Getting out in the rain

For the six weeks I had my cast on it rained every day. I'm
glad we didn't get the heat we're finally getting now at the
end of August, but rain is hazardous for people on crutches,
so I didn't get out much.

Nasturtiums in the rain

Today it rained and I was so excited, because I could safely
go into the garden anyway. I have my walking cast, but it's
waterproof. I just started taking some pictures
of my flowers, and poof -- the rain stopped.

This small flower painting from a few years back expresses
the sheer joy I feel every year, when the snow leaves us,
the mud season is over and flowers start appearing everywhere.
We always have flowers in the house, but it's a whole different
thing to see their colour decorating every front yard.

Flowers at play
5" x 7"
acrylic on watercolour paper
sold

Have a flower-filled day.

A floral finish

The past few days have been busy, but last night I put the
finishing touches on the pansy painting I talked about
the other day. Ultimately a painting is finished when
it feels completed. See if you can see what's changed.
It's Saturday night and we're going to the movies.


Have an everything's-entertaining day.

Working the family thing

Here's my third and final sample of a Little Art Show
painting. The challenge in each case was to create
a strong painting, in my main area of exploration
--


portraits, on a 7x9" canvas. When Carolyn Megill
ran the show, she brought the canvasses to each
artist, on the theory that you were already
donating your skill. My son Christopher gave
me permission to use a photograph he took
of his beautiful friend, Neely, as reference. I'd met Neely several times, so I was familiar with her face. The final image was quite stylized, but it worked in the big room where the work was displayed.

The second shot is of the people looking at the paintings arranged around the perimeter of the
huge BMW ballroom where the show took place.

What else is happening? In the
world behind the art there was quite
a dramatic thunder storm tonight.
Steven and I and Zoey dog ran home
from the park, and got inside just as
the worst of it began.

Lorraine Roussel, a fabulous artist,
visited and we shared lunch today.

Have a delightfully friendly day.

Hanging out with art donors

One way to meet other interesting artists is to get
involved in communities outside your own area.
Toronto is so huge that that's not hard to do.
Flora Doehler, http://floramary.wordpress.com/category/bear-river/
and I met at the Don Valley Art Club, mid-way across
town from my home and studio -- it's true -- our paintings
introduced us. You expect friendships to arise
out of connections with your children's friends' parents
in your community, or fellow dog walkers in your local park,
but we actually met because we admired each other's art.
And Flora introduced me to Carolyn Megill, another amazing
artist and wonderful woman, who ran The Little Art Show (LAS)
for a number of years. I took part in three of those shows.
That project was in support of the Riverdale Art Walk,
and though I never participated in the walk, I supported it
by donating to the art auction Carolyn headed up that helped
fund it. My friends and I had a great time, and saw some amazing
paintings and photography. A classy event the LAS was put on in
the big BMW ballroom down near the Lakeshore, catered with
great food, elegant flowers, a deejay, and cash bar. It was an event
with a capital E. I was very proud of the small paintings I submitted
that helped that art community.

Here's one of them. The photo isn't as clear as it should be,
but you can see that I was working on the King Tut theme
at the time and couldn't wait to put some gold leaf on my
painting. The subject is Rosalind, my boss, whose three quarter
length portrait I did that year.

Through that event I was lucky to get to know Carolyn,
have been to her shows, and even bought one of her
superb paintings, but maybe that's a subject for another
day. It's late.
http://www.carolynmegill.com/

This artist needs to clean up the studio.

Have visually giving day today!

When the cat's away -- wait a minute?

Today is unusual because Steven's in Calgary. The house seems
quiet even though there are still five of us in it. The cats
immediately snuggled down on our bed, something they
never do, and slept deeply and peacefully. Normally Fiona
is not allowed on the bed, and rarely in the bedroom because
she's too rambunctious. Timbah broke my bedroom shutters
last year climbing on them to see a bird outside the window.
So he's not allowed in unsupervised either. Today they were
pretending to be little angels.

I've been paying bills, cleaning off my desk, and finally -- after
weeding, doing laundry and making dinner, -- painting. I'm
working on a little painting that I'll show you, but I know it still
needs more work. Right now it's gone overboard with a riot of
vegetation theme. Easy to get into with the entire backyard
garden a sea of blue forget-me-nots.

Did I mention that I'm reading an amazing novel? I did
yesterday. It's late now, and I'm calling it a night.

Have a good travelling day.

Big decisions, small paintings

It's the end of the school year, and the
end of high school for Sam. Today Sam is in the enviable position of having too many choices as he goes
forward in school.

He's loved his high school years, and choosing a university is a big step.

Here's a little painting I got
working on at night, after everyone
had stopped debating which was
the most intelligent choice, and gone to bed. I think I'll call it night kettle. Our electric kettle is modeled on the shape of the old kettles you used to boil on the stove. As you can see this is a tiny work. I'm trying to break out of my primary colour bias and use
grey. I can't say that I've got it
working yet, but here are the
first two stages.

I drew the image with a Sharpie
black pen on a small, gessoed canvas.
Then I began with a yellow and
light robin's egg blue ground. In
the second photo I'm beginning to
introduce a pale, and a darker grey
mixed with a deep Prussian blue for
a dark dark. Now I think I'll resort to my usual palette and bring
in some brights, and sparkling highlights.

Have a neutral day.

The joy of small paintings

I love creating large canvasses, for the
sweep of colour, the amount of paint I
can apply, the complicated subject matter I can portray, and the dramatic impact large paintings can have. Every now and then though it's a pleasure to create small paintings.

This painting was loosely drawn with a
brown Sharpie over a turquoise acrylic
ground. Using a reference I put down
the main concept and then created the feeling of California.

The lemon tree, window boxes and colour
scheme all reminded me of a perfect sunny day in the mountains.

In fact the actual painting is about 5"
square, so I tried to stay very simple.

I've just been at art class, and it's time
for bed.

Have a small and perfect evening.