Rainy Monday

Hi, good morning. I have finally finished my spring yard work. My little veggie garden is planted and my flower beds are cleaned and full of new stuff. This is the third year for my little yard and I now know which plants like it here.

Now I have time to paint again. I bought a new memory card and can take pics once again. Still haven't found the old one, maybe it got sucked up in the vacuum.

I have been taking a class at the college with Diane Godwin Sheridan on watercolour flowers, hoping that it will loosen me up. Have had lots of fun playing with wet on wet techniques, letting the paint do it's own thing on the wet paper. Dropping in colour where I want it.

Then some more. I may add some pen and ink to highlight certain areas. A tree showed up .

 Can you see the iris?

Lost Memory Card

Well I said I would post every Monday but have misplaced the memory card from my camera. Oh darn.

Have been taking a watercolour flowers class with Diane Godwin Sheridan at the college and wanted to post the work I have been doing in class. It is a much looser approach with bigger brushes and lots of fun.

Will post the pics as soon as the card is found. Thought I would just get another but they are a little pricey

A Little Artwork

Good morning, I am ready to post again, third week in a row, this must be a record.
Got a little freaked out by not starting all my spring work and made a list of things to do( 23 to be exact) this weekend. Again it rained and I could not get out there. I sure miss Terry and all the things he used to do for me.

Anyway tackled the worst job first this morning and because the sun felt so great on my whole body it didn't seem so bad. So first I cleaned the garage and washed away the winter gunk.

 The garage looks pretty good and the old squeegee came in handy. I had lots of time so I also washed the outside of my car, have been a little wary of putting it through a car wash because of the top. Looks pretty good.

I did work on a sailboat design last week. Peter took me to Hardy park last summer and took a lot of pictures for me of the sailboats racing from the yacht club on Tuesday nights here in Brockville. It was tons of fun to watch. I worked on them this winter but struggled a bit. After taking Andrea Mossop's class at the college on Unified Form I have been able to come up with a few great designs.
Here is the first of 6. Quite like the how they turned out and these two are off to a happy customer once I put them in cards.

Just loving this day, it is perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

More Small Paintings

Really love having fun with these funky flowers. I am now adding more work with pen and ink. They are all for sale at $10.00 each and I can mail them to you for another $1.60. Just mailed one off the other day.

It's so great to be here in Brockville, with the College so close. Will be starting another watercolour class next Thursday. This summer I have signed up for a session on setting up my own website, with a cart. Can't wait to make it live and do it myself.

Here are some card pics:

Small Paintings

Daisy

 Good morning, well I am posting again. Where does the time go? It has been super busy setting up my art business once again as well as committing time to painting, I have learned a lot and I have lots to share. So here comes PART ONE

It is so much fun to play with small 4x6 in. paintings. Lots of variety of technique and subject matter can be put into these small numbered paintings, there will always be daisies and butterflies. For marketing purpose they are perfect. Placed in a generic card they are easily framed and makes a great gift.A bargain at $10.

Walking in the Rain

 

My subject matter changes as time goes by and playing with rubber cement and liquid watercolour produced a modern vibe.

Modern

Butterfly

In taking these picture the colour was not true, so I went on a mission to figure out how to get great , true colour for my artwork, but that is a story for another day. 

January Studio Cleanup

Good morning this cold January day. The beginning of a new year is a great way to restart your life and make exciting changes. The teacher in me always loved the beginning of September and the beginning of January and for some strange reason this habit has stayed with me.

Stormy days lead me to introspective thought while I am cozily tucked into my favourite chair in front of the fire. We have had a few. I have come to the conclusion that I need to let more of my sewing stuff go. Looking at  all these materials and equipment  that I can't play with just keeps me stuck in that place so it is time to let it go. I can still embroider and do beadwork so those things will stay. The rest I will sort through, sell or give to friends who will be able to use these items.

I tackled my little 10 ft. x 9 ft studio first. ( Wrecked my knees with all of the trips up and down the basement stairs). Tore it all apart, took the sewing stuff to the basement and bought an IKEA cabinet to store paper and finished paintings. Sorted through all my stuff, found things I forgot I had and added four project boxes found on sale at Canadian Tire.

This Ikea cabinet I found in the business section. It took me two hours to put together by myself, woohoo! I first laid out all the parts, and read the instructions. Great paper storage solution.
Since I like to work on more than one project at a time I also bought four see through project boxes.

The more paintings I finished the more holes I put in the wall. So I decided to use some plastic, removable hooks, not the perfect solution but it works. The bulletin boards holds cards from friends and keeps important notices and papers in sight so that I cannot forget. Artists are such visual beings.

 My old Ikea shelves are a great place to store supplies and keep things within reach, they are at least 20 years old.  Just like the grocery store I keep the most frequently used items within arm's reach.

The white boxes ( no longer available, darn ) hold my smaller items and are labelled. Of course I had to highlight my cards. These little paintings are a delight to do and bundles of them make great gifts. My supply is getting low so I will have to play some more.

Now ready to work.

First painting of 2017

Funky Flowers #11.

Over the holidays I met two lovely women who wanted to buy a flower piece. I am happy to say that because of demand, I only had two left, I had to finish a piece already started and then have it sent to them. A nice thing about a commission is that it can be customized to the clients wishes. After selling the pieces in the fall I bought some coloured India Inks which I was able to incorporate into the piece. Added some peachy orange which really enhanced the painting.