Watercolor Class

Jim enjoys watercoloring. He is shown above in watercolor class at Cedar Lakes. This campus is near Ripley, West Virginia and about 1/2-hour drive from The Brown House. He also attended a watercolor journaling class at John C. Campbell Folk School.

While Jim's teachers want him to use only the three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue), he has amassed just about every Winsor and Newton color (56 to be exact) in mostly unopened tubes. Add to that his three various miniature Winsor and Newton Cotman Water Colours pocket-size traveling kits containing an adequate supply of pan colors--still in pristine condition.

Most of his materials were obtained at Ogden Blueprint and Supply in Ogden, Utah. (W & N are made in England.)

Although he likes the aforementioned water colors, he likes Dream Catcher brushes made in Spain and purchased at Cheap Joes in Boone, North Carolina. Cheap Joes has a great mail-order business. We made a pilgrimage to Cheap Joes in 2005 and have one of Joe Miller's autographed journaling books, "JOE'S JOURNALS The Art & Tales of a Sojourner." He has the ability to make a few quick pen-and-ink sketches then dab on a few puddles of water color and create something beautiful out of a relatively ordinary scene.

We considered Boone, North Carolina a place to retire because of its location in the mountains of North Carolina and the campus of Appalachian State University. Having the Blue Ridge Parkway nearby was an added bonus.

While Elizabeth attends weaving seminars and classes, Jim finds time around the area to improve his sky and water technique.

He painted a winter scene for two of the couple's Christmas cards.