I will be back in Round Top in just a few weeks and I can not wait! I will see some of you that are coming to the sold out The Vintage Round Top Shopping + Art Retreat! Paige and I have wanted to do something like this for years and we are both so excited to shop and...
I am so excited to share that I have been invited by Daune Pitman of The Cottage Table Experience to come back to Italy with her and teach again NEXT FALL! Registration is now open! This is one of my favorite places in the whole world and to get to create,...
I am so excited to share that I have been invited by Daune Pitman of The Cottage Table Experience to come back to Italy with her and teach again NEXT FALL! Registration will open on November 10th! This is one of my favorite places in the whole world and to get...
I have just returned from a one month trip teaching art in Tuscany. Italy has my heart and also the heart of my family. Everything from the landscape, lifestyle, intention, food and most of all the people. I have said this before but I feel that Italy has its...
I am so excited to share that I have been invited by Daune Pitman of The Cottage Table Experience to come back to Italy with her and teach again NEXT FALL! Registration will open on November 10th! This is one of my favorite places in the whole world and to get...
I have wanted to travel since I was a little girl. I would call up the airlines and ask them how much to fly from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angles, California (or a million other places). I am so sorry to every single person that spent all of that...
I am so excited to share that I have been invited by Daune Pitman of The Cottage Table Experience to come back to Italy with her and teach again NEXT FALL! Registration will open on November 10th! This is one of my favorite places in the whole world and to get...
Retreat dates: May 6-12, 2024 Amalfi Coast, Italy Click HERE to register. Warm breezes with the scent of lemon in the air, lazy strolls on cobblestone streets filled with pastel-colored houses, charming cafes that only serve local fare, secret coves...
Traveling as a family has given us the incredible gift of adventure, lasting memories, time to bond in new ways, and seeing the world together with fresh eyes. While shorter trips are relatively straightforward to plan, embarking on an extended journey requires a...
I am constantly in awe of the beauty that is all around me if I have my eyes open to it. Sometimes I find it on a busy alley in Italy listening to different languages as they come towards me and then fade away up and down the stairs, just being still with a good book...
While we were in Italy, we had a little over 48 hours in Venice. There are many faces to this ancient city you can visit again and again and keep discovering new beauty. I would like to offer some suggestions that may help to take a step back in time and see a...
One of the most art changing habits that I have established over the years is creating and using a portable art studio. Just enough supplies to make sure I can create anywhere. Daily creating is a choice and even though I may not always have the time to work on...
Welcome to An Artist In series. In this series a different artist, that is intimate in different parts of the world, will share their insider tips for where to eat, stay, see the best art, sketch the best views, rest at their favorite cafes and more. You will be able...
I have wanted to travel since I was a little girl. I would call up the airlines and ask them how much to fly from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angles, California (or a million other places). I am so sorry to every single person that spent all of that time on the...
For our 24th wedding anniversary celebration Kelly and I signed up for The Cottage Table Experience NYC retreat. We came in a few days early so we could get acclimated and mostly to see the incredible Victory Boyd in an intimate concert. Day one was yummy tapas,...
I have been (impatiently) keeping a beautiful secret. I am so giddy excited to share that I have been invited by Daune of The Cottage Table Experience to teach along side Stephanie Lee next fall in Tuscany. Registration will not open until next month but Daune...
I have often found that while traveling it can be hard to process beauty, significance of moments, the impact that the journey is having on me, the relationships, what I will choose to bring home in the way of gardening, food, decorating, lifestyle etc. I am a...
We are back from our family trip to Italy celebrating Jack’s college graduation and my 50th birthday! It was absolutely beautiful in so many ways and I will be sharing more in the weeks ahead. The first 9 days of our trip was just as a family and then the next 7...
I have been enjoying the spring and fall antiques shows in Round Top, Texas for the past five years. This show has been going on for fifty years so I am definitely a newbie! I have also been blessed to have book signings, teach a live art workshop and also...
I am constantly in awe of the beauty that is there if you have your eyes open to it. Sometimes it will be the little things like the sound of the fountain as I am pulling weeds in the garden, the kids wanting to tell me about their day, an orange and pink sunset, the...
In 2018 I knew that 2019 was going to be the last year I led overseas art workshops for the foreseeable future. As much as I loved gathering, teaching and traveling it was the most deep knowing that it was time and I had complete peace about my decision. Then 2020...
Join me in this next video where I talk about little ways to bring beauty to the ordinary in a live workshop. I am loving hearing from you in the comments and all of your excitement and feedback about our previous videos about our French Picnic Baskets...
We have just added another free video to our creative network! Today we have released Travel Journal Supplies with Lorraine Bell. This free video is taken from Lorraine’s course An Illustrated Journey. This free video gives you a taste of the course, An...
I recently heard someone say we are not all in the same boat but we are all in the same storm! This is such a perfect way to describe what we are all walking through. We run an online business and much of what I do to connect with customers and collaborations is also...
Last weekend I finally got around to cleaning out our laundry room and organizing our entertaining cabinets. That room had been a dumping ground since Christmas and with workshops (hopefully) starting back up again late June I knew it was time to tackle it. It was fun...
You can read part one, two, three, four, five and six. It was now time to pack up and say goodbye to Aistisfoul. Hadn’t we just arrived and unpacked all of our clothes and organized our art supplies? How was it already time to go? We...
You can read part one, two, three, four and five. I am such a homebody so when we arrived at Aitisfoul I could feel my whole mind and body let out a huge exhale. Home. We were home for the next week. |The patio off our room| As we went to...
Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four Waking up to farmland, green fields and distant palm trees. Each day of travel was truly a visual feast. Each mile out of Marrakech was bringing us closer and closer to our resting place that would be Aitisfoul. ...
Part One, Part Two, Part Three When I signed up for this adventure I signed up and paid and then just sat back. To be honest I didn’t do more than glance at the itinerary or any of the details. I know Michelle and I trusted her and part of what I was looking...
You can read Part One HERE. You can read Part Two HERE. The first full day in a new city usually is full of too much to take in and when you are as far away from home as Africa it means new languages, smells, sounds, textures, colors, social norms, clothing, and even...
You can find Part One HERE. As soon as I was undressed (down to my underwear because that was what I was told) I put on a robe and was met outside the small changing space and taken down the dark hallway with all lights putting off a soft red glow. At the end...
Last summer as we were getting out of the car to head to our town pool I had an email come into my inbox telling me that registration had just opened for my friend Michelle Fletcher’s first big workshop in Morocco. I have been friends with Michelle for many years now....
I will be coming back to the Donna Downey Studios and we will have two days to play with storytelling through our art with fabric dying, journal making, sketching, paint, collage and more. Whether your subject matter is landscapes, portraits, or still life, you will...
Everything your business needs is everything you have always been! It took me most of my life to let that truth sink in and your business is the same way! Your business needs your gifts, your passions and your story to be set apart! If you are ready to take your...
Everything your business needs is everything you have always been! If you are ready to create a life and business that looks like no one else then it is time to see all of your gifts with fresh eyes. This past March we held our first live business workshop here at our...
Last year on May 4, 2017, I was just wrapping up an all-day workshop in my studio with local teenagers. The teachers and students had just walked onto the bus when I started to walk back down our gravel driveway as I saw Kelly approaching me. He let me...
***THIS WORKSHOP IS SOLD OUT*** The official launch date of my new book, The Painted Art Journal, is July 4th and because we were going to already be in Nashville and Franklin, TN at this time we decided to celebrate at our home away from home! We have been shown such...
Because you asked we really tried! I am now teaching THREE live workshops this year in my studio. We have released all of them so you know exactly what I am teaching over the whole year. I hope by releasing them all that it helps you know which one is for you! I would...
I am a birthday girl and try to squeeze every last bit out of it on that day. When people say they don’t really care about their bday’s I do not relate to those people. At all. One day all about me and what I want to do and everyone smiles the whole day...
The Living Studio workshops were created because there was a void in the art workshop world. The Living Studio would be about exploring a new place and creating art everywhere we went. When we had scheduled classes they would be shorter to give you the...
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