Next Week, Morocco!

Our long awaited trip is finally here.

Welcome to my new Substack newsletter! The look is a bit different but the content will be similar to my past emails, and I plan to write a bit more about my process too. You are getting this because you are already signed up for my emails, I’ve just changed the platform and it remains a free newsletter. It turns out I can now post a video (see below) and I couldn’t do that before. It’s a bit of a learning curve getting this going so please forgive me for any small bumps along the way. Besides getting this in your inbox, if you like you can go to the site to read older news and find other great reads from lots of amazing people. I’ll still be sending early access to all new travel workshops, (watch this space in October), info on new zoom classes (scroll down) and musings on current goings on. And of course the ART!

Please let me know what you think, or any suggestions you have, I love to hear from you! And if you like this please share with others.

---

Next week, my co-teacher Gayle Kabaker and I leave for Morocco. We will be in a beautiful Kasbah near the Atlantic coast. Luckily there was no damage from the earthquake where we are going. They want us to come. Tourism in Morocco was hit hard during Covid and to have another setback would be devastating to the economy on top of this new disaster. We are looking forward to meeting everyone there and lending any support we can. Of course spending time with our incredible painter guests is the best part.

Above is a peek into the sketchbooks that I created on our Morocco trip last year. The small notebook is the one that I take around with me to sketch, or I work out compositions and colors in a very free way. It’s a completely stress free notebook, it’s ok for me to have pages that aren’t working or I don’t like. I often go back to these as reference for future paintings. It is from Muji. The bigger one is a Strathmore 500 series mixed media where I do my demos and paintings. At this point I have over 25 of these filled with art. I still want it to be stress free, fun and intuitive but they are definitely more “finished” pieces. Yes, I paint over some particularly bad ones!

This painting is a view of the Medina in Marrakesh, it’s really much more crowded and busy than this, You need to watch out to be sure your toes don’t get run over! 18x18”

A man selling vegetables in front of a wall of rugs. 18x18”

I’m spending this week paring down what I need to bring on the trip. I only go carry on, which is a challenge for sure, I tend to overpack if I’m not paying enough attention. I don’t have the time for the headache of a lost bag though so I’m learning. Packing cubes are so great, I can stay organized as well as compact. We bring a painting apron embroidered with our logo for each guest so once those are given out I’ll have lots of space if I find some interesting things to bring home.

---

---

Our Next Zoom Class will be on Oct 22nd 1-3 EST and in keeping with the Morocco theme we will be doing a Creative Still Life painting. Creative, because we will probably incorporate other things besides still 'objects.' Maybe an animal, maybe a person, who knows? While we are there we will be photographing lots of beautiful moments and can’t wait to share and paint these with you! This is a donation only class and all levels are welcome!

Man selling creams, oils, spices in the Medina in Marrakesh. 18x18”

---

Paint with Gayle and Jennifer has a Patreon. We have behind the scenes info, tutorials, sketchbook tours, live zoom chats and more. Until Monday we are giving away a recording of past still life zoom class. It’s a fun space, join us there!

---

Thanks for reading AugustWren Art and News! This post is public so please feel free to share it.