Kanuga - Go On, I Dare Ya!

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James Toogood, Nicholas Simmons, Ted Nuttall, Mike Bailey

While Olga was in Shanghai, I was in Hendersonville, North Carolina for the Kanuga Watercolor/Watermedia Workshops. And what a week that was! About 250 people from all over the place enrolled in courses taught by eleven artists: Mike Bailey, Linda Baker, Mary Alice Braukman, Gerald Brommer, Jeanne Carbonetti, Lana Grow, Ted Nuttall, Beth Patterson, Pat San Soucie, James Toogood, and myself. Also there for presentations and independent study projects were Carrie Burns Brown, Joan Fullerton, Don Getz, Taylor Ikin, Carol Ann Sherman, Susan Webb Tregay, and some others I'm forgetting (sorry, send me the names!).

I drove down after spending a night at a friend's in Richmond.* Kanuga Conference Center is 1400 acres of gorgeous woods set on a lake in the Smoky Mountains. Guests stay in cottages and cabins, congregate in the lodge for meals, and fill the auditorium for large events. Several other buildings house studio spaces and classrooms, some of them converted for the purpose of workshops during this event. That's a lot of tables, chairs, and demonstration mirrors.

The first day everyone arrived, Sunday, there was an exhibition of the instructors' work and a meet & greet with enrollees. I was surprised to see a few people I know from my workshops in the DC area, and even more surprised to see some internet buddies there, including Myrna Wacknov. An introductory presentation took place in the auditorium, and then a concert by Barbara Bailey Hutchison (see above), Grammy-winning singer and songwriter. She was fabulous -- if you haven't heard her on one of her seventeen CDs, you've heard her on a number of commercials. Wonderful voice, can play the axe and keys, really entertains an audience, and is beautiful on top of it. What's more, she was in my workshop - yes, she tears it up with a paintbrush too!

The next four days were consumed by the workshops and a schedule of activities that kept the whole group of painters together and talking about art. There was a huge critique session, a night with five painters demonstrating at once, a studio walk, and enough after-hours fun to keep the creative party going non-stop. The studios remain open all night, and I was stunned to walk into mine one evening at about 10 PM to see almost everyone in there working - made me feel like a slacker! One night the instructors were invited to dinner at the fantastic aerie home of Stan Hubbard, president of Kanuga, which offers a breathtaking vista.

The whole class was great, really nice and interesting people who got a lot of new work accomplished. Special thanks go to my assistant, Karen Bell! (see pics below) I also met many from the other workshops and of course got to know the instructors. Most all of them are people I've been very aware of but had never met until Kanuga. Others were new to me, but I now feel we are friends, not just colleagues. I had lots of fun hanging out with Linda Baker and Joan Fullerton, a couple of spirited and mega-talented painters who added a lot of sparkle to the experience. The well-attended evenings in Cabin 3 and 8 won't be soon forgotten!

One of the best parts of the week for me was getting to know Mike Bailey and Ted Nuttall, two guys who are so high on my faves list it's not even funny. I bumped into Ted that first Saturday night in a dark hallway, a cool way to have it happen. Besides being a giant among the greatest watercolor portraitists, he is truly one of the kindest people I have met in this business, and I have a feeling we will be friends for a long, long time. Mike Bailey....hmmm, what can I say? A brilliantly imaginative artist who doesn't seem to have a clue how asskickin' dangerous he is (or does he?!), and one of the finest writers and educators I've encountered. Reading Mike's blog is like getting a masters in fine art - for free. He's also one of the most hilarious cats ever, and that night in Cabin 3 he had me on the floor gasping for breath. (please don't quote that out of context!) I'm happy he's the new president of the National Watercolor Society; of the two major organizations in this country, NWS is generally the more progressive and they couldn't have invented a better artist to lead the way. The last night the three of us and James Toogood stayed up into the wee hours solving the watercolor problems of the world over a bottle of Glenlivet, courtesy of Ted. Things should start looking up. :)

The Kanuga watercolor workshops would not be possible without the amazing Robbie Laird and her husband Will Rasmussen. How they put all this together and make it so successful year after year (this was the 25th anniversary) is beyond me, but I saw it all happen with my own eyes. Thank you Robbie, it was a marvelous and memorable week!

*Easy trip until I got to Asheville via I-40 West and needed to get on I-26. Detour. That was Slight Hitch #1. On the map I-26 goes south to Hendersonville, but it's actually 26 East. That's Significant Annoyance #2. Weird stuff going on with those two roads, exacerbated by what has to be the worst signage this side of the Khyber Pass. Headache #3. Two wrong turns taking me about 10 miles out of my way, and an elaborate set of defective directions from Asheville "native." Cussin' Like Stable Boy #4. Look at watch, realize I'm missing instructors' Saturday night dinner. Punch The Dashboard #5. Then....the sign. I mean the sign:

"Future I-26"

What???? Yes, I was driving on Future I-26. I had catapulted out of our space-time continuum and was on a highway system that exists only in crystal balls and the perverse fantasies of the North Carolina DOT. I needed I-26 Of The Present, and would have considered I-26 Of The Past a bargain. I'd tell you more about the Future, but I'd hate to ruin it for you - drive to Hendersonville yourself....go on, I dare ya.