April 6, 2024
Each Spring, Winslow Art Center of Seattle organizes and hosts their Spring Fling! For four days, back-to-back live Zoom workshops are offered, featuring artists skilled in a wide range of media. Each workshop is free, a full hour long, and may include talks, demos, or a work-along. And all of the workshops are recorded for unlimited playback in case you miss one or all of the live sessions or want to watch one or more over and over again!
Each workshop is fascinating; there’s always something new to learn from all of the professional artists. But one work-along session presented by artist, educator and naturalist, Jean Mackay, I look forward to with exuberant excitement! Jean has been actively observing, illustrating and sharing, through her blog, stunning watercolor paintings of her daily encounters with nature for the past 20 years. Jean’s knowledge of wildlife and the many wonders found in nature are reflected in her illustrations. But there’s more! She always provides helpful tips and techniques pertinent to the development of her pages.
For Spring Fling! 2024, Jean’s workshop was all about creating realistic looking bird eggs. I’m not sure how she managed to cover so much material in a very short hour, but she did. Beginning with a bit of bird egg natural history (just enough to whet the appetite for more), Jean jumped right in by describing 3 basic techniques for sketching egg shapes. Defining edges, shadowing, coloring and marking eggs came next, and before I knew it, time was up!
Somehow during the excellent, well organized presentation, I felt compelled to try a sketch of my favorite nature journaler, Jean Mackay. Perhaps not as good as my eggs turned out, but a pretty recognizable likeness, even if I do say so myself!
Thank you so much Jean! Every minute was a joy!
You too can follow Jean’s artistic journey! Check out her webpage and subscribe to her blog at: http://www.jeanmackayart.com
And if you’d like to give egg painting a try, for free, the Winslow Art Center’s webpage at: http://www.winslowartcenter.com
a curious nature 
Wow! What can I say…this post was an unexpected surprise. You managed to cram an hour’s worth of information on a single spread, plus create some very nice eggs. Well done! Thanks for attending!
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thanks Jean! I loved the workshop!
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Fabulous, Barb! I love attending Spring Fling as well, mainly to always attend Jean Mackay’s workshop, and also this year, Molly Hashimoto’s session! I wasn’t able to attend live, due to a very exciting field trip (I’m working on a blog post!), but I’ll tune in for the recording. I’m so impressed with all of the information and sketching you got on your pages and a sketch of Jean, too! I’m so intrigued by the 3 egg painting techniques — yours really pop off the page with excellent shadows between them for definition. Thanks so much for sharing!
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Thx so much, Karen! Jean’s workshops are always wonderful! And I watched Molly’s session live also.can’t wait to read your field trip post!
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Thank you for bringing the Spring Fling to our screen. Incredible creative work, Barb! Sounds like an enriching and educational opportunity for everyone involved and a chance to connect with others. BTW, I haven’t forgot about sharing the amazing Paper Airplane drawing you did for my poem. 🙏🏻
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Thank you so so much, Michele. Your comments are spot on. Spring Fling! Is always a fun way to connect with lots of artists while learning overboard happens. Really appreciate your comments. And no worries about resharing the poem and my illustration. You’ve been crazy busy writing and posting so many wonderful poems!
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Those type of gatherings are so very special. 🙏🏻
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