Friday's child

A lesson in letting go: After yesterday's telephone fiascos, I made myself let go of the whole thing. After all, tomorrow is another day, another clean slate. Today I spoke to a human at Bell, and she fixed everything.
One way of letting go for me is to focus on my work. Here are some items I made and/or finished last night.

acrylic and graphite on canvas

watercolour on paper

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí. (Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

You do your best, you try to work, but find you're spending half the day on the phone with people like Purolator and Bell and disembodied voices telling you to press 1 for this and 2 for that, and wait because of higher than usual calls and blah blah blah...
Deep breath. Time for a walk. Even though it's sticky-humid and a little wet.

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí. (Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

Black and white
Gouache on Japanese kozuke paper.
I prefer gouache to watercolour (even though I love using watercolours) because it goes on thick and silky. It's almost an alternative to acrylics, for me.

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí. (Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

Today, we're delivering our paintings for the upcoming AWOL Gallery 12x12 exhibition.

9TH ANNUAL SQUARE FOOT SHOW

NEW offsite venue-  TWIST Gallery, 1100 Queen St. West (Queen & Dovercourt)
Exhibition dates: Saturday August 6th - 21st, 2011

Press/Collectors Preview Gala: Friday, August 5th, 7pm

(Tickets are $20.00 and proceeds from ticket sales will go to local charities. Tickets available online)

Public Reception: Saturday, August 6th, 7pm (free admission)

***************************************************************

Meanwhile, I took a break from painting and did some stitching. 

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí. (Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

Some paintings immediately bring to mind literary works. Usually French because my schooling was French.
First there was Baudelaire
Now there's Jean-Paul Sartre (Le Mur/The Wall)

Acrylic-painted background covered in plaster cloth, sanded and painted.

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí. (Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

She ended up on the wall... Happy and safe weekend to you.

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí. (Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

Friday's child

 My obsession with bird girls/people started in earnest with Cory Moortgat's book, The Art of Personal Imagery, still one of my all-time favourite art books. I played around with more yesterday because I was at home all day. So, for your amusement:

I cut out one because I didn't like the background.


Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí. (Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

Some things you can plunge in and do. Other things need to be done in steps. Like writing. I love writing  quotations and poetry  in my art work. I wanted the writing to get really big, so I gradually wrote bigger and bigger. I'm now more confident about the whole thing. This piece is BIG.

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí. (Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

Inspiration is funny. I saw an abstract painting filled with colours I love and I got up and started painting. My painting is nothing, but nothing, like the painting I saw (not even the colours), but it got me going. Finishing touches were applied this morning. The next step will be to varnish it -- not just for protection, but it will bring out the colours beautifully.

PORTAL

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí. (Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

In a parallel universe, summer storms are very colourful....
I used watercolours our of a tube, and some gouache, and painted wet on wet. A little trick to disperse the paint is to add drops of soapy water (washing-up liquid) from the tip of a brush into the wet paint.)

Detail: See the full painting here

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí.
(Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

Etsy finds

 I'd been looking at and reading about Welsh love spoons, when I spied that my friend in Wales had created cards with...Welsh love spoons. And snippets of Welsh wool. Naturally, I bought one. Sandra has a wonderfully quirky instincts (Be odd, she says, and I say, Hear, hear), which is just one reason we are great friends. I'm so glad she's finally opened an Etsy shop. Click on her name and have a look for yourself.

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí. 
(Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

Keeping cool during a heatwave.

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí.
(Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

Friday's child

I've been aging and distressing...no, no, I'm not speaking of myself, I'm speaking of what I've been making. Two more "antique" canvas pouches, and a vintage hankie.

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí.
(Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

Happy Bastille Day to our French cousins.
Vive la France!

Ná bris do loigrín ar stól nach bhfuil i do shlí.
(Do not break your shin on a stool that is not in your way.)

When choosing old and antique fabrics, I always look for stitches, patches, mending and other little items that might be stitched onto the fabric. Some years ago, in Ireland, Joyce, a friend from out university days, gave me some beautiful old kimono pieces that had belonged to her grandmother. Among them was a piece of red silk that had a paper "tag" attached to one corner. It has Japanese characters written on it. It finally saw the light of day on this piece.

To thine own self be true -- The Bard

The humidity is gone, the rain that was forecast never came, and today we have a dry heat.
All is well.

To thine own self be true -- The Bard

It's a drippy day.

Drip, drip, drip. Which is also the title of this painting.

To thine own self be true -- The Bard

Sleep wouldn't come last night, so I painted and collaged these two 6x6 canvases.
I could smell my aunt's perfume around me, the aunt who encouraged my "loose" style. She didn't like boxed-in, controlled artwork. I think she approved...

To thine own self be true -- The Bard

Painting meditation. Abstract landscape. Add paint to a blank canvas. Don't think, just do. Mix colours mindfully. Smooth on paint with your favourite brush (I have one). Step back. Observe. Continue. Stop when it's finished. You'll know when.

Detail. See the full painting here.

To thine own self be true -- The Bard

Friday's child

Embroidery as meditation.
A piece of silk, and letting the eye guide you to create (no pre-set pattern).
It focuses the mind; the mind is solely on the making of the stitch, there's no room for anything else.

To thine own self be true -- The Bard

Another hommage.
It wasn't my intention, but when I finished I was reminded of a 1960s art gallery poster.

To thine own self be true -- The Bard

RIP Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly
The American artist died yesterday at age 83. I love his work. I believe he invented the scribble in artwork. Certainly he used a lot of writing, some illegible and some pure poetry. This is my tribute to him.

To thine own self be true -- The Bard

Sometimes it's good to forget things because you can discover them years later and, as in this case, it can make you happy. This is my very first printed postcard. I thought they had been used up -- but the other day I found a stash of them in a desk drawer that I was cleaning out. It was of a little watercolour painting that made me very happy at the time -- it still does.

To thine own self be true -- The Bard

Salvaging is part of art making.
If you don't like what you've done, the urge is to throw it away. Instead, you look at it carefully and cut out the parts that you like -- there are always parts that are worth salvaging.

 

To thine own self be true. -- the Bard

Happy Fourth of July to our American cousins!

Tour de France.
No?

OK, then, Tour de Canvas.

Happy Canada Day

Today is our national holiday. Guess who's celebrating it with us....

The Maple Leaf fascinator!

Photos: Frank Gunn, Paul Chiasson/CP/AF