Cottage crafts with the kids…what will it be this year…

Since my kids were wee babes, they have been spending time at ‘the cottage’…some summers more time than others…I think they could swim before they could walk! The cottage is, in my opinion, the most beautiful place on earth – on an island – one of the 30, 000 islands in Georgian Bay…it used to be the family cottage and then, when my Dad wanted to sell, my sister bought it – thank goodness!

As the kids grew, what we hauled to the cottage changed...it always has been and it will always be a lot of stuff…and this trip is no easy feat…we used to live only 2 hours to the marina, but since we moved to Ottawa, 7 years ago, it has become a 5½ hour trek…and that is just to the marina…then the car has to be off-loaded, the boat loaded and then the 6 mile ride to the island where everything has to be hauled back out of the boat and up to the cottage…no one is allowed to swim or crack a beer until the work is done! When the kids were little, they couldn’t haul much, but did their part…now it is easier with everyone grown…there were a few teen years that were trying, but those seem to have smoothed out. We take everything we need for our time at the cottage…it is very rare that I will leave the island to go into town during our stay…but there is usually someone who makes a couple trips in…for milk, worms, wine, bubblegum!

Each summer I would plan a craft of some sort that we would all do…on top of the usual paints, crayons, books, puzzles, music and such that would help to keep the kids happy on a rainy day…it is funny what things become ‘ritual’ – the cottage craft, certain foods…although there is now electricity on the island, there is a very strict no tv rule...but the kids in later years have bent this a bit by bringing laptops and movies that they watch hooked up to headphones into the night...

The crafts have had to match the abilities of the kids…so they have changed a lot over the years…from finger painting on paper and naked bodies when they were very young to constructing simple cardboard and popsicle stick picture frames to making braided and knotted leather thong key chains to paper mache to safety pin and bead anklets and bracelets to pottery and the making of pinch pots and tiles to gourd carving and painting…we have covered a lot of crafting in our summer sojourns. This summer we were thinking about doing floor cloths…but we are also going to do some painting of furniture, as well, LT and I will be doing some plein air painting…so we might do flags or wall hangings instead…that way we can use the not so expensive lighter weight canvas and won’t need to do all the finishing necessary if it was to be walked on…

Last year we did the gourd carving and painting…it was really fun…none of us had ever done it before…LT got the supplies from a neat place in Cookstown called Northern Dipper…for the last couple of years we have set up our crafts in the gazebo…it is funny how the family uses this building - all so differently…my brother used to eat most of his meals out there…my gang did have a big candle-lit sit down dinner for about 8 or 10 one year…it was lovely, but a lot of work getting everything over there from the main cabin and back again! My sister and her family use it mainly for exercising – they have a tread mill and some other exercise stuff there…my gang does crafts out there…that way we can set everything up and leave it…not having to put it all away when we want to sit down and eat…which we do in the main cabin! The view from the gazebo (actually from anywhere up there!) is wonderful…it is all screen on 3 sides, so a lovely breeze blows through…what a great summer studio!


















The gourds are dried when you get them from the supplier…all dirty, so the first step is to wash them…















There is a big table out there that we use…room for all the craft stuff…and wine!













Here are some of the gourd projects in progress…








































































The year before the gourds, I brought 50lbs of clay up to the island (like there isn’t enough stuff to lug up!)…we had great fun mostly making tiles…that year we had 4 teenagers…my 2 daughters, a beau and the younger brother of the girl that my elder daughter had done a 3 month exchange to France with…so there were 7 of us that year and LT and I decided that a nice cottage present would be for everyone to make a tile depicting something about the cottage…it has taken since the summer of 2007 to get the tiles glazed and mounted…but I will be taking it up this year…finally! The 2 boys did their required tiles and then took off for more fun things…but LT, my 2 daughters and I made many tiles and pinch pots…

Here is Ghislain, from France, in the fore-ground, LT and her beau, J all working on their tiles…













Tiles drying on the banister outside the gazebo…












More tiles finished and drying…









































More tiles…we did have fun!


















And here is the finished mosaic for the cottage…well, almost...I still need to touch up the grout in a few spots and figure out how to hang the thing...


















In 2006 we made safety pin and bead bracelets/anklets…I still wear mine from time to time…I think I took the longest to make mine…I had to work very hard to make a ‘random’ pattern!...













I don’t seem to have any more pictures of cottage crafts…it could be that I didn’t have my digital camera before that…

Odds and sods…

July really did take its toll on me…I have spent most of this first part of August catching up on work and sleep…resting and reading every chance I get…a few days ago I started painting again…I had a bunch of things that I had started before I left for Haliburton…so I have been puttering away on them…these are more of the playing with various gel mediums…playing with texture…they are fun to paint…kind of like home-made colouring book pictures, because the pattern and picture was laid out in the texture and then I ‘colour’ it in…pure play with a day dreaming meditative element to it!

I finished Daydreaming IV - it was basically finished - all I had to do was commit and attach the 3 small canvases...it isn't quite a crooked in real life...I had a hard time getting up high enough to photograph it, so it was a bit distorted...will have to work on getting a better photo later...












Somehow, in the rush of July, I managed to get 5 pieces into a group show at the Unitarian...it runs July and August...the Art Space wall here isn't that big...but with this being a meeting room, a lot of people go through...there are some talented people in the congregation and it is nice to go in and see the various shows...








I have also started a new piece…it is developing as I go along…here is the space I am working on now…my work table is full…so I have moved to a board that I put over 2 stools…I am going to have to do a clean up soon…I am slowly closing myself in! But that seems to be how I work…in a little nest surrounded by stuff…there are the textural paintings I am working on, some bits for the new one…the new one in the background…and my morning bowl of coffee…














I started this new piece with some cheese cloth attached to the base coloured canvas in a flowing, overlapped way...


















Then I fiddled about with bits and pieces...some keys, some puzzle pieces, maybe some 'wonder bubbles'...adding colour and details as I went along...laying pieces on, moving them around...














This is where I am at now...need to let it sit for a bit...come back to it in a while to decide where to go next...

Time Flies…

Well, I’m not sure where July went…except that I must have spent most of it on the go…I flew out West and back again and put almost 3,000 km on my van on top of that! I am hoping for a quieter August!

Somewhere in July I did spend a wonderful week at The Haliburton School of the Arts…at the new campus…what a beautiful spot and excellent facility…so many amazing courses available! Now, having been there for the first time, it is going to be hard to choose what to take next time! LT and I want to make this a yearly event. We are going to be torn though...we both want to take another course with John, but there is also a class on printmaking - impasto waterbase - that looks really cool...there are so many really cool classes there that it gets to be overwhelming when you start really looking!

I love the doors into the school…bright, bright red, with things incorporated into them – both inside and out…inside there was a pot with oversized paintbrushes in it and a lovely thick branch…carved into the wood over the doors (can’t really see it in the photo) it says “Within these walls the walls within disappear.” What a wonderful quote to walk under each morning…and how fitting for a place of creative learning.














This is the new campus...













We never did manage a full walk about the Sculpture Forest...but here are a few that we passed daily...the Inukshuk that welcomed us each day...


















The Horse and Rider that were very cool...

























My favorite was this totem made of carved stone...it is called "Dreaming Stones" by Kevin Lockau...


















It is too bad that we didn't do the Sculpture Forest walk...we didn't realize how exhausting the class we took was going to be...not only being mentally tired from the actual learning and pushing ourselves...but also the lugging of all of our stuff out to the various locations was tiring! Next year we will have to make a point of doing the walk even if we are tired!

I absolutely loved the class we took…"Introduction to Oil Painting - Plein Air". John Anderson is a great teacher…we were a class of 12, with varying degrees of experience and coming from many different artistic backgrounds...John managed beautifully to pull us all through the week, each of us learning and growing individually…he balanced group and individual teaching with a skill that could only come out of a love of both the medium and being able to, and loving to, teach.

For me, personally, it was a week of intense, but good, frustration…I had my own private little lesson on perspective – I have never had any formal art training – a nasty elementary art teacher scared me as far away from art in middle and high school as I could go! We all had a few lessons on colour mixing which I was thrilled about! We geared up and hiked off to some beautiful spots to paint and I actually painted! All of my pieces are very amateurish, but from the first painting of the week to the one I did on the last day’s location…definite improvement and growth can be seen. What more can a person ask for?

We spent day 1 in the studio...learning about direct, indirect and oblique light, doing some colour mixing and a painting from a photo...here we are on day 2 setting up at our first 'plein air' location...these buildings are on the campus...so the lugging of equipment and supplies wasn't far...part of the learning curve included learning how to make it out to a location in 1 trip...with everything you needed, but not any more!












And here is part of the scene we were painting from...












Day 3 found us out on our second venture - on the side of a road outside of the town of Haliburton...I have already forgotten the name of the town it was near and it isn't on the map...should have written it down...


























Here is the scene we were painting...














Here are LT and my canvases as we were working away...














Day 4 found us in town, right off the main street of Haliburton, set up along a river...this was a lovely spot...I enjoyed being able to be in the shade - after baking in the sun the day before!

Here we are all picking our spots and getting set up...














Here is the scene...














And here is my canvas in progress...it is really, really hard to create a sense of depth!














Day 5 found us back out towards that small town I can't remember the name of...on a side road, off a side road...then hike on down the trail and you come to this beautiful spot...the falls have a name too...but I have also forgot that! At this location, I wanted to focus on trying to paint rocks...the little scene that I chose looked like something I might find out on Georgian Bay...sort of...the rocks, anyway...

There were many different places for people to set up on this, our last, venture out...














This is the scene that I chose...


















And here is a progress shot of my canvas...















Here is the scene that John chose...















And here is a picture that I took of John out on his point...LT is going to print it up and deliver it to him...as well as being an artist and a teacher, he also manages the Curry's art supplies store in Barrie, Ontario...


















On the Thursday after classes, there was a 'walk about'...we could all go visit the other classes, talk to people about the class and see what they were doing...here is LT and my corner of the studio...














And a bunch of our canvases...














It is amazing how close you can get to what was, only 5 days before, a group of strangers...I didn't get a good group shot on my camera...but many were taken and I hope to get 1 as a memento of our week...there were goodbyes and hugs all round as we packed up to leave...exhausted, but exhilarated! Here is LT packing up her pizza boxes with wet canvases...


















When I said earlier what more could I ask for?...well, there was more! LT and I stayed for the week with a friend of mine that I used to work with back when I was a picture framer…Barb…she and her husband let us join them at their cottage in Minden…it was beautiful and so great to see Barb again…I hadn’t seen her since I moved to Ottawa from Orillia…almost 7 years ago! So each day after LT and I got home from class, we shared dinner making duties and many bottles of wine…catching up on old times…Barb was looking after 2 of her grandbabies – aged 2 and 4…so the cottage was hopping with activity! It was a totally wonderful week all round.

A whole lot of things on the go…

I am flying out to Vancouver tomorrow for a few days to help out my brother with some things…my sister and I are going out together…it is going to be an interesting trip and, I hope, a productive one…

I will be back from out west for a day or 2 and then I am heading off to Haliburton to take a week long art course with a girlfriend - LT – the one who came and led the painting party back in February. We are going to the Haliburton School of the Arts and are going to take one of the summer courses - Oil Painting – Introduction to Plein Air. I am so excited and so terrified all at the same time! Of course, my nasty, negative voice is telling me that I am going to make a fool of myself…that I am insane to take a class where I will be expected to actually paint something that looks like what I am looking at…I have never done that…don’t sketch, though I would love to…what my nice, supportive voice is trying to tell me, over all this negative din, is that I’ll do fine…I am not taking this class thinking that I will somehow instantly turn into a realist painter…I don’t even what to…but I am hoping to learn a bit about mixing colours and maybe adding some depth to my abstract paintings…if I can come away having learnt anything, it will all be worth it…and I am sure that at least that much will happen…and if I can come away with some additional skills - great…and if I can come away with some fledgling, early stage abstract landscapes…then I’ll be ecstatic! Just to be surrounded by creative people for a week is going to be a joy. Add to this that LT and I are staying with another girlfriend of mine that I used to picture frame with and haven’t seen since I left Orillia. We are going to be staying with her at her cottage for the week…it is going to be an all round fantastic week…old friends and creativity!

I have been flitting about in my studio this past week or so…have started many paintings…am just about to finish 1…I am still having so much fun playing with the various gels and modeling compounds…they are such fun but take so long to dry! So I keep starting more and more canvases…but this is all good because I also just found out about a week ago that I got juried into a show this fall instead of juried out!!! It is a 1 day festival on September 19th. It is the Old Ottawa South Music and Art Festival. I just had a look at the web site and my name is up there and one of my paintings…wow…how exciting! Looking at everyone’s pieces, it looks like it is going to be a good show…there are painters, potters, glass artists, sculptors and jewellery makers…this is going to be fun!

So…it is a very good thing that I have lots of paintings on the go! I am also looking forward to a burst of inspiration and creative activity to result from the art course. As well, just before the Festival, I will have had almost 2 weeks at the Island – my sister’s cottage – where I go each summer to re-group, relax and feed my soul.

Summers used to seem so long…when I was young, we would get out of school for summer holidays and everyone would go off to do whatever they did in the summer and in the fall when we all came back to school, it seemed that so much had changed…we had changed…so much had happened. Now, the summer seems to sneak up on me and it is half over before I even realize it and once I take a look and get everything ‘booked’ and sorted out…it’s gone! The only time I get a slight titch of the old summer feelings is after I have been at the Island for about a week and have wound down and slipped into ‘cottage mode’…then I get a fleeting sense of those long summer days…but as soon as it comes, it is gone again. So sweet when I can sense it though!

I have some shots of a big painting (24”x36”) that I have been working on…not sure if it is finished...

I started out with a base coat of phthalo green and then slathered on some modeling gel for an overall background texture


















Missed some progress stages in here…but I divided the canvas into 3 sections, added more gel to make each section’s texture different, divided the left section into 3 again and started painting…













Details…































Finished painting the lolly-pop flowers and then decided that I didn’t like the middle section…it was too empty…













So I painted 3 small canvases…2 of them have elements that directly link to the big canvas and the middle one has elements that link it to the 2 small canvases…I am pretty sure that I like the addition of the 3 small canvases…but haven’t stuck them on yet…am going to live with it for a bit first…













Details…



































I think I originally started this canvas back in February…did the base coat then…then it sat for a few months until I got inspired by the modeling gel…I guess that was only a little over a month ago…it feels like I have been working with it for a long time…I am almost sorry that I am feeling finished with it…

Oh...I also had lunch with a friend on Friday...she runs the ArtSpace wall at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa...there is a group show for the months of July and August...we were going to hang the show after lunch but she had to head out of town, so she will be hanging it tomorrow...I left her 5 small paintings to put up...I'll have to get in to take a picture...