My books

Here are the links for my 2 books. It took me awhile to figure out how to post it on the bookstore, hopefully I've got it right.




http://www.blurb.ca/books/3543032

http://www.blurb.ca/books/3543004


I haven't been in the studio for awhile. Getting ready for Christmas has kept me busy but I can feel that urge starting, I'm missing working in the studio I need to get in there soon. I am hoping next week I will be in there assuming I can finish my Christmas shopping.

Still experimenting

I have painted landscapes occasionally just in black & white, I find it an interesting change from using colour. So recently I thought why not try it with my perfume bottles?

I will need to work on the background some more but it is getting close to what I wanted. Although I am considering adding maybe just a touch of colour, maybe yellow or gold, not sure yet, I'll have to think about it.

Experimenting

Now that the studio tour is over it's back to work. I have been working on several pastels lately, trying new things some are working & some? well we will see. The first one is a view of the bottom of a river that my husband & I love to kayak on. The river is shallow, with trees on both sides & the sun often shinning onto the golden sands. I was having problems with the image, then after watching the movie Gerhart Richter Painting (great movie by the way, worth watching) & seeing him use his sqeegee I thought why not on my pastels? I have used one before for acrylic but never pastel. So I did it

It didn't quite do what I wanted but the result was still pretty good. I think I had to much pastel on the board. I'll definately try this again.
The next one I tried was a pastel that I had painted on Pastelboard. I had never used pastelboard before, it is a hard surface, like clayboard. I didn't like it. It doesn't have that same soft, velvety feeling of my usual sueded mat board. Because I didn't like what I had painted I was going to wash it off then thought maybe just wetting it I could get it to drip, it could be very interesting. So I sprayed it with water, a lot of water. This is what happened.

This is still wet but I think I really like this, can't wait to see it when it dries. I may actually buy more of this board just to do this if it stays like this.

Studio tour

Well the studio tour is over for another year. We had quite a few people through again this year. It's always fun talking to people about the art, explaining my process & getting their reactions. My daughter did really well with her scarves but then I knew she would. Her silk scarves are really very beautiful. Now we just need to find other venues for her to sell at. Now that the tour is over with it's time to get back to painting.

Count down to studio tour

I've been cleaning the studio, finally, and getting ready for the studio tour on Saturday. Actually I need to be ready for Friday because that is when the artists on the tour get to view the new artists. With my daughter joining me this year that means my studio will be part of the Friday night crawl. We've both been busy. Jara's been painting her scarves, baking cookies & I've been cleaning, wiring paintings & generally trying to get organized. I know it will all come together by Saturday but right now it seems like we still have a lot of work to do. Oh well back to work.

The books are here

It's taken a while but I have finally finished both books. They have been printed and delivered and they look pretty good. The colours are bright and I am very happy with the outcome. I will be selling them at the Studio Tour, Oct. 13 & 14 or you can see them at blurb.ca

Great news

I have just recieved noticed that this painting, Rainy Night 2, has been accepted into the Pastel Artists of Canada juried show at the Joseph D. Carrier Gallery, 901 Lawrence Ave. W. Toronto. The opening for the show will be on Oct. 11 from 7-9. The show will run from Oct. 5 till Nov. 10. Getting into this show has also qualifies me for Master Pastelist status, a great honour that has taken me a long time to achieve.

Summertime & the living is easy

I know I haven't been posting but it's summer (I haven't been working much either) Instead of painting I've been kyaking. Although I do take pictures, sometimes, when I remember my camera. The summer has not been a total waste of time, okay kyaking is not a waste of time, but it is not painting either. I have been working on two books of my art. Hopefully after all the editing & reediting & reediting is done, I will have them ready for the studio tour. And I might even get some work done.

Next show

The show at Beacher Cafe comes down tonight, while another one goes up Friday. The Stouffville Studio Tour artists will be showing their work at the town offices. This is a great way to get a preview of the studio tour.
I haven't been painting much, instead I have been doing admin. work. Submitted 3 pieces to the Pastel Artists of Canada juried show, it will be a while before I know if I get in. I am also working on a book of my art, it's a little more work than I thought, I am hoping to get it done by the end of summer.

Another pastel

I am still working in pastel for now. I tried another night/rain scene, very similar to the first one.

This one has a slightly different angle.
I am planning on submitting one or both to the Pastel Artists of Canada juried show, the deadline is July so I need to get working to finish them.

OSA show

The Ontario Society of Artists show is up and what a great show. The show is at the Aurora Cultural Centre, a great venue with 2 floors of art space. I was very impressed with this show & feel priveledged to have my art showing with such talent. If you get a chance get to the Aurora Cultural Centre, 22 Church St. Aurora, before the show ends July 14th.

Pastel

It's been a while since I painted in pastel. I'm not sure why, considering it is my favorite medium but I just seem to put it away. Recently I had the urge to work with pastel again & I'm glad I did. I love the feel of pastels, it is a very sensuous medium.

Here is the image that I have been working on. I loved the lights on the road as we were driving in the rain (I wasn't driving, I was taking the pictures) I still need to work on the sky a bit but I am quite happy with it. I have also started another pastel that I am hoping to finish soon.

Getting ready

I have selected the works to go into the Beacher Cafe, they will be hung tonight. It's been a bit of work getting postcards done, labels for the paintings, & of course finishing the paintings.

this is the one that was originally mainly red. I painted over it, leaving the image of Shanghai that I had printed on organza & applied to the support. I also added some partial stencil images & some dripping paint. I am quite happy with the way it turned out.

This one I scraped into, wrote on in crayon, & dripped on. A little busy but I think it works.
Now all I need to do is get the show hung. I am hoping there will be a total of 14 works but it will depend on the space, I won't really know until I get there.

New work

I have been working even if I haven't been posting (sometimes I forget I am supposed to be posting here, oh well one day I will actually get organized) I have been working on several pieces in my China series. They don't seem to be working as well as I had hoped
Here is the first one

It is getting closer to what I wanted but still not there yet. I'm thinking it might need to be darker.
Here is the 2nd one. I haven't actually done much to this one yet, still trying to decide where to go from here.

I'll keep working & hopefully remember to post more often.

China

I haven't posted for a while because I was away. I've been on a wonderful trip to China. Saw the Terracotta warriors, walked the Great Wall, saw panda bears, all of the things tourists do in China, but it has taken a little while for me to get back to normal. I think I am finally over the jet lag & almost ready to get back into the studio. My last painting will probably be put on hold for awhile because I need to start a series on China, I have some ideas. I'll have to see if they go where I want them to (sometimes they go where they want to not where I had planned on taking them).Hopefully next week will see at least the begining of the new series. Also next week I will be hanging a show at the Corner House restaurant here in Stouffville & the following month at Beacher Cafe in the beaches in Toronto, hmmm maybe I should try to get ready for these shows soon.

Still working

I am still working on this piece that I started a few weeks ago. I added the image of the Italian roof tiles int he bottom left corner & the image of the Colliseum.

After looking at it for awhile I decided I didn't like the colliseum image so I removed it. It is a transfer on sticky plastic so it was easy to remove.

I added the third key in red. Time to go think about this one. I know it still needs something, just not sure what.

Critique

A group of us get together occaisionally to critique each others work. We met Wednesday at The Station Gallery in Whitby. It's always a big help getting others opinions on our art but as we discovered on Wednesday, I think we get more out of the friendships. We have decided this is better, and cheaper than therapy. Some of the artists didn't even bring art to be critiqued. It's just wonderful to get together with others who understand the creative process (or lack thereof), who aren't afraid to laugh at ourselves, and to know that they are there as support if and when we need it.

New work

I have started a new piece. I started with a wood support

I then began to add colour

I than added more colour, some Japanese papers & some handmade papers.

I like where this is going, even though  I am not sure where that is. I'll have to decide what else to add, maybe more colour, not sure yet.

Critique

I really need to get more organized and start updating these blogs more. I took my 2 pieces to the critique, unfortunatly there was only time to critique one piece so I chose the one with the figure
John quite liked it the only comment he had was to increase the value of the white mark on the left side of the figure, so I will do that, sign it & it's done. Now to get back to work & finish some of the others that I am working on.

Critique tomorrow

Tomorrow, the Markham Group of Artists has their monthly meeting. We are having John Leonard come in to critique 1 or 2 paintings from each member. Here are the 2 I am taking, not sure if there will be time for both to be critiqued but at least one will be. Its always interesting to here what others think of my work, we will see if I agree with what he has to say.

Oops

Okay, I did something really stupid. In an earlier post I showed a painting that I was working on for a class I go to. The one that was started by another artist & I had to work on it. Well I finished it, took a picture & gave it back to Sally, the artist who's painting it was initially. And then I deleted the picture thinking I had uploaded it but of course I didn't. So now I can't show you what the finished work looked like. I can tell you I added some paper pages, some more colour, keeping some of the birds, & the buildings. Sally said she liked the final painting, of course I'm not sure she would have told me if she didn't like it, she's too nice. If I think about it I will try to get her to email me a picture of the finished piece. Meanwhile I wanted to show a couple of pictures of some silk scarves that my daughter has been painting, very beautiful.

Donations

So I almost have the two pieces finished that I am donating. The first is for the Jennifer Ashley foundation, the 2nd is for The Varley. I need to live with them for a bit to see if they are finished. They both are a combination of acylic & papers. The first also uses image transfers, while in the 2nd one I used stencils. Both of these use images of my daughter, she makes a great model.

Working on donations

As an artist I am always being asked to donate to various organizations. I am currently working on one for the Varley Gallery in Markham & one for the Jennifer Ashley foundation. Considering that the Varley one is due next week, I think I need to get moving. I will post them when they are done, hopefully soon.

Back to work

Okay, I haven't been updating the blog, I am really good at procrastinating, but I am getting back now. I have been working on several new paintings, as well as proposals for shows I am hoping to get into. Here are a few of the pieces I have been working on. They are small collage pieces.