New Life Forms

The kitchen table is brimming over with new life in the form of various humanoid hybrids that TwinB has producing over the past few weeks.

Image #1 is Shell woman, parked at the edge of the ocean, listening to ... something.  I really do like the...irony?... of a woman in shell listening to the ocean.

Image #2 is The Slug Woman:

Wonderful perspective and as intriguing as all get-out. I love the combo of human and north coast creatures...I am rather sure that TwinnyB has discovered her north-coastie roots and identity with these pieces.  They kind of go with my own Sea:Sick.
Kewl....!

Hidden Surprises

Met with Robin at his Engineering office yesterday to consult and continue planning a looong mural he would like to see in his newest offices and look what I discovered in the meeting room!  One of my last chalk pastels from a few years back with a composition and lighting that I still find satisfying which is always a big relief!  Don't want the older work to make me cringe.  He and his wife also have in their home a large (7 feet wide) tryptich of the Channel from the viewpoint.  They may turn into my biggest client.

Tile: Fini!

Maureen fired our tiles and had them ready for the Art Club to paint this past Thursday.  She provided the black paint for the background and wax based metalic paints to subtly provide the last embellishments. What a great project!

Tile: Two Hours

We are fortunate to have a high school art teacher in our membership and last night she treated us to a tile making workshop.  What intense fun! We all ended up sweating up a storm while rolling out the clay so we were glad when that part was over but all became completely engrossed in the designs.  The others took theirs home to complete but I have so much on my plate I decided that my dining room table and my schedule didn't have space for one more ongoing project so...I worked like one possessed and managed to make sure concept to completion occurred in a little under 2 hours.  Now it's drying at the high school, will be fired in a week or two and then we apply a black glaze and the beautiful metallic paints that Maureen ordered for the tiles her classes created last year.
Can hardly wait to see what everyone's done!

The Queen

...presides over this year's batch of paintings to be displayed at the Spring Craft Fair.

I transferred a drawing originally composed by TwinB, putting it on on this piece of watercolour paper that I'd smooshed paint onto a couple of years ago.  It helped determine the choice of colours.  I was informed that it originally was a fop (note the Adam's apple) but TwinB liked the colours I chose.  So, it's all framed up now and sitting with the other 10 to 12 pieces that I've been frantically finishing and framing.  It's supposed to be the Art Club's display but I'm not too optimistic about many other paintings joining ours.  Always good to knock off a whole batch.

After this I have to tackle the sets for The Sound of Music and then create a design for an award winning mural!  The Award Winning component isn't part of the criteria but I figure it will motivate me.

Goodnight Gracie

Said good-bye today to the most light filled young lady I've ever met.  She was 22.
Her father summed up Grace perfectly with this brief phrase: relentless zest.
The Art Club was blessed with her presence for a couple of years and this is where I came into possession of a couple of her whimsical cartoons at our season end art card trades.

She was afflicted with a disorder that first presented as hemiplegic migraines; these progressed to a seizure causing malady and was later diagnosed as a degenerative neuro-muscular syndrome that has yet to be fully understood.  Her Vancouver physician vowed to continue searching for a cause and ultimately the cure that she always hoped to discover in time to save Grace.
A slide show of her life played throughout the ceremony and most photos featured her larger-than-life unique smile.  As the casket exited the church with her crutches placed on top...we experienced one last painful, poignant reminder of her years of resilience and struggle.

It seems a very cruel ... law, almost... that these very sweet, gifted, young lights are extinguished after shining so briefly.

Fresh & New

TwinB began her academic life at ACAD (Alberta College of Art & Design) yesterday morning with an Art History class.  Today she's in drawing workshops for a total of 6 hours and I'm looking forward to her report in a few hours.  *fingers crossed* hope all goes well...

One of her cigarette pack art pieces there, another Erin/Eileen collaboration which shouldn't be too hard to unload.  I've coloured most of the cig pack, affixed it to the canvas and extended the painted area right around the sides of the canvas which I suppose amounts to a heck of a lot of work but hey...it's how she/we pay me back.

Wednesday's Wanderings...

...shall go undocumented for this week due to the neglectation of camera battery charging.
*pout*
We had our first snow yesterday too!  About 4cm bracketed in by 48 cm of rain.  Despite that, we still were treated to our usual window of fine (not rainy) weather for our trek through soaky forest.  At least I didn't have to wear my stiff, sticky rain coat as I'd feared in the morning when I DID wear it to walk the dog and freeze.

Scratchboard by TwinB.  I returned from Calgary bearing artwork rescued from oblivion and possible destruction, because prior to my visit she'd been watching Hoarders and almost tossed some of her brand new original artwork in order to 'de-clutter'.  Just bought a batch of frames and had framing done - this looks lovely and if I never sell it, that's fine too.

Reflections 2011

This acrylic painting is mounted on top of a board from an old fishing dory that rested on a Nova Scotia shore and was brought back for me by an art buddy who's aware of my love for anything worn, weathered or rusted.  It depicts TwinB and her Big Bro exploring the flat grey beach on the northern end of Haida Gwaii...almost the furthest west that one can travel in Canada.

My Biggest Fan was raving about it to me & would like to commission it then commented that she's never seen a painting 'with so many shades of the same colour.' 
I won the People's Choice award for this year's regional exhibit 'Reflections'!  And I won it fair and square because I'm pretty darn sure the only vote who walked in the door from my camp was my husband.  Didn't even get the brother-in-law vote this year.

Artistic Endeavors...

...from My Other One!

I love her handmade cards!

TwinA has never held her artistic abilities in high regard, not even her caligraphy and passion for typography and fonts.  In her mind they're just the grunt work or poor cousins of 'real art' and since her skills lie in that area she dismisses them as something anyone could do. 

Certainly doesn't help ones' esteem to have a twin sister with creative and technical ability in the highest percentile...however that might be measured...??

TwinA just started a 2 year course at SAIT in digital graphic communication; I hope she'll do well.

Success!  YES!!

  

Tulips!

It's a new painting!  Three feet by four feet,acrylic on a crappy warped canvas bought at the dollar store (never doing that again) completed just before all the death and uncertainty of the past week or so.  I'm not normally a floral painter, or if I am I've found an extreeemely narrow niche because:
a.  I only paint tulips (more rarely poppies or other cup shaped flowers)
b.  apparently I wait for this precise moment in the life and death of a tulip.  Found a sketch from several years back which looks like this very composition.  But it's not.
Even stranger is the fact that another artist I know through the art club, likes to paint tulips in this same state. 
Maybe I's more common than I thought?

Cool Green Pool

Watercolour...8" X 10"

Another favorite spot for TwinB 'n me.  Moore Creek just around the corner from the falls.  I've always loved the small green pool created by currents rushing past rock jutting into the water.  Straight ahead and almost below the overhang of the cliff is a larger pool, ideal for cooling down (if not rendering one absolutely speechless from cold) on a hot August afternoon.

New Horizons

The assisted living facillity tried out a painting workshop for the first time; I had 7 participants and one observer which was a very good turn-out - better than expected.  All really enjoyed the process (despite misgivings from time to time, naturally) and are looking forward to next week's adventure.

Would you have guessed that these were done by people with little or no experience?  I was very excited with the results and hope it goes as well when we 'do' mushrooms.  ; )

Fresh From the Kitchen Table!

Four Kitimat scenes ready to go just in time for Christmas.  Don't know if the bus stop will sell...just might give it to My Boy since he has none of my paintings and nothing says 'Kitimat' like the vignette above!
Shouldn't have too much trouble unloading the Mount Elizabeths or the Channel view. 
I really surprised myself when these 4 suddenly finished themselves!

So Long, Joe

Joe - a long time member of our Art Club died at the age of 72 last May which is the end of our yearly season so even though we visited the family, attended the funeral...it didn't hit as hard as the first meeting of the year.  Hard to process that empty spot across the classroom from me and I know the Craft Fair won't feel right without him standing by a table of his paintings at the end of the Activity Room in his 'Bavarian Suit' (it's like an business suit but with subtle embellishments that are definitely Alpen)  He painted one size and one size only!  Had to fit a 16" X 20" frame from Opus.  We would tease him about his frugality but we knew we could always count on his direct and honest approach to life along with his quiet humour.
He didn't take up painting till he retired but became one of the most active members of our group. 
This Kitimite got his 3 score and 10 - but he still leaves a significant hole.

Hangin' @ the SK8 Park

Assorted images from our ongoing Nechako mural.  The first is by a grade 11 girl and very confident artiste.  The sugar skull was painted by featured art grad Jordan and the frog in-progress is my contribution to make the bubbles make sense.  The mural will probably continue next year and depending on how many people want to add their work, just might have to wraparound to the north side of the building.  Every little bit is an improvement.

Sea: Sick

Detail of Sea: Sick

20 years from concept to completion.  Took so long pondering this that I missed out on the original issue that launched this fella.  The original issue was clear cut logging...though given how many truckloads of absolutely raw logs are flying down the highway and off to China it may be re-ignited

It turns out we never had to spill a single drop of oil to spoil the oceans.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution they have quietly been absorbing carbon from the atmosphere as we burn coal and oil.  When you change chemistry, you change biology.  Of course this isn't the only assault on the ocean:
run-off from fertilizers create dead zones thousands of kilometres in area, lost nets - the infamous Ghost Nets indescriminately trap and kill every species they encounter, bottom trawling destroys habitat while discarded plastic collects where currents gather them into giant floating islands; one is reported to be larger than Texas.
No one can project what the outcome might be but already we've seen troubling effects such as the proliferation of jellyfish and the bleaching of coral reefs due to climate change
...right...climate change, let's add that to our litany of carnage.
Who could have imagined that a land mammal would have such far reaching effects on this massive aquatic environment?

May Workshop 2010

I delivered our watercolour instructor to the airport this afternoon, completing a 3 day workshop that we'd been planning for a year. It was a very worthwhile endeavor - most participants produced or halfway finished at least one nice composition and we generated a wonderful atmosphere that I hope we can maintain for an indefinite period. In less than 18 hours over the 3 days I came away with two half sheet sized watercolours and established a clear genre for myself - this being my light/shadows/fruit debris still life series. It's good to have a direction and I'll be pursuing gallery representation and Federation of Canadian Artist status with a portfolio of these kinds of subject and style

This would be contender number 2. Been meaning to paint this one for countless years so I'm happy to finally squeeze it out. The instructor Gerry Thompson treated us to a very straightforward and manageable approach to paintings and like most people we ship up here, kept us entertained as well.

Visit To Sammy's

The bff and I were showing off a totem pole out at the village this afternoon to her social worker practicum co-worker when we noticed renowned carver & jewellery maker Sammy Robinson waving us into his carving shop. We ended up enjoying an extensive tour and 40 minute chat about various things. I'm happy to see that he is back to carving wood - repetitive strain in his hands forced him give it up for several years but afforded the opportunity to take up carving in gold and silver instead and sell to movie folk!- he's enjoying some impressive professional success at the moment which is wonderful because...

...on the personal front he's taken several extreme hits and probably has several more in the near future. The carving above is in memory of one of his daughters who passed away just a couple of weeks ago, completely unexpectedly.

Here's what grabbed me more than anything else though...these are the remaining pieces from a chess set Sammy carved from antler, bone and seal's teeth...right up TwinB's alley!
...wishing you less 'interesting times' Sammy...

Babes In Kindergarten

One of the local schools has a large (for Kindergarten) class of 21 students and the differences in development and maturation are staggering. I encountered the most primitive images I've seen in 17 years of going from school to school...like the rainbow above.

My first encounter with them involved paint. The plan was to paint a pale bluish background and when dry, go back in and fill it with snowmen and kids and whatever caught their fancy. (I've managed to get this age to do just that many times before!) Alas...many of the kids had not yet been through the 'hey I mixed all the paint together and got a mud puddle!' stage so I had to quickly think up a plan B where we retired the paint, got out the crayons and then drew images that could be cut out and later glued onto the backgrounds.

This obviously is the other end of the spectrum. There was one table in particular where the kids were extremely mature for K and produced some amazing pieces.

What a mix...