Odds and Ends

I haven't been doing much art lately as I have been too busy with yard work and getting my flowers planted. Today was the first time in over 2 weeks that I picked up a brush and, of course, I painted another scene of the Creston Valley.

Cloudy Skies over the Valley - 7 x 10 watercolour

I haven't been completely without art in the last few weeks; I have done a few bits of quilling in my spare time. And, I gave a small Quilling Party on the weekend.

Mini hummer and flower with buds

an ATC with the mini quilling

more mini humming birds and a Canadian dollar coin (loony)

These mini quilling pieces were done with 1/16" paper strips and were VERY difficult to do! I started making them because my blogging friend Nelvia McGrath - Nelvia's Blog  - suggested swapping ATCs. I have a few ATCs made but thought the one I chose for the swap needed a bit extra to make it more interesting - thus the quilling. Then a friend asked me to make her one so I did a few more but I was more than happy to get back to normal sizes for the Quilling Party.

my quilled card

I always forget how long it takes beginners to get their fingers working when learning how to quill with 1/8" paper strips; maybe next time I will start them with the 1/4" paper. At any rate, we all managed to complete a card during the party and the ladies were so interested that they plan to come for regular lessons to learn more. Unfortunately, I was so busy I forgot to take photos of their cards - sigh, when will I learn to have the camera in the room with me!

I have a number of projects in mind for the next while and, hopefully, I will have the time and the energy to do them. Then I will share.

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment as  I would love to hear from you!

All Ready for Planting!

It is always a chore but I finally have my garden and my pots ready for planting.

waiting for the annuals

most of my pots all ready for plants

in the greenhouse

more in the greenhouse

I think I will have enough plants!

So everything is ready and I hope to start planting tomorrow even though there is still snow on the mountains. Our weather has been pretty good and the forecast is for more of the same so I am going ahead in spite of local lore saying we should wait. I have some arthritis in my hands and I can only work for less than an hour so it will take a while to get the job done and by the time I am finished the snow will be gone  - I hope!.

With all the garden work, I haven't done much art in the last few weeks but I did manage to do a bit of quilling. I am continuing to work with the alphabet and have completed the B, C, D, and R. The R was done for my sister who wanted the B and R for a wedding gift.

For the D, I was thinking about something boys might like, hence the dark background and the skull. I have to come up with more parent friendly images, like soccer balls and trucks - lol.

A few weeks ago, a local artist friend had a give-away on her blog. Win Dinn is a fabulous mixed media artist with a passion for colour. She is well know in our area for her unusual style and fun filled workshops. At any rate, back to the give-away - I won! I almost never win anything and I was thrilled to get one of Win's recent pieces.

The New Hood by Win Dinn, 2018

Win's 'wonky houses' will join two other paintings by her that I am lucky enough to own.

Thanks for stopping by! I love to hear from you so please leave a comment.

Busy, busy busy!

It is that time of year again when there is too much to do and not enough time. Most of last week I was writing up some history notes on artists that used to belong to the Creston Art Club. The local Arts Council and the Focus on Youth committee are putting on a display this week: Artists in our Community - Past, Present and Future. I offered to collect and take charge of paintings by a number of artists, hence the history notes. Here are some photos of the show.

I had also volunteered to do a demo at the show based on the workshop I took last year that was sponsored in part by the Creston Arts Council. Although I did the workshop in acrylics I decided to do the demo in watercolours. I ended up having the grade 8 art class come and watch me for about 45 minutes. The demo was on Colour Contrast and I choose to do Value and Colour (hue). Here are the paintings I did.

BTW I painted these upside-down and holding my painting boards up so the students could sit while they watched me. The drawing were done ahead of time. It was an interesting experience!

I have also been busy in the garden, my little greenhouse, taking in some art for the museum gift shop, helping my husband with some tree removal etc. etc. etc. And I still have things on my to do list - like I said - busy, busy, busy.

LYA Side Swaps

Many of the participants of Kat Sloma's annual Liberate Your Art postcard swap get extra cards made and do side swaps. My plan was to just do 5 extra cards for the side swap but I had a number of requests so I increased the number to 12. I don't know how many of my cards have been received but I have had 9 land in my mailbox.

I thought about displaying them all together but decided that each is so special it needed its own photo. Many of the cards were displayed with my bedding plants, a few were displayed with some of my own art and quilling and one I stuck in an old half barrel that I use as a planter.

This super Chicago clock photo is from Kate Lehman

This vibrant mixed media piece is from Kathy McIntire

A fabulous "Peony Party" by Natasha Papousek

Kelly Warren does great pet Shelter Photography

This fabulous mixed media piece is by Stephanie Whiting

A charming vase of flowers from my blogging friend Sheila Delgado

The message LOVE says it all in this lovely photo from Lisa Comperry

"Old Barn" a super photo from Sweet Leaf Productions and Michele Matucheski

This lovely angel is from Janice Darby and I paired it with one of my quilled angel ornaments

My own cards for the LYA swap are cut down from the art cards I make to sell in my home gallery and a few local venues. Because my cards were home made and designed to go in envelopes I have wondered if they manage to survived the journey through various post offices. I have only heard from a few people that my cards have arrived so I am still guessing. Turning cards into post cards has one advantage - I can easily send out a variety of different pictures. Here are some of the cards I sent for the side swap.

Photos of my original watercolour paintings

I am still expecting few more cards and I look forward to seeing what other wonders I will gain for my collection of post cards. The LYA postcard swap is a great way to connect with new artists and I encourage my readers to try it out next year.

Thanks for stopping by - please let me know what you are up to!

Liberate Your Art Finale

 What a wonderful variety of art there is in the world! And, through the LYA Postcard Swap I get to see pieces from artists all over the world.

Each participant in the swap sends out 5 postcards and 6 return stamps so that when the final mail comes in we have all received 6 cards.  Many of us share photos of the cards on the Group FB page and it is so interesting to see how everyone showcases the cards.

My first card was from Sherry Harmes in Alaska. While some artists will add an interesting  quote , this year Sherry  added two: "Sometime you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory" - Dr. Suess; and "There are always flowers for those who want to see them" - Henry Matisse. Because of the flowers I displayed Sherry's card with the flowers, dragonflies and butterflies that I made with wire, glue and nail polish.

Next was this lovely view of the night sky which is part of a painting by Beverly Leeck from Edmonton Alberta, Canada. I thought the card went well with my pen & ink fridge magnet.

The message on this lovely pastel painting is "you will find it" - a very hopeful phrase and one that resonates with me. This is from Kate McGee of Corvallis, Oregon and I displayed it with my arrangement of dried grasses.

This super painting of the red barn surrounded by fields seemed to fit in well with one of my quilled paper roosters. I don't know anything about the medium used or about the artist as the only information was an email address for Lorraine Rush and the message "You are Loved".

My fifth card is a mixed media piece called "Susie" and the message on the back is "May we all speak our minds". Again, I know nothing about the artist - not even a name. The email address on the card was hard to read and the note I sent came back as undeliverable - sigh!

The six card is a wonderful photo manipulation by Kat and her message is "Creativity take courage" by Henri Matisse

These 6 paintings are on the cards I sent out this year, They are all watercolour and are based on scenes around where I live. So far I have only heard from two of the people who received my cards and I am somewhat disappointed. Did my cards get lost in the mail? Were they damaged so badly people were unable to read them?  Who knows?

This is my second year of participating in the LYA Postcard Swap organized by Kat Sloma. Although I have enjoyed seeing all the different art, my disappointment is making me hesitate about participating again next year - we will see.

I hope you will take the time to pop over to Kat's Blog where, over the next few days, you will find links to many of the blogs written by the artists involved in the LYA swap. You will also find a video of around 70 of the cards that were sent out and all of the stats about the participants.