Deprived

I have two lovely watercolours on the way. It is always exciting to see a painting develop. I love the contemplation time, just gazing into space, allowing the creative juices to flow. I am also working on a mixed media that is also gloriously opening like a blossom in sunlight. Then there are the six panels in incubation. I will grab my camera one day and find six interesting female faces to adorn their surfaces, a new mixed media series “Mother Earth”. Abundance. I am a little fearful of the future though. I will be studio deprived for a month or more. A few extracurricular activities have tempted me beyond my seclusion and I have chosen to participate. The van is loaded with the elements of a different kind of painting….wall painting. My daughter and her new husband are moving into new accommodations with his parents and their present home needs readying for sale, the sooner the better. Tomorrow we begin. The following week I am away. True, I will still be studio deprived but I do not think I will be suffering as I will be participating in a workshop with Robert Genn and his lovely daughter Sara on Cortez Island. I so look forward to that. Upon my return I will be packing. My daughter has invited me to set up my studio in their garage and we hope to move most of our belongings as well as my studio into this space by the end of the month. My studio would be closer. I would have ready access to water and a place to clean my brushes. As for open space, well, that remains to be seen. I am very good at packing. It is one of my extraordinary talents. Comes with practice I think.

Double Happiness

Double Happiness

Bride and Groom

Someone mentioned that it is Monday. It is almost Tuesday and I had completely forgotten my blog…. I have been a little distracted this week. Most of my studio time has been preparing for my youngest daughter’s wedding. I have used a lot of red paint this week. Good thing it was on sale! As you can see, one of the decorations was a large double happiness symbol to be hung on the not so pretty wall at the reception venue. Friday was installation day and picking up the slack. Saturday was the big day so there was no time to spare. Everything went without a hitch due in large part to the wonderful teamwork surrounding the event. We managed to get to bed at 2:30 and I discovered that I am really not as young as I used to be! Sunday we went to church and unpacked, taking a much needed nap in the afternoon. Today we spent with comings and goings; our son is returning to Manitoba early tomorrow morning. It is good to reconnect and recollect. We now have a larger family circle. Life is good.

Installed

It has been a year since I completed this mural, almost to the day. It went up this week. I have a final coat of varnish to apply and it is finished. There is something to be said for doing things in a timely manner. I find that most of the time now is best rather than later. In this case I had forgotten to make notes about the colour combinations I had used and I was very appreciative of the guidelines I had worked up for Riverdale as I had really forgotten the procedure on how to install fabric murals. All went well nonetheless and she is looking beautiful. I am also managing to get a more even tan for the dress I will be wearing for our daughter’s wedding this coming Saturday. My baby is getting married. It went so quickly! She asked me to be in charge of decorations…. I have not been painting pictures much lately, baskets and lettering but not pictures. Did I mention I can sew? Yes. Well, we will see how advanced we get in the decorating department today. I may squeeze in a bit of passion on the side. I do plan on making a trip into my studio to do the varnishing on the mural at the very least… Perhaps that will take longer than usual….

The Creek

From Memory

Out in the Open

So my husband and I disappeared into the wilderness for a weekend. I always take my paints with me. This time I took more than my portable studio which fits into a purse. This time I took the tripod and my screw-in table top with a full set of paints and brushes so I could work on 11” x 15” instead of 5” x 7”. I like the larger size and I do not always have a couple of hours to spend on a sketch. The light was magnificent the night we arrived. We took the short walk down a path to where the washout jointed the creek again. Water was still trickling trough but the bush had begun to reclaim its space. I did not have my camera….when will I learn? I made some mental notes. The next two days were filled with exploring the new territory so on the morning we were to leave I got up early and installed myself beside the water’s edge. It was overcast but looked less like rain than the previous evening. I set about doing the preliminary drawing knowing that it would consume most of the time and hoping the light would change. Part way through the early sun managed to peek through the clouds and light up the opposite bank. Lovely. Not as magnificent as the evening but lovely nonetheless. I made a mental note. Mental notes are essential as light effects rarely last for more than a few seconds. There was another problem that morning. It was cold. Of course we were at approximately five thousand feet so it does not get really warm ordinarily. My feet were freezing, or they felt like they were freezing. My fingers were becoming less cooperative and refused to hold the brushes on occasion. I decided to leave the rest for memory and my studio. Packing up I could almost smell the coffee and I wondered what delight awaited me for breakfast.

Blocked

Martin and I had a delightful three day escape in to the mountains last weekend. It is quite a bit out of the way, a rocky road off a gravel road, off a highway just north of Hinton. The way was blocked by a fallen tree. We could have driven over it if we had had a four by four or a truck. Our little Neon was not going anywhere. Martin and I decided that there were no more than four kilometers left in our journey and that happens to be the length of his regular daily walk so we locked up and set out. (I am not sure locking up was necessary….) We found out later that the grizzlies had moved to the tree line to avoid the heat so that was not a concern. We saw deer, squirrels and birds. Four kilometers turned out to be two and we soon came across a young lady trying to capture some butterflies on film. Curiosity crossed our hosts faces as they wondered where our vehicle was. Grabbing a chain saw and hopping in a truck we headed back down the trail. In no time at all the way was cleared and we could proceed with our car. Our log cabin had running water, a lovely bathroom, a wood stove for heating and 12 volt lights running off a solar panel. We had no phone signal, no internet, no television and all the meals were prepared for us. Luxury. We hiked a few of the quieter trails and saw some magnificent sights. I started an en plein air sketch (I will post it next week as it is not quite finished).  This is an artist paradise. A great place to do workshops as space is limited to ten. Just right. Anyone interested? 

Sitting

Part of the responsibility of being a member of an artist cooperative is volunteering. It has been years since I joined and this is the first time I have actually participated in the set up and sitting for the annual show. Moving into the city helped. Instead of long gaps between life drawing sessions (up to one or two years sometimes!) I mostly attend now once per week except in the summer. The member shows begin the summer programs, so I am sitting. I had been reading but I am finding my eyelids very uncooperative, lead lids block my view. Writing may be more invigorating. This blog needs to be written and set up as I am away the day it is published. Martin and I are escaping into the mountains for a few days. I plan on taking my back pack, paints and paper with me. En plein air is not on my schedule very often and I could do with the practice. In the meantime lead lids are interfering with my writing as well, perhaps drawing is a better choice.

Near Alberta Beach

Early morning holds surprises for those who are awake. I often wake up about four thirty. I think it has something to do with the birds and the beginning light at this time of year. Got to love the fifty-fourth parallel! In this case I rolled over and went back to sleep. I jumped out of bed a couple of hours later thinking it was much later and decided to get dressed. We were on retreat. Lac St. Anne is surrounded by small vacationing communities and retreat houses. It has been a center for healing and spiritual renewal for many centuries, long before Europeans set foot here. We had been invited to share the space with five others as we explored our relationship with God and the organization with whom we are involved. I glanced out the window. Magnificent! I grabbed my camera and began to snap some memories. I had not noticed the buck right away. He raised his head and the light caught his antlers. Morning light, peace, and choruses of bird songs. We have a beautiful world. I am so fortunate to live in a part of the world where I do not have to be concerned about from whence comes my next meal or the safety of my surroundings. I can relax, renew and recentre. My studio is calling me. Patience is in order. I am sitting with the “Naked Show” today. I’ll tell you all about it next week.