Almost Over

It is so hard to believe that summer is almost over: the time seemed to speed by while at the same time it seemed to be crawling. The heat, the smoke, the lack of visitors to my home gallery and to the Summer Art Market have all contributed to the strangeness I have felt all summer.

I have been spending what leisure time I have had doing some quilled paper and watercolour pieces. I find both aspects soothing and relaxing.

#1050 - Filigree Flier

#1051 - Filigree Rufous

#1052 - Filigree Fantasy

#1054 - Filigree Fantasy #2

I have been sticking with hummingbirds as my subjects because they suit the lacy looking I am going for and they sell very well - everyone loves hummers! I have, however, been taking some liberties with my colours - at least I have never seen a purple and orange hummer - lol.

I have been thinking about my plans for the Fall and trying to get things organized for a few Watercolour Painting Parties. I am also hoping that some of my students will be coming back to continue their lessons but I expect I will have to wait for the weather to get cold before that happens. I was pleasantly surprised last week by an email from Cheryl asking if I could fit in a lesson on the weekend. I did of course and we both managed to finish a pretty decent painting. Here is mine!

#1053 Deep Fuchsia - 5 x 7 watercolour

On a non-art note, a few weeks ago I got a new camera as my old favourite finally gave up the ghost. The new one is a Canon PowerShot SX420 15 and it is working great! Although I mostly use the camera to take photos of my art, it works super taking pictures through the windows of the critters that visit our yard.

baby turkeys

deer and fawn in my back yard

fawn

These are some of the joys of living in the country in the middle of a forest - life is good!

Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment.

Strange and Unsettling

It has been a very strange and unsettling summer so far.

I never get a lot of visitors to my home gallery as we are 1km off the highway but this year has been the worst since I opened. However, for the first time I  had some locals stop in for a mini lesson and the Watercolour Painting Party I blogged about last week.

The Saturday Afternoon Summer Art Market that I have organized has also been a bit strange. Every Saturday we set up and wait, and wait, and wait for visitors. We have done a lot of promoting on social media, put out rack cards and posters as well as some big signs at the venue but our efforts have been mostly unsuccessful.  Visitor numbers and sales have been disappointing but we keep hoping things will improve.

The unsettling part has been due to the fire situation in BC and the high temperatures.

looking south across the flats

looking west across the flats

There have only been a few small fires in the valley and they were quickly handled by the local fire departments and wildfire crews. The closest major fire is about an hour away across the lake at the top of a mountain. It is not endangering people or homes but it is very hard to fight because of the terrain. The biggest fires are many hours away from us but the smoke from all these fires makes its way to our area and makes life difficult. That is what you see in the above photos - there are mountains behind all that smoke haze - and that is what we have been living with for weeks.

We finally had some rain yesterday and a bit today, as well as cooler temperatures although we need a whole lot more of both.

I haven't been doing very much art (too busy organizing things I guess) but I have managed to get a few things done.

#1048 - Rough Seas - unframed 8 x 10 acrylic on canvas board

#1044 - Still Life with Blue Vase - unframed 7 x 10 watercolour

#1049 - Dragonfly with Camellia  - 5 x7 matted to 8 x 10 quilling and watecolour

One last thing - we have a new resident in our yard. Some people regard little guys like this as pests but I am have a good time watching him scurry around the flower beds and pots.

    enjoying the seeds from the Amaranth Velvet Curtain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you will let me know how your summer is going.

Surprise Party

Well, it was a surprise to me!

Last year I made some "Cool Bags for Caps" for a lady I met at the Boswell Art Fair. This Monday she phoned asking if I could do a Painting Party for a group of 6; her, a friend and 4 teenage girls. They wanted to come in the morning so I had to figure out which paintings they might be able to do in a shorter time than my regular parties. I decided to have them do 7 x 10 paintings thinking that they would take less time than 10 x 14 pieces. I still underestimated the time it would take but it all worked out in the end.

Each of them did a fabulous job on their paintings and I think they were all very happy with the results.

I am afraid I got the girls all mixed up so I haven't added their names under their photos.

You might have noticed that these photos were taken outside. Kim asked that we have the painting party on the deck so that we could enjoy the weather. The atmosphere was great but it did make painting a bit of a challenge because the paint was drying too fast for easy blending. However, you can see that they all did a great job.

My husband took about 30 photos of us while we were working but I figured that is just too many for this blog - lol. He did take a group shot of all the participants which I think is a great way to end this post.

Thanks for stopping by. I would love to hear what you are up to this summer.