Professional Photo Portrait

Best. Prize. Ever. !!
In mid-December I attended an open house held by Doug Keech, one of our local photographers. He offered a door prize of a $400 portrait sitting to someone who dropped by that afternoon and looky!
He drew my name!
Doug has started composing photo collages to portray people in their professions and I feel these works are his strongest and most interesting, though his landscapes can be breathtaking.  I went to his house yesterday for the shoot which was supposed to be 2 hours but as we both continued to make progress - I with posing and facial expressions, he with lighting - it went over 3 & 1/2 rather gruelling hours. 
Drop that shoulder, stretch the neck, tilt, twist, look down...up, relax the eyes and...smile!
Repeat a couple hundred times.  I also brought along a bag of art supplies which he used to make the final collage.  Doug will also give me a dvd of 20 or 30 other face shots so now I have a very nice collection to choose from should I need to include a good photo for a submission or profile.
The weather and sidewalk are also significant and part of the 'story'. Very typical Kitimat type conditions and since my house is a half block behind me this is what I consider to officially be MY sidewalk where all walks with our little dog must usually begin.
http://dougkeech.com/   <--- to peruse his site

One little exception to my overall glee? He chose the only one with accidental cleavage!!
We don't *do* cleavage in my family.

Mini Mural: Fini!

Here's the finished product following 14 hours of sometimes brutal and gruelling painting.  Tuesday left me feeling wiped and completely physically drained; I was hovering in the 2 & 1/2 feet off the ground range for most of the day.  I didn't realize till later that I was engaging in an isometric activity and was really stiff.  All better by Wednesday though.
    I showed the husband my daily progress via a little camera.  He squinted at the screen then asked (in that oh so eloquent way he has) 'why it looked like crap?'  I was quite perplexed -the home owner and I were rather pleased with it.  His point though?  Painting the 'H' car a different colour than the next caused 'UDSON' to stand on its own, so today I fixed it and yes, it does indeed read much better.

     I added the bugs she'd requested and polished up the mural till I couldn't polish no more! I'm happy with the rather sedate palette I chose since it works nicely with the colours chosen for the bedroom and hallway.  I'd really wanted to see young Hudson's reaction to the finished mural because he got a peek yesterday and his mom told me 'he was over the moon!'.

Evolution of a Mural

I painted this little boy's room a year and a half ago but the family moved a few months later and so wanted the same basic composition but with his name on a steam train rather than on a line of laundry since the young master - at the advanced age of 2& 1/2 - has an enduring love of that era of train.  (Thomas, you know).

Original sketch; didn't bother too much with the trees since, well, I've done them already.

One hour in, sketched in the composition and begin blocking in lights 'n darks.

Four or five hour mark; mostly blocked in with colour.  The Mom wanted the train in shades of blue rather like Thomas but less bright and more tasteful.  Tomorrow I'll continue to de-wonkify the backend of the train, paint on the letters and take a stab at depicting the actual railway.  I find I prefer to tackle the more difficult, finicky bits first to get them out. of. the. way.  Time permitting, I will fine tune the landscape elements. 
Day three will, hopefully, bring it to stupendous fruition!

Concentrated Goodness!

Meet my Wednesday evening watercolour class.  Represented here is a huge chunk of local and regional - almost outta control - volunteerism.
Looking into the camera is Joyce who, with her husband heads up Search and Rescue for our very large region.  She also gives various courses around the province and has been feted and recognized in Victoria for her efforts.  Lani the Lawyer -our only relatively young 'un - has been at the helm of our local recycling and environment group, K.U.T.E. (Kitimat Understanding The Environment) for countless years now and is active in other related groups.  (KUTE came into being about 20 years ago and was named by Gr. 10s)  Ms. Jay in the green shirt is one of only 2 people who do Meals On Wheels and the night before this photo had stayed up till 3 a.m. baking 28 dozen cookies for a fundraiser.  Hidden is Judy, one of the many hands keeping the hospital auxillary functioning and optimizing medical services for all Kitimites. Most are active in a church and all have many other irons in the fire in addition to being a pillar for their families.
Volunteering, creating and teaching art all provide the reward of being in the company of the best kind of people in the world.

The Sun Sure DO Shine...Sometimes

The hiking group has morphed into a snowshoeing club for the winter & that's how we've been motoring through the wilderness for the past 3 weeks.

Last week, which was also my first real snowshoe trip, we up then down Fire Mountain completing a round trip of 6 kilometers and crossing 18 small streams each way.  I could barely lift my feet by the time we returned to our vehicles.

Today we ventured off trail and into the woods, over uneven crunchy snow.  We covered 4 to 5 kilometers in a 2 & 3/4 hour period.  One person didn't even wear snowshoes due to how hard the snow is today.  We can get snow (white concrete) conditions so hard that one can walk across it in high heels - the heel digs in but that just gives us more traction.  How do I know we can traverse our snow in high heels?  Probably from having to check on my backyard weather station all dressed up to go somewhere.
The big issue today though was ... noise.  We made such a racket crunching over the snow that we all had to stop if anyone wanted to speak and that probably added the 45 minutes to today's adventure.