It was a beautiful week in August for Jerry Brommer’s class here at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. Even though this was a studio class, everyone appreciated the wonderful weather.

I had a lot of fun checking out what the class was doing each day. They were creating such fabulous surface textures.

Almost had to put on a sun filter on my camera to take this picture of Glenn in his neon shirt. Love this man’s love of color!

The students in this year’s class took advantage for the extra table space to really spread out all of their working materials.

Plenty of animated discussions were enjoyed around the dinner table.

Jerry’s wife, Georgia, also came for the week.

Someone mentioned cake during the week, so of course, chef and chocolatier, Mark had to find a method of combining cake with lots of chocolate. The result was a tower of moist yellow cake with dark chocolate raspberry ganache filling and topping – not to mention the dollop of whip cream on top!

A sweet ending to a sweet week. Even sweeter is the news that Jerry Brommer will be back in 2011 on July 31 – August 6 to teach another workshop for us. His legions of fans were clamoring for a new workshop from their fav instructor and Jerry knows how to deliver! In 2011 he will be teaching a brand new workshop – Unique Surfaces for Watermedia. Don’t miss it!

In the last week of July, Stanley Maltman, master pastelist and all around great guy, taught his outdoor drawing and pastel workshop to a group of happy artists.

Here is Stanley and Jerry on one of the beautiful days that the class went out to the Huyck Preserve in Rennselaerville.

This is a view looking over Lincoln Pond.

There were lots of great spots to paint in this park.

Susan Story, Stanley’s daughter and a wonderful pastelist herself, joined the group on most days.

Jane R., a great fan of Stanley’s, always had a big smile on her face.

Everyone who ordered a box lunch enjoyed having it delivered to wherever they were painting that day — and I enjoyed getting out of the office for a while to deliver it to them!

Stanley Maltzman will be back again next year, August 15 – 21, 2010.

Can it really be more than a month since I last posted? Gads, where does the time go!

We have had a busy month, but I plan to catch up on the workshop pictures today because we still have 12 great workshops coming up this year and I want to get a chance to talk about them before they happen.

Now, to pick up where I left off — Koo Schadler’s egg tempera class. Here are some pictures that Mark took on towards the end of the week.

Can you tell which are the original images and which are the copies?

Koo’s class filled up quickly this year, so start planning in advance! Koo will be back at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops August 21 – 27, 2011.

While the class was busy in the studio, Mark, the man behind Life By Chocolate, was busy creating some fabulous new chocolate confections for Halloween.

Starting at the top left corner and zig zagging down to the lower right corner we have: Hot Chocolate (a handmade cinnamon marshmallow), Orange Cinnamon Ganache, Hazelnut Marzipan, Pumpkin Caramel Ganache, Smoke Bite (smoked peanut butter), Grand Marnier Apricot Cordial, Pumpkin Pie Caramel, Solid Dark Chocolate Pumpkin, Mocha Marshmallow.

This delectable selection is already available on the Life By Chocolate website and should soon be appearing at the stores carrying our chocolates (the list of stores is on our website, too).