Every month I am amazed at how creative the hostesses of the Saucy Sister’s cooking group are with the monthly meeting activities. At one meeting, we made two kinds of liqueur and everyone got to take home a bottle of each. One time we made fudge and had lots of samples to take home. We have made recipes from around the world and even had an elegant tea party. Last month, we made lavender wands then cooked pizza in an outdoor oven. I hear sourdough is in our future.

Anje Olmstead, Fine Artist

We are very lucky to have so many talented women in our group including local artist Anje Olmstead. Anje and her husband have lived in Pioneer for five years. Her husband, Dennis, wanted to move from the Fair Oaks/Sacramento area to above the snow level. He missed the cold, snowy winters of Duluth.

Anje’s art career began at the age of 30 when she returned to college. She was taking an art class and asked her seat mate what her major was and she replied, “Interior Design.” Anje said, “OK, I can do that.”

She became a certified interior designer and a certified floral designer. She worked in both of those fields and also worked as a needlepoint tapestry designer for two national and one international company. She has also worked as a visual merchandiser for a department store, muralist and fine artist.

Anje currently specializes in collage art, using magazines as her palette. She says her favorite thing about being a collage artist is the challenge of blending colors. “I am never able to find a lot of one color so I must use my knowledge of values and intensities of colors to blend what I find in harvesting magazines that my friends deliver to my doorstep.”

You can see an amazing example of her work at Jackson Rancheria. In 2014, she was commissioned by the tribe to do a portrait of their deceased leader, Margaret Dalton. The 9 by 8 foot collaged portrait includes photos of tribal members and life events that visually tell Margaret’s story. It is installed just outside Margaret’s Café at the Rancheria.

Anje Olmstead was judged Best of Show, Professional Artist at the Amador County Fair in 2013. You can find her work at Sutter Creek Gallery on Main Street in Sutter Creek, Andis Wines in the Shenandoah Valley in Plymouth, Elk Grove Fine Arts Center in Elk Grove, as well as Jackson Rancheria Casino in Jackson. You also can find a few of her watercolors on FineArtAmerica.

If you want to try your hand at collage art, you are in luck. Anje gives classes at Andis Wines as well as for private parties. Contact Anje Olmstead at dna@volcano.net.

We Tried Our Hands at Collage Art

When we arrived at Sherri’s house, the tables were all set with a board, a plastic bag with magazine pages in them, scissors, a brush, a glass of water and the glue for us to use to hold everything together. We had coffee and visited a bit then Anje told us to look at the contents of the plastic bags and pick a bag and board we liked.

After we made our selections, we got to work looking through the kits and planning out our projects.

Anje had some extra boards so she checked to see if anyone wanted to have a different color.

Some of the participants had already been to one of Anje’s classes and some are just plain creative. I’m not either one of those!

The finished projects were amazing.

Both Anje and I took photos of the artists with their finished projects. Everyone seemed pretty pleased with their creation.

The Food

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Saucy Sisters meeting without food. Our hostesses had prepared some delicious sandwich salads (tuna, chicken and egg) and a delightfully refreshing Chinese salad. We didn’t cook during this meeting — we were too busy being artists!

Pin It and Save for Later

Joining a club like the Mother Lode Newcomers is a great way to meet new friends and gain new experiences. These clubs usually have many specialty groups, like the Saucy Sisters, so there is sure to be something of interest to you. Membership will give you new reasons to get up and get out.

What clubs do you belong to? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.