While we were boating around Whidbey Island, I was able to meet up in person(see, I am a real person) with one of our figurative artists. Cary Juriaans lives in picturesque Langley and runs Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio www.whidbeyislandfas.com, giving classes and workshops with a personal touch. She came down to the harbor and picked us up and took us to visit her studio where she teaches her workshops. It seems very well set up and she has an impressive list of very professional teachers. She and her husband Seib took us off to dine in local restaurant Primo, run by their son and we had a very enjoyable meal and evening out on the deck, enjoying some of the last of the summery evening before the fall settles in. We polished off 2 bottles of white wine with much hilarity, trading stories and learning more about each other. It’s so interesting and fun to reach out and meet people, especially when you feel a good connection and click with them. I was going to meet with her this morning but she had to cancel at the last minute. I wanted to show her how a real database like ACT (rather than just excel and Constant Contact) could make her working life better and show her how I post to my blogs. I’m sitting in a café now uploading this post and pictures which I prepped on the boat. She’s also realizing that she could make more use of the great social media tools out there to push her little art school. Hey, use all the tools you can, baby.

Here’s one of her figurative paintings but she’s actually better known for her classical still lives. Whidbey island is having open studio tours this weekend but as our mini-mega yacht would only have space on the roof to park a shoe-box sized radio control car or helicopter, we will be limited to what we can get to on foot in Oak Harbor where we are headed for an American Tug Rendezvous.
Published on: Sep 24, 2010