Sunday, March 22, 2009

Getting back into the swing of things…

I spent most of this past week getting back into my ‘being home’ mode…I’m not sure what I was tired from…the road trip wasn’t overly strenuous…but I seem to have spent whatever ‘free time’ I had, since arriving home, napping…I have also been fairly busy with computer work …I had an almost fully booked week by the time I got home …which is good…because when I take time off, I don’t get paid!

There is a Toller Cranston show on at one of the Sussex Street galleries…the Terence Robert Gallery…his paintings are so colourful and full of life – happy and fanciful…it is only on until March 25 – so Cariño and I popped in to see it on Saturday…Cariño had liked the pictures of his paintings when he saw them on the computer, but not so much in real life…he didn’t like all the detail that you see when you are close up to them…he did like them from afar though…I liked them close up and far away! I love the fancifulness of them and the colours are so rich – deep reds, wonderful blues, great greens! I think they have an Eastern European or Russian folk arty feel to them…all the details and curly-cues, poofy pants and cuff detailing…the curly-toed shoes…there was one called ‘Night Kites’…very big (54 x 66) that I especially liked…and his mice are such fun! If you go to the Terence Robert Gallery web site and then click on Artists and then on Toller Cranston, you can see quite a number of his paintings.

I have been working again on my projects…I seem to be taking forever to get finished…I am still enjoying them, but I seem to have so many things that I want to do lately…different paintings…more ideas than time! I am not complaining…this is all a very good thing!

I have spent some painting time in the last few days working on the little card project…the cards are 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches…tiny!...I decided a while back to do each one as a different quilt block…I have 25 to do…when I was working at the bookstore before Christmas, I fell in love with this kids book…”The Quilt Maker’s Gift” – by Jeff Brumbeau…that is where the idea came from…the illustrations in the book are wonderful watercolours by Gail de Marcken and inside the covers both front and back are quilt block samples with names…I am using watercolour pencils for this and I love them…I get to start with full control…a nice sharp point and I can put colour precisely where I want it…then I get a wet paint brush and start wetting the pencil marks and they all melt into each other…then with a drier paint brush, I can take off a bit of colour in spots to add depth…I am getting the best of 2 different mediums in 1!

I meant to do a scan of one of them before I apply the water…next time! Here are the first 10 tiny quilt blocks…they are kind of cute all together as a group...I do find it a bit painful with these projects seeing all my little creations together and then having to split them up to send all over the place...but it also comes with a good feeling to be sending out little pieces of my art to people...and to be receiving them from all over the world too!...technically, I think we are supposed to send them out as we do them...but I always seem to do a bunch of them before sending...I like seeing them all together!...


























































































































































1 comment:

Leah said...

Ooh, these are great! I love seeing the names with the images.