Strange new world

Art group sketch
acrylic on canvas
16 x 20 inches

First of all I want to note that I totally missed that a wonderful
painter from Austin Texas, Julie Davis gave me the Passion
for Painting award. http://jdavisart.blogspot.com/
I saw my name on her blog several times. and it just didn't
register that she was giving me the award. Maybe I've had
my head in a snowbank. No... but I have been a bit snowed
under with marking. Sorry for all the snow
puns -- you probably have to be here to understand the need.

It's been a long time since I remember snow in April.
Way back in memory I remember one warm spring
when the leaves were fully out, the flowers were up,
and everyone was walking around in T-shirts and
sunbathing in parks. Wham! Down came winter with
her special snow slushies, and the whole picture
changed. People panicked because usually if it
does snow in April it disappears before you even
realize it happened. But this time there was lots of it,
and boy were people upset. A lot of people elected to
get a spring cold just to emphasize their disgust. There
was a run on Neocitran in the drug stores.

Today we had even more snow. This morning I had
to search for my inadequate picks for the bottom of
my boots because it was icy too. Steven put the snow
shovel away a couple of weeks ago, and had to get it
out again. North of Toronto the power was out, and
the roads were winter slippery. And at school
the trees and landscape looked way more like
Christmas than Easter. Pine trees were thick with
snow, the whole world was covered in six or seven
inches of the stuff.

This is another hasty sketch I did at my art group tonight.
This time I tried to do some wet in wet. I had
a bit less than hour. It was fun.

Have a through-heat-or-snow-we're-painting-so... day.

So it snowed today!

Our tiny backyard, wet and iced with snow.
Yes that's snow!

Woke up this morning after a restless sleep dreaming
about painting to find the predicted snow came two
days later. So there it was icing the rooftops, sugaring
the new grass. And the good thing is that we were
supposed to spray our two trees with organic dormant
oil spray yesterday because it was getting very warm, and
the buds were ready to pop. We didn't get around to it,
and now we have a few days grace. Yay!

April seems to be the fastest month of the year. It's
the end of term, time to prepare for the D.V.A.C.'s spring
juried show, tax time -- the days are glutted with work,
and the garden takes a back seat, just when it should
be first. So thank you snow.

Before the Dance with the cat
acrylic on canvas,
36" x 48"
working on the details of the dress

Tonight I worked on one of my big paintings, starting to
put on some detail. It snowed on and off all day, and it's been
a hard working day, so I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Have an okay-I-don't-mind-wearing-my-winter-coat-or-not day.

Kindness is good for you

Working on the big painting,
laying in an undercoat of cadmium red
on the chair.
(Too much red? -- Just wait!)

I was getting help today with my office work, and
got fairly lost in cleaning my kitchen (part of it)
as though the Queen might visit. I kept thinking
of R. Garriott's pie chart on studio time
http://rgarriott.blogspot.com/,
and chuckling to myself, but while I cleaned I listened
to some great programs on CBC, our national radio
station. An interview with Dacher Keltner raised the
idea that kindness is one of the most powerful
human attributes. http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/
Turns out people like, support, help each other
quite naturally. And that kind people
live longer, and even get better jobs. Listening to
this I kindly cleaned more effectively to make my
family happy. I cleaned windows, I washed and
dried the kitchen curtains.

Sooo. Later making dinner (it was my night) I
listened to a program on Percy Bysshe Shelley.
I studied Shelley along with the other romantic
poets like Wordsworth and Keats at university,
but didn't know that Shelley died at 29 -- lost
at sea. For a man so young to have written some
of the most vital poetry in the English language,
impressed me greatly. Shelley, who looks
very handsome in his portraits was in love with
the idea of "ideal beauty". Not in today's sense
but in the sense of creation and imagination, and
apparently found that marriage did not lend itself
to a continuing feeling of living in ideal circumstances.
He was fascinated with eastern religions and the
idea of the creative spirit or imagination in all
of us. So oddly enough there was a link between
Keltner and Shelley, because both believed in
humanity's innate goodness.

Before the Dance with the cat
36 x 48 inches
acrylic on canvas
(not finished )
A bit too flashy, but here's what
happened to the red. I used
it to give the yellow overlayer punch.
I also worked on blocking in the dress
colour, and putting more colour on the arms,
face and chest.

I've been working on one of my big paintings tonight,
so I can show you some stages to amuse you.
It's still at the complete blocking in stage -- trying
out large areas of colour. Refinement -- if I decide
to do so, comes later.

Here's the first verse of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem
To a Skylark

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

Have a loving-the-kindness-in-others day.

A birdie with a yellow bill

Robin comes to tea
acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
(not quite finished)

People who poo poo (say it isn't so) global warming frequently
site days like today as an example. Imagine saying in a
not especially bright voice, (hard I know) "Global warming?
Give me a break!" or "So much for global warming."
Those of us with at least as much brain power
as the bird I'm featuring today know that erratic weather
is one of the signs of climate change.

Plus the predicted snow we were supposed to have today,
but didn't, is not that unusual in April. What is unusual,
and apparently one sign of global warming, is that the birds
are confused by the aberrant fluctuations in weather, and
are appearing both earlier in the year, and later in the fall
than was the norm even five years ago. Steven saw robins
in the park early in February -- flocks of them. Sorry
folks, but that ain't right.

Still I know why we don't want to know. For one thing
it's cheering to see robins, as long as they can somehow
stay warm enough. I am crazy about the birds. So
today I did a little painting of one visiting a sunny
outdoor table. I'd love it if they were more friendly,
but I'm also delighted to see them where they belong,
singing their hearts out in our cherry tree.

My mother used to wake me up in the morning with
this poem.

Time to rise
by Robert Louis Stevenson,
from A Child's Garden of Verses

A birdie with a yellow bill
Hopped upon the window sill
Cocked his shining eye and said:
"Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head?"

Have a holding-the-earth-in-your-hand-in-wonder day.

A rainy Friday -- why not go out for dinner?

I don't have much to show you today, because after I got
home from school I actually slept for a couple of
hours -- something I rarely do during the day, and
then woke up at dinner time.

What to do? I decided I'd treat Steven to supper
at the restaurant/bar where my older son used
to work. Last year before he went to Korea, we
ate at Fionn MacCools every Friday night. If the
live band is good it's an extra treat, because the
food is not bad, the place is warm and lively, and
then the music tops it off.

Sketchbook sketch of Fionn MacCools tonight
black marker on bond paper

I took my sketchbook and sketched as much of the
room as I could between ordering and being
served. But the service tonight was quick, and
the waitress an artist, who'd gone to the same
art school as I did. So I didn't get much done.
I'm hoping to paint tomorrow. We had a great time,
laughed and watched people enjoying themselves
too. In fact we felt pretty happy we'd thought of
it when we walked back out into the rainy, windy
night.

Have a why-not-go-out-for-dinner-together? day.

Giving thanks to the photograph

After school today I worked on my big painting.
My biggest passion in painting at the moment is
working from the model. Reading other bloggers
I am so stimulated and immersed in the idea of
art, that all my art senses are heightened more
than ever before. And that's saying something.
So anticipating what I'd be painting when I got
home made the whole drive magical. Looking at the
golden light setting the still bare trees aglow
out in the country made me think of Laurel Daniel,
http://laureldaniel.blogspot.com/and think about
how she'd design that image. She'd far prefer it in a
few weeks when the new green bursts out everywhere.

People grinding their teeth as they waited, and waited
and waited in traffic, talking impatiently on
what will soon be illegal (in cars) cell phones
were all bathed in a luxurious, gilded,
start-to- spring, evening light. I sat transfixed wishing
for a sketchbook and pen, although you know
the police would frown on that.

More work on the big painting
acrylic on canvas
48 x 36 inches
I moved the eyes,
lowered the bangs,
filled in more of the dress,
thought about the background with paint.
All of it is still changeable at this stage.

My model arrived and we sat talking. I know
our conversations get into my paint, and
I welcome that. I'm afraid I didn't get far,
and I made decisions that I'll reverse tomorrow.
But that's the luxury of the longer portrait
process.

Ultimately photographing the big painting
for you tonight lets me see where I need to
go next. Before the blog I guess I just
stumbled along. Now I have to take a hard
look at what I'm doing every day. I was
trained to step back from my work, and I
do. But the camera takes that step even
further -- and the blog asks every night --
"would you publish this image?" The
answer today is yes, if I can keep working on it.
I can and will.

Have a letting-the-camera-help-you-see day.

Opposites attract excellent thought

Chickadee on a coffee cup
acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
(not quite finished)
What did I do? I shortened
the legs, by making the coffee
cup bigger, changed the colour
of the chest feathers to white and
buff, changed the shape of the bib, head back, and
the colouring on the back and feathers.
The result is a rounder, fluffier bird.
By the way although my experience has
shown chickadees to be shy, they
are not shy at all if you find out what
they like to eat.

I'm going to be brief tonight because it's late.
I went to the library today and got out so many
bird books that I hurt my shoulder carrying them.
I love librarians and how they help so quickly when
I have an inquiry. Zip you're at the shelf and
have too much choice. After researching a bit I
went back to my chickadee, and here's the result so
far.

My thought about opposites is that every now and
then when I'm working on something small I crave
a big brush stroke, and sometimes when I get to the
big canvas I long for the simpler scope of the small
one. Both extremes teach me about the other, and
shake up my thinking. The truth is that aside from
scale and the need for very tiny brushes, or larger
ones, what I'm trying to do is the same, create
an image that I enjoy, and one that gives you
pleasure.

Have a loving-the-size-you're-working-with day.