Gloria J Zucaro's "Door County Trip"

On July 14, my friend Judy and I left for Ellison Bay in Door County Wisconsin.  We were going for a five-day workshop at The Clearing Folk School.  It is about a six hour drive from our area in Illinois, but the traffic was light, the weather was sunny and we arrived ahead of schedule. We checked in at the lodge to pick up our information packet with our name tags, room numbers and Clearing general info.  Some of our friends were already there, so all were greeted with big hugs and lots of enthusiasm.  Our first meeting of the whole group of 15 artists signed up for our workshop, the group of ten poets, and the group making marbleized papers and boxes was at supper at 6 PM in the lodge.
                   
There was also a gentleman there with his wife, (who was a painter).  He was doing "Individual Studies", which means he worked on his own without instruction.  
After dinner there was a slide show of the origin and history of The Clearing which was originally the summer home of Jens Jensen the landscape architect. Here is a quote from The Clearing website.

"The Clearing was founded in 1935 by Jens Jensen, a Danish-born landscape architect. Many consider him to be the most important American landscape architect and The Clearing his "great work."
Before founding The Clearing, Jensen achieved international recognition for designing many of Chicago's parks, along with the private estates of Armour, Florsheim, Henry and Edsel Ford and many other important Midwestern industrialists. " 

After the slide show all the guests sat in a large circle and introduced themselves, told where they were from and what workshop they were taking.  Judy and I were taking...

Oil Painting & Pastel: Creating Painterly Impressions From Your Photos Or From Life

Frankie Johnson

 We had all our classes in "The Schoolhouse" which actually has more the feel of a church.

Below is an interior picture of one of the cabins, although not ours.  But they are all similar with two beds, two desks/night tables, two closets & drawer sets, and a bathroom with a shower. The exterior view is of a cabin that now has a computer hook-up in the shed off to the side which is now enclosed. This is called Mertha's Cabin. She was the caretaker before and after Jensens' death. We were in cabin #8 and there is also a dormitory that has 5 beds, two bathrooms and an extra sink and mirror.  Each person has their own closet & drawers, too.  I had stayed there several times before rooming with Judy.

       

Some photos of some of the 128 acres.                                                                              

Here is the "class" photo from last year, this years' hasn't been put on the website yet.  This is when  Judy and I took Plein Air from Bonnie Paruch.  But a lot of the same people that attended Frankie's class this year are in this class also.  I am the blonde in red in the center back row right.

My friend Judy is the fourth person in from the right in the blue shirt.

          Tomorrow I will start posting some of my pastel paintings I did while at The Clearing.