Poncho people sketch

Today was busy. This morning I attended my workout and pool session. This afternoon I allowed myself a bit of art time.

1. I ordered some paint and a small set of caran d'ache water soluble crayons to add to my collection.
2. Called my mom to solicit a creative "sampler" for my altered book project. Got some great ideas just by talking it over from another creative angle. Always helpful and fun.
3. Then I dug through some old sewing stuff hoping to find some remnants from my previous creative activities that I might use in my altered book project. Found them.
4. Made some paper which I may use in my tulip project. Time will tell.
5. Spent 10 minutes tidying up in my art room and found this little watercolor sketch from April 30, 2008. Bonus! That day Sharon asked the students to lay down several small adjoining wet washes in various colors in our sketchbooks. Then we looked for people shapes in our "blobs" and I saw these South America figures. A few defining marks for hats, legs and poncho trim and I had this fun little watercolor sketch. It definitely demonstrated how simple marks can be figures.

All in all, a good day... I enjoyed it and I hope you had a good one too!

Stumo's Tigers

I sketched and painted these tiger lilies (4x6) this afternoon at the home of Maureen and Stu McLellan (aka "stumo"). They have a wonderful backyard full of all types of perennials, shrubs, and annuals including these amazing lilies in St Albert, Alberta. I had my sketchbook and paint out for about an hour this afternoon and I enjoyed it so much. I think I'm becoming addicted to this daily painting business - I need the outlet. We also had a nice relaxing visit but we forgot to sign Stu's cast (sorry).

Maureen and I took the opportunity to visit a couple galleries in St Albert yesterday. What an amazing art scene they have in their town - just lovely.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as I enjoyed mine!

Chippy Waiting 6"x8"

Today I'm posting a page from a sketch journal that I've been puttering in this summer. In June we sat out on my veranda with the dogs - our two are Kassie 14 yoa and Farley 3 yoa, plus Kim's dog Chippit 4 yoa. On this particular day, Chippy was watching and waiting for Kim to return. He was patiently waiting on the love seat and I quickly drew this up with my trusty sharpie and added some watercolor later. I think I captured his "slumped" mood.

I have some very exciting news to share. I had a call from Artpoint Gallery this afternoon and they have accepted three of my paintings for the "Unseen Art Exhibition" which runs this August!!! I submitted 10 images and they want me to decide between my 3 landscapes or 3 of my still life paintings. A conundrum for me - decisions, decisions. I'll keep you posted as I go through the process - this is ALL new to me. I've never exhibited anything and I have no idea what to expect. Fortunately, this show is all new artists so we're in the same boat - all newbies! Wish me luck!

Enjoy!

Plein Aire at Lloyd Park

The birds were very busy yesterday. Whole families of ducks were making grand forays into open water (training little ones?). The reeds were quite colorful from bleached out to intense burgundy and greens. I needed to do a warm up sketch and this is it. Notice there really are no trees here. I've been working for a little while today on trees... I hope to have a little painting done that would prove that I'm breaking out of my "tree funk". My goal this week is to paint trees, paint trees, paint trees, etc you get the picture. I'll be hard pressed to put a landscape out there that doesn't require trees. Quite difficult....

To close, another quote from Winston Churchill's "Painting as a Pastime" "Painting is complete as a disctraction. I know of nothing which, without exhausting the body, more entirely absorbes the mind. Whatever the worries of the hour or the threats of the future once the picture has begun to flow along, there is no room for them in the mental screen. They pass out into shadow and darkness. All one's mental light, such s it is, becomes concentrated on the task. Time stands respectfully aside, and it is only after many hesitations that luncheon knocks gruffly at the door."