Even the Dead

This is another of the four ‘en plein air’ sketches I completed during my stay at the Retreat Centre this summer. There are lots of trails upon which to wander. I discovered this bit of lace amongst the deeper greens of the surrounding forest. It is the negative space that fascinates me, those holes that surround the white, interlocking branches, lacy interludes encompassing the deeply emerald. The beauty caused me to pause and reflect that in the forest even the dead are included. They have a purpose. Either the beauty is enhanced with the contacts of light against dark or the fallen augment the soil in which the new seed sprouts. Even before they disintegrate the old trunks become home to a myriad of transient residents. Nothing is useless in the forest. Everything has a purpose. It is the way it should be.

Chaos reigns

Sometimes I wonder how I manage to get things done. I am thankful my studio is still functional, well, now it is. As you can see something of a tornado hit it recently. It has been quite an upheaval. We were just in the process of moving our son to Manitoba when we rented the house with a deadline of ten days.  Since we were gone for three of those days it left us one week to pack and move. Again, thankfully not everything had to be moved. We stored most of the furniture in two unused bedrooms downstairs, threw everything that was not necessary in the garage (my studio) and moved the rest into a condo in the city. Yes, we are sharing our daughter’s accommodation and I am commuting to work… well, once things are under control again. I have actually spent two days in my studio since the move, things are put away and projects are started. Small projects. I just cannot seem to focus lately. Could have something to do with exhaustion. Maybe. I will begin to focus shortly as I have five shows coming up before January. The first two are almost taken care of, just about. I will turn my attention to the invitations now. See you later!

Almost Done

It is fortunate that I completed this mural in a timely fashion. I could not have predicted the changes in my world one week could make. Yes. The mural is done; I am not sure when it will be installed, but it is done. The very same day I completed it (Monday) our son announced that had had landed a job in northern Manitoba, a mere thousand kilometers away. He was due to start the following Monday. The day we left for The Pas we made a verbal agreement to rent our house to a young family; we were to be out of the house by the following Friday. So, where does that leave me? Looking for a studio. Again. We have a place to live in Edmonton. We will store our furniture as the condo is too small to accommodate what we have. In the interim we hope to sell and buy a home closer to our centers of interest. It has been in the works for some time. Life is such an adventure. We cannot always predict the twists and turns. Well, I have things to organize. It is a blessing that I am good at it!

Undercoat

To begin with I had committed to a monochrome layout for all the four sections of the mural behind the logos. It bothered me that it appeared so dull. The colour just was not lively enough; the darkest darks were not dark enough. What to do? I decided to use a complementary colour for the undercoat. Burnt orange is my latest favorite. When mixed with cobalt blue it makes the most luscious grays, but did I want gray? Not exactly. I wanted the burnt orange to show through after I applied the cobalt on top. In order to get gray the applications would both need to be about the same amount, the more opaque the application the darker it would be right down to black. So the next question is where are my darkest darks? I took the jar of pure burnt orange and proceeded to fill in the areas where I know I would later add the purest blue. For a less intense dark, I took out my bowls of prepared pigment mixed with gel medium. There are two different consistencies: one paler than the other, one sparkling with iridescence and one not. I like my paintings to glow. Brushstrokes became important again. I chose a random, vigorous stroke for the trees and bushes, a vertical one for the grass, another one for the flesh tones and I liked the peach colour I produced. I decided to leave more of the burnt orange showing than I had previously anticipated. I wonder what my customer will think of it. We’ll see.