooks and Gervais.

It was a wonderful day spent with family and I didn't want to stress out about getting the perfect photo of the eclipse. I never bought a filter, instead I made a pinhole viewer. But with my photography loving cousins, we created two filters from one pair of eclipse glasses, a scissors, paper plates, and electrical tape. With our DIY photography filters I captured a couple images of the eclipse and then with no filter, I captured totality. I didn't have a specialty lens for this, I just used my 24-105mm L Canon lens with manual settings and focus set to infinity.