Art + fun in the sun in Southwest Michigan…
...that pretty well sums up our amazing 2 weeks this past June!

The Spaces and Surroundings
The Pierce Cedar Creek Institute is an absolutely beautiful place, and the facilities and staff were a perfect match for our workshop. Their resident chef made excellent meals for us and went out of his way, to not just feed us, but do so with style (homemade, warm pecan pie, oh my!, and one of our “box lunches” was Salad Nicoise!). He made extra efforts to insure that everyone ate very well, including those with dietary restrictions. He was also patient with our occasionally loose schedule. We had to learn to pace ourselves so we didn’t simply explode from overindulgence!

Camille Doucet displays our experimental watercolor backgrounds.   © Gail Guth

Our well-lit and well-equipped classroom …before we filled it with supplies and specimens! © Gail Guth

Our classroom in the education building (conveniently located only a few steps from the main visitor center and cafeteria) was beautifully equipped with good lighting and a wall of windows showing off the lovely surrounding terrain. We had digital projection equipment, microscopes, and large tables on which to work. There was also a lab classroom and a computer room with four stations, and a very welcome coffee station.

The rooms in Meadow Lodge (our dormitory facility) were spacious, comfortable and pleasant. Since the dorm is fairly new and our group was the first of its kind to stay, there will be a few minor items on the wishlist for the future, such as increased internet access (wireless access is only currently available at the main campus buildings) and dependable air conditioning. Since our 2008 Summer Workshop will again be hosted by the PCCI, the staff assured us that these items will be addressed well before next year’s activities begin.

The surrounding Michigan countryside is absolutely beautiful, with rolling hills, meadows, wetlands, and woods. We had deer in the backyard nearly every night, rabbits everywhere, and wildflowers and birds galore. The PCCI facility has 7 groomed trails of varying lengths—one trail connected to the dorm property, which is a short distance down the road from the main campus. We regularly enjoyed morning and evening walks. PCCI’s access road is washboard gravel, to avoid negative impact on the wetlands just east of PCCI that lie on either side of the road. (Thankfully it's is very short [1.5 miles]—any longer and it would rattle your fillings loose!)

The nearby town of Hastings is charming and possesses several very good restaurants which we enjoyed on our “nights out”. Our plan to pick people up from area airports and train stations worked out smoothly, and we were able to transport several attendees to and from Grand Rapids airport and the Battle Creek Amtrak station. Many thanks to my husband, Bob, and Amelia Hansen (GNSI-Kalamazoo) for their volunteer driving!

Karen Charleston, Biologist at the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary, lets us get hands-on experience with a young trumpeter swan. © Gail Guth

Picnic lunch at the Binder Park Zoo. L to R: Michelle Krumland, Amelia Hansen, Joan Pierce, Frances Fawcett, Gail Guth, and Maria Hungsberg. © Caroline Bochud

The Workshops
Week 1 was varied and splendid: Frances Fawcett did a wonderful job introducing us to the art of Carbon Dust, and Camille Doucet’s Dynamic Watercolor Backgrounds session was just plain fun as we explored both traditional and non-traditional techniques. It was quite a wonderful transition from the carefully controlled carbon dust to the much more loose watercolor technique. We enjoyed two nature walks at the nearby Otis and Warner Audubon Sanctuaries, led by resident naturalist, Tom Funke. Tom’s knowledge of and enthusiasm for nature and the environment were a real treat. Cameras clicked away and sketchbooks came out along the trails.There is an amazing variety of habitats in the entire area, and we were treated to views of lovely lady slipper orchids, numerous wildflowers, and even a sighting of the very rare Henslow’s Sparrow.

Week 2 focused on capturing animal forms in motion. The week went amazingly well, considering the unusual heat (low 90s the first 3 days, atypical for this time of year). During our daily field trips, we sketched at several local venues (Michigan State’s Kellogg Bird Sanctuary and Kellogg Experimental Dairy Farm, Cheff Therapeutic Riding Center, and Binder Park Zoo) which provided up-close sketching of a wide variety of animals. It was fun and inspiring to watch the progress everyone was making as I moved around from sketcher to sketcher, discussing techniques and solving problems of capturing basic form and occasionally wrestling with foreshortening. We had an “indoor day” midweek, to take a bit of a break from the heat and traveling. We watched a few clips from nature DVDs and talked about the dynamics of drawing much faster animal movement than we had seen in our first two days, discussed reference materials, and had a visit from my friend’s well-trained Labrador retriever for a sketching session. The week ended with a lovely day and a half at the zoo—the temperature had dropped down to the upper 70s, so all the animals, us included, were active and happy. Since our home is only a few minutes from the zoo, my husband Bob treated us to a cookout Thursday evening.

During both weeks we had occasional visits from the student researchers and professors that are working at PCCI for the summer. There are a number of ongoing research projects there, and it was fun to discuss and share our art and their research work.

Special Thanks
Special thanks go to Cassio Lynm, GNSI Education Director, for his help and encouragement; Amelia Hansen, my volunteer assistant and driver for her support and sense of humor; Bob, for driving and cooking, and general support always; Frances and Camille for their excellent instruction and unflagging good spirits; and of course, the wonderful GNSI folk who attended, who were exactly what we expect from our great members: great fun, intelligent, curious, open, tolerant, flexible, and creative. It was a real pleasure to get to know them all, and to welcome several new members to the GNSI.

2008 GNSI Summer Workshop
We will offer another workshop at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute in the summer of 2008. We are working on the program and will do our best to provide another outstanding lineup of instructors and topics, plus an opportunity to relax a bit and enjoy a beautiful, quiet time in the country. We’ll post information as soon as we can so you can make plans to join us!

Photo Gallery
Click to enlarge!

Frances Fawcett giving an introduction to carbon dust. © Gail Guth

Working on carbon dust: L to R, Maggie Sullivan, Maria Hungsberg, instructor Frances Fawcett. © Gail Guth

Carbon dust drawing of a seashell. © Vicky Earle
The cameras came out in force during our nature walk at the Warner Sanctuary; there's a butterfly there somewhere! L to R.: Maria Hungsberg, Maggie Sullivan, Amelia Hansen. © Gail Guth

   Illustration combining techniques! (The weevil is in carbon dust, created in Frances' session; the background was created in Camille's watercolor session). © Philip Ashley

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