This is my first slideshow produced with some terrific software designed by David Jay called SHOW IT FAST. It was done quickly with some templates provided and the music is one of many choices that comes with the software. Next I need to try my own music and set up my own custom show. Pretty cool stuff and easy to put online! He really made this software very user friendly.
See the Show NOW

Maybe ten years ago, I was feeling down and evaluating what I wanted to do with my photography business and studio. My luck was that the Florida convention that year had an incredibly inspiring and talented photographer as the platform speaker. Seraphina Landgrebe brought me back to the joy of photography. Listening to her speak and seeing her multimedia program and the spell she wove over us, I was able to get back to my joy of images and of the business of it.

Fast forward to San Jose this year. I found that Seraphina lives in Santa Cruz, Ca and I sent her an email that I was going to be speaking there and could I arrange time to meet with her. To my surprise, not only did she arrange time for me, Michael and Ryan and Veronica to visit her studio and home, but she came to my program in San Jose. She had just returned from magical Bhutan and Thailand and had a wonderful slide show to share with us and many warm stories. She and I shared our art together and I will forever be thankful to have had the good luck to not only meet her once, but twice.

Thank you Seraphina for being the wonderful, warm and talented person you are and sharing that talent with so many.

Seraphina has many photographic tours she takes photographers on and she brings her magic with her.
Check them out if you love travel, photography and journeys of the soul.

Okay, here’s one I use in my workshops for fun. Music does not start right away, so just wait. This is Joshua Tree National Park in California. Enjoy!!

You guys must think I am nuts because I went to England for almost two weeks and have posted NOTHING about it or any paintings from the trip. First, let me tell you, my hosts, Phil and Juliet from the SWPP are FABULOUS. Their family is wonderful and I can’t thank Colin and Terrie enough for dragging me from city to city. The kids, Sally, Lucy and Hannah were a delight and a lot of fun. The workshops went great and here are a few images from them. We forgot to take pictures at every stop as it got a little crazy in the heat wave we hit there. Lack of air conditioning clearly makes my brain soggier than usual!

And Another Workshop:

Here’s one of my favorite new paintings in England: Lucys English Garden

For Lucys English Garden I used some new Corel Painter IX.5 brushes from David Gell.
These are the textured acrylic brushes. Very cool to work with. David has other brushes, tips, articles and cool stuff on his Brush Port site.

I’m going to be teaching in Canada at the Niagara School next month. This is a great article (even if I say so!) that I wrote for them. This page won’t be available forever, so check it out now.

Niagara School of Imaging Marilyn Sholin Pro Tips: Naming Your Paintings

While visiting our friends, Paula and Don in Novato, we spent a day in San Francisco with our good friend and artist and inspiration, Jeremy Sutton.
We spent time in his beautiful gallery and studio and had a wonderful outdoor delightful Thai lunch right near his studio.

Jeremy took us to a wonderful mansion in San Francisco to see a commissioned portrait he did. It was quite an exciting afternoon. Jeremy introduced us to Bob Pritikin and we were thrilled to see the incredible collage painting Jeremy did for him. A memorable day! Thanks Jeremy.

The only way we could this great workshop was with the help from the fabulously talented artist, Paul Tumason, who loaned us his studio.

A million thanks to Paul and his help with putting this together.

I have shared so much with so many using Corel Painter. Here are a few paintings from some of my workshop friends.
From Larry Allan in San Jose here is a beauty of a painting from a reference image from Venice.

Also from the San Jose Workshop here is a beautiful abstract peacock by Eric Melander.

And just in case you think we don’t have fun at the workshops, here’s the whole gang together. Notice our WACOM stylus are being put to good use as always!

Those of us that use COREL PAINTER love, LOVE Dens Funky Chunky brushes. These were designed by Denise Laurent, a fabulous artist from the UK.
When I was in London in June, I had dinner with Den and her husband. Before we quit for the night, and I do mean QUIT, as we were eating and drinking a loooong time, I grabbed one shot of the two of them together. I thought it would be fun to introduce you to them as a painting. Here they are painted in Den’s own brushes!!

Den brushes are available in many places all over the net for free.

They are also on the DIGITAL PAINTING FORUM for free, but you must register and use your real name to register.
The instructions for loading them are also on the forum in the same thread. Once you are registered you can find Dens Brushes on the forum HERE.

We were away in California for almost ten days. Three days with our good friends Paula and Don in Novato, three days working in San Jose giving a program and a workshop and three days with Ryan and Veronica in Santa Cruz. On July 9th we were the guests of Julie and Bill on their beautiful sailboat. What a great day we had on the San Fran Bay!! See how relaxed we all are here!!