Apples in pencil

Two apples. Two styles. One is the softer version using lots of finger-blending and stumps. The other using only pencil - no fingers, no stumps, nothing extra. Just the pencil and incorporating modelling factors. Different. I like both.

The left one, using modelling factors, is just really a take-off point for this style.

Framing and Matting Class and a Drawing

I went to a great class yesterday on Framing and Matting! I learned so much about both framing and how to cut a mat. We had to take mat board with us to class and cut a mat. I now know why mat boards cost so much to have cut. But after I've done a few, it'll be much easier. For now, I can sign up with the gallery for $60 per year and use their pro mat cutter any time I wish. Good deal!

I've also signed up to Drawing Tutorials Online. (See link in sidebar.) I'm blown away by all the fantastic info there on drawing. Each tutorial is a video, so you actually see Matthew Archambault demonstrate and draw, which is easier for me to learn rather than just reading about it.

Here's a sphere I drew using the modelling factors I've just learned about. In this drawing, there is a highlight, light half-tone, dark half-tone, reflected light, cast shadow and a turning plane. I missed out on the accent, though.

an honourable mention ......

My sunflower, "Heads Up" was entered into the Annual Juried Art Show of Focus Art and took an Honourable Mention in the Watercolour Division. I've just posted pics of all the results at the Focus Art Blog so if you click here, you can see ALL the results! (I'm the current blogmaster for their blog.)

ps - "Heads Up" is the same sunflower I use for my avatar here, in the upper right hand corner.

Special thanks to Cindi and Teresa!

Well! Two of my art-blogging friends have sent me this Kreativ Blogger award! Thank you so much Cindi and Teresa!! You both would be on my list to send it to - hmmmm, can I send it to you both again, do you think?

The rules for the Kreativ Blogger awards say I have to post 7 random facts about myself and then send this to 7 artists that I admire and, as Teresa so perfectly puts it on her blog, stalk. ;-)

First some facts for Cindi;

1. My absolute two best creations that I will ever, ever, EVER create in my entire life are my two boys, Zach and Mat.

2. I'm 5'6" and they both tower above me now. (My oldest baby is about 6' and my youngest baby is taller than his older brother now.) They make me feel so short!

3. I cannot dance. Cannot. I have two left feet. Seriously. Which means I am perfectly happy to be a wallflower. I have never danced. I dreaded it at school dances. I will never dance. Cannot. Seriously. (So, don't ask me, k?)

4. I love watercolour painting. I'm always 'thinking' it and often, throughout a workday, I'll plan a watercolour in my head, from start to finish.

5. A belief of mine is: you can never have too many tubes of watercolour paint or too many colours in your stash.

6. And you can never have too much watercolour paper (Arches, of course) in your stash!

7. I love to cook and bake. I used to make and decorate very elaborate cakes for my kids' birthdays.

And, seven facts for Teresa!

1. I am extremely pro-Canadian.

2. I once stood in front of an original Cheng-Khee Chee painting in Old Forge and am so impressed with him and his work that I had to touch the painting / frame just to physically touch something he'd created.

3. I have British and before that, Scottish blood in my veins and would love to visit the Scottish Highlands one day.

4. I am married to a French-Canadian whose first language is French. I am very proud of the fact that my two boys are fully bilingual, which was very tough for an English mother to accomplish.

5. Rick Mercer is one of my favourite comedians. He is incredibly funny and knows absolutely everything about Canada. 'Cause he's very pro-Canadian, too.

6. I hate doing dishes.

7. Claude Monet's water lilies make me go weak in the knees and one day, I hope to realize one of my dreams, which is to go and sit in his gardens in Giverny and paint. Right there, smack in the middle of the actual gardens that he designed and planted and painted. Absorbing his energy, right there in his gardens.

And now to pass this on to seven artists whom I admire very much .....

Well, there are so very many blogging artists that I greatly admire that I can't just pick out seven! So, to every artist who has touched my life, no matter how lightly, you've had a part in making me what I am today and I gratefully offer this award to you all!

(LOL, whatever is Teresa going to say about THAT! LOL!)

Apples and Art

I'm posting a few shots from the Apples and Arts Tour. Am I late or what? But as Tracy-Lynn Chisholm once wrote on the back of an envelope she sent me, "heck we're artists, we're supposed to be late!" (That's not a direct quote but that's the gist of it.) I thought it was just so fitting!

Our exhibit was in an old school that's no longer in use as a school. There were six of us there. Sandra has her permanent studio there! We each had a classroom to ourselves which meant lots of space! Outside each room, was an easel with the artist's name and one of her paintings. Unfortunately, I didn't get shots of all the paintings I had on display. Specifically the sunflower!

I had three tables of paintings, two easels and some on the back walls. There was also a table, shown in the last shot, where I sat working on some 'stuff' during the two day show.

Finished!

I don't know. I'm not so excited about this one now that it's done. It's very different from what I usually do. It was fun. I'll do more. But I wouldn't switch my natural way of painting for this permanently. While at the Apples and Arts Studio Tour, I put on a few coats of glossy varnish.

Here's a few crop shots. As always, click on each pic for a larger view. (The first one below is a bit on the yellowish side.) I'm not sure if I'll cut it to some of these crops or leave it like it is.....

I'm not even sure what I'll do with it!