This Drawing course is for people with little to no experience with drawing, but a desire to try something new to challenge their thinking, observation skills, and creativity. The lessons will offer a supportive, confidence-building environment in which adult learners develop foundational skills through a thoughtfully sequenced series of activities that build week by week. Beginning with the physical fundamentals of drawing—such as hand coordination and mark-making—the course gradually advances to perspective, proportion, and complex forms, with each new technique reinforcing prior lessons. We will practice drawing from direct observation as well as the imagination. By nurturing innate creative abilities and emphasizing focused, accurate observation, students strengthen both technical skill and self-confidence. The course also frames drawing as a meditative, present-moment practice, encouraging participants to slow down, observe deeply, and engage creatively—making the learning experience both enriching and restorative.

Week 1 — Dropping into the Slipstream: Entering Focused Awareness

Purpose: To help students slow down; quiet mental noise, and enter a state of attentive presence that supports learning and creativity. Core Themes: Letting go of performance pressure; shifting from thinking about drawing to experiencing seeing; establishing calm; sustained attention. Learning Emphases: Drawing as a practice of attention; Eye-hand connection; Awareness of line, space, and proportion without judgment. Typical Practices: Blind and semi-blind contour drawing, slow observational exercises, timed drawings that emphasize presence over outcome. Outcome: Students learn how to enter a focused, receptive state—the foundation for all observational drawing.

Week 2 — Working Within the Current: Deepening Observation and Visual Understanding

Purpose: To develop accurate observation while maintaining the ease and momentum of flow established in Part I. Core Themes: Staying present while engaging skill; Seeing relationships rather than objects; Trusting perception over assumption. Learning Emphases: Proportion, angles, and spatial relationships; Light, shadow, and form observing before correcting. Typical Practices: Measuring techniques (sight-size, comparative measurement); Value studies and simple forms; Extended observational drawings. Outcome: Students strengthen their ability to remain in focused flow while drawing with increasing accuracy and confidence.

Week 3 — Responding with Intention: Integrating Skill, Expression, and Choice

Purpose: To help students consciously shape their drawings while staying connected to observation and flow. Core Themes: Choice without force; Expression grounded in seeing; Balancing structure and freedom. Learning Emphases: Selective emphasis and simplification; Personal mark-making; Creative interpretation rooted in observation. Typical Practices: Longer, self-directed drawings; Compositional decisions; Reflective discussion of process. Outcome: Students learn to respond, using skill and creativity together, while remaining grounded in attention and presence.

Materials: All are available at Bayshore or on Amazon. Students will need: A blank notebook at least 8”x10” (this can be an art sketchbook or simply 8-10 blank sheets of copy paper per session), 2-3 sharpened 2B pencils, An eraser (white plastic art eraser, gum eraser, or kneaded eraser).

Instructor: Drusilla Hill

Dru Hill has studied, created, and taught art in the United States and abroad, to children and adults. She has worked as a commercial illustrator, graphic designer, fine artist, and teacher after receiving a BA/FA, an Associate Degree in Commercial Art, and MA of Education. Works by Dru Hill have been acquired by businesses and private collectors in the United States and Europe. She has shown in galleries and juried shows including: The Frye Art Museum, Northwest Watercolor Society, the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, Tubac Center for the Arts, and the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild.

A new understanding is emerging of the causes (and best treatment) of many chronic emotional and physical conditions that commonly resist conventional treatments.

This knowledge has emerged primarily from the field of trauma research.

This research reveals that buried or unprocessed stress can have a significant dysregulating influence on the nervous system, with serious consequences for our overall health, and fueling record levels of chronic anxiety, depression, pain, and inflammatory illness.

Most importantly is the recognition of our brain’s innate capacity for stress and trauma repair, called Memory Reconsolidation. The key to this reparative brain mechanism involves a shift from our cultural bias towards ‘thinking’ to a more embodied ‘sensing’ quality of attention.

A sampling of the skills that we’ll practice includes: Coherent Breathing, HeartMath skills, Acupressure Holding Points, Embodied Mindfulness, Somatic Focusing, Expression Writing, Vagal Activation, Right Brain Activation, and Vocal Toning.

Instructor: Steve Templin

Steve Templin is a retired Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Acupuncture Physician, and Biofeedback practitioner. He was also a certified teacher of several Energy Psychology systems from which this course draws, including: Touch For Health Kinesiology, Brain Gym, The One Brain System, and Educational Kinesiology. Now he’s a HeartMath Trauma-Sensitive Certified Practitioner and Embodied Mindfulness teacher focusing on chronic pain, anxiety, and stress-induced illness.

October 15: What About Bulbs – It’s Not too Late!, Aven Wright-McIntosh

This session will briefly review the history of bulbs and their role in Skagit County’s agricultural abundance, how to choose, grow and propagate them for best appeal in the landscape and a believe-it-or-not blooper session of questions she’s had from Festival visitors. You’ll be inspired to add these beautiful miracles to your garden before winter sets in.

Aven has staffed the bulb info/ordering booth at RoozenGaarde during the past five Skagit Valley Tulip Festivals answering infinite bulb how-to questions and taking orders from the throngs of enthralled tulip enthusiasts. Aven is from the 2025 Master Gardener class and lives in La Conner.

October 22: The Sinister Garden-Deadly Charms in Your Own Back Yard, Diana Wisen

Whether you realize it or not, you probably have some plants in your landscape that are toxic to people in some way. Our state flower, the Rhododendron, for example.  Learn about what plants are poisonous. And how to deal with them in your landscape. Please note that plants that are toxic to pets are not covered - see your vet for information.

Diana has been a WSU Master Gardener for over 35 years and has lived in PNW most of her life. She is on the Master Gardener Training team, in charge of the Recruitment & & Retention Committee, Chairman of the Speakers Bureau and serves on the Skagit Master Gardener Foundation Board. She’s a regular instructor at Anacortes Senior College. She manages the Hardy Fuchsia Garden within the Master Gardener Discovery Garden in Mt Vernon.

October 29: Container Gardening, Cathy Vink

Container gardening allows the savvy gardener to grow plants that need different soils and nutrients, right next to each other. It permits houseplants to ‘vacation’ outside in summer, then return to their indoor home for the winter. It allows plants to be transported with minimal disruption, whether to chase sun or shade, or relocating to a new home, miles away. We will learn the factors that make container gardening successful as well as those that can allow failure. We’ll talk about containers of all sizes and media, what plant varieties work well in containers and compare with raised bed gardening.

Cathy has been active with Skagit County Master Gardeners since 2024. This fulfilled a promise she made to achieve this on retiring. Following 42 years as an RN, she now enjoys nurturing plants while learning more about gardening every year.

November 5: Backyard Berries – Growing Blueberries, Caneberries and Strawberries, Lisa Wasko DeVetter

Discover the fundamentals of successful small‑fruit production at home. This presentation will focus on practical strategies for growing blueberries, caneberries (raspberries, blackberries, etc), and strawberries, including soil preparation, pruning, pest management, and cultivar selection tailored to backyard conditions.

Lisa leads the state-wide Small Fruit Horticulture program and is based at the Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center in Mount Vernon, Washington. She joined Washington State University in 2014 and her research is focused on blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, and strawberry crops. Lisa earned her PhD at the University of Wisconsin Madison.

November 12: Mosses and Lichens - Our Evergreen Pacific Northwest, Deborah Smeltzer

Discover and learn about two interesting life forms that are ubiquitous in the Pacific Northwest. Come hear about how mosses and lichens enrich our forests and our landscapes. You may be surprised at what they add to our environment! For each of mosses and lichens, Deborah will describe their biology and cultural characteristics, show portraits of the life forms, provide “fun facts”, discuss whether they are “friend” or “foe”, talk about how to control them when needed, and answer questions.

Deborah has been a Skagit County Master Gardener since 2012 and was the 2020 Washington State MG of the Year. As a lifelong learner and active Skagit County master gardener, Deborah supports annual MG Training, leadership succession planning, is garden co-coordinator of the Front Door Garden at the WSU Discovery Garden and serves on the Skagit County Master Gardener Foundation Board of Directors as Treasurer. She has degrees in Biology, Medical Microbiology, and Business Administration.

November 19: Backyard Wildlife Pests, Alison Hitchcock

Vertebrate pests (species with a backbone), while not as numerous or pervasive as disease or invertebrate problems, can cause problems in gardens and homes. This class will review common pests local to the area: how to identify them, what damage they cause, and examine effective management strategies for control.

Alison has been working in field forestry for 45 years and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Forest Management. Before retirement, she worked as the Department of Natural Resources Northwest Regional Silviculturist overseeing reforestation, forest research, stand management, pathology, and herbicide programs. She has been a Master Gardener for more than 25 years with a focus on teaching, writing newspaper articles, speaking to gardening groups, and assisting at plant clinics. Her garden on Samish Island has been visited by all the vertebrates that will be discussed in today’s class.

How Ideas Are Used as Instruments of Tyranny and Dictatorship.

Class One: An Introduction to Authoritarian Ideology.

Part One: Authoritarianism: What is It?

A) What is the Purpose of Authoritarian Ideology

B) How Authoritarian Ideologies Facilitate Political Control

Part Two: The Foundations of Authoritarian Thought.

A) Authoritarian Theories of Reality: Metaphysical Idealism; Metaphysical Materialism; Heracliteanism.

B) The Organic Theory of the State

C) Creationism As a Justification for Economic Dictatorship. 

D) Psychological Determinism As a Premise of Social Darwinism.

E) Subverting Political Morality by Undermining Our Grip On Reality 

Class Two: Authoritarian Mind Control: Epistemology.

Part One: Authoritarian Theories of Knowledge and Truth.

A) Faith: Why Authoritarian Ideologies are Faith-Based.

B) Skepticism: The Destruction of Knowledge.

C) Pragmatism: The Destruction of Truth.

Class Three: Authoritarian Theories of Ethical Morality.

Part One: The Ethics of Slavery.

A) Duty

B) Asceticism

C) Quietism 

Part Two: The Ethics of the Masters:

A) The Sophists: Skepticism, Subjectivism, and Might Makes Right.

B) Nietzsche and the Will to Power.

C) Existentialism and Post-Structuralism.

Concluding Remarks: Resistance.

A) How Regular Citizens Can Resist Authoritarian Ideologies.

B) How Educators Can Resist Authoritarian Ideas.

Instructor: Ben McBroom

Ben McBroom resides in Anacortes and has been an independent student of authoritarian ideologies—the ideologies that provide justificatory premises for dictatorships and autocracies—for over 40 years. Under the nom de plume "Aengus Song," Mr. McBroom has published three books about authoritarian ideas and presented a three-part lecture series about these ideas under the auspices of the Anacortes Public Library.