Focusing

This was a very busy and rewarding week - almost two weeks actually.

I've decided that a blog post each and every week is too much so I have geared down to twice a month. This way it gives me more time to finish things and possibly have something to say!

One of the 6 white canvases has turned into a vase of flowers.  It started out as an abstract but morphed along the way.  I'm thinking the deep freeze we have been in here this winter must have something to do with it.  Two more 8" x 8" canvases have been started - it would be nice to have three similar ones to be a little series but I won't know until I get going which direction they will take.  I am hoping for more vases with flowers!

This week also been a crocheting and knitting time. It all started with a friend wanting me to teach her how to crochet an infinity scarf.  I now have completed two of these scarves in different patterns and colours.  Turquoise for one; chartreuse for the other!  Next on the go is a knitted dish cloth - why I'm doing this is a mystery - the yarn just called out to me in the store!

I also read Neil Young's autobiography "Waging Heavy Peace" - an exceptionally good read!

So the next two weeks I will be on a mission to focus on more vase with flowers paintings with the goal of keeping my head in 'series' mode and not flying off in all kinds of other directions!

New Printmaking

Printmaking has been calling to me again lately and these two 'Flower Pot' hand coloured relief prints mounted on cradled wood panels gallery depth are two from a series of 6 that I made for a spring garden tour show called "Plantastic".  I am very pleased to say that 4 went to a new home that day!

I am now working on 3 more plates in a "Flower Pots" series featuring pots from my gardens.  These are small gems at 6" x 6" and the new additions to this series will be 8" x 8".

It is fun to do some printmaking again after painting and collaging this past winter.  I like to mix it up - it keeps me on my toes!!

Good News

This morning I received some really good news. A few months ago, I had entered some images of my printmaking in a contest run by the Hillebrand Winery in southern Ontario for labels for their 'Artist's Series' of wines.

From over 1300 entries the jurors selected a 'short list' of 37 entries and my "Textures of Life #1" was one of them.

I am very excited and nervous as now I will wait on pins and needles until the judges choose the winning 12 entries.

The last few months have been very stressful and upsetting so I am very grateful for some good news!

Strange Summer

Where to start - The weather, of course! We have had no summer, for the second year in a row. A day here and there, mostly rain. We also had a disaster hit and narrowly almost miss us in the form of way too much rain all at once - 5 to 6 inches of rain in an hour and a half on July 24th. As a result, we had the house to the east of us evacuated because of slope failure, and two to the left of us as well. Our property suffered minor damage and has now been repaired but it has been a very stressful month and will not be totally over until all the other properties have been repaired as well.

Needless to say, making art was not in the cards. I did manage to finish (I think) a mixed media painting and am hoping to do a few more in the same vein in the coming weeks.

Coming so close to the kind of catastrophes normally seen only on the evening news certainly has a very sobering effect on the psyche. I find myself having a hard time focusing these days, although dabbling away to finish this one did help and I'm sure that starting some more paintings will be good therapy.