Thursday, February 26, 2009

Catching up…Renovations, Painting and Birthdays…

It is funny how I don’t mind so much being the cause of a celebration when it is my birthday…of course, I wasn’t the cause of my birthday, really…so it isn’t like a vernissage for my paintings…where I am the cause of that event…this seems to make sense for me!

We have all been working on a different type of creativity since last week! For my birthday, Little Tammy (good friend and my younger daughter’s adopted second mother), decided to help us paint and organize the house…first floor for my birthday in February and second floor for my younger daughter’s birthday in April. We bought what used to be a duplex…two approx 800 square feet apartments. We cut a hole in the floor and put in stairs (really neat stairs built by Cariño’s brother). They are ‘floating’ stairs and he cut designs out of the metal beam…birds, flowers, shapes…they are beautiful!

This is the backbone of the stairs just before they were installed last summer...













Here they are installed...the cats like them too!


















Each apartment had a huge kitchen…I use the upstairs one as my studio…it used to be the only thing I liked about the house – but now I might get to like the house more because of all the work we did with Little Tammy! The downstairs kitchen had the lower half of it covered with this plastic stuff…really ugly and painted bright orange…there was no covering it because of a metal lip at the top – so Cariño peeled it all off and, under Little Tammy’s direction, we put up wainscotting – it goes about four and a half feet up the wall with a strip of moulding on top…during this process we found out how very crooked our house is! This part of it is over 100 years old and nothing is straight – but I think it has sunk some as well!

The bundles of wainscotting came in lengths of 8', so we cut them all in half and made adjustments from there...the one wall went down at quite an angle and we had to fill in the bottom with a horizontal piece of the boards...














This whole undertaking with Little Tammy was a huge job…made even more difficult because ‘we’ (Cariño will say it is me) have too much stuff…our last place was quite a lot bigger and had a nice big basement to store (hide) things in…this house has a scary basement that I won’t put anything much in (I certainly won’t go down there) and is smaller all round! So we are still dealing with the fact that a lot of stuff doesn’t have a home yet (even though we moved in almost three years ago – I have mentioned before that I don’t play house very well!) and we didn’t have the space to move things from room to room as we worked…so there was very little room to move around in!

Here are some 'during' pictures showing how congested it was for working...




















































I complained about being woken up early and about how much of a slave driver Little Tammy was…but it really was great to have her here, heading up this project! She would have wondered what was wrong if I didn’t complain! I complain at the cottage when she wakes me up early too…we go sit by the water and have coffee …I do like that early morning quiet time before the kids all wake up and the day begins…I just wish we didn’t have to get up early for it! I am not a morning person – I’m more of a night owl…

Here is our fearless leader (and merciless slave driver) Little Tammy...we love her dearly!!!


















I don’t really have any “before” shots…except this one…you can see the half orange walls…now I have nothing against orange…but not as such a prominent colour in my house! It doesn’t go with anything I have…my nice wood furniture didn’t look good with it at all!














Now the kitchen is a nice white on the wainscotting and a beautiful rich red on the top…it looks like a totally new room!




























We didn’t get to the whole downstairs, and we still have some sorting…our bathroom needs some major repair work (we did know we were buying a fixer-upper!) before we waste any time painting and we didn’t get to the bedroom…that’s all the downstairs consists of…

But we did get to Cariño’s office/living room…it is now a happy yellow…it is quite a deep yellow…like dandelions…














Little Tammy came on Thursday and on Saturday we stopped work early to go out to Oma’s for a birthday dinner for me! There were 11 of us! Little Tammy, Cariño, me, my two daughters and their beaus and Cariño’s brother, his better half and Cariño’s sister came from Montreal…and Oma, of course! We had lots of good food and wine…it was wonderful! Forgot to take any pictures though!!! I had no idea the Montreal crew were coming – when they arrived I had been upstairs working on a computer (I had to fix a computer over the weekend in between nailing, gluing, painting and cleaning!) and Cariño called me down…I walked into the kitchen and was handed a glass of champagne…what a lovely surprise that was!!!

I was spoiled with good company, food, wine and presents! Oma made me a felted tea cosy, elder daughter got me some neat artsy and pottery magazines, a gift card for Chapters and book bag and my younger daughter, who tries to say she isn’t artistic (while her sister, brother and I am) painted me a wonderful abstract as well as getting me a journal, mini easel and Mom book!

Here is a picture of my parachute tea cosy...Oma also made a neat card that fit inside of it with a poem of hers as well as some parachute quotes...














I am very impressed by my painting from my younger daughter...I love it!


















So…I haven’t been blogging much lately…but now you know why…I’ve been busy!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Base Coats, Canvas Drumming and Snowshoe Tracks...

When I first started painting, I would always put a base coat on the canvas…usually two coats of whatever colour I thought would go with the painting…maybe end up showing through in spots…I thought, just recently, that maybe this was a waste of paint…since I would be covering most of the base coat up anyway…but when I did two paintings without doing a base coat first, I found that, wasted paint or not…I liked how the base coats made the rest of the painting feel…it was much nicer to paint on a painted surface…so I am back to base coating…

Also, my elder daughter sat for a portrait painting demo that Karen Bailey was doing for the Blink Gallery a couple summers ago (that was so fascinating to watch!) and one of the things that Karen said was that she would always put down a layer of colour on her canvases so that she wasn’t starting with a ‘blank’ canvas…a virgin-white canvas can be a bit intimidating…so she did this to take that ‘blank canvas’ scare away…Karen also did a portrait of my elder daughter when she was doing a series up at Elmwood School…I love it…my daughter is the funkiest of all the people there!

I love the sound that my big paintbrush makes on a stretched canvas…it is like a drum…and I am finding that the bigger the canvas…the better the drum sound! I usually only hear this as I am slapping on the base coats...another reason to keep doing that!

Basecoat is on...


















As well as playing the canvas drum, I have been working on my postcard and trading card projects…I had to take a break from them to get ready for the show…but I want to finish them up! Here are two that I just finished…
























On Valentines Day, Cariño and I took the dogs for a walk around Dow’s Lake…hoping to see some snow sculptures…but the rain and mild temperatures in the week before had reduced them to little snow mounds…we did find these snowshoe tracks though…they are so beautiful…I find snowshoe tracks in the fresh snow pretty...these were interesting in a different, but equally beautiful way because of the effect of the melt and rain, which had left them looking like raised snow sculptures…



































Here is Cariño with the two ‘puppies’…they had a lot of fun with all the new smells but they didn't understand out fascination with the snowshoe tracks!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Progressions, Transgressions and Wanderings…

I am finding that this journey I am on with painting is so invigorating…I am having so much fun! The more I paint…the more the ideas come to me…I find that starting small and exploring…pushing my limits and learning has led to a much less scary move into bigger and bigger realms…it seems that if I try something out in a small size…and if I like it and can visualize it larger…then I feel much less hesitation to go big…someone at my vernissage asked if I found big canvases intimidating…and my initial answer was yes...there is more material to handle and the cost goes up quickly…in certain ways, I do think that big is more intimidating…I remember a while back, my elder daughter and I each bought a 30” x 30” canvas...I have now painted 2 that size...but that first one sat there in my studio staring at me, scaring me, for a long time before I got up the nerve to put paint on it…but I am getting better and the process of starting small does help take the edge off!

Except for a few small (2.5” x 3.5”) watercolours, I haven’t been painting since I finished my painting number 21 for the show…that doesn’t mean I am laying fallow or having a vacant spell…it’s just that, after the push to get ready for the show, I was really tired…so in that first week I indulged in naps whenever possible (I was still doing my computer calls as well) and then I had about a week of family visits, which I thoroughly enjoyed…I never seem to get to see my family enough…so, like when my brother was here in the early days of the New Year, I concentrated on the visits…I still have lots of ideas for paintings that I want to do…but they could wait for a bit…

On the way back from taking my Mom to the airport this morning, Cariño and I stopped at Wallack’s and picked up a canvas and some paints…Yvonne likes and wants my Meditation garden…but bigger! So bigger it will become – 24” x 36” canvas with a 1.5” profile…I like the thicker stretched canvases…

It will be interesting to see exactly how much it costs and how much paint it takes to do a big painting…I have never followed closely how much materials, cost and time goes into each painting…not sure if I will be able to log time very well…I am not a very structured person…so remembering to keep track of time is pushing it! Keeping track of materials and cost is going to be enough of a stretch!

So…the empty canvas waits…and even though it is the biggest one so far...I'm excited...but not scared!!!...


















And the pots of paint…


















And I am going to start painting!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Visits, ice sculptures and vernissage

My Dad and Sister came for a preview of my show on Friday, February 6th and we celebrated my elder daughter’s birthday as well…wonderful dinner at 222 Lyon Tapas Bar…delicious tapas and great Spanish red wine!

My Mom flew in on Sunday, February 8th for a visit and to see the show…she was here for the vernissage on Monday evening and then took us out for a celebratory dinner at a wonderful fish restaurant in the Market – Lapointe’s.

On Sunday evening we went to see the ice sculptures at Winterlude – which were amazing…the ice is so crystal clear and the details in the carvings are fantastic! They are best to see at night when they have lights shining on them…hard to photograph without a tripod though…














































































And the really touristy shots!...



































I am still sorting out my feelings about the vernissage…as someone who usually does just about anything to avoid being the centre of attention, it was very strange to be right there in the thick of it! I think pricing my art and these vernissages are the hardest things for me! It was, at the same time, both exciting and nerve wracking! Especially when it is something as personal as your creations…I imagine that this is the same whether it is your art or your words…for the most part, we create in solitude…and while I know that all artists are not completely withdrawn people, some are very outgoing…but I am a basically shy person…I am fine with people I know, but I still, until recently, didn’t show my art to many people at all. So I am torn…it was fun and exciting and really rather neat to have people telling me that they liked my work…I mean, who doesn’t like a compliment!…but there was also that voice inside that was on my case about ‘showing off’…maybe it is just that nasty inner critic trying to put me down! I felt hesitant to get too caught up in the happy feelings of it all…is that just me, or do other people feel these confusing, conflicting feelings as well???

So…I was too focused on trying to stay calm and enjoy myself to take a single picture! I think Cariño might have taken some…I will have to ask him! I know Oma took some and she has put a few of them up on her blog – Gone to the Dogs…I always have the best of intentions to take lots of pictures and then, for some reason or another, I don’t…oh…my Dad took some as well…I will have to ask him if he can send me some…

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Show is hung!!!...

Just a quick post...I need to get to bed...early day tomorrow with some computer jobs...and I am realizing how tired I am from the last stretch of getting ready for this show!

Just wanted to post some pictures now that it is hung…I picked Cariño up after his classes today and we got it all set up…you will see in the pictures that the gallery room is set up for a workshop tomorrow…lots of tables and chairs...

It was a very neat feeling seeing them hung all together...I haven't had that feeling before...exciting, a bit unnerving…but in a good way…nervous about ‘putting myself out there’…but also a kind of hey, wow…I did this!





























































Monday, February 2, 2009

Hanging Day...but not...

I was all ready...Oma came in...we loaded up the van...21 paintings on 23 canvases...(one being a triptych)...drove over to the gallery...and...they weren`t ready for me!...this and that had happened and they hadn`t had a chance to do the touch up painting yet...so...tomorrow is hanging day!

I was kind of disappointed...but stuff happens...I`m not going to let it get to me...I do already have a couple things on the go for tomorrow...but I can go over later in the afternoon to hang...maybe Carino will come and help me...

I was excited about getting to see them hanging though!...I guess it is an excercise in patience for me!

So...that gave me a couple extra hours today...I got home again and thought I would get going on one of my projects from WetCanvas...but when I tried to turn on my laptop...system error...grrr...so now I am backing up all my data and then I will have a look at what is going on...I didn`t want to do computer work this aft...I want to play with paints!!! I am typing this on Carino`s computer which has a French keyboard...so I am stubbling around trying to make it type what I want! Please excuse any typos, incorrect or lacking symbols! I guess I could change the keyboard...but I don`t want to mess with his set up!

My studio looks so empty now...barren...all of the colourful paintings are gone...empty easel, no painted canvases all over the place...I am going to have to get painting to fill it up again! I much prefer to be surrounded by colourful chaos than empty space with no colour!!!

I forgot in my last post to mention that I had also taken my submission in to another gallery...and I have more deadlines coming up...I`m not worried about feeling empty after the rush of getting ready for this show...I really do seem to be on a creative high right now...I still have the 2 WetCanvas projects that I am part way through...I won`t join anymore there until I get these ones finished!...I have all kind of ideas for more paintings...there is a collage project that I would like to join...but I`m not sure I can fit it in...plus I have my actual money-making work that seems to be picking up again...no...I`m not worried about entering a creative void just yet!

I`m leaving soon to go with Yvonne to the Ottawa Potters Guild meeting...we are going to join...and that will mean getting back to pottery!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

It is almost hanging day...

Just a very quick post to say that - yes - I am still alive...

I would say that I am painting madly...but there is nothing 'mad' about it...I am thoroughly enjoying myself…I am in painting overdrive…painting heaven!

I was finally able to get out and photograph the paintings that I have completed…at that point, a couple days ago, there were 16 finished…it helped me to get that done because, for some reason, it seemed easier, then, to look at what I had, where I was and what I still needed…

I already had 3 still in the works (one of them a triptych) and a 30”x30” canvas that I already knew what I was going to do with it – that made 20 paintings…

I have a thing about odd numbers, so, of course, I couldn’t have 20 paintings…and it was kind of neat (in my brain, anyway) that my birthday is on the 21st of February…so 21 paintings it had to be!

As of right now…I am going to bed…I have the 30”x30” almost finished (I am really happy with it too) and, after deciding this afternoon what the 21st painting is going to be, that one is partially done as well…

I hate trying to price things…so that took up a couple hours today…I would love to know how people decide on prices…so the labels are made up, but not printed yet…tomorrow Cariño is going to put wires on all the paintings while I finish up painting, do any touch ups that are needed and get the labels printed and cut…

Yesterday we had coffee with Yvonne, who is orchestrating the vernissage and on Monday Oma will come help me hang the show…I am so thanksful that I have such wonderful friends to help me with all this!...I might just be ready!

Here is a detail from one of the Flow paintings that I just finished a few days ago...


















The 21st painting will be based on a postcard that I painted that was based on a photograph I took of condensation in one of the windows at our last place...here is the photo...the painting will be called Condensation Musings...and it is colourful (surprise, surprise!)...