Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Further Weakness ...

Peach Prize  oil   5" x 7"   SOLD

A dedicated follower of my blog has notifications of my posts come to both her professional and personal email addresses.  And so, before my last post showed up in her inbox (boxes) I knew I would have to relinquish to her the painting she has been lusting over.  I am such a pushover.  But how did she even get to see it you may ask? Well, she just comes over and I am unable to deny her access to viewing what is going on in The Anne Frank Room.  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=208288&id=715295437&l=80c0074a94

She can be very dramatic and actually began shaking when I told her what I had done with two paintings over the weekend. And persuasive ... have I mentioned persuasive?  Wonderful for my ego; I find her adoration of my work irrestible.  I mean, who wouldn't?

What this means is that now I can show you an example of the flower paintings I'll have in this miniature collection. And the good news is, even though I let three of them go, I am still over halfway to my goal of thirty small paintings for the ...

Canmore Christmas Artisan Market

November 26-27, 2011
10:00am - 4:00pm

Canmore Collegiate High School
1800 - 8th Avenue, Canmore, Alberta

I Am Weak

Time in a Bottle   oil   6" x 6"      SOLD

An artist friend approached me and asked if she could buy one of my little paintings because she won't be in the country when the Canmore Christmas Artisan Market happens at the end of November.  Recently Jeanne had shoulder surgery and she isn't able to drive so I took ten of my dry paintings for her to choose from.  Having trouble picking one, she asked me if she could please buy two.  Now, I ask you how could I say no?
 
Paired With Kari's Cherries   oil   6" x 6"   SOLD

But my weakness does afford me the opportunity to show you what you can from me expect at this sale!

Perhaps you'd like to mark this date on your calendar?

Canmore Christmas Artisan Market
November 26-27, 2011
10:00am - 4:00pm
Canmore Collegiate High School
1800 - 8th Avenue, Canmore, Alberta

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Ingrid Christensen Workshop


Yesterday, nine women (three of them Lindas) assembled in a studio at the University of Calgary's Art Building for Ingrid Christensen's day long, Painting the Figure from Life workshop.

Tami modeled for Ingrid's first demo

Ingrid is an excellent instructor who has the rare ability to talk and paint at the same time.  It was a delight to hear her articulate what she was doing while doing it.  She made it all look so easy, which, as expected, wasn't as we found out when we tried employing her approach.  I learned a tremendous amount by watching her develop paintings in her loose, impressionistic style and wondered if I could emulate it.  Of course not!  Not exactly, but it was hugely beneficial for me to try; to paint using large filbert brushes with just four colours (plus white).


Ingrid painted Susen's portrait for her afternoon demo

The premise was to suggest elements as opposed to painting every detail.  To pay close attention to warm and cool colours and  their relationships to one another.  To establish the darkest darks and lightest lights. To begin by painting thinly and then build the work by painting around the figure/features as much as actually painting them.  To build the painting with successively, thicker layers of paint "tickled" on and then strategically place thick "pieces" of paint.


My morning painting   oil   20" x 16"


I have to add that not only is Susen a beautiful model she can remain impressively still.


My afternoon painting   oil   16" x 20"

Please visit Ingrid's website at ... http://www.icartstudios.com/

See the entire photo essay here ...
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150895069185438.745091.715295437&type=1&l=cb4a05b344

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Peacock Recipient


Wondering if she would like it, I watched with bated breath as Avery opened her Peacock painting.  She said "It's a picture, it's a peacock." And in her softest voice "It's so pretty!"  My heart soared.  Her Father said "We can hang it in your room." and her Mother said "It's not going upstairs!"  So, her Dad found an empty nail and hung it on the living room wall.  He later wrote to say "She was/is enamoured with this painting."

It was a grand birthday party.  Gathered to celebrate were sixteen adults, six children and a new born baby!  To see the photo essay, please click here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150882033405438.742678.715295437&type=1&l=34153b159a

Sunday, October 16, 2011

A Peacock for Avery

Today is Avery's birthday!

In June my granddaughter and I spent an afternoon at the Calgary Zoo. I was excited to be showing her the large animals, especially the big cats.  She enjoyed them well enough but what captivated her most was a peacock.  We happened upon one of these free roaming birds, prancing on the spot with his tail feathers fully outstretched, and Avery was awe-struck.  Closing in on him, I'm sure with the intention to touch, he squawked.  She froze but didn't turn away ... she couldn't, she was completely mesmerized.  I eventually coaxed her on but for the rest of our visit she kept asking for the peacock.  As we left, one was calling out to us arrogantly posed on a roof looking just like this ...


Peacock    acrylic/mixed media on canvas   24" x 12"   NFS

What a wonderful learning experience/experiment the entire project was!  I used Golden Gel Medium Molding Paste for the heavily textured background.  The yellow colour, which I thought would be an appropriate contrast, didn't please me at all ...

At the end of day one 

The following day I scrubbed watered down turquoise and purple over it and, to my delight, the pretty Interference Gold still shone through. Recently added to my obscene collection of rubber stamps is a large (4.5" x 6") overall pattern of peacock feathers.  I was bummed out when it wouldn't transfer onto the textured surface of the canvas until I thought to fill in the "dimples" with molding paste - using a palette knife - over that area to make it smooth enough to receive the stamp.



End of day two ... I needed more feathers!

I painted feathers, loving a reason to use Iridescent Copper.  Then, I was horrified while sticking down the first real peacock feather, to find that matte medium I used had sucked the iridescent life out of the glowing, shimmery colours.  And when I tried to pry it off the paint was coming with it!  It had to stay; so, using gloss medium this time, I buried it under more feathers.

  
Finished painting detail

For extra, good fun and to top it all off I sprinkled an opaque, micro fine glitter (Western Blue by Jewel Glitter Ritz) onto wet medium on his neck.

Can such a young child enjoy yet another painting from her grandmother?

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, AVERY! 

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Central Tech, Classmate's Art

Somewhere in third year (1964-65) of us kids thought it would be a great idea to collect the work of our fellow classmates. Some didn't want to share or exchange. After they had been marked, our assignments were regularly left in a heap, on a table. We were expected to find and retrieve our own work. On days when there were absentees we enterprising kids helped ourselves to whatever we wanted. It maybe that it was only Helen Salomaa and myself who were thieves! This is how I came to own a small, delightful collection of artwork, some of which I share with you here ...

Helen Salomaa - charcoal 27.5" x 18.25" - 4th year

In her own way Helen was a master of the human form and among many things, she was ambidextrous. She was shrouded in mystery. We never knew her age, but she had to have been older than most of us because she had her own car and a studio in Markham Village, supported we assume by the sale of her oil paintings. 

Barbara Krasinski - gouache 19" x 13" -  3rd year

Barbara's armour was one of the Museum Class assignments. She married and dropped out in third year.

Lisa Shallhese - pencil & watercolour - 21.5" x 15" - 4th year

Lisa had a very avant-guarde flair to her work. Only Simone ever got close to her, she came across as mature and somewhat withdrawn.

Sally Simone - pencil 22" x 15" - 4th year

Simone (you never called her Sally) was a no nonsense, exceptionally petite gal with a most distinctive personal style. She married halfway through third year stayed with us and graduated with honours ... number one student in our class of fifteen.

Sandra Shibata - oil pastel 17" x 13" - 4th year

We had two Sandras. Ko who is Chinese and Shibata who is Japanese. Both gentle spirits.  This drawing illustrates an inner strength not visible in Shibata's outward demeanour.

Murray McLauchlan - conte 24" x 16"- 4th year

Murray's strong portrait, like the kid himself, makes a statement on black paper. His yearbook quote made reference to his probable fate of busking for quarters in a New York subway.

John Williamson - watercolour 19" x 15" - 3rd year

Another Museum Class project by John; an exceptional use of watercolour. Even way back then, he was our most troubled soul. After a short, fast life and somewhere in the past decade he took his own life.

Mark Thurman - charcoal 15.75" x 22" - 4th year

And then there is Mark, the fellow whom we all admired for the talent which simply flowed from him. He was always top of the class until the very last semester of final year when Simone bumped him to second place. I was third. An interesting fact: at the beginning of grade nine we three were the runts of the class all measuring five feet tall. At the end of grade twelve Mark was 5'10", I had grown to 5'6" and Simone was still 5'.

Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end.