Moo cards

Yesterday I received a shipment of some floral cards that I had ordered from the print-on-demand  service, MOO.  Really pleased with the image quality and how it's possible to do small orders with this company.  They do not offer square format cards, but these ones are 4 x 5.75 inches, and I'm happy with the way they look.  They're blank inside and on the back of each one is my website link.  There are 5 different images(one not shown here).

Unusual Blogger activity warning

This morning I received an email message from Blogger saying that my blog account was removed because it was caught being used for phishing. Phishing?! Who me?! I wouldn't even know how!  Sure enough, I tried to access my blog as usual but it just wasn't there. poof! just like that it was gone! I was stumped. ...
Three hours later I googled my blog and 'voila!' , there I was back in the cybersphere again!  All I can guess is that Google was on the case. This time when I signed into my blog i had to verify my account with my phone number so that I could receive a special code to sign in.
I hope this isn't happening to other artists out there...but if it does...perhaps reading what happened to me will give you hope that all is not lost if your blog disappears for a while.

snowed in at the studio

work in progress

We had a big one yesterday! 50 cm of snow in 12 hours! By noon I couldn't open the doors to the house because the snow was knee high!  Thankfully I noticed that a friend posted on facebook that he was out and about clearing drives and let him know if anyone needed a job doing.  I piped up!  Thank you Josh! You and your buddy were awesome.  I took these pics this morning; the calm after the storm.


In the studio I worked into one of the 'starts' from the abstract workshop, developing it a little more.  I may have overdone it, but I am finding my way with this process.  I am also  finding I do not like the way the colours dry darker with acrylics.  Something I will have to learn to consider when I'm working with them.  Who knows this may get re-worked again in oils...not really sure yet, so it's on the back burner for now.

With nowhere to go because of being snowed in, I tackled the dreaded 'books' yesterday, finishing my HST return.  Turns out it's so much higher this year than others. I'm now wondering if I can un-register for the HST?  Anybody out there know about this?  Our situation will be changing this year with a move; and with that I will be closing my Gallery At The Porch Door , which is the reason I registered for HST in the first place.  I sure don't love the book-keeping, I'd love to get out of it after being 'in' for the past 5 years.

more roses

work in progress

Not fully realized... but coming along. Meditating on white roses; layering shapes and glazes in acrylics. Painting intuitively.

Funny how I always feel like painting flowers when it's wintry outside, must be my longing for my buried garden.  There is a winter storm warning for tomorrow morning in our neck of the woods, guess the shovel will also be getting a workout.

abstract landscape workshop

1st day experimentations

After resting my arm with no painting or knitting for 2 weeks, treating with acupuncture, therapeutic massage and chiropractic I am happy to say that it has improved so I was able to attend an abstract workshop that I had been very much looking forward to the last weekend in January.  

Claudia with demonstration piece

The workshop was given by Claudia Jean McCabe.  It was just what I needed for a change of pace, try new things in a different medium(acrylics) with no boundaries.  Because I had been nursing an injured arm I was conscious of not aggravating it further, so I pledged to myself that this would be the perfect opportunity to try things as a 'lefty'.  Since we'd be doing abstracts I thought: "Why not?"  Although I began with the plan to paint left handed, when I wasn't paying attention and was immersed in the painting, I'd look down and find I had somehow switched back to using my right hand...!

 
The 'warm up painting exercises' began as a series of 5 or 6 small squares or rectangles painted simultaneously on hot press paper.  The idea was really to scribble and let go of preconceived ideas, responding only to balance, colour, shapes, rhythm, pattern.  It was really VERY liberating and very fun.  

I've posted a short video I took of Claudia stepping through the short 'warm ups' scribbley demonstration below.  Watching her work fired the rest of us up to give it a go, with mixed results.  It's always interesting to me to see what comes naturally to people.  I swear we had a Jackson Pollock among us, as well as a Kadinsky or two and a few Klee's in the class.

After lunch, many of us got out canvas's to work on putting into practice the freedom we had learned in the warm ups.  Easy huh?  NOT! Way harder than you'd think it would be!  Painting with only intuition is like walking a gangplank, you have to trust there is something to land on. There was a lot of painting over involved, obliterating, wiping, sighing...but there was perseverance too.  I think perseverance really became my buddy while I worked...and I liked her and was glad to find her.

3 works in progress

Above are the 3 canvases I worked on throughout the two workshop days.  I feel they were a solid start.  The green/pink one speaks to me quietly and I know it is asking me to find a resolution with it.  That makes me happy because I love having a painting or two hanging about in the studio that wants to be resolved...it's like an invitation to a conversation!