Playing in Creston / Alice-in-Wonderland

Time to get back to posting about art and the fun times in 2016.  

With our R-Pod, Bill and I arrived in Creston, from Claresholm, on July 10th for a three night stay at Scottie's RV Park. As well, Meg and Paul rolled in from Canmore to stay at the Valley View Motel, but ultimately we all end up here ...

... on the Dinn's remarkable deck for libations, great food and one another's company

As per usual we gals hit the studio during the daytime abandoning the men, who are more than capable of entertaining themselves. We spread our play things out all over every horizontal space, then we dive into making art. Any kind of art. Here, anything goes.

Meg and Win in Win's gorgeous studio

Playing in Win's studio brings out the creative juices

Writing this post eight months after the fact, I'm not really sure what possessed me to start the painting I did. I'm going with how very inspired and dazzled I was by a piece Win had recently created, in collaboration with Bart Bjorkman, of Puffin Design - the 47" diameter Impossible Clock. But how my piece morphed into Alice in Wonderland remains a mystery.

       

                                            

Meg usually has several pieces on the go, this time was no exception

Win got into folding books

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When we six reassemble good times are guaranteed. We enjoy having a delectable lunch on the Skimmerhorn Winery's awesome deck, our end of day happy hours, evening feasting and shenanigans. 

You can count on great food, and wine, on the Skimmerorn Winery deck

Win and John 

Paul and Meg

Bill and yours truly.  Doesn't everyone know about maple tree "keys" and how they'll stick on your nose, when they're fresh?

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Back to Alice painting Alice. For the background, I splattered and blotted favoured colours, quinacridone orange gold, Indian yellow, aztec gold (how dare Daniel Smith discontinue their acrylic line which included this magnificent colour?). Some burnt umber was needed to darken the top. I went wild with gear and time piece stencils, some I applied with texture, some not. Then, I employed commercial rubber stamps until I was satisfied with all the nuances these toys created. 

As the background was so dark I had to paint Alice in a ghost-like white to be assured the colours would be clean and bright when I coloured her in.


                                                    

The finished Alice in Wonderland 
24" x 12" acrylic mixed media on canvas

At home I completed the piece by painting on the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter. I took great pleasure in the adding of embellishments, the small and miniature playing cards (thanks Win) the gears, the key and the clock button. Here are some close ups ...

Mixed media artist extraordinaire and our good friend, Win Dinn, has been teaching her acquired techniques in workshops for years. She conceived and facilitated a fabulous exhibition of her student's (plus her own) work. All students were invited to submit up to five pieces to Students. Teacher. Play. The show was beautifully presented by the folks at Centre 64 in Kimberley, BC, and was on display for the month of September, 2016. It was my good fortune to have Alice in Wonderland placed front and centre at the entrance to the show.

September 3rd, with Win at the exhibition's opening reception

When our granddaughter, Avery, turned eight last October I gifted Alice to as her annual birthday painting. 

Here are a  couple of other new pieces created specifically for Student. Teacher. Play.  ...

Drifting and Grounded  12" x 9" mixed media on cradled panel

Peacock Paradise 10" x 8" mixed media on cradled panel

Plus two other pieces which met the criteria of being created within the past two years ...

Flying Time 9" x 12" mixed media on board

Hip Replacement 9" x 8.25" acrylic mixed media, recycled child's board book.  The story and contents are here

Creston Experimentation

Black gesso everywhere and days later I've still got stained cuticles

Anyone who knows me well, knows I loath having dirty hands. This, I'm told, isn't normal for an artist (now there's an oxymoron for you). In Win's studio getting your hands dirty can't be helped and I have learned to roll with it because, well, the experimentation is just that much fun. This past visit to Creston (September 20th - 23rd) was so highly charged and what with Win's studio being adjacent to the master and guest bedrooms those of us sleeping on site didn't get very much owing to all that wild energy flying around the premises!

Meg watches Win demonstrating how she colours the embossed foiled pieces

Win graciously adhered silver foil (from a hair salon) onto masses of card stock and ran all theses pieces through her embossing toy so that Meg and I could black gesso then colour them.

My embossed pieces

Following Win's examples, I made a fun foam plate to print using her Gelli plate

My fun foam plate



Impressions made from the fun foam above were disappointingly faint, so I won't show you them. I need to go in with the stylus to press deeper into the lines, to get a print with strong contrast.

Bill (who has made original prints before) gave Gelli plate printing a try, but it didn't last long as the boys were just passing through on their way out the door to find their own kind of fun.

Meg, Win and John, Paul and Bill

Below Win observes as Meg creates a painted piece of "sun paper" using all sorts of wild and crazy colours, leaves, lots of paint and tons of water.

 

Once saturated, this paper needed overnight to have all that water evaporate ...

Somewhat of a garish dog's breakfast

But oh, the reverse side is an amazing sight to behold

Meg used other "sun papers" that she had created on these twin panels (in progress) ...

We did come up for air to spend some time outdoors. I had an urge to meander among the grapes, so we walked from the Dinn's to the Skimmerhorn vineyards ...

And oh the maple trees on the Dinn's front lawn are in their autumn splendor right now.



Thanks to Win and John, it was another magical stay in Creston. Good times with good friends in the beauty of one of BC's most charming valleys.

Skimmerhorn Grapes

Skimmerhorn Grapes   2015 oil 24" x 18"

Two weeks ago this grape painting was just a concept, a belated, idle promise. When I finally set aside a block of time to make it a reality I invited Judy Dahl to paint along with me. I've got to hand it to her for being brave in biting off an unfamiliar subject on such a large scale. Judy turned up every day that I spent on this painting, to work hard and very diligently on her "twin piece".

With Judy at the Linderman Law Art Room 

There are a multitude of ways to begin a painting. For each work, I let The Muse dictate the approach and this time she said "Start with an un-tinted (white) canvas and paint your drawing with burnt umber."  I find it best to establish the darkest darks and lightest lights, then wash in the mid-tones using paint thinned with odour-less thinner.

For this image I drew from two different photos I'd taken one October afternoon at the gorgeous Skimmerhorn Winery in Creston, B.C.

Skimmerhorn Grapes at the end of day one

With the composition established and because burnt umber is a fast drying pigment we were able able to proceed in colour the very next day.

Conclusion of day two

After the first day of "colouring it in" it tends to bog down to where it may not be easy to see the progression, but below are the subsequent days ...

Conclusion of day three

Conclusion of day four

Firstly, I'm blessed to know the satisfaction of painting, period, but then when I'm so fortunate to be on the receiving end of immense gratitude, it doubles my pleasure and joy.

On January 28th, I finally delivered on my promise ...

Skimmerhorn Grapes lives at Debie and Dean's house now

I am no stranger to painting grapes, they are a theme I return to again and again. Anywhere in the world, I chase down autumn vineyards to photograph plump, ripe specimens hanging heavily on the vines. From my archives here are a few other paintings that you may be interested in seeing.

The Noble Vine 2003 oil 18" x 24"

Grapes Over a Doorway in Gault, France   2004 oil 24" x 14"

Jewels of Provence   2004 oil 18" x 24"

Creating in Creston

A couple of weeks ago (on my 3rd visit to Creston in as many months) I'd hoped to paint and finish my annual birthday gift for our granddaughter's 4th birthday. A hummingbird because that's what Bill calls her. He is so right in his choice of nicknames; she is rarely still! Now that she's had her birthday party (October 14th) I can post about her present. Her actual birthday is today. 

HUMMINGBIRD FOR AVERY   mixed media on cradled panel, 12" x 9"   -    in progress and finished

This time Win taught me the technique of wet paint and plastic wrap. So enamoured with it, it showed up in the backgrounds of almost everything I did! Including the hummingbird. The green at the bottom of the unfinished piece was applied using fresh leaves as stamps. Under the applied dried flowers I also used commercial stamps and there is micro, transparent glitter (which the camera can't pick up) on and coming away from the wings as well as in a curved swoop beneath the tail feathers.

Win demonstrating the wet paint and plastic wrap technique

Our husbands (enablers) have been collecting old watches and taking them apart for us so that we can play with the bits ... I mean incorporate them into our mixed media pieces ...

Win's time piece

My time piece on a 12" x 16" cradled panel

We are both seeking a satisfactory way to affix beautiful, coiled watch springs to our work. Mine will go to the top left, slightly overlapping the sheet music.

We're happy with our combined, mostly unfinished, efforts at the end of 3 days

On these visits, we are learning balance. That is to say we are not spending all of our time in the studio! While Bill went off to Nelson one day, Win and I took a long break. We walked around the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area, visited the Creston Museum grounds (it was closed) and Win took me on a drive in the countryside. With Bill, we visited the Columbia Brewery, home of Kokanee beer. John was away, so he wasn't able to join in on any of this and it was especially unfortunate that he missed out on our decadent lunch ...

Lunch on the exquisite patio at the Skimmerhorn Winery

Many thanks to Dinns for always welcoming us and especially to Win for continuing to give generously of her knowledge as I make my way in the Magical World of Mixed Media!

For the complete photo essay of this Creston visit please click here.