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November 30, 2010

Family Video Fun

Just had to share these two little clips of my son Wes and his wife, Lori having fun with the ibooth.  My Grand-daughters come by their sense of humour and feel for drama honestly.  They all keep me laughing! Hope you get a chuckle too. And just so you know what they actually look like I've included a little family photo :-)





Lori mentions looking like Joan Jett . And because I can't leave my grand-daughters out of it. One of Lyvia and then Grace.



November 29, 2010

Winter Wonderland

This year daughter and dad set out to cut down our Christmas trees, we've been doing this since our kids were young.  Unfortunately I've had to give up this fun family tradition because of the fibromyalgia, but my hubby, Jean and gang always have a great time and bring home some wonderful trees.   (Our son and his family now do this together as part of their Christmas tradition)

My daughter, Olivia is a keeper of traditions, she loves them and this year is no exception.  What a day for it and she got some great photos too!

I laughed as Liv explained that this year she was doing an old-fashioned tacky tree!  Golly if you could have seen our first Christmas tack trees you'd know why I was laughing.  Guess who's stash of old decorations she raided for her tree.

Trees were selected....





and cut down...






while our old dog Jazz, forgetting she is now an old dog, ran herself lame!











Great job you two!

November 25, 2010

Blogging Connections

Golly it's been awhile since I've posted something.  I've got a huge canvas on the go but no pictures to share just yet, so I'm using one of my sister, Ree's photos for visual interest.  It's great having my three talented photographers because I have an endless supply of pictures to use.  This was a little woodpecker that joined Ree while she was taking shots of the old machine shed and sunset, isn't he cute?

Right now I've got 20 some watercolour pages, gessoed and tissue paper for texture laying over every flat surface in my loft!  My grand-daughter Grace's class has asked me to come and help them make the bookmarks I posted about here.   Their class keep a blog and I've been visiting and leaving comments and Grace's teacher thought it would be a fun connection to show how blogging can lead to community and friendships.  We could tell them a story or two of just how important our community of artful bloggers have become to our lives couldn't we?  It's amazing the feeling of kinship that develops through blogging.

Grace will be my assistant and we have talked every night about our plans.  And my hubby, Jean, immediately said he wanted in on it, so I have a secret fun weapon coming with me.  Jean is a riot, kids love him and he's kept me laughing for over 34 years!
Here's a funky clip of Grace using ibooth the girls have so much fun playing with this thing.

I know my American friends are enjoying Thanksgiving and the kick off to the holiday season. Be blessed this Thanksgiving with much joy and laughter and good times.  We have only these present moments to savour for the past is gone and the future can't be lived yet.

November 16, 2010

My sister Kel, urged her readers to visit the blog of a favourite Photographer/Writer, David DuChemin.  I did as she asked, and it is one of the most powerful things I've read in a very long time.  Life is short, as David has said so beautifully, so honestly, so profoundly.


"the realization that life is short and no one is going to live my life on my behalf. And one day soon – because it’ll seem that way, I know it – my candle will burn out; I want it to burn hot and bright while it’s still lit. I want it to light fires and set others ablaze.
Life is short. Live it now. And live it with all your strength and passion now. " David DuChemin


Note: Photo taken by my sister Ree

November 15, 2010

Creative Juice

Well my current canvas is hung up for the time being, I'm wanting to add some detailing to certain aspects of the piece but don't have the materials on hand to complete the job.  So it's quietly waiting for me to get what I need and finish the job :-)

So I've just been playing in my Visual Journal, creating a few backgrounds, adding some elements watching as things slowly begin to bubble up and form on the pages.  Again not great pictures but it's better than having none :-)

I'm down to the last chapter and a half of Point Zero.  The author continues to challenge me and give the most amazing insights, wonderful snippets that strike a nerve.

"Why did you keep painting if you felt bored?  Boredom has its own wisdom.  Listen to it.  Resistance is a bell ringing for change.  Remember that you are always interested in something, but it may not be what you expect and is often unknown.  Search for it. Questions will help you find what really interests you. No need to push and force what resists."


I don't know about you but this really struck me as significant.  How many of us have set out to paint something, set some goal to complete and then after a time or maybe even right away felt totally bored with it?  Abandon it!  What a thought. Find what really stirs your creative juice?  There's a notion!

"If a place does not evoke any response, it means it is not ripe yet or that it does not need anything.  Go where your energy call, not your thoughts."
"It's your privilege as a painter to go with your intuition no matter how inconsistent it seems."


Do you know what I'm realizing?  All too often we drag the 'rules' of our everyday life with it's clear agendas and expectations into our art.  It doesn't belong there and will wind up hanging you up creatively.

"Don't label every experience a creative block.  Creation moves through all kinds of terrain.  If you are neither bored nor tired, keep painting."


Well my gosh could it be any simpler or more clear?

November 10, 2010

The Journey Back



Since I began painting not quite 2 years ago I’ve made the journey back  to my truest self.  A return to innocence, where trust prevails and faith deepens.  On the canvas, everything comes out, there is no holding back for if I do I’ll not find rest from the work. It will hound me in my dreams, leave me preoccupied and full of disquiet.  If you had told me art would have such a pervasive impact on my spirit  two years ago I would not have believed it possible. How wrong I would have been.  

It’s as simple as it is profound.  I find my Creator and I find myself in the act of creating.  Colours, textures and brush strokes all come together to reveal something of my interior world, responses to my outer world and His grace flowing along each vein of colour sprawling across the canvas.  I am enriched and deepened in ways I have no words for, I just know it to be true. 

My art would not exist outside of the intricate connection between my Creator and his imprint on my being, I cannot separate the two.  We are one, He and I and I just follow the flow of His life played out within me.  

November 8, 2010

Bookmark Scraps

Thought I'd share a fun little use for left over art pieces, canvas or water-colour paper.  My grand-daughter's and I had fun using up some of the edges and pieces left from abstracts that I had cut to smaller sizes.  With the watercolour paper we trimmed and then folded it in half and used gel to glue it together. So you have a double sided art bookmark.

The first one is left over from a canvas that I have cut and plan to use as covers for art journals.  It was an inexpensive canvas that I had gotten when I first started working with canvas.  Believe me, it will make  much better book cover art :-)

Then my sister Ree asked me for another bookmark or two for her many photography books that she is reading.  I had made her and Kel bookmarks out of scrap leather pieces some months ago.  Nothing elaborate here, but if you have grandkids or readers in your family they just might like a little piece of your art to use as bookmarks.


It is so much fun to see how my girls tackled their art.  Grace being 9 knows where she wants to go with her art work and leaves Lyvie and I in the dust!  That's Grace on the phone talking to me :-)

Lyvia at 7, feels it's very important that she choose just the right colours, beads, and decorations so we laboured together to create 3 bookmarks while Grace put together 4 of her own. That's Lyvia by the tree, her Dad took this with his iphone & app.  Very cool effect.

 Next time, they want to paint the canvas themselves and then cut them up for bookmarks.  Love seeing them fall in love with their own creations, if I can give to them that gift early on then I feel like I've done something extraordinary!

November 7, 2010

'Complete' Not Quite

Thought I would post a few macro shots of the 25x30" canvas I'm working on using the insolation foam for major texture and a focal point for the direction of my canvas.  Painting it has been an experience!  It's just stunning the variations and eclectic effects you can get using this stuff.  Though I played with a few colour palettes, in the end I've gone monochromatic with some finely painted on copper and brass metallic highlights.

I've only managed to capture some close ups as the full canvas is not photographing well so I'll need to wait until all three of my personal photographers are home next weekend.  That would be my two younger sisters, Ree & Kel and my daughter, Olivia :-)

So I'm calling a halt and hanging it for awhile so I can study it, see if or what more I'd like to do before I call it, Complete.  Waiting patiently on the sidelines is the 24x36 canvas with the foam waiting to be sculpted, prepped and painted.  I'm waiting to catch my breath or be inspired, whatever comes first!

November 2, 2010

Series Anyone?

Just got my first teaching DVD 'Start Abstract Painting Today!' by artist Robert Burridge.  He has several teaching DVD's in a full range of styles but I'm focused on abstracts.  Oh my gosh, he is fantastic, right out of the shoot I've learned several things.  Like the importance of doing a series of paintings.  You learn so much as you keep bringing a painting to the same point and then with each one allowing your creative juices to take it just that little bit further. Reminds me of the power of repeat from Point Zero.  I'd recommend any of his DVD's because he is so animated, funny and just power packed with great ideas and information.  I expect you will be hearing lots more about his DVD in the next few days.  Check him out, friend him on Facebook and treat yourself to a boost of pure creative energy!

First wash of colour to my strangely textured canvas, long, long way to and land knows what the end colours will actually wind up being :-)

November 1, 2010

Halloween Ball

Okay as promised here is a picture of Olivia in her full costume for the 'Ball' not exactly the Cinderalla look she's got going on :-)  But first, just a reminder this is Olivia & her best pal since grade one, Marcy just before the Hair Show (they are both hairstylists)

And now when they transformed themselves into something other for the evening :-)  Fierce.


Experimental Texturing

Remember that experiment with insolation foam I said I was going to try, well here is my first whack at texturing with the stuff.  I've learned a number of things with this first attempt.

1.  Towards the end I realized I could control the flow of the foam better keeping the textured bubbles smaller, good to know for future efforts.
2.  That spreading the foam out with a plastic palette knife makes for a great effect and I'd do a lot more of that next time.  Again doesn't help me with this first canvas...darn it!
3.  It would help if I had a better idea of what I wanted to achieve as far as design layout goes.  This I don't know if I'll ever pull off because most times I only have a vague idea at best of what I hope to accomplish.  For me it's more experimental in approach, trying out some ideas and see where the texture and paints take me.
4.  Be prepared to use up the whole can of foam on 3 or 4 canvases at one time as this stuff is impossible to clean up enough for reuse.  It's sticky as all get out until hardened and once it's hardened there is little you can do to get the spray nosile cleared out!

I expect to be adding to this 'learning list' once I begin painting this deeply textured canvas, again I'll keep you posted :-)  I wish I could say that the idea for using the foam was my own, but I got the idea from a wonderful abstract artist I came across recently, Jan Sitts, love her work, original and vibrant!  That's something I've learned about myself, I'm hesitant to try applying new techniques to a blank canvas for fear of totally ruining the valued canvas!  When it comes to trying out peoples ideas I have no problem, but working with some medium that I come up with, then I get concerned that what I'm using will either wreck the canvas or not work with the paints and be a complete waste.  See my rationalization is, I'll work with it until I get it to someplace I want to go, as opposed to doing something that you just can't fix because the canvas itself is ruined.  Go figure, it must be the very practical influence of being raised by two very practical people, who by the way would be appalled at the waste of a can of good insolation foam :-)
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