Merry Christmas…and I can’t BELIEVE I did that!!!

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! We have been having fun celebrations and I have just a few minutes while everyone gets ready for the next adventure...off to Oma’s for Christmas dinner…

I just wanted to try to redeem myself…I really can’t believe that I put the letters on wrong on my younger’s Live, Love, Laugh picture!!! It was late, I was tired…my brain was fooling me…I really thought I had it right! Thank you Oma for pointing it out to me!!! Oh well…after midnight in the wee hours of Christmas Eve day, Cariño helped me pry off all 11 little canvases; scrape off, with chisels and paint scrapers, all the hardened gel medium goop...(one thing I did learn is that those canvases are not going to fall off...they are (were) very well stuck on!)…then I touched up the pinky-purple paint, re-splattered and re-attached all the letter canvases…correctly this time!!! What a job! I got to bed after 3:30am on Christmas Eve morning! This meant I didn’t get my elder’s painting finished…started, but not finished…so today she got a blue canvas and a promise…

Here is the final shot of Live, Love, Laugh...

Snow storms and art shows…

Well…I managed two posts today! Or, at least within 12 hours of each other! I kind of like keeping my Word program open, writing blog postings as I paint…it gives me something to do while things are drying and it helps me sort out my thought processes…this Live, Love, Laugh painting has been more a painting of process…the idea was fairly simple…then it was just a matter of working my way though it…making things up as I went along…the next painting I am doing, I think I have been putting off…it is more challenging for me…involves more ‘painting’…not just picking colours to go well together and working out the placement and spaces…this next one I actually have to paint a scene…part of me is looking forward to it…part of me is scared to start…all part of my learning process and how I am pushing myself…like this blog…all part of looking at what I am doing and growing through it…

We had originally planned on going to The Great Big Smalls IV show on Saturday…but some things came up for our friend, Yvonne, so we put it off until Sunday…which was fine, time-wise, for us…but they had been calling for a snow storm…

So on Sunday the storm hit…it wasn’t really all that bad a storm…relatively speaking…Cariño and I had just got brand new snow tires on the van last week (new law in Quebec – don’t get me started) so we were feeling pretty good about driving…well, Cariño did the driving! So we decided to carry on as planned and off we went into the snow storm…picked up my elder…then some yummy Bridgehead coffee for everyone…then on to get Yvonne…it did take a while to make our way over to the area of town that the CUBE Gallery is in…but we had coffee and good conversation…so it was fine…I think the blowing snow had most people staying home!

The show was great…I had wanted to see it just because I love seeing eye candy…but also because I wanted to get an idea of what the show was about, because I want to try to get into it for next year…so I wanted an feel for size, for prices…prices ranged from just under $100 to about $800…there was a great variety of smaller sizes, shapes, mediums and styles…I asked if I could take pictures, but while he said I could for myself, he asked me not to post any…which I can understand…there were over 60 artists represented in the show! But I am sad that I can’t show you any of the lovely pieces of art we saw…there were some amazing pottery pieces…I have no idea how she got her glazes so fantastically perfect! There were found object wall sculptures that I have seen there before and love…I had two favorites…a two headed “person’ holding up a small ‘person’…called “Parenthood”…they were made of pieces of wood, covered with flattened beer bottle caps and their teeth were white stone beads…the other one was a smaller girl person…she had huge wooden breasts that looked like marshmallows and a beer bottle cap bikini…I loved them!
There were also some encaustic landscape abstracts and oil abstract landscapes with chipped out pieces revealing colours beneath that spoke to me…it is so inspiring going to these shows!!!

After the show we stopped in at Wallack’s again so I could pick up the three additional canvases I needed for the Live, Love, Laugh painting and I also got some more inks…I found Copper and Bronze ink!!! I had been wondering if such things existed…and they do! Oh joy! Then we dropped Yvonne off, went for tea and gingerbread men at a neighbour’s (Cariño, elder daughter and I)…and then came home again and elder sat with me upstairs while I painted and Cariño made dinner…and we all had red wine to sip on…watched a movie with dinner…was a good day!

Tonight, as I have already posted, I am carrying on working on my younger’s Christmas present…I just finished splattering the three additional canvases and I am thinking now that I might leave them at that…maybe putting on spirals, stars and hearts might be too much…I have to wait for them to dry so I can put it all together and see…

As I paint the house is filling with the most amazing smells… Cariño is cooking…on Christmas Eve we are going to his family’s for dinner and, as we have done in the past, we have chosen a type of cuisine…this year is Indian…usually Cariño and I would be cooking together…but I have to get presents finished…so he is cooking all alone (again)...but I think he is still enjoying himself...he loves to cook…one of the things we (that's the "Royal We"...which means Cariño) have said we would do is a lamb curry…the smells are wonderful!...it is going to be a very yummy dinner! We are all cooking various things – butter chicken, rice…but some things will be bought…like naan bread made in a traditional wood charcoal fired tandoor oven from Host India…we have had it before…it is delicious!...also Cariño and I will be picking up samosas and pakoras from a place in the Byward Market…I am getting hungry thinking about all this food and with the smells that are filling my studio!

Here are some more progress pictures…

The three new canvases all splattered up...

















I'm thinking this is almost finished...maybe just one heart, one star and one spiral...














Oh…I meant to post this a while ago…my Mom sent me these really cool thingies…she found them at Lee Valley (a store it is not safe for me to visit!)…they can each support something like 200lbs…they came in very handy painting the backboard! Usually I set wet canvases on paint pots…which works too…but these little triangles are much easier to use…I can stack them and carry them in one hand…when I painted the 11 little canvases…it took 22 paint pots…I could not carry all of those in one hand! Thanks Mom!

These things are great!...














Here they are in action holding up the 33"x40" backboard making it way easier to paint!...







I am just about finished for the day...but my younger daughter is coming home from her friend's, where she has been for a few days...and I need to get her present finished!...it isn't something that I can hide to work on very well!!!

I decided that just one heart, star and spiral would work...















Here is a shot of the small canvases being weighted down as they get attached to the backing board...














Oh my goodness!!!...I think I am finished!!!
Here it is..."Live, Love, Laugh"...

Christmas is fast approaching…

As I work away on my Christmas projects…I am quickly becoming aware of how soon Christmas will be here! I’m not sure how, every year, it seems to be able to sneak up on me…every year! You would think I would learn!!! But, you know, some of my fondest memories are of late pre-Christmas nights spent creating…especially when the kids were little and with my Mom or a girlfriend (my younger’s second mother) and I would stay up into the wee hours painting and creating…even many nights I have spent alone doing last minute gifts…all are good memories!

As I was sort of saying the other day…these ideas of mine take way longer to actually do than the nano-seconds they take to come to me! I am getting near the final stages on two gifts…then I think there might only be one more to do…I’m not very organized this year! I really should sit down for a few minutes and write out what I have for whom…some of my gifts are pieces of pottery that I have done, some are paintings…

Cariño picked up the back support for me a couple days ago…so I had to get it painted…actually we painted the first coat together with some house paint I had bought ages ago but never used…it was purple and originally to be used for my younger’s room (which you won't be surprised to hear is painted bubble gum pink!)…a very pinky purple…so it will go nicely as a backing for the very purple and very pink canvases…the colours don’t show up very well in the photos…

Ok…so once I got that backboard all painted and set the letter canvases on to see how it all looked…there was way too much ‘white space’ (pinky-purple space in this case!)…so I set on three more canvases to fill the spaces and get a feel for how that would look…much better…back to the store for three more canvases…gallery wrapped this time (1 1/2" thick) to give some depth to the whole piece…a 5”x7”, 8”x10” and a 14”x18”…

Last night my elder came over (she had also come to the art show with us) and she sat up and talked with me as we drank red wine and I painted…so the three new canvases are double base coated…tonight I splattered the backboard and am going to splatter the three canvases as well. Then I still have to cut out some hearts for the big canvas, stars for the medium one and spirals for the small one…I will paint them and do some ink line drawings on them I think…

I am typing this as I wait for things to dry…I think I will get this posted and then start a new post about the art show…which was lots of fun…an adventure - since we went to it in the middle of a snow storm!

Here are some progress pictures from Live, Love, Laugh - that has become a much bigger project than I fist thought it would be!

Getting there...














Too much pinky-purple space...














Yes...it will look better with something in those spaces...














Three new canvases...














I'm in splatter heaven!...















Splatter detail...

Ideas...Pink and Purple Letters and Canvases…

The latter half of the week got away on me! Good, though, in a money-making way…I worked at the bookstore for the first couple days and then had computer jobs for the next two…I didn’t get any painting time though…but I did manage to get a couple of trips in to the art supply store!!!

Now today has all but slipped away on me to…where does the time go? I have, however, been happily painting away up in my studio for most of the afternoon and evening…

There are times, when my creative juices are flowing, that ideas seem to come to me at an incredible rate…each idea like a leaf…and the leaves are falling and blowing around like crazy on a windy day…I can’t keep up with jotting snippets down…little bits to trigger my memory later…many emails to myself, sent from my BlackBerry late at night…this applies for all creative ideas…art and poetry…then the execution of these ideas – the ones I manage to jot down or remember – takes infinitely longer to bring into being than the wisp of the idea that flew near to me in that creative storm!

Today I have been working on an idea that has actually been resident in my head for a long time…it was something my younger daughter had tried to do earlier in the summer, maybe even last spring…or winter (time has a way of getting away on me!) but got fed up with…I mulled over how I might do it (since I have more patience for these things than she does)…then one day I sketched out the very simple layout…then back it went into my head to germinate some more…how would I do the letters…how would I handle the mechanics of the whole piece…the colours were easy…it was for my younger daughter…so it had to be pink…with purple and gold…maybe some black…but mainly pink…and purple…on one of the trips to the art supply store this past week, I got the paints (all the pinks and purples I could get my hands on) and the little canvases that I had decided to use…stretched ones, but only a half inch thick…two 6”x8”, two 5”x10” and seven 5”x7”…laid out the way I am going to do it, I will need a backing piece 33”x40”…I haven’t got that yet…but think I will get a piece of thin board from the hardware store…so today (as the afternoon slipped away) I have drawn and cut out the 11 letters and been painting them…I found a font I mostly liked and then I printed the letters off on card stock…then I embellished them and cut them out…and I have also double base coated the 11 little canvases…I am going to do some splattering of inks on the canvases and then painting on embellishments with gold ink on the letters, once I have them stuck onto the canvases…since we are doing a mainly home-made Christmas…this will be her main present…

I have a lot of fun splattering…I put the pieces on the floor, on top of some bigger pieces of paper…although lots seems to get on the floor anyway…and then I stand above and wander around the pieces in a circle and splatter to my hearts content!...I have to make myself stop!...

Here are some progress shots…the pink letters still need another coat of paint...they don't show very pink in the picture…the canvases need to dry before I can attach the letters…I hope the cats don’t decide to prance across them before they dry completely!










































Oh…the other creative thing I did this week was to look into some ‘calls for artists’…I have two places to apply to…I also looked into some galleries…we are going to one of them tomorrow (Cariño, Yvonne and I – weather permitting) at the CUBE Gallery – The Great Big Smalls IV show…I would like to try to get into this for next year…I will tell you all about it next time…

Supplies and Time…

Yesterday I went with Cariño (who has finished all his exams and the magazine he is the French editor for has gone to print…so he has some down time finally!) to Wallack’s to stock up on some canvases and paint…I go through paint at an alarming rate!














With a bunch of other running around, I didn’t get up to my studio at all…

I had a computer job in the morning in the same building where my solo show is going to be in February – at Heartwood House – which is a really neat place…a whole bunch of charitable organizations sharing a building…there are some really wonderful programs run out of this place! Also housed in this building is the Heartwood Gallery, which is where my show will be…it is a great room…a great big room!…I had another look in it to try to get an idea of how many paintings I am going to need…I am going to need lots! I also need to get my advertizing material created…a small poster or postcard…I need to decide what to call my show…the last solo show I had I called it “Flow and Jetsom”…Flow because most of the pieces in that show (which was only 1 not so large wall) were from my Flow series and the jetsom were a few other pieces not from that series.

Today I worked a bit more on my collaged “Floating Away with Balloons”…I’m all finished, except I am going to add some flowers…and her blue eyes and rose-bud mouth…

Full Moon in the Gatineau Hills

Last night Cariño and I, and the 2 dogs, went out to Oma’s for dinner…as we drove out, I watched the huge, full moon rising in the sky…it was so big and bright that it made the snow laden trees cast shadows over the snow covered ground…it was very beautiful!

Dinner was delicious and when Cariño and I were leaving we decided to walk the dogs out on Oma’s road, instead of coming back to the city for their last walk…the moon was high in the sky by now, but still very bright and it was so wonderful walking down the winding, deserted, moon-lit single-track road…looking up the hill, into the woods was magical…the trees casting shadows all over the rocks and snow…it was very cold (the van told us it was -19 Celsius) and we didn’t have our long johns, hats and mitts…but it was a wonderful walk! I wish I could have taken pictures…but I didn’t have a tripod and my fingers would have frozen off…so you will have to just imagine how amazingly beautiful it was!

Earlier yesterday, I picked up the rest of my stuff from the pottery school…another ‘ball bowl’…teal this time…it turned out nicely…some various tiles that might end up in mosaics, some tiny pinch bowls for mosaics…this one has 3 little balls in it…sort of looks like a nest…some I did empty (they are wonderful to touch) and some I pinched together and put a ball or 3 in…














I also got my star ornaments…I had painted on white glaze and then splattered on some light blue…I’m happy with them…the glaze really fills in the texture, but I think enough still shows…these I will tie to people’s presents…usually I buy pretty little ornaments to tie onto gifts, but this year, I decided to make my own!














I also picked up my bowl that I had stained…it is tipped on it’s side so you can see the texture on the feet…













We are going out for dinner again tonight…to Cariño’s family… Cariño is making crème caramel for dessert! I am spending a couple hours up in my studio before we leave…

My “Sitting Under Mandara’s Tree of Wonder” has produced some more ideas that I am going to work on…I want to do an ‘orchard of wonder’ and a Jesse’s tree of wonder…which will be pinks instead of the peacock blues and greens…Mandara and Jesse are my daughters’ names…the tree idea came from the meaning of Mandara’s name, which is…a mythical tree that if you sit under it, all your cares will float away…

So I have started 2 postcards with these ideas…the Jesse one, I am painting the background first in watercolours, and the orchard one I am doing like I did the Mandara one…doing the trees first and then the background…I’m not sure, yet which will be easiest and most successful…we shall see!

Here are progress pictures…not too exciting yet!

























I am also working on 2 larger-sized “Floating Away with Balloons”…one is 10”x20” deeps, stretched canvas and the other is 6”x12” not as deep stretched canvas…on the small one, I cut out the balloons, painted them and then attached them…I like the bit of collage-look it gives it…I am still deciding whether I am going to cut out the girl…I would like to, but she will be more difficult to cut out of the thick watercolour paper…but I think I need to try…it will keep an over-all feeling of collage to the piece…the bigger one I am painting everything on directly (same as I did with the postcard)…

Quick Post...

I managed to sneak upstairs this morning while everyone was still asleep…nice and quiet on this cold, wintery day. Cariño has no exams today, so he is catching up on some sleep…just one take-home exam left for him to do!

I put some second coats of paint on a few things and then finished up my “Sitting Under Mandara’s Tree of Wonder” postcard…it was really fun to do! It is hard to see in the scan of the postcard...but all the drawing in the tree...the spirals and dots and stars and such are done in gold metallic ink...so they shine and glimmer...my little person sitting under the tree has a huge nose!!!


















Now I have to go do some running around before I am off to work at the book store this afternoon/evening…

Snowy Days and Transit Strikes

Yesterday we got 35cms of snow and at 12:01am the Ottawa Transit people went on strike…I stayed snuggled in bed this morning and ignored it all! My computer job got postponed to next week and I don’t have to be at the book store until 5pm! Cariño had an exam at 2pm, so I drove him over to the University for that…but otherwise, I have stayed inside looking out at the sunny, snow-covered day…

Luckily only the Ottawa bus people are on strike…so I can still take the Gatineau bus to work…good thing, because not much is plowed yet and so walking is a sloggy mess and if I were to drive and park over where I work in the Byward Market – most of what I earned would go to paying for the parking!

Yesterday I actually got a bit of time, sitting waiting, to sketch a bit…and a picture that I have had mulling about in my head for a week or so came out quite nicely…I am going to do a postcard of it and also a bigger version on canvas…

















I am still getting used to ‘sketching’ ideas down…I never carried a sketch book around before, but have started…I still tend to do a lot of the creating in my head for a while first…but I am trying to get myself to doodle and sketch more…

I know I’m not alone when I say, and I know that I have said it before, that I have this thing about not ‘wasting’ materials…paper, lead, paint…anything…I think it stems mostly from the fact that I don’t have money to be wasting anything…so when I first bought my little sketch book…I carried it around empty…scared to put that first mark in it…only wanting to put ‘worthy’ marks in it…I am slowly learning, though, that the more I actually do ‘make marks’…the better I seem to be getting…the more I experiment and explore and let loose and play…the more confident I am becoming in ‘making art’…the postcard and ACEO projects have been the most important pieces to this learning.

This afternoon I started on a couple things and did a bit more on some others…scattered, but fun! I started on the postcard version of “Sitting Under Mandara’s Tree of Wonder" and am having a lot of fun with it…using coloured pencils, both regular and metallic, watercolour pencils and gold ink so far…I am trying to keep it loose and flowing…hard for me, since I usually need definite lines and solid colour!

Here is a progress picture...hope to get to do some more on it later tonight or tomorrow morning...

Christmas Cards, Postcards and Paintings…

We woke to wintery cold temperatures this morning…minus 20 Celsius! Cariño had his first final exam today…so I threw some layers of clothes over my pajamas and drove him up to the University…too cold to walk…especially since he had to be up there for a 9:30am exam!

I finished putting together my Christmas cards today…this took a while since I hadn’t done the stars yet and had to cut out 7 tiny stars and get them painted…

















The cards were still taped closed so they would dry flat and I stuck one of the Christmas trees on upside down! I guess that will be my left-handed card! I like to keep a sample of things like this that I do anyway…in case I ever want to do it again.

I even stuck in an insert into the cards...I went online and found a little rhyme and Christmas wish from a vintage card...I thought it was kind of nice...my younger daughter allowed as it was kind of cheesy...that's ok...cheesy is perfectly alright at this time of year!














Went grocery shopping with my younger daughter late this afternoon and on the way home we zipped by Yvonne’s for a glass of wine (for me), a quick visit...and to pick up the new bowl we bought from Carrie on Saturday night! It is Cariño and my Christmas present for each other! I love it!!! It is wonderfully round and fat...perfect size for a serving dish for 2 or for a veggie or side dish for 4...














Tonight, when Cariño and I walk the dogs before bed…I will pop into the mail, to start on their journey, my 11 postcards going to places like France, all over the States, Australia, The Netherlands and places out in Western Canada…and I will also mail my Christmas cards…I love mailing nice things!

I doubt that I will have any time to spend being creative in my studio for the next couple days…have part-time job and a computer job on Wed and a full day tomorrow…Thursday morning looks promising…

Christmas Spirit Gathering…

Saturday was a wonderful day…full of good friends, good food, wine and Christmas spirit gathering…Oma invited girlfriend Yvonne, Cariño and I out to The Hermitage to help her with the “felling” and decorating of four tiny Christmas trees…because she is having many little people (one in particular who is very young and very mobile – a Christmas tree simply wouldn’t survive him) for Christmas (as well as a number of dogs – there will be 4 at one point! Six if we can make it out on Christmas Day for dinner!!! We are talking all big dogs too!) – she decided not to have a Christmas tree downstairs, but, instead to have 4 tiny ones upstairs…3 in the windows at the lake-side of the house and 1 in the bathroom.

We arrived after lunch, had a glass of wine for sustenance, and then headed off outside to gather the trees…it was one of those beautiful wintry days…fluffy snow falling, not too cold, everything white, snow covered trees…it is so pretty out where Oma lives! It didn’t take us long to choose trees that probably wouldn’t grow into big ones anyway…one was almost knocked over and the rest were in clusters. We came armed with 2 saws and a set of pruning shears (all that was needed were the pruning shears, really – the biggest tree had a trunk of maybe half an inch!)

Then we went back inside and set the trees into various pots, held upright and “straight” with rocks. We put them into their respective places and began decorating…it was lots of fun...many laugh were had…one of the trees couldn’t support anything, so it had to be tied up with fishing line…Cariño got a little carried away with the guy wires…more guy wires than tree! Oma was cutting them down behind him…so he finally left and went downstairs to make bell ornaments…he really wanted there to be many, many guy wires!

It got dark as we were decorating and in the dark with just the lights on the trees, Christmas spirit began seeping in…they were so pretty...there is something very special about lit and decorated trees in the house…

When the trees were all finished, we headed back downstairs for our pot luck dinner…Oma had made a fruit covered ham that was wonderful (I love fruit and meat), Cariño and I brought a simple fried rice dish and very, very garlicky green beans that we sautéed – 2 buds of garlic for green beans for 4, and Yvonne brought a delicious spicy spaghetti squash and veggie dish…more wine and dinner was fantastic…Oma also made a stollen for desert. Growing up, stolen was always a part of Christmas and the idea of stollen excites me and fills me with Christmassy feelings…but, while I like fruit cooked with meat…I don’t like fruit cakes…I have no idea why!

After dinner, we left Oma’s and carried on to an Open House/Christmas party at our pottery teacher, Carrie’s…what a beautiful place she has too…not far from Oma’s, also up in the Gatineau Hills…they are up on a hill, rock face around the back of their place and apparently a view that goes on forever out the front (it was dark, so we couldn’t see this part). Carrie also has a large pottery studio/class room that is housed in a separate building…we had a nose around it on our way in…wonderful space! Their home is open concept, wood…just beautiful! Carrie had he pottery on display and for sale…I fell in love with one of her bowls and decided I had to have it – so I asked her if I could buy it on the ‘pay forever plan’ – which means that I couldn’t pay for it then, but I “needed” it and I would pay it off over time…she allowed as that was fine! So that is a Christmas present for Cariño and me! I will put up a picture of it…but that will have to be later, because we forgot it in Yvonne’s car!

We left Carries around 11pm – Yvonne drove us home…walked dogs and had no trouble falling asleep!

Today I worked at the book store…was a bit tired, but the day passed quickly…was too tired to make it up to the studio this evening…tomorrow I have an open day and plan on doing some painting…to bed now…

Here are pictures of our lovely tiny trees that brought us all some Christmas spirit!

A Postcard a Day…

...keeps my stress at bay…

I am thoroughly enjoying the push I have put on myself to get these projects I am participating in completed…I forget when the ‘deadlines’ are – but I think they are coming up fast…not that anything bad will happen if I go over them…I think we have six months to complete our cards…you would think that was lots of time…which is why I put it off (being a procrastinator by nature)…I almost have 11 ready to go…it feels really good, too, to have a stack of packaged, ready to mail cards - cards in zip lock baggies, notes inside, all addressed in prettily stamped envelops (I have a thing about getting the fancy, beautiful stamps - must be from my stamp collecting days when I was a kid), my notes all organized so I can post the pictures to the forum once they arrive at their destinations…the same feeling I get when I have a stack of Christmas cards all ready to go (speaking of which - I should get those finished and ready to go too!)…nice little things to find their way through the mail to make someone happy…I am pretty easily pleased!

Last night was one of those nights where I climbed into bed (at about 1:30am) with my mind full of ideas that just kept coming and coming…I lay there emailing myself messages on my Blackberry so I wouldn’t forget…ideas for postcards…I still have 12 4”x6” ones to do and then something like 26 2.5”x3.5” ACEOs to do…ideas for Christmas presents…ideas for large paintings for my upcoming shows…when I got up this morning, I had sent my last message to myself at 2:45am! And then I wonder why I can’t get up in the morning! Better to lie awake thinking of creative ideas than worrying about bills though!

I am going through a select few of my pencil crayons at an alarming rate…they are getting shorter and shorter…but I just love the rich colours when I layer them on heavy…some is good – more is better! I am going to have to start a list of the colours that I am going to have to replace soon…I started with a tin box of 48 artist’s quality Prismacolor coloured pencils, and then I have been buying more as I find colours I need…some, in the box, I haven’t even sharpened yet…some are nearing stub-size! The shortest to date is my ultramarine blue. I am surprised at how differently some of the colours go on the paper – some are smooth and smooshy and some feel dry and rough…I guess it is the different amounts and types of pigments…makes sense when you think about it – guess I just never did before!

I am having fun with this Arctic theme I have been on for the last few cards…love those colours…am having fun with the style…

Spent a couple hours this aft with a girlfriend at the Gloucester Pottery School where we take lessons…I had a bunch of things to glaze…some are needed for Christmas! I glazed my star ornaments with white and then splashed on some light blue…we shall see how they turn out…I love the patterns in them…I had rolled out a slab of clay and Carrie had brought her stamps in (she has some great stamps) and I just stamped the clay to within an inch of its life! Spirals and squares and dots and lines and circles…wonderful textures…

I do believe that this girlfriend and I have decided to join the Ottawa Potters Guild…we have been toying with the idea for a while…I think it makes sense now for us…we will still have opportunities to learn new things at meetings and workshops...we can always pick up a class with Carrie...and we are both so busy that making it to set weekly classes has become a challenge lately…I think it will end up being less expensive too! We will talk to Carrie about it tomorrow when we go out to her Open House/Christmas Party - after we go out to Oma's to 'fell' tiny trees and decorate them! It is going to be a wonderful day in the Gatineau Hills...Christmas fun, good food, wine...I haven't been to Carrie's new place either - so that will be nice to see...that is where Oma goes for her pottery classes...Mud Pies Pottery.

The Gloucester Pottery School is moving soon (Spring?) out to Orleans…means a further drive…but apparently the new school facilities are going to have all kinds of wonderful and amazing new equipment…sounds like fun! I think they are also going to have a Raku set-up outside…I think Raku will suit where my pottery seems to be heading…something new to learn!

Here is today’s postcard…”Northern Lights over the Barrens I”…I saw some pretty amazing northern lights living up in the arctic...

Ice Road to Tuktoyaktuk

Back in the early 80’s I lived for a year and a half in Inuvik – the girlfriend that I travelled up with ended up living there for ten years! Then she moved “south” to Whitehorse! She is one of the founders of “The Great Northern Arts Festival” – Charlene Alexander – she was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal for her part in building a “a fledgling arts festival into a major cultural event that celebrates northern Canada's diversity and creativity.” I am proud to know her! She is still involved in the Festival and travels to Inuvik each summer to work on it. She also is very involved in the arts community in Whitehorse – she is an amazing woman! One of these years I will make it back up there to celebrate the Festival with her – this year would have been ideal as it was the 20th anniversary of the Festival and the 50th anniversary of the town of Inuvik – but, alas, it was not to be…

It was very different living up there…beautiful, rugged, wild...my "car" in the winter was a ski-doo - there was only a small section of the one downtown street where you were not allowed to drive them on the road...24 hours sunlight in the summer, 24 hours dark and ice fog in the winter…twice we hired a taxi and drove to Tuk (Tuktoyaktuk) on the ice road…you had to tell the RCMP in Inuvik when you were leaving and then check in again with the RCMP up in Tuk when you arrived there – same thing in reverse on the way back.

Today I did another postcard inspired by my time spent up in the Arctic – “Ice Road to Tuk”

















I have just finished four days of working at my part-time job...I am not used to spending so much time on my feet (you sit a lot working on computers!)...now I have two days off and no computer jobs lined up...so I plan on sleeping in tomorrow and hopefully spending some time in the studio and also going over to the pottery school later in the afternoon (since I missed my class tonight) to do some glazing...off to bed now!

Good night...

Postcards and ACEOs

I have talked before about these postcard (4”x6”) and ACEO (2.5”x3.5”) projects that I participate in through WetCanvas and how they are very helpful to me in my creative growth. Not only are they fun – it really gives me a nice feeling to be mailing little bits of my art all over the world and it is even nicer receiving little bits of art from all over the world in my mailbox (much nicer than the usual flow of bills!) – but, because they are just small bits of art, I feel more free to explore and experiment – not much will be lost if I end up with a complete failure – not much waste of materials, time or money. When I stand before a 30”x30” canvas, about to put 40 to 60 dollars of paint on it…that can be intimidating and inhibiting…there is a lot more at stake there. So these projects have helped me to expand my techniques and try new things.

Right now I am involved with two of these projects. One is a postcard one with the theme of “Vacation/Holiday Dreams” – I signed up for this one really to challenge myself – usually I do abstracts, but with this project I would have to do more realistic pieces – at least I would try to – some of the people in the group said they would be happy to receive abstract holiday dreams from me – but I wanted to try my hand at things more realistic. It has been a real challenge…it is taking me much longer than usual to work my way through this one! I have done a couple, though, that I want to do in a larger size on canvas – “Floating Away with Balloons” being one of them – so that is a real growth for me!

The second project is an ACEO one with no theme – it is an “Anything Goes” project…it has been fun mulling over what theme I might choose…though I am finding it hard to pin myself down to one!…I have gone from Illuminated Letters…to woman’s faces…to quilt block patterns! The quilt block pattern idea came about just yesterday while I was at my new part-time job (I am working part-time in a book store) – I was working in the kids section last night and I came across this picture story book – “The Quilt Makers Gift” – story by Jeff Brumbeau, pictures by Gail de Marcken. It is a lovely story and the watercolour illustrations are wonderful, but what caught my eye were the samples of different quilt blocks and their names inside the front and back flap of the book – 39 of them! The book has a web site as well at: The Quiltmaker’s Gift. So I think I have decided on a theme for my “Anything Goes” project!

November came to and end all too quickly and so ended the Art Every Day Month…I really enjoyed the extra incentive that the project gave me to get myself up into my studio…I am going to stay on and have joined the Creative Every Day group…I also have a few people now – friends and family – who are checking in on my blog and that will be incentive to keep posting…I hope!

December is going to be busy – I was hired at the book store as extra Christmas help – so my shifts will be ramping up…some computer jobs have started floating back as well…which is good! I didn’t get up to the studio at all on December 1st, but I did yesterday and started another postcard similar in style to the Georgian Bay one with the tree and the rocks. This one is called “Land of the Midnight Sun”.












Now it is time to head off to work...