Dori DeCamillis

In November I enjoyed an artist residency at Hambidge Residency Center in North Georgia. Here are a few of the thousands of images I took, mostly for my new paintings. To read more about my adventure, check out my Without a Net blog. The above image is from the Hambidge grounds. They own 600 acres in the breathtaking North GA mountains.  My studio table I'd break the internet if I posted all the mushroom photos I took. Here is one. There were several site works of art in the woods. We visited a few of the other artist studios.  We had a little fall color left. It was chilly, which meant less sweat and fewer ticks. The many pools and ponds made for good reflection photos.

Elk River Valley I drove around taking snaps on  quick trip home to Steamboat Springs to see family for Memorial Day. My student's need some landscape images to work from. Good thing I grew up in Paradise. Elk River Gore Range near Silverthorne Borden Pond with Sleeping Giant  Storm Mountain from Fish Creek Meadows Flattops Wilderness and Lake Catamount from Rabbit Ears Pass Old Truax barn on Elk River Road Sleeping Giant Flattops from near Sleeping Giant Storm Mountain from Sleeping Giant Wolcott Reservoir  Ranch in Elk River Valley Mesas in Kremmling, CO

Spring in Birmingham has been over-the-top spectacular this year. Here are some blooms from our yard. Above: Lenten Rose Creeping Phlox Solomon Seal Azalea 

Summer is a theme in some of the most recent finished paintings in my oil paintings classes.  Joyce White (above) took a not-so-perfect photograph and made magic happen. Marcia Amason will be having her own solo show at Red Dot opening in September. Becky Haines has been doing some lovely reflective still lives based on her own photographs. Glenda Weathers is experimenting with simplifying more complicated scenes. This was her first try and she really nailed it.

Recent regular morning walks at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens have given me less exercise than usual because of my very frequent photo stops. Our gardens are magnificent, free, and are so well-cared-for it seems like worker gnomes must be on duty at all times.

A couple weekends ago I visited Yogaville , Virginia. My intention was to take a yoga workshop with a teacher and writer I've followed for some years, Sally Kempton . I knew nothing about Yogaville, which, as it turns out, is an ashram, or Indian culture monastery. It's been there since the 1960s when Swami Satchinananda came to the USA from India. Apparently singer Carole King purchased the 750 acre property for the organization. I met two women, sisters, whose grandmother originally came to monastery. A subsequent five generations were born and brought up there, down to the sisters' grandchildren! I spent the weekend in yoga workshops, taking yoga classes, and taking long walks on the grounds which included a riverfront area along the James River, which is mightier than I imagined. I've been asked if it was a hippy dippy experience, and yes, it was, but not in a Groovy, Man kind of way. People wore comfortable yoga clothes, the food was vegetarian, and every...

River Birch I walked yesterday with my new Nikon camera, experimenting with my telephoto lens. I shot unceremonious subjects, mostly weeds and dead trees with a little surprise at the end. Forgive my ignorance of plant names. Weed flower Forest Weed flower Reflection Dandelion Flood remnant, high above the creek Buttercup Weed flower Poison Ivy covering tree Poo