My New Studio

The Garage

Today I went into my studio for the first time in a long time and packed up all the paints and liquids that could freeze. I am not sure if the heating will be cut off, I am not sure how bankruptcies and foreclosures work. There is a pile of boxes and pails ready to go sitting at the door. They are headed for the garage. I am so looking forward to keeping the rent! However, there is a small challenge with regard to space… So this is the before picture of our garage, my former teaching space. It will be totally revamped. I am thankful for all the shelving that is available. Emptying it is the first order of business. My wonderful husband is presently choosing boxes he would like to reduce and store elsewhere. Our garage was never a garage. We knew that when we built it. Our vehicles have never graced the threshold. The big double door is just for show. It has always been a space in which to create and share. It used to be that my painting would be put away when my students came. This time it might be that the teaching will take a back seat. In any case a major decluttering is in the offing. It is amazing how much stuff is accumulated over sixteen years. And the statue? Well, that is something else I do. The restoration is just about complete. Done before Christmas. Tomorrow and Thursday will be my last classes before this season’s celebrations as well. It is all in the plan. Tonight I will paint another wall or two before I put my head cold to bed. Who knows? We may even put up a tree.

A bump in the road.

Martin's Office Before

Martin's Office After

I began this morning by giving this entry a title. As it turns out there has been more than one bump in the road yesterday and today. At this point in time I wish I had several back up blogs. I do on occasion but I have used them all lately. Let us just say that recently life has been… interesting… a challenge… an adventure! I joyfully entered my studio yesterday morning and savoured the moment. It had been two weeks. I guess it would have not been quite that long if we were dealing solely with home renovations. Add a new renter for a new condo which needed painting and a daughter moving out of another…. Well, we managed to get things done for Sunday. Monday was glorious, delicious, until the phone call. Sometime during the afternoon I listened to the messages on the phone. One was from a lawyer. I do not often get messages from lawyers so I answered that one immediately. Not good news. I have approximately three weeks to relocate my studio. The business from which I was renting has gone into receivership and I cannot stay. I completely forgot my blog. I left the house to race around the city attending to other unforeseen matters my daughters had asked me to do when Sarah invited us to have dinner with her and we accepted. The evening passed so quickly and I fell into bed late that night. So this morning I sat down and wrote the title to my blog…. The phone rang. Had I forgotten about the medical appointment for which I had promised to be a taxi? Yes. I managed to get to Anna’s place in just over half an hour and she handed me the slip of paper with the doctor’s address on it… the other side of the city. One traffic jam later we were only ten minutes late. Dropping Anna off at work I stopped in to see Sarah; she had called in sick. I spent the major portion of the rest of the day with her, bought a few things and stopped at the studio before I came home. Four men were moving things out. Murals. They had been under the assumption that all had to be moved by tonight…. No. The end of the month maybe. I decided to go home. There is a limit to how much chaos I can handle in one day. I had reached it. And my home renovations? The floor is in. And there is one room done. Martin’s office.

Renovations

My living room

getting better

There is a certain joy in renewal. It is sometimes painful, like getting out of a crouch position after having been there too long, but the stretch and the freedom to move make up for the temporary distress. Renovations are renewing. I have made several tough choices lately. Every choice has a benefit and a price. For me, my choice to stay home and help with the renovations has cost me my studio time. The benefit is that the disruption will be done by Christmas and I will have a brand new house in which to celebrate. Another benefit is the realization that my attitude has transformed what could have been a very trying, unpleasant experience into fun. I especially enjoyed mixing the paint. I bought some mistints and poured them into a laundry tub in which I used to mix salads during my catering days… yes, I have done a lot of different things… I adjusted the colours with the bits of left over paint that were stored in the garage from other projects and added white. I was thankful that the mixing was completed before the new floor went down in the laundry. I got a new pair of shoes out of the mess I created, another benefit! At the moment I am sitting in the middle of my office at my overcrowded desk surrounded by empty walls waiting for some mud and a little paint. The floor is in. I can taste the beginning of the end…. And it is delicious. I am not sure what I will have for you next week; that depends upon the choices I make this week. I do know I will be enjoying the open, clean spaces of my new home!

Listening

40” x 30”

Mixed media

Canvas

This is the twenty-third in the ongoing series “The Many Faces of Eve”. Listening is a skill I am looking to revive. Largely lost in our busy world, listening requires an openness which precludes my own agenda and the responses upon which my defense and/or solutions insist. Just being. Just listening and allowing the other to solve his/her own problems or revel in the communion of attentive fellowship, that is my ambition. I had some unusual pieces of tissue paper. I had actually tried to control the outcome as I added the necessary colours. The results were far from what I had anticipated. I had set these unique pieces aside knowing there would be an opportunity to use them later. Later came along in the form of trees for “Listening”. Having installed the trees on the left I repeated the patterning on the right saving some strips for the hair. Using other pieces and colours I constructed the clothing leaving the rest for paint, graphite powder and watercolour pencil. This morning I noticed a visual error on the side of the painting. I do paint around the edge and perspective is not always accurate. In this case it was proportion that caused a problem. The ear was way too small. Of course no one can see the ear from the front so from this point of view everything looks fine… Well, out came the gesso and tomorrow my listener will have a new ear. And, although the appearance of listening is present, I wonder….

Alley Lace

Alley Lace
15" x 11"
Watercolour

It was a glorious holiday. I spent most of my time outside in the sunshine hidden behind sheds and in corners trying to be inconspicuous, out of the way, invisible. There is something compelling about happening upon an artist at her easel, staring at puddles and overhead wiring. What madness is this? Often people would stop to chat and take a look. Many would pretend they had not seen me, to maintain my illusion of invisibility, or to avoid connecting with someone from another dimension. Yes, all creativity has its roots and inspiration in another dimension. I visit often, would prefer to stay, however, practical considerations require my presence in this world. The first attempt at this delicate piece left an impression that an elephant had trampled through the wires or that some mud storm had passed through leaving streaks of heavy, inconsistent strands slicing the sky asunder. I enjoy drawing negative space. It is that bit that shows up between things. The holes as it were. I love drawing the holes. This method is usually the best and fastest way to a stunning composition and, in this case, the opportunity to play with colour. The watercolour pencil I use for drawing adds its own voice once water is introduced to the surface. I often choose complementary colours so that red peeks between the green branches, orange streaks the blue sky or yellow graces a purple grass. This time I chose an analogous colour. The darker blue against the paler blue/purple blends beautifully and makes green among the yellow leaves. Another ode to autumn, my favorite season.

Downstream

Downstream
60" x 30"
Mixed media
Canvas

I walked away dissatisfied with the last coat I put on. Grumbling to myself I went home to renovations. Perhaps renovations has a lot to do with the way I see things right now. It is all a matter of attitude. We have lived in this house for sixteen years. It (not us!) has accumulated dust, clutter and battle scars, an understandable eventuality after four children and two cats. That day, as I stepped through the door, I caught my breath. The sub-floor was showing, the bare bones exposed. I decided to work in the garage that afternoon. Again, as I opened the door later that same day, my breath escaped my lips, oooh, lovely! There is hope. Yes, we will have a brand new home soon. There is another advantage: we have an extraordinary opportunity to declutter. I love orderly, clean, open spaces. That is why I love being in my studio. Oh there are canvases all over and projects in every corner but everything is in order and there is room to move. A good thing. Four foot by six foot canvases need a lot of room…. Upon returning to my studio the next day I glanced at what I had done. The dark cloud I had left with the previous day had obviously interfered with my vision. I like that. So grabbing my pens, metallic for the psalm and felt for the poem, I put the finishing touches on Downstream, the second in the series “Rocks and Rivers”. The first one sold almost before I had it hung up at the show last weekend. Mmmm. I am satisfied.

Suncatcher

Suncatcher

8" x 8"

Mixed media

Canvas

I had long admired the sunflowers in my friend’s garden. There were dozens of them everywhere but especially snuggled up next to the fence both north and east. Faces of gold, burgundy and all variations in between turned to greet the sun. It was a particularly warm, sunny afternoon when I dropped in for a visit. Gertrude is an excellent listener. I had a distressing problem I wanted to air and we sat in the backyard under the sturdy spruce trees sipping something cool. The flowers waved their greeting and nodded in agreement every time I made a point. I love flowers. Just before I got up to go the offer came. Take some home. Yes. Lovely. I filled a five gallon bucket and we loaded it into the van. There were too many for just one bouquet. I arranged two vases and took one to the studio to set on the table just in front of the window. As I entered the store I was informed that they were not sunflowers but daisies. A lively discussion ensued on the benefits of having flowers brighten our day. Laughing we came to the conclusion that the daisies were just what we both needed. Happily I installed my still-life and another Tiny Treat was born.