Pics Pics Pics

Another busy week down and it's finally Friday...Yay!  I have been working all week and finally (ahem) got my camera back.

So, I would love to share with you all some pics from the last couple of weeks.  Remember Stacy from Magic Love Crow?  Here's the awesome painting I won from her blog giveaway a few weeks back.  I am a bit late posting this, Stacy...So Sorry!  But here it is and I hope you enjoy.  I have it in my front entranceway with my other 2 favorite pictures.

I also received in the mail a gorgeous poster that I will have to frame!  I participated in a fundraiser by doing a painting a on  6x6 inch tile for the Mosaic for Mental Health.  It was hard to get a really good picture so I took several.

Every little square is a different painting from a different artist.

Aren't these fabulous?  I love how there is so much color!

So much great art here.

If you look closely you can see my grapes in the middle of this one :)

There is everything here from abstract to realistic, anime to impressionist style.

Incredible.

   There is so much amazing work here.  I would have loved to have been there.  Maybe next year :)

Every year at my workplace, we raise funds to "adopt" a less fortunate family for Christmas.  This year we are selling tickets on a huge basket of goodies.  Everyone was asked to bring something in for the basket, so I hand painted  some wine glasses... I tried to make them funky and fun.  

I hope everyone has a great week! Next I'll be posting a pic of my work in progress...It is still a work in progress but slowly coming along :)

Excuses and I'm Lost Without My Camera!

Did everyone turn their clocks back?  I don't think Daylight Savings time is buying me any time...It's been quite a while since I posted!  I am, in fact, shocked at how fast the time has been passing, even with our clocks turned back :)  Seems there is always something crazy going on these days.  

So what's been going on that's been keeping me so busy?

First, I have to tell you about this wonderful little item I received in the mail....I can't even tell you how thrilled I was to open up  this happy painting by Stacy at Magic Love Crow.  Stacy is always so upbeat and her blog always has something fun and new going on.  She also has the best giveaways, too!

So before Halloween, Stacy had a giveaway for Magaly's All Hallows Grim Party, and guess who won...I did!

This happy little 6x6 inch painting is going right in my hallway so everyone can see it.  Isn't it adorable?

I should have a photo of it on my wall but...Part of the reason why I haven't posted lately is because my camera is on the missing list.  Well not really missing, I just left it in my locker at work.  

Last week was "Take your Kid to Work Day".  All the kids in Grade 9 get to go to work with their parents.  I took my son, Andrew and his friend Michael.   Since I work part time, I was off that day.  I took my camera to get some shots and left it there!  I am really missing my camera!   I think the boys  really enjoyed their day, though.  They thought it was cool that they got to wear lab coats...said it made them look smart LOL.  They got a great tour of blood collections and all the areas of the lab and the X-ray department.

Halloween was a blast for the kids.  We took them on haunted trail tours the weekend before, carved pumpkins, got costumes ready and Halloween night we had somewhere in the neighbourhood of 130-140 ghosts and goblins at our door...pretty good crowd!  We topped the night of with fireworks and sparklers with all the neighbors.  It was great fun...I'd share pics but I left my camera at work :) No tricks except for the after hours pumpkin stomping goblin.

I've been working on a painting.  I was planning on doing a step by step of the painting process, but *sigh* my camera is at work.  Yeah, I know I already said that, right?  Okay, I can't post the work in progress, but I will show you the original photo that I'm working from...

Is that an incredible photo, or what?  My grandfather came from Poland around 1910.  He worked at the steel plant for most of his life.  Before you could get on in the plant, you had to "earn your dues" in the rail yard...here is my Papa earning his dues.  He is sitting in the front row, furthest to the right.  He is looking down.  They look like such hard workers, don't they?  But check out that guy in the middle...it looks like he has a shovel in his hand and he's about to bop the guy in front!

Featured Artist! Yay!

I was in a rush and a flurry all day.  From my son's doctor's appointment in the morning to a highly important run to walmart with my oldest son for hair product, supper ready, piano lessons, then off to French class.  Phew!  I came home checked my email and guess what?  I'm featured in the Top Artist Directory...how cool is that? 

So, what is the Top Artist Directory, you ask?  

The Top Artists Directory is a list compiled by Kim Barker, aka laketrees and is compiled from the Top 101 Artist's Blogs List at laketrees.  Kim features an artist from the Directory every Friday.  I feel honored to be this weeks pick...Thanks so much, Kim!

By the way, speaking of featured artist, and though I hate to blow my own horn, I am excited to share this with you!   I have also been given the great honor of being chosen as featured artist for Pierscape this spring 2012.

Pierscape was started to highlight local talent and has grown into an annual weeklong festival celebrating Sydney's Whitney Pier.  Pierscape continues to grow every year.  Paintings by local artists are exhibited for the entire week with activities going on every day.  There is Ukrainian egg decorating workshops, painting workshops, food festivals, poetry and prose reading as well as music.  

My grandfather came to Whitney Pier from Poland in the early 1900s.  He worked at the steel plant  until he retired.  Here is some information I took from www.whitneypier.org's website.

Whitney Pier is a working class area of Sydney that was settled at the turn of the 20th century by peoples from all over the world who came to work in the steel and coal industries. Presently, the ethnic groups represented in the "Pier" include Jewish, Celtic, Newfoundland, Ukrainian, Polish, Italian and Black (both Nova Scotian and West Indian), as well as a small number of First Nation families.  Whitney Pier is considered to be one of the most ethnically diverse areas in Eastern Canada. Community institutions, represented by "ethnic" halls places of worship and, reflect this diversity.

The development of Whitney Pier has been going on for more than 100 years.  Since it began as a working class community (steel and coal transportation) at the turn of the 20th century, this multicultural community has always retained a strong and proud sense of itself, and it is that pride which continues to make Whitney Pier an ideal place in which to live and to work.

The activities of the Whitney Pier Festival of Visual Arts (PierScape'98 Sept. 14-20, 1998) will coincide with and enhance recent and positive changes in the community.  Several new businesses have started in the "Pier".  Park areas have been revitalized, the Boys and Girls Club has initiated a beautification program, and there is considerable interest in the summer walking tours.  Furthermore, the Whitney Pier Resource Centre has become a focus for community development. These developments all indicate a new ambience of optimism in this community which has been hard hit by the down-turn of the coal and steel industries in Cape Breton.  In the midst of these initiatives, the strong voluntarism within the community has guaranteed the strength of its ethnic groups and its historical society as the basis for continued cultural development.

So my plan is to do some paintings that celebrate the origins of Whitney Pier from my grandfather's perspective.  Stay tuned and thanks for dropping by :)

Some Vitamin C...

There's some nasty colds going around these days with the change in weather.  How about some Vitamin C for the soul?  Here are two paintings I did in the spring and I finally just got around to listing them in my Etsy shop today.  These were both done from life in my kitchen.  Hope you enjoy!

Both this painting and the next one are painted on watercolor paper, 140 lb using transparent watercolors.  Both are 5x7 inches.  You can click on either image to go to my Etsy shop where they are for sale.

This next one is a painting of pear.  I find pears to be very zen like, don't you?  I added some collage and stamping to this one with the words, "live simply".

Here's some great news...A while back I did a post on the Canadian Mental Health Association's Mosaic for Mental Health.  Here's the link here if you'd like check it out.  The association invited artists to create paintings on 6x6 inch tiles.  The put the tiles together to create the Mosaic for Mental Health.  Here are the paintings I did on the tiles:

The opening was last night.  And both of these paintings sold!  Yay!  It feels great knowing these small paintings are helping people in a huge way.  

They have the posters of the mosaic made and hopefully mine will be here soon.  As soon as I get a pic of the poster, I will post it here!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Giving Thanks

This weekend is Thanksgiving here in Canada.  So as it is a day to give thanks for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed, I thought I would show you a painting I did a little while back.

My grandmother grew garlic in her garden and after she passed my uncle carried on the tradition.   After the bulbs were harvested, they would let them dry and save them for cooking.  They would always set some aside for replanting.  They were absolutely huge bulbs!  And if you love garlic, you would love these!  So flavorful!

I painted this one on an 8x8 inch gallery wrapped canvas using acrylic paint and I also collaged some handwritten text.

I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and a Happy Columbia Day to my American friends!

Some new crow paintings and video

Got some great energy moving in my studio yesterday with some amazing music as I started (and finished!) two new ACEO paintings.   

I was listening to The Grey Dusk of Eve (Return to Portobello), a song by local band The Rankin Family.  This mysterious and powerful song always gets me fired up and really lets me get that paint moving.  I made a little video using the song and some of my crow paintings if you'd like to check it out, it's on the bottom of this post.

The warming sun of autumn got me thinking about Halloween and the brilliant colors of  golds and oranges in fall.  This little guy I call my "Halloween Crow".

I love the warm sunny days of fall and the freshness of the cool nights.  Here's "Moonlight Crow" out enjoying the brisk night air.

Last week my son and I went out on a photography expedition.  He hopped on his bike (he loves that bike!) and the two of us headed down to the running track.  I was in search of some good crow photos for reference pics.  I figured the track would be a good place to start  because there are always loads and loads of crows there.  

There was quite a few people around as it was a gorgeous evening and the sun was just starting to set.  People were out walking and enjoying the evening.  The crows were out too.  Watching us, anybody would have thought we were totally off our rockers for sure.  

We tried to sneak up on the crows to get their picture.  But of course they always KNEW we were there.  And would immediately start their funky walk in the opposite direction away from us.  I was having a hard time getting a front shot of them.  I could only get them from behind.  Well, duh!  We would get so close and then they would fly away.  I would just get them in my viewfinder, shoot and my camera was just fast enough to get the tail feathers as they took off.

Not Sour Grapes

Remember way back when  I mentioned that I was participating in a fundraiser to raise money for mental health?  Here's the link in case you missed it:  Here's a Great Cause

This week, I finished two of the 6x6 inch tiles, and today I got them both packed up and mailed off to Halifax.  Yay!  

Here's a peek:

Not Sour Grapes 1

 They are both painting using acrylic paint and are both on 6x6 masonite tiles.

Not Sour Grapes 2

Thanks for stopping by!