Happy New Year and new art inspiration

Happy New Year everyone!I arrived home a couple days ago to a very quiet house.Too quiet, especially after the last few days!But it was also a really good time for me to do some reflecting and make some decisions about what I would like my life to look like in 2019.And so, with the final sunset of 2018,I lit my candles and made a list. Came up with a plan. Well, not a plan as plans go, just a bunch of random ideas expressed as words on said list.Then, this new year, this new morning, I began putting some of my ideas into action.I think that I would like to keep this blog going and with greater regularity.I also am committing to more art, more inspiration, more of and a better Instagram presence, also, more time to answer all you dear friends who leave me comments, and come visit you. Just be more around.So, one of my ideas, more isnpiration, that was easy.I went to the beach and wandered around.Right now I'm loving these winter beachy colours.And I'm also loving the way the winter storms beat up the tree bark.I collected a bunch of beach finds and brought them home.Then, after a few trial and Edison moments, I made some lovely monotypes with the beaten up bark.Happy New Year dear friends. I wish you all a year of abundance, joy and treasured moments.

A walk on an impulse just because it's sunny

Can you believe that the sun has come out for the first time in about 2 weeks?I had a lunch hour meeting right here down by the ocean......and after the meeting, instead of being a good girl and going home and getting some work done in the studio, I headed for the mountains.All the way up here to the Baden Powell trail.See down there at the shore? That's where I was 20 minutes ago!And now I'm up here on this beautiful trail.I'm so glad I made the effort to drive up here and go for a walk.The autumn is a photographers paradise, isn't it?And especially for me, because I tend to photograph into the sunlight all the time.I know there are so many conventional rules of not photographing into the sun, but stuff that for a game of soldiers. I can't get enough of it.It's been mild and rainy so the little trickles have turned into crystal streams.And, while there's still a lot of green leaves on the trees, some have begun to turn all sorts of glorious colours.As I walked along taking photos, I couldn't help but collect some of the leaves to bring home to have some fun with.I dumped them all in a pile on my desk......and then I made myself a leaf rainbw.It always surprises me how doing something artistic, no matter how small or simple, lifts my mood up by 100%.(But then, maybe it's the sunshine)

Hello from Sunday night and a last for the 1st of October

Hello from Sunday night everyone.Where has our September gone?I just blinked and it's October.The weather's been really lovely, so we decided on one last dip in the ocean.Inspired by a lady swimming about, I was the brave one and walked in...Slowly!One inch at a time!The stomach is always the worst.Then Robert got in.He went for the "just dive in" approach!Next Chloe dipped her toes in.Ata girl!Then, the inevitable happened!What a glorious last day for a swim.After we dried off a little, Chloe and I went beachcombing.Chloe was trying to find the perfect piece of driftwood for her airstream, but every piece she loved was attached to 20ft of log.We stayed on the beach for an hour or so in the very warmth of the day.Now autumn has well and truly rolled in. Time for golden leaves, chrysanthemums and pumpkin spice, but this afternoon was the best way to wrap up our summer. :DHope you've all had a lovely summer and are now getting ready for fall.

Lately round here

Hi everyone,What a difference a day made. And then a week!This is the sun the day after my last post and smoke rolled into Vancouver from the interior, Washington and Oregon wildfires.Yikes!This was the state of the world at 10 am.I'll tell you something though, although the smoke was awful to smell, the red sunlight was magical. Like living on Mars.Look at my pristine city!It was so strange seeing it enveloped in a smokey haze.I must admit that while it was a little surreal, it was a little romantic as well.But it didn't last long. A few days later, some rain and a good westerly wind and Vancouver felt much fresher.It's been nice to be back home in Vancouver after three months away.The summer's been very dry and I've been busy trying to water the gardens.The bees are loving the autumn crocus right now.My neighbour has sold her house in 10 days for over $2 million to a construction company and that means a new duplex next door.That is the state of real estate round here.I'm not thrilled about that and must admit I now have moments of seriously thinking about moving out of this neighbourhood.It's ridiculous to think I'm going to be the only single detached house in a block of duplexes. The only problem is the minute I sell this house it will be bulldozed over and all this beautiful Craftsman heritage will be lost. There is a company who moves homes though, so I might just investigate that option. Wouldn't it be cool to move one's home onto some lovely plot of land? Hmm.Well, in the meantime...and it will probably take a full year for the company who bought the house to get their permits in order...I've managed to snag all my neighbour's sky blue bearded irises!Robbie has been helping me with some projects.One thing is he has stained and varnished a shelf we built several years ago for under the window in the family room. It tops off the custom bookshelves.I love the deep rich wood grain which has come out of this piece of inexpensive pine.The other thing I snagged from my neighbour is her, much better than mine, 3 compost containers, AND the compost! And the cement tiles for underneath.The plastic pot is for collecting plastic bags which I use in the kitchen compost bucket for holding fruit and veg waste till I get it into the bins. Later, I just pick up all the used plastic bags and take them to the recycling depot at once. Yes, I know I shouldn't really be using plastic bags to line the kitchen compost bucket. I'm working on it.But doesn't this little corner of my garden looks great and organised now?I love it.We've really been hanging close to home lately, and also probably because of jet lag and I turned my ankle again! (Darn skater's ankles!)But we did pop down to the Shipyards night market last night for supper.This is actually only the second night market I managed to get to this year and the season only has two more Fridays to go.We came down for the sunset.And the fish and chips.We really felt like having fish and chip.The HMCS Ottawa was in port.We sat on the pier, watched the city sparkle and took in the people watching and activity around us.Then we stayed into the night listening to the band and Robbie did some dancing with the crowd.At one point he had the whole dancing crowd dancing back and forth and then he started dancing around them all!Today, being the last sunny day forecasted, we decided to drive out into the country and have some lunch at Fort Langley.The traffic slowed down on the highway for some emergency vehicles and for a few minutes, we had this beside us! So cute!I really love being in the country and especially in autumn.We looked around at our lunch options at the Fort and everything was packed to the max.We finally got a table at Wendel's Bookstore and Cafe and had a lovely lunch.Then a little mooch around the new stores.My goodness Fort Langley os growing at an alarming rate.Pretty soon the country is going to be the new city!Here are a few things we found:Chloe loved these charming pillows.I loved this calendar.And these huge wooden beads.Well, that's it for now.

Second day back in Vancouver and all hands on deck for an art show!

It sounded like such a fun idea at the time!My lovely friend Camila, of the NV Arts Council, invited me to exhibit my art at the Music in the Park festivalAnd I thought, "jet lag be damned!"So, completely ignoring sleep deprivation at the moment, I put on my best Music Festival dress, hitched my posse into service......and headed out to the festival.This is Capilano River Regional Park and the Vancouver watershed and reservoir. What a glorious park. One of my favourite parks in the Lower Mainland.And here are the artist's and maker's tents.Robert and Chloe were great. They helped me drag everything out of the car and set up and then naffed off back home to have a rest.So paintings on display......sketchbooks open for inspection and fresh flowers, (thanks to the amazing Clove) ......and an interactive painting on offer......I sat back behind my tables and painted some merlins....within a few minutes and festival was open and loads of people started to come by.Music was playing all day and people were invited to dance.There was so much to see and do!I must say that sitting in the pink shade of a red tent is very flattering! I think we should all bring our own pink light with us everywhere we go. :DEveryone seemed to love my little birdies.I got so busy talking to people about my art that soon it was 4pm and the festival was winding down and I hadn't even popped round to meet any of my fellow exhibiting artists and makers.Robert and Chloe came back to help me pack up and I left them in charge while I ran around and visited.Here is some beautiful bead work by Tetiana ZarubaLook at this beautiful dreamy, creamy pottery by John Winkler.I really loved these great birds by Elizabeth Austin.These beautiful plein air paintings by Maria Josenhans took my breath away.Some beautiful stonework by Jocelyne Dodier. She was so busy with tons of children trying their hand at stone carving. We talked about how I still have my children's elementary school soapstone carvings. We thought that probably every parent does...lolHere is some work by Christine Hood of Huges and Co.This is by Cydney Eva from Pattern Nation.Cydney also made this interactive art for the children.Huge clouds of reclaimed material stuffed with balloons. The kids have the best time with them.So the music played on and the people enjoyed it to the last song.And then it was time to pack everything and go home.But before I did, I took a photo of the interactive canvas I had going.This started as a collage of vintage ephemera with a few outlined birds and evolved in this amazing collaborative piece.Birdies everywhere.I really loved being here with all these people in this beautiful park this Labour Day.Now to catch up on my sleep. :D

Hello from Sunday night and the Opus outdoor painting challenge

Today was the Opus Art Supply outdoor painting challenge day and I must tell you that I've been painting up a storm lately for the Art in the Garden show May 27th weekend, and painting plein air all day was something I really didn't feel like doing today, but the great guys at Opus convinced me to enter and so I did.And then thought, why do I have to do a painting when there are so many different arts? Since the rules were to register and pick up a 8" x 10" canvas or watercolour paper, instead of doing a painting, I decided that I really felt like doing was a lino cut. I haven't done a lino or stamp cut in what seems like forever, so I was really looking forward to it.Each Opus store has a sort of city corridor designated where artists can set up and paint, and, since last year I was painting in the forest, this year I thought it might be fun to paint at the beach.Today was the most beautiful day down at the beach. There were all sorts of boats at work and play,The seals were out sunning on their rafts,And dandelions were blooming in the land not yet designated for construction.I decided that maybe I would like to do a lino cut using the dandelions as my inspiration.The most wonderful thing about today though, was that Chloe decided to join me in the painting challenge.So we set out all our supplies and got to work.I'm not really a printmaker and so not really proficient or even very familiar with lino cuts, (I only know the basics), but soon I had a design drawn out on paper and transferred to the lino. Then I took yellow and white chalk pencils and drew out the positive/negative areas. (So i thought...lol)Those first few cuts are always so nerve wracking for me, but soon I figure out what I think I'm doing and get into a rhythm.We were in good company. All along the grassy area were other people taking part in the challenge and lots of people walking by stopping for a chat.It's lovely to have strangers stop by and chat and ask questions and reminisce about their last lino cut experience. Usually that turned out to be high school! But almost everyone said they loved their lino cutting experiences and wished they could do it again, and then asked tons of questions. I'm so happy that I could answer, show my supplies, and encourage people to take it up again.And so Chloe painted and I cut, and before you knew it, it was 2pm! And our pieces had to be handed in by 3pm! And I hadn't even made one test print!It was obvious to me that my lino cut design would take several more hours to complete the way I envisioned, and so I scaled back my design a little bit and, at 2:20, pulled the first test print on a spare piece of paper.I was really happy with the test.So I inked up the lino cut with a nice, generous amount of ink, and printed two prints on the watercolour paper I was given, and chose what I thought was the better one.And there we have it. At 2:40, we had our pieces ready for the display.So we packed up all our gear and drove the three blocks back to the Opus store.Then we signed over our pieces, they were hung on the display wall, and we mingled with the other artists.We met several friends who also took part and it was lovely catching up.Look at all the beautiful and diverse art people made today. I was so thrilled to see that whole families participated. I think that's a wonderful way to spend your Sunday and I felt so lucky to have Chloe with me. :DMy camera was super low battery, but I still managed to get these two photos of our pieces hanging on the display wall.And there you have it. A lovely Sunday and a lovely memory now on display on my mantle.Thank you so much guys at Opus, thank you for putting on this great community event.

The ARC Gloria visits Vancouver

Last night was the first of our Friday night market evenings at the Shipyards and I heard a rumour about a tall ship, so I decided to walk the 9 blocks to the docks and see for myself.Yes, there were three tall masts towering over the food trucks at the market!And then, down at the pier, look at that!It's the Armada de la República de Colombia (ARC) Gloria.I walked across the little bridge spanning the space between land and ocean...Looked down at the pylons,And to the west to the setting sun,And came right to the ship. Right to the glorious figurehead at the prow.There was a happening on board. There were ladies dressed in festive costume, and the crew was either in bright white or white and navy dress.I loved the hundreds of brightly coloured flags all across the ship,As well as this enormous Colombian flag flying off the stern.I don't think I've ever seen such a huge flag!The breeze was catching it and whipping it onto the pier and back out over the sea, much to the delight of small children who loved being so close to the material and tried to get in the way and touch it.This of course brought on much anxiety in parents who could see a possible future of having to jump into the ocean to save their child as the flag casually tossed them overboard!All over the ship were smartly dressed people.On the deck was a buffet of sweets.And a bar was set up in one of the life rafts.And a crowd of people were gathering on the afterdeck.I walked to the end of the pier and looked at downtown.And looked back to the market, shipyards, and the mountains with the last of the rain clouds from this pineapple express weather system.Then I walked back to the ship and stood for a while listening to the Colombian national anthem being played and sung. Then the Canadian anthem. Then a priest spoke a blessing in Spanish. I imagine it was a priest and it was a blessing, because he said words like Dios, Padre nuestro and Santificado. Then bagpipes and drums played Ave Maria.After the bagpipes I walked off the pier, stayed at the market listening to the evening's live band, and people watching for a little while, and then decided it was time to walk back home.One more look at the Gloria and up the hill I go.I think I might come back for a second look. :D

A full day of teaching journal / sketchbook making courses at Opus

Last Sunday I had the best fun.Opus Art Supplies invited me back to the store to teach my journal making techniques in two back to back courses.I had two sets of ten students and we had the best fun.The staff at Opus are the absolute best. Every bit of the supplies I asked for I got.I brought about 35 old books with me, some inspirational books, ephemera, and ribbons for books marks, and the Opus staff gave us everything else we needed.We had huge and luscious tubs of acrylic, mat medium, brushes, inks, white gesso, pencils and pens, tracing paper gel pens and stabilo pencils.It's just amazing, and, I suppose a little expected when you teach in an art supply store, but amazing nonetheless to have all these supplies to play with!And I think everybody had a great time.At two hours per session the time just flew by, and my students created some beautiful pages.Even the practices on the tracing paper were works of art!Some people loved it so much they took their palettes home with them so they could continue for another hour or more.And some people took advantage of the 10% off art supplies offer for attending my course and browsed the store for ages trying to limit their choices...lol...I know how that feels.More pages:Everyone has such individual style! I love it.Some people mix and apply the paint cautiously, in minute meticulous strokes and small brushes.And some people use large brushes and swirl the paint around.To me, it's always inspirational to see what's happening on the palette.Before I knew it, 6 hours flew by.And the last thing people did was get some ribbon to create a book mark for their journal.And then it was time to go and everyone asked me when and where am I teaching next?Umm...I'll be happy to do this again in the fall when I come back from Europe.(If Opus will have me?)Thanks so much guys at Opus and thank you so much to all my new friends for coming to make a journal/sketchbook with me.

Late night ridiculous!

It's Friday night, and so what are three city girls free for an evening going to do?So we found ourselves without the wee ones as their other grandmother took them for Friday night.Well, as it turns out, we walked down to the waterfront pub to have supper.Nine short city blocks down, three much longer city blocks over, to the Tap and Barrel pub at the shipyards.We actually loved our walk down the hill. (Imagine San Francisco but in a shorter way.)It's so much fun to walk past the houses and apartments to get down to the sea. We chatted all the way...but also peeked into the lit windows. (We're bad like that.)But in about 20 minutes, we got to the shipyards and the sea and to the pub for a late supper.By this time my daughters were sick of my camera...lol.We had a lovely supper at the Tap and Barrel. The tempura cauliflower with curry mayonnaise was out of this world. We ordered a second portion!After supper we thought we might take a taxi home, (and besides, it was raining cats and dogs all during supper), but just as we finished and walked out, the rain stopped, so we walked all the way up the hill and back home.

Was that spring? Lol.

I took these few photos on a sunny day.Actually, the one sunny day in the winter/spring deluge that is the West Coast.One sunny day and that's our lot for now as the weather shows rain all the way thru the next ten days. (sigh)Actually, the rain might not be so bad because look at the dust the sunshine reveals!But at least the rain held off while I transported this painting, The Wild from Howe Sound, to the gallery for a group show, "Clouds".And it's not all that bad, because I took the rest of the afternoon to sit in the rocker on the front porch and soak in the much needed sunshine.Now back to the rain but hopefully the sun will come back soon.