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Gayle Kabaker is a painter, writer, teacher and visual storyteller

What a Whirlwind Summer!

A wedding, Leland, a lake cottage, four workshops, and the grandkids waiting at home

Gayle Kabaker

Sep 7

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I began writing this a few weeks ago traveling home from my time in Leland, MI. What a whirlwind three weeks it was!

I’m making a pledge to you all. I’m really going to try to write weekly. I get way too bogged down with too much when I go this long without writing!

August 1 was my nieces wedding in Portland, OR. Here’s some shots of my kids and family - and me ‘paint bombing’ the lovely artist who my niece hired to paint them live at the wedding ( OMG what a hard job and just so you know, she ASKED me to paint on it - it’s a thing…) and I got to hang out with one of my fave painter girlfriends Erika Lee Sears!

Here’s me with my siblings at the wedding. I know. We need to be in a (gray) hair commercial.

Aug. 3, we got up at 4am to fly to Traverse City, drove right from the airport at 6:30 pm to Leland for a photoshoot for a commission. This had been set up before I arrived, knowing we had a very small window of time to photograph the family before they left the next day.

We arrived at sunset and gathered the four grandkids — ages 2, 3, 4 & 5 — onto the beach, with parents nearby. (If you’ve never seen Lake Michigan, it looks like the ocean. It is stunning.) Luckily for me, my own grandkids, ages 2½ and 5½, have taught me how to get the photos I want from little kids! I knew I wanted energy and motion, so I had them run down the beach and jump at the edge of the water, and we had such fun. After about an hour I had what I needed. And I got some gorgeous photos that I might paint for myself!

After my show opened and I had some time - I did some sketches from my favorite photos, and met again with the lovely couple, who decided on not one but two paintings — one for each of their homes, both around 30x40”.

I’m thrilled, and it made me realize I need to build the option of shooting my own reference photos into my commission process. It makes everything so much more personal. My commissions are usually painted from photos people send me — sometimes good, sometimes not. Only a few times have I gotten to shoot my own reference photos. Taking my own photos really creates the magic for me, because I know what I’ll love to paint. But I can’t show you until the commission is finished. Sorry!

The show went really well! I had about ninety pieces in the show that included about 55 nudes. The opening was really fun, I sold many of the pieces, and got lots of wonderful feedback on the work. What more could I ask for?

Here’s a good story. I’d made a painted print of the clothesline painting for two couples who were coming to Leland and wanted to gift it to their hosts as a thank you. They bought it many months ago. The timing worked out great as they were there during my show! We planned a time to meet at the OAB and they brought their hosts so they could receive their gift and meet me. Well, it turned out their hosts had come to my opening the week before and had bought two paintings! ( luckily not this painting) Here they all are below.

The staff at the OAB was incredible. They worked so hard! Photos from the show below include some happy collectors, and my brother and his wife who were the while reason this show happened.

Over the ten days it was up I taught four workshops! A one-hour “Anyone Can Draw” workshop to about forty people, a “Let’s Draw Monsters” one-hour workshop for kids — really it was kids with parents and grandparents. Seeing the drawings made later that a proud grandma showed me based on my postcards? Wow.

And another “Anyone Can Draw” session to about thirty-five men and women at a donor appreciation event, at the president of the Old Art Building’s gorgeous home.

My icebreaker is always a blind contour drawing exercise: two people face each other and draw their partner’s face without looking down at their sketchbook, for thirty seconds. I have to yell “Switch!” because it gets so loud with chatting and laughing. Picture thirty-five people, many of whom didn’t know each other, being ambushed at a party into staring into strangers’ faces and drawing them while introducing themselves. Several had no idea this party involved drawing, because their spouse got the invite and never mentioned it.

One male guest had this to say “ Tell me I’m invited to a party and they plan to play games and I will not want to attend BUT this sketching engagement with Gayle Kabaker was SO MUCH FUN! Thank you for including us!”

I’ve long wanted to offer these workshops to corporate clients and just haven’t had the time — but I’m ready now. If you’re interested, please write to me!

Then I taught a full-day workshop on Sunday. Jennifer Orkin Lewis and I always teach our weeklong workshops together, and I’ve taught plenty of two-day workshops at my place on my own — but never, honestly, a one-day workshop. Preparing for it, I realized what we teach is so much more than how to draw and paint. It’s about how we see what’s around us, how we decide what to draw and paint, and how we interpret it. I used this group to test: how much can they handle???

It worked. Drawing, painting from what was around us, painting from a model, and painting from a photo — all in one day. It was a lot, but they ran with it and made fantastic work.

After my first five days at my brother’s, I was given a stunning guest cottage on Lake Leelanau for nine heavenly days. I’ve long wanted to live near the ocean for part of the year, and after waking up to sunrise over the lake, jumping in after my morning jog, and lingering on the dock whenever I had a spare moment — yeah, a lake is almost as great as the ocean. As a thank you I painted my hosts doggies.

Are you still with me???

I got to draw some sailboats racing! A first for me. The amazing pro sailer Linda Lindquist took me out in her Boston Whaler a few times. ( I thought a Boston Whaler was an old wooden boat. It is not. It’s more like a Maserati.) Linda’s in a new documentary that is coming out called Mighty Mary . Mighty Mary chronicles the first all-women’s sailing team to contend for the famed America’s Cup, the holy grail for one of sport’s most elite and exclusive racing events.

I can’t wait to see it! AND to paint more sailboats!

For about two and a half weeks, having my whole focus simplified down to my show, teaching, feeding myself, and exercising? What a gift that was.

I told a wise friend I was a little nervous to go home to the chaos and mess of family life, and she reminded me that life is messy.

This summer was about gathering inspiration for what I want to paint next. It’s frustrating not to have much time to actually paint — but a season of gathering matters too.

Having the grandkids with us for two months was... amazing, and also really hard. We are used to a lot of quiet and the chaos can be… a challenge. AND - seeing how these city kids thrived out here was pretty special. Mona went to the Red Gate Farm camp at the end of our road. That was SUCH fun. Especially since our son who is now 32 went to their very first camp. That’s us walking to camp in the rain.

They went to Ashfield Lake pretty much at least once a day. I did a bit of drawing there. What a great scene.

I loved sharing portrait-drawing sessions with Mona, and we built a little portrait booth for her at the local weekly kids’ market — so fun! I figured I’d need to step in and draw a few to give her breaks, but she drew thirteen people over an hour and a half and was into it. She had very happy customers!

Jennifer Orkin Lewis and I fly to Morocco on Sunday to teach not one but two workshops. I can’t WAIT.

We’re announcing our next trip for Fall 2027 VERY soon and Patreon ( and past trip groups ) will get this info first. Join our Patreon - mostly because we have a lot of fun with twice a month Zooms - but also to be the first to hear about our workshops!

Join Patreon

Enjoy the last days of summer. I can’t believe it’s over.

XO
Gayle

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