Library Exhibit

At our local public library, in the hallway of their main entrance, there are four (or was it five?) large glass window showcases. One is dedicated to a local Featured Artist - a different artist each month. I am Miss July!

Here's a few shots of the display. (Click on any for a larger view.)

Tools for the Marbelized Rice Paper

Here's all it takes to do marbelized rice paper. A shallow tub for a few inches of water, ink, a brush or stick, rice paper and some very old towels. (They're going to be stained so ...... )

Not all rice paper will work. The smaller sheets shown here are Unryu rice paper and it does not pick up the ink. Cheng-Khee Chee explains it all in his dvd. I couldn't find any here, nor in Ottawa, so I looked on the internet and found Blue Heron Arts. Look for Mulberry Paper. On his ebay link, he states that it is Kozo and that's what I needed. (On his ebay listings, there are several with youtube videos of him demonstrating his painting.) I received the order of paper within one week, from California to Canada! That's fast service!

Marbelizing on Rice Paper

I've been really busy creating these marbelized works on rice paper, a la Cheng-Khee Chee! What a lot of fun! Now I need to meditate with these pieces, let them talk to me, discover what I see in them and then add watercolour. After that, I'll be mounting them.

This one is my favourite - kind of looks like a little hobbit house in a big, old gnarled tree with heaps of interesting 'things' around. Zach, my oldest son, tells me that hobbits are not tree dwellers but I'm sticking to my story.




Below is a slide show of others;

Colourful Carrots and Cabbage

Here's a few carrot and cabbage shots. I picked up some fresh veggies at the Farmer's Market but, as always, couldn't resist photographing them for reference shots later.

More drawing

Wow, it's been almost a month since I posted! Time has flown. There were some major issues with Focus Art, my oldest son graduated from college, a graduation party was planned and done, I've got the cold back again that I went on antibiotics to get rid of and am once more coughing a lot, (I can't even begin to tell you how tired I am of cough, cough, coughing all the time), the bp spiked up with a major dose of stress but I've managed to get it back down again, and a few more things that have knocked me down for a while. But, I'm back up again!

The drawing class is almost over. That's so sad. I really love it. You know when you hear something that makes a huge impact on you? Well, in last week's class that happened to me. I have always had this niggling little fear that if something happened to my right hand and I couldn't draw or paint anymore, WHAT would I do? (If there is anyone who can stress out over little inconsequential thoughts like this, it is me! That's why I have high blood pressure!!) Well, after doing a LOT of drawing with the non-dominant hand (in my case it's my left hand), Sandra (the teacher and a friend) said in class "now you know that you are not dependant on one hand for your artistic talent". Wow! This is so true! And in my warped case, so freeing...... One of the many left handed drawing exercises in class was to draw the face of the person across from you - drawing the right side of the face on paper with your right hand and the left hand side of the face on paper with your left hand. Honestly, when you were done, you couldn't tell the difference!

The drawing above (way above) is a dead tulip that sits in an empty wine glass beside an empty wine bottle on my painting table. The tulip was alive a few years ago but as it slowly died, I would look at it and think how much more interesting it looked than when it was alive. (I'm not usually that morbid, by the way.) As it became more and more dried out, I'd start thinking, each time I looked at it, "death becomes you". It's still there, still not falling apart either. I'll keep it as long as it doesn't flake out on me. And still, each time I look at it, "death becomes you".

The painting below was done from a still life set up. It was an assignment from class that had to show light and shadow. I find that after doing a lot of drawing with the left hand, when I pick up a pencil in the right hand, it just flies and feels so natural. This pic doesn't really show the life that is in the actual drawing. Those pears really do look a lot better than they show here!

Below is my Zen Garden. Some squares have sand, some have rocks, some have candles and some are empty.

Thanks Nick!

I thought I'd post an interesting comment from Nick about the waterlily .

"Lots of misconceptions and misinformation out there about fluid acrylic paint. Used transparently, it looks and behaves just like watercolor, except that it's permanent - which, depending on your technique and what you're painting, can help you or make things more difficult (it has to go down right the first time). Good luck on your picture, it's looking great!"

Thanks for the comments, Nick. I was ready to toss the paints (or sell them on ebay!). The part about "it has to go down right the first time" is the one that really has me thinking that I'll try it again. (But first, a regular watercolour of it that I've got drawn out, just read to pour.) It's the having to go down right the first time that caused the problems in the last one. I guess I'm so used to being able to correct, re-glaze, lift off, etc, that the 'go down right the first time' part just didn't happen. Next time, if it doesn't go down right the first time, I'll scrap it right away because, in retrospect, it was the constant adding to "the first time" that got me into the problems I was having.

There was one spot that I had sprayed off, as shown in Nick's dvd , Innovative Water Media with Nicholas Simmons, and I loved it - it looked just like the splash a frog would make after he jumped in the water. I mistakenly thought I'd tone it down a bit, glazed over it and lost it. That was another learning mistake.

The permanent part made it difficult for me but I swear, next time, the permanent part is going to make it easier. If it kills me, I'm going to get this technique down.

Okay, enough about the waterlily. Hopefully, I'll post some shots of it this weekend when I have more time to paint. The past two nights have been busy. Tuesday night was class night, which is fun and interesting and busy. Last night, Wednesday, was an executive meeting for the local art group, of which I'm now secretary. You know you're getting old when two late-ish nights in a row almost do you in.

Updates and Drawing Class

It's been a while since I've posted but .... here I am.

The Calendar Show is over and the two-week extension show we stayed on for is over, too. It was fun, it was great exposure but I'm glad it's over. Working a full time job, then putting in hours at the show on my day off on the weekend, and usually a night during the week gets to be a lot. But it was all a great success! We were at the mall for a total of three weeks.

My sunflower (which is the one I use as my avatar now) will be on the calendar! Over 2,200 people voted for the calendar paintings. Twelve were chosen - the twelve with the highest number of votes. Calendars will be available in the fall. All twelve of us were given a certificate and had to show our painting at the last meeting. That was traumatic, standing in front of the group. For me, anyways.

I've also started a Drawing Class. Sandra Taylor is the instructor and by the end of the session, if we all do our homework, we're going to be good drawers! She's making us work! And that's a great thing - to get a teacher like Sandra that pushes you.

In lieu of any painting progress shots, I'll attach some of the drawing exercises we did. Last class, we drew for the entire three hours with our non-dominant hand, which was in my case, my left hand. This is to get the creative part of the brain to kick in. So, all the eyes you see below are done with the left hand. The books / pencil were also done left handed, as well as the plain bottle. The fireplace mantle and the Bacardi cooler were done right handed.

Our homework was to draw every day for at least 1/2 hour, using the left hand for a lot of it. Also, find magazine pics of eyes, cut them out, paste them into our sketchbook / drawing journal and draw each with the left hand.

I'm finding that drawing with the right hand sure is easier after you've been labouring away with the left hand for a long while! Your right hand just seems to fly over the paper. I love to draw but when it's using the left hand, it's hard work.

I'm in the process of drawing out the waterlily on a sheet of hotpressed paper and plan on doing it the same way as the sunflower. Poured to begin with.

Anyways, here's the shots. (Bottom two are right handed, the rest are left handed.) Tomorrow night (Tuesday) is the second class.