Portland Picts!

I'm Back! Well, I've actually been home for a while now, but the jet lag, lack of sleep (due to a week-long slumber party with this lady) and general business of Mommyhood has kept me from sharing the shots longer than I anticipated. Having said that, we took several Instagrams along the way and thought you may want to see what we were up to . . .

Before I left, I did something rather drastic (for me ;) and dyed a streak of my hair blue to match my businesses cards. Crazy, right? I know, and I have to say, I felt kinda cool for doing it. I mean really, if not now, when? Here I was before the blue really faded:

And here are the postcards I took with me to be used as trades:

Now, the first class we took was a two day workshop with the ultra cool Jessie Reno:

We worked on creating layered backgrounds rich in color that came from using only red, blue, yellow, black and white acrylics. It was amazing to see what he could pull out of that:

One of my backgrounds created in class

And what Jessie was able to do with his!

He was such a dynamic teacher. He used the word "Dude" a lot (which we were all repeating by the end of the two days) and really encouraged us not to think to much. The objective was to let go and just create, allowing the magic of the experience to influence the pieces. He used his hands and fingers as his main tools, mixing colors in his palm as he went. I will never think of paint the same way again . . . .

Our last day of instruction was a one-day class with the completely delightful Mindy Lacefield. Honestly, I loved her. She was sweet and kind and gracious and her class was right up my alley (what with her cool colors and little girls):

Mindy at work

One of the backgrounds I created in class

Some class examples

As with Jessie, Mindy encouraged us to let go and play. We doodled, made messes and used neon colors! We worked on painting girls in her style and tapping into our child-like selves. I adored her and would encourage anyone to take advantage of her courses, you'll be thrilled that you did!

And when our classes were over, we went out with the beautiful Heather Henry and her hubs for dinner in Portland!

Daniele, Heather and I

(I also received a gorgeous painting from Heather

which I will show in an upcoming post)

The last day of our trip was spent as tourists, doing touristy things and seeing as much as we could of the city in the few hours we had left:

Using The Max

Hidden hearts

Art everywhere. Including Daniele's pink hair!

(See why I was inspired to color mine blue?)

The infamous Voodoo Doughnuts

And my goal to find: coffee art!

It was a great trip - full of art, inspiration and a little girl time. After all, what more could a busy Mommy want than that? 

Thanks for coming along with me,

Kristin xo