Thursday, June 2 - during Calistoga's First Thursday Artwalk - from 5 to 7 - is the opening for my summer show, at All Seasons Bistro in Calistoga, California, at the corner of Lincoln and Washington Streets.

Unlike most of my shows, Simple Pleasures is a show of drawings and drawings with acrylic wash (acrylics used in a watercolor manner) - and the drawings are all of still lifes - simple compositions, humble subjects. I seem to be in drawing mode lately - a lovely place to be in. My brushes and wild color are calling to me, but the drawing cells in my body (surely I must have lots of them) are very, very happy. You can see some of the little drawings at my Line, Color, Paint, Joy blog at: http://karenlynningalls.blogspot.com/2011/05/simple-pleasures-show-at-all-seasons.html

Next week begins a new four-week session of acrylic painting classes. Each session is a little different, depending on who's in the class, and what they want or need. This last couple of weeks we've been looking at warm and cool colors – not only the general division between warm yellows, oranges, and reds, and cool greens, blues, and purples, but also the warm and cool variations within each color.

Tomorrow we'll be varnishing a painting and exploring incorporating collage into a painting - and I may be doing a little painting demonstration, depending on how things go. Variety is the spice of art!

My illustrations have been approved - hurray! I'll scan and send in the final images. And today I sketched Calistoga with Joe from Sacramento. The weather cleared up and was just about perfect, and we drew the Napa River and Calistoga City Hall. What fun! My next Sketching Calistoga workshop comes in two weeks, on May 22nd.

You can see some of the results of my sketching, both today and in recent weeks, on my Line, Color, Paint, Joy art blog, and on my Napa Valley Art Workshops website's Sketching and Drawing page.

The last two and a half weeks I've been working on a set of four illustrations for a local hotel and spa, illustrating rooms that are currently under construction to show what they'll look like once they're finished.

It's been fun, and challenging. I'm used to drawing things that are sitting in front of me! Instead, I had to use my imagination and drawing skills in new ways (with lots of two-point perspective!). The work required a pains–taking attention to detail, and specificity about color in ways that I usually don't have to worry about in my paintings.

I'm pleased with the drawings, and so far they are, too.