Meditation Garden finished…maybe…more process shots…and play…

I think I have may have finished the big Meditation Garden…I have to let it dry and see how I like the sky…I think I like it…but it is still shiny because it is wet and a bit distracting…it will flatten out and dull down as it dries and then I will know whether or not I am finished…actually, the more I look at it the more I am worried that the eye gets drawn right to the blue sky spots...and that isn't the point of focus...or at least it shouldn't be the main one...I might have to get rid of the sky...


















I took pictures along the way as I painted the leatherback turtle postcard…I am only so-so about the actual turtle…but I really like the sand…and the foamy water is ok…I did learn some things along the way and used something I had never used before...masking fluid...I have a masking fluid pen - which was great for drawing the outline of the turtle and then I used a paint brush to fill in the shape with masking fluid...














Once the turtle was masked with the masking fluid and where the water was going to be was taped off, I used a toothbrush to splatter different sandy colours of watercolour paint...I had 2 styrofoam trays with light biege paint and to one I added reddish and darker brown tones and to the other I added black...I think there are about 9 different colours splattered on to make the sand...














Then I rubbed off the masking fluid...it really worked...what amazing stuff...














And took of the tape...













I used both coloured pencils and watercolour pencils for the turtle...and white acrylic and grey pencil for the lines on its back and feet...













Blended the watercolour pencils with water...













I used the other side of the tape mask to cover the painted side of the card and then painted the blue water with watercolour paint...













Removed the tape mask...













I used an old, stiff brush and white acrylic to stipple foam onto the water...













Tonight I had planned to gesso some large canvases, but first I just wanted to play a little...so I let loose squeezing lots of acrylic colours out of tubes...I had picked up some nozzles that screw onto the end of a tube of paint...I was used a small canvas (8"x8") for this...


















Once I had lots of paint on it, I used a small screw driver (it was the first sort of pointed instrument I put my hand on) and started 'drawing' in the paint...drawing spirals and circles...

Meditation Garden progress...

To let go and just lay the paint on is such a wonderful feeling...I bought all these pots of paint for the purpose of doing this painting...so I threw conservation to the wind (not that I conserve at all when it comes to painting anyway...the way I do my acrylic paintings on canvas, for the most part, is to use a ton of paint...I love the texture)...I also used paints from tubes that I already had...what fun!

Laying on the greens...I scooped them out of the pots with one of my bigger palette knives and, practising randomness, I blobbed them about...different greens (7 in all), different sized blobs and squirts...4 of the greens from pots and 3 from tubes...


















Then, using a tongue depressor that I bent over about 3/4" from the end...it actually splintered so I taped it to keep the end from falling off...so I had an L shape...I used the small part to dabble the paint around...I am going to have to find a tool that is this shape...in a couple different sizes...once the greens were mixed the way I wanted them, using paint from tubes, I squirted on the red, orange and yellow...practising randomness once more...


















Then, bending over the other end of the tongue depressor, I smooshed around to blend in the colours...adding from the tubes as I went...sometimes one little smoosh will completely hide the whole blob of colour...especially when the paint is so thick...


















I have left some blue sky at the top of the painting...I like the blue there...but not the fact that it is just flat canvas...so, when the leaves dry, I will smoosh on some blues and whites so there is texture in the sky as well...of course this leaves the painting being made up of 4 sections...not an odd number...hmmmm...maybe that just bugs me...I asked my Mom about this and she thinks it's just me! I asked Cariño if it was funny with the sky spots and he said it didn't make him laugh at all...this is the help I get!

Various progressions…

I am working on the big Meditation Garden and trying to remember to take progress pictures as I go along…in the beginning...before I started it...actually this may be another part of the reason why I wasn’t diving in so fast to getting it painted…it wasn’t just the WetCanvas project obligations hanging over my head…I think anyway…I am working through all of these feelings as I go…since much of this is so new to me…the ‘being out there’, the having vernissages…the being asked to paint a painting (this Meditation Garden)...like one of my other ones, but bigger…I am getting lost in my run-on sentence…

When I began painting this picture…I was worried about whether or not my friend would like it…I mean…she asked me to paint it…but what if she doesn’t like it when it is finished? These were my worries as I started out…what if whatever she is drawn to in the smaller version doesn’t come through in the larger one?...seeing as all my paintings turn out differently…I always end up taking different approaches to actually doing them…what if she just simply doesn’t like this one? Then that led to being worried about, if she doesn’t like it, then there will be awkward moments in all of ‘that’…she won’t want to say she doesn’t like it and I will be worried about whether she actually does…are these all normal feelings for doing commissions?

I knew these worries were slowing me down…keeping me from getting lost in the ‘doing of it’…I talked about these feelings with Cariño the other night while we were walking the dogs and he helped to clarify what I had begun working through…he pointed out that I paint because it makes me happy…it helps to keep me balanced…helps me deal with life…and if ‘doing commissions’ took that away, then I shouldn’t do commissions…or…I needed to look at it differently…which is what I had started to do…I will paint this painting without thinking that I am doing it with the explicit purpose that it will be sold to a specific person…I will do the painting like I have done all the rest…for the joy of it…I will talk to my friend before I even finish it and tell her that there will be no awkward moments…no money has passed hands…so there is no obligation…and whether or not she likes it…I will be the better for having done it…I will have learned and enjoyed myself…

So…with those worries put to rest...yesterday I dove into scooping paint from pots, squeezing it from tubes and using a variety of tools to move it about…getting totally lost in the process…now my only bother is having to wait for it to dry…doing one this big means having to work on it in sections…at least that is what I seem to be doing here…

This is the Meditation Garden painting that my friend likes and wants bigger...this one is 12"x16"...


















Doing the 'flowers'...layers and layers and blibs and blobs of colour...this was fun!...























Smooshing it all together into an organized riot of colour...how could I not have fun messing around with this much paint and color?...the hard part was stopping and not diving into it with my hands!...































And here is the finished Splatter Flow postcard...


















Now I am going back to doing a watercolour of a little Leatherback Turtle...I receive the Photo of the Month email from National Geographic and this month was a baby Leatherback making its way to the water...we'll see how it goes...

Post Easter…

I had a really nice Easter weekend…Cariño and I went to Oma’s on Sunday for Easter dinner and then had dinner at our place on the Monday…Oma came and so did the girls…their beaus both had to work…so with Cariño and me, we were 5. My elder daughter came around noon and helped me with the cooking…my younger daughter came later in the afternoon but wasn’t feeling all that well…so she went and curled up in bed until it was food time…

We made a delicious meal! We tried out some new recipes from the April Gourmet magazine…the Herb-roasted Pork Loin, the Golden Potatoes with Caper Brown-butter Crumbs and our garlic green beans…sautéed green beans with a ton of garlic (yum)…and Lillet Marshmallows!

The marshmallows were a hoot to make…but ours didn’t look anything like the picture in the magazine! It said to lightly oil the pan you pour them in to set…then, once set, you are supposed to be able to just loosen the edges and then let it fall onto a cutting board…ha! It took 3 of us to get it out of the pan! And then cutting them was next to impossible…it took 3 of us to do that too…we had a lot of laughs anyway…and they were very, very good, if not perfectly square!

Something we discovered by making the marshmallows was Lillet…it was an adventure to find it as well…it isn’t carried in Ontario LCBO’s anymore, but it is in Quebec, but only at the big SAQ’s…it is an aperitif from France and quite wonderful sipped very cold…think we will add it to our summer!

I didn’t get much painting done over the weekend, but had fun being creative with food…

Today I started the very fun part of the big Meditation Garden…24”x30”…I will be painting it in a number of stages…while I wait for the paint to dry in between the steps, I can get this post up, work on the last 5 postcards for my project…and start some new paintings…now that I almost have all my project obligations completed, I am excited to try out some new paintings…start working on my Georgian Bay series, try a big Pieces of Colour and I also have some new ideas for some Flow paintings…more ideas than time!

Here is a progress shot of the Meditation Garden painting...doesn't really look like much yet...but it was lots of fun putting on all that paint...lots of it too!...now I have to wait for it to dry and then add in some more details in the bottom grass part and then there are 2 more sections to do sort of in the same manner...


















Here is a progress shot of a new idea for a Flow...this is just on a postcard to start...I just love the scrumptious colours...the wet blobs of inks...I can get lost in details like this...the green is tape being used for a mask...

Getting the table cleared…

In more ways than one I am clearing the decks…my work table is a mess of creative chaos again…it always gets this way…every so often I clear it off and start over…right now I am painting in my little space…














I have a painting that has been waiting for me to get into the thick of it with…the base paint coats are on…and it sits…it isn’t that I am uninspired...I am looking forward to cracking open the paint pots and going wild with thick, colourful paint…as well, I have a list of ideas waiting to come to fruition…things I am excited about…I think it may be these projects that I haven’t finished…I feel an obligation to get them completed…and I don’t dread doing it either…so why am I not forging on?...I think that, at times, life’s frustrations needle at me and push me off balance…sometimes it feels like there are too many things to cope with…sometimes it is easier to sit and think about all the things I want to do…to paint…to explore...than to actually do them…easier to go get lost in blog-land…

I have now completely finished my little cards project (2.5”x3.5”)…the one I did the quilt blocks for…I spent part of this afternoon addressing all the envelopes…26 of them…to the States, Canada, Malaysia, India, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Norway, France…they will be dispersed all over the globe!

Here are all the little cards...I love seeing them all together as a group...













I still have 12 outstanding for the Vacation Dreams postcard (4”x6”) project…I had originally signed up for this one to really challenge myself and challenge me it has…!!!...I don’t usually do anything very ‘realistic’…so I thought this project would force me to try some things in that direction…and I have…in fact, my Northern and my Georgian Bay series were born out of this project…but it really takes a lot of creative mental energy from me to come up with ideas for this it……there is good in that fact though…along with a touch of bemused frustration…growth does come from situations such as these…

So…of the 12 postcards that I have left to send…I have 6 painted...this one I did today…I was looking through my pictures and came across a photo which I took last summer during my trip to the cottage...when LT and I got away one afternoon for a paddle in the canoe and we went exploring in little lily-pad filled inlets…it is done in watercolour pencils…


















The other 5 postcards I am pretty sure that I have posted here before…but I’ll post some of them again, because we all like pictures…2 of then I just posted yesterday, so I won’t put them up again…the 2 playing ones…I am calling them Into the Busy River I and II…

These 3 I know I have posted previously…Sitting Under Mandara’s Tree of Wonder, Wonder Tree Woods and Georgian Bay Moon…

How one thing leads to another…or…a piece of the creative process…

When I was painting my little quilt block cards, I would sometimes be removing colour from the paper and I would wipe my paint brush on a piece of paper towel that I had under the card…it didn’t take long for me to notice that I liked what was happening on the paper towel…so I moved to working on a piece of watercolour paper…it wasn’t quite so absorbent…and once I had noticed what was going on in the background, I wasn’t quite so spontaneous…but still I liked what was happening…this is one of the things I learned from doing these cards…there are more things that I will be exploring…but I spent this afternoon playing with this idea…

The different coloured swipes…different intensities, thicknesses, lengths…they built on each other and became a vibrant riot of colour…when I moved to swiping my brush on the watercolour paper…the scene became one that reminded me of a clear, colourful riverbed with weeds and fish…movement darting this way and that…

So this afternoon…I took that further…some is good…sometimes more can be better…many moods can be created here…

It was fun to play anyway…a seed of an idea that will sit in my brain and may just pop out somewhere down the line…this is an aspect of creativity that I love…just like the layers of colour…it is layers of ideas and bits and pieces that may become a part of a larger whole…or may be boiled down further to some essence on it’s own…and you never really know where these things will come from...sometimes from the most unlikely, or unplanned places...

The paper towel...










Taking notice...











Playing...

Quilt Block Cards Finished…!!!...

Here are the rest of the little quilt block cards…now that they are all finished, I have to get them all documented – which one goes to whom…because I wait until I hear that they have reached their destination before I post them to the forum – then I have to get them off on their way! It is always fun to have a whole stack of mail ready to go…whether it is art cards for these projects or Christmas cards...there is something special about setting free, into the postal system, a pile of mail…

I also like seeing the cards all together as a group…sometimes it is hard to see them all knowing that I am sending them all away…but then the feeling you get when giving kicks in and that is just as wonderful!

This particular project has provided me with quiet contemplation, has taught me how to have fun with watercolour pencils and has also given me ideas on how I might incorporate them into other pieces…

It feels good finishing something too…!...
































































































































































































































































So...in total...25 little cards will be sent out into the world...all over the world...kind of neat!

Time Flies…in so many ways…

It has been almost 2 weeks since my last post…and so much has been going on in my world…things both big and small…someone told me that to not post for a while and then to post too much at one time is…how shall I say it…inconsiderate? So…I will do a few smaller posts over the next few days – hopefully…I never quite know where my life is going to take me…so to make a promise to blog regularly for the next little while might be something I can’t live up to!...so I will say that I will try...

Since my last post my ‘baby’ has turned 18 and we have moved her into her first apartment with her beau…in some ways I think she is too young…in others, not…she is having a lovely time nesting and has a nice little place…in the past few weeks we have gone from 5 of us living in the house with 4 cats and 2 dogs, to just Cariño, me and the 2 dogs!...my elder daughter and her beau had moved in with a friend a few blocks away just the night before we went on our road trip...big changes in the dynamics!!!...

Oma helped me to hang my April solo show at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa…11 pieces…nothing new I'm afraid...I haven't had a chance since the last show to get much studio time in...

















I received my first blog award…the PREMIO DARDOS AWARD…from Maia…thank you so much! This award…"acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his or her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day."

All this on top of being fairly busy with the ‘bread and butter job’ of computer work!

I also managed to get in 3 visits to The Ottawa Guild of Potters Spring Sale…some might think that 3 visits is a bit excessive…but I enjoyed each and every one! Out of necessity, I was quite well behaved…but I did come away with a tea mug for me, a coffee mug for Cariño, a cottage present for my sister and a wee Easter gift for my elder daughter…can't show you the presents...but here are the 2 mugs...

Cariño's coffee mug...it fits on the espresso machine...












My new mug for tea (I already have a fav coffee mug)...

















One of the things that I did not get to in these past busy days are…finishing my quilt block cards…but I will have more to post soon…I am very almost finished…I haven’t had a chance to do much painting at all!