Winged Faith

Well I am back from New York, what a blast! I loved it there, not that I would want to live there. I missed my wide open spaces. 

What I loved:

We loved the people, don't get me wrong there were some wing nuts but for the most part everyone was more than willing to help us out and were polite and kind.

I love the enriched environment. Were else can you feed your brain with arts and culture like that!

Central Park! I wish I had a full day to explore that park. WOW. We wanted to do a handsome cab ride but it was way too hot for the horses so we rented bikes. That was a story all to itself. Riding bikes in the dark going the wrong direction which was HARLEM was an experience. I'll save that for later.

What I did not like:

Cement cement cement.

Bathrooms. Seriously! Public washroom ='d buy some stuff and then you can use it.

For the city that never sleeps and considering it was peek tourist season can you please tell me why all the public art galleries, museums, the zoo all CLOSED BY 5:30! Give me a break! How could I visit all these places when my courses went till 4:30. It was such a shame.

 GARBAGE! OMG, how people could stand the garbage and the stench of garbage in the streets. Yuck. I mean I get it, all they have is a sidewalk in front and they put their garbage out at night and they leak on the pavement and..........40 degrees............. eeeeeewwwww.

Anyways, I have a new video for you!

A video!

A couple of weeks ago this years Strathmoore online series began. Workshop 1 is being hosted by Acrylic painter Robert Joyner. He also has several youtube videos as well and I really enjoy watching them so you should go check them out.

The assignment.......... use paper, water soluable pastels, and acrylic paint while creating with loose and playful brushstrokes. Harder than it looks believe me. 

Hope you enjoy my Pears.

Have a lovely weekend. I sure hope the sun comes out soon. I need it.

xo

moi

Artist of the month

And so it is here, October. So many exciting things. First, I was invited to be featured as the artist of the month at a wonderful ning group called Community Thrive. The group was started by Mystele Keering. A fun place to learn and play, you should check it out. One of the requests was that I do a video for them to feature over at the site. Here it is:

Another bit of exciting news and a reason why I have been a bit of an absent blogger too is the ArtSmarts program that I mentioned in my last post. The Manitoba Arts Council has so kindly approved a grant for myself and Ecole Powerview School. It is a fantastic program where artists work with teachers to teach through art! It has been a blast so far. I spend two afternoons a week with the kids and there are two classes, 21 kids and 25 kids. It can get pretty pumped up in there. It's all good.

I am also in the process of working with my web guy to update the shop a bit so that I can start selling original artwork and prints as well.

I am also daydreaming up some rubber stamps for artists to use on mixed media canvases. I have a company lined up to produce them for me.... he he so watch out for that.

I am also working on some online workshops and mini ecourses. I mean, not just your regular old ecourses. I am sharing it all. Photoshop, digital art, how I create my stamps, mixed media, water-colour, I mean I could go on all day. It all takes time and I have just stick to it and somehow find the time to pull it all together. I've said it before and I will say it again, I wish I didn't need to sleep!

Stay tuned for more good stuff.

xoxox

A quick hello

Popping in with a quick hello. Lots of things going on here, mostly good but really keeping me busy. One of those things is I am working a couple days a week with one of the local schools doing art! The vice principal and myself applied for an ArtSmarts grant though the Manitoba Arts Council and we got it! I have done a few collage classes with the kids already and I think they are pretty pumped. 

I will come by soon and fill you in on all the goings on, and I have so much news. 

This is  a short video demo I did for my two classes this week. I had them write journal pages with their personal local history on it which they were to paint and collage over a portion of it. Thought it would be cool to share the vid.

Be well

xoxo

the fairy!

Bloom Forever

So labor day weekend is here, the end of summer. Sniff sniff. It just flew by for me. I guess it does for everyone doesn't it. I will miss my flowers, I have always loved flowers. I used to steal them from the neighbours yards. One of my favourites are poppies. This is a short video I made of a painting I did of poppies, I hope you enjoy.

xoxo

Keep Hope

Summer has been rolling along. We had some plans to take the kids and run off for a bit but with dad not being well, the surgery and now his post op care ( his wound got a nasty infection) it just wasn't possible. Really, it's ok, there are much more important things to do right now. Dads dressings need to be changed twice daily, the home care nurse can only come once a day, I do the night change. I gotta tell ya, I have a pretty iron clad stomach but stuffing a wad of fabric into a hole the size of an egg into your dad's stomach is pretty unnerving. I am just so happy to be there for my dad though and he is healing well, after a couple of ups and downs during the healing process. I don't have tons of time to spread around though and I just have so much I want to do. I wish I didn't need sleep.

On a high note, I am totally excited about the fact that I have recently acquired my very own ginormous studio!!!!!! AHHHHH whahoooooo. I just love having my own space to escape to and store all my stuff. My poor house was stuffed. Stay tuned for more info. I will be holding workshops galore in there but it needs some work first, arg more time needed, so little to spare.

I have carted a lot of my supplies over to my studio and had a chance to sneek over a couple times to play around and I managed to make a video of it. I was inspired by a quote I read on one of my dad's cards he got while in the hospital. It really summed things up for me with all that has happened over the summer. We have an appt with dad's specialist coming up and we will find out the results of the pathology test. Many things run through your mind while you are waiting but mostly you try to focus on today and as always try to be hopeful.

If you could, please continue to keep dad in your prayers and thoughts.

xo

Faith

Yes, though sometimes it is hard to find and even harder to keep, it is necessary. Without it, who would we be. 

I often have a hard time keeping faith in what I am doing as I work on a piece. You have this fabulous idea that looks so good in your head. Then it starts to pour out and feels even better on the canvas. In the beginning the colours are pure, the strokes are free and you just flow. Something emerges and you go with it.  Then it hits, that deep dark ugly part that you try so hard to avoid. Slap some more paint on that might fix it, or I could move in this direction.... then yuck. What now? Pull out some rubbing alcohol and some sand paper and take out all your frustration on that canvas and when you have something left that you would like to add something to... you go with it. 

Be the seed pods...

A while back Millande had a journal prompt a day with the theme "Be the seed". It was fun, for the first two days, then poof, stuff just got in the way. I did record most of the process however and this is a little short video of it. Hope you enjoy it.

Can you believe it is like 20 degrees here! We can practically wear shorts here!

xoxo

Festival du Voyageur slideshow...

Sheesh has it really been so long! Ouch. New stuff is coming I promise. For now here is a little video I did of a trip I took with my sons class to a local festival we have annually. Lots of fun and full of local culture. If you are ever in Wpg in February check it out! 

Our weather here is crazy! We are supposed to be in the double digits tomorrow. Our snow is melting like crazy! Yeahoooooo!

xo

Handpainted paper video

Before I check out for the weekend, hubby is home and the weekends are so short. No time for blogging. hehehe.

Sharing a video I did couple weeks ago. See you next week.

Happy Holidays

Another year has passed, does anyone else think time is going faster than it used to? How would we really know? There is never enough time for me. Finally, after a month and a half dry spell due to unforseen circumstances, I was able to take the time to create a little something.

Here is the finished piece.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all. xo

I made a little video of the painting I did a while ago, "All Her Dresses". Here it is as promised.


Still trying to work on my encaustic course which I am two weeks behind on, ouch. Will post some work if I get some done.

Hope all are well.

xo

My first painting video!

Whahhhhhhhh, I just uploaded my first painting video! It is a little funny because it ends abruptly. My video camera died. There are also parts skipped because, guess what, my camera died. It must have 99 lives. ha! Go easy on me gang. I think it is pretty slick for a first crack if I say so myself.

Oh, I also got some really crazy videos of a severe thunder storm we drove home in tonight. Will post that later.

xo!