Things are Slowing Down!

At least they appear to be as I only have a few things scheduled for the rest of this month - thank heaven!

I started off the month with a lesson to a small group of ladies who want to learn how to draw. They plan on coming once a week but one already had to miss a class and another will be missing this week. It is hard to figure out how to catch people up on what was missed while the others want to forge ahead.

On October 7, I hosted my final Watercolour Painting Party for the season. I had 5 scheduled to attend and ended up with only two due to cancellations. No matter, we had a great time!

Cheryl and Ed have both attended parties in the past and have also taken some private lessons with me. Both did a super job on their chosen paintings and were very happy with the results. I think they will be back for more lessons once golfing season ends.

Yesterday I attended a one day acrylic workshop with Castlegar artist Mirja Vahala Mirja's Studio. 

The workshop was put on by the Creston Art Club and seemed to involve a ton of emails back and forth between the club's president and me and between me and the participants - much more work than was needed!. However, we all had a good time and I think we all learned stuff too. (the photos are in reverse order)

critique time!

finished pieces ready for critique

watching and listening - what did we do wrong?

more critiques

Linda's piece

Jenny's paintings for the final critique

getting set up

Mirja Vahala

The focus of the class was Colour Contrasts: value, compliments, temperature, intensity, hue and quantity. Until the end we were painting the same still life over and over, each painting building on what we learned in the ones before. I admit there are still a few gaps in my understanding especially with intensity and quantity but I will work on those concepts on my own.

These are my paintings from the class. I am missing either intensity or hue although I can't figure out which one is missing - oh well, more study required. The last two I did were on 'quantity' - can you figure out what it means? These were done on 8 x 10 canvases and I think I will redo the studies onto watercolour paper and reuse the canvases in the future. These are not suitable for selling and paper stores better - lol.

As there is not much on my schedule (except for the drawing classes) for some time I will be relaxing after the busy summer and just puttering in my studio for the next while and enjoying doing not much of anything.

Thanks for stopping by.

Too Much Going ON!!!

I feel like I have been on a treadmill with no way to get off! Life has been so busy between yard work, building a rock wall with recycled cement and stone, dentist and doctor appointments and, of course, my first Watercolour Painting Parties of the year.

  I had a super group of five lovely ladies for my first party on Friday. A few of them had done some painting before but every one did a marvellous job with their painting - experienced or not!

Jewelle with her log cabin in the swamp

Marg with her cabin in the swamp

Judy with her foggy lighthouse

Another Judy with her lighthouse

Deni with her windblown lighthouse

These fog paintings don't really show up well when they are this small but , believe me - all of the paintings are super!!!

My Saturday party was much smaller; only two participants. We were gong to paint 'Little Guys' and both of them decided to paint the same scenes. This made my job much easier and we even had time to take a walk out in my yard and enjoy the lovely weather, the music from the creek and the birds and the flowers that are in bloom.

Eileen with her 2 paintings

Heather with her paintings

Heather and Eileen had such a great time that they are going to join my June 25th party when we will be doing vignettes.

I love it when things work out so well!

Trade Show Success!

What a weekend! Although I was standing on cement for most of the last two days and my legs are killing me, I am very happy with the response I received at the Trade Show. Twenty-eight people signed up to take a Watercolour Painting Party and more took business cards with plans to make up their own groups for private parties. If everyone who expressed interest follows through I will be doing parties into December. Wow, will I ever be busy!

#1025 Ocean Fog - 10 x 14 watercolour

I thought that more people would be interested in trying one of the fog paintings but I guess most were tired of dull grey weather and wanted to paint colour.

#1030 Rocky Shores - 5 x 7 watercolour

#1031 - Regrowth - 5 x 7 watercolour

This year the most popular choice was the "Little Guys" party. I decided two days before the Trade Show that I needed to have some samples of the paintings suggested for the "Little Guys" and painted the pieces above. Once matted and framed they were a great display for what participants 'could' do at the party. I think another reason for the popularity is that all of the paintings for these parties are quite colourful.

You can see posters with all the paintings on this blog post - too-much-happening

So, now all I have to do is figure out and coordinate when 28 people can be scheduled to attend four different parties - the hard part LOL.

Wish me luck!

Too Much Happening!

There is just too much happening in my life right now! This time of year is often busy between art activities, yard work and my bedding plants but this year there seems to be more going on than usual.

First, I have been getting things organized for the Trade Show at the end of the week. I wanted to add some more scenes (the Foggy Building pictures) to my Watercolour Painting Parties and that meant painting some - lol. I also needed to make up some posters to use to promote the parties.

I used both Pic Monkey and Canva to make the posters and I am pretty happy with my finished products. I also decided to offer Quilling Parties although I have no idea how many people will be interested.

 And, I needed a poster that helps to explain the whole concept.

  

 

The day after the Trade Show I have to get some paintings ready for a display at Creston's Rec Centre. It is only a four day show but it should be interesting. The arts community is displaying with local children as part of the annual Focus on Youth and this year the theme is Art and Agriculture as part of the Canada 150 Celebrations.

And, the day after Focus on Youth ends, I will be attending a 2 1/2 day watercolour workshop with Canadian artist Graham Flatt - His web site

The following Friday, I will be displaying some of my work at this year's Bird Festival. I am hoping visitors to the festival will be interested in taking home some reminders of their visit as I have quite a few pieces that feature birds.

 And to top it off, I hope to start my Watercolour Painting Parties the same weekend. Am I crazy?

This, That and the Other

Instead of sketching in the evenings lately, for a change of pace I have been doing some more quilling and adding the finished pieces to cards.

Quilled Rooster Card

I find most quilling to be relaxing and often do it while watching TV. Sometimes though, I pick a subject that is a bit tougher to do and it needs more control and concentration.

Filigree Hummingbird Card

This little hummingbird and flower seemed to take forever to do as I could only do a bit at a time while I waited for the glue to dry.

I have also been spending time figuring out my display for the up-coming Trade Show at our local rec centre. I mostly want to promote my Watercolour Painting Parties and my 20th "Anniversary as an Artist" Clearance Sale but I hope to make my display inclusive of all my work - thus the figuring.

This year I will be offering some new scenes for the Painting Parties. I am going to add 'A Building in Fog' as well as the 'Vignettes' and the 'Little Guys' parties.

Little Guys selection - paint two 5 x 7 pieces

Vignettes selection - paint one 10 x 14 scene

I don't have most of the scenes for the 'Building in the Fog' series ready yet but here is a sample;

#550 - Abandoned 

These scenes will be 10 x 14 and participants also get a 16 x 20 mat and a clearbag to protect their paintings.

I do have 'other' things happening but I think this blog is long enough, so I will leave the rest for an 'other' day - lol.

I invite readers to 'follow' my blog and leave a comment - let me know how I'm doing!