Welcome to the World Zach

I have been out of the studio for awhile.  I have a whole bunch of excuses -I went to Italy, I hurt my neck, and it is still snowing in April.  Anyone of those will do.

Little Zack was born and I painted something for him.

 
This is Youppi the mascot for the now defunct Montreal Expos.  The team is gone but Youppi was great. 

Welcome to the world Zach

Mr. Cool

I couldn't stop myself.  I have a lot to do but this painting just kept calling to me.  It needs some more work but the urge is gone. 

Mr. Cool

Now I can go pay some bills and do some laundry - not romantic but necessary.

Pretty in Pink

I remember taking a picture of this lab at Dog Mountain, Vermont.  He looked so sad and no one should look sad there.  If you love dogs, this is heaven on earth.  If you don't, well go anyhow and maybe you will be converted.

Pretty in Pink

You really should go.

Who Dares Disturb the Princess

I have a friend, a great friend. It is nice to have such a supportive  friend. I painted this without her permission .  I have done worse to her.

This is her puppy. Let's see if she really reads my blog and noticed that I painted her dog without her permission. 
Game on.

Friend of Yours?

Would you believe someone passed up a skull on the grocery shelf.  It was the last thing leftover from halloween marked down from $27.00.  Who would pay that is beyond me but at $4.00 I couldn't leave it alone. 

He keeps me company in the studio.  We talk If he talks back I will be in trouble

I QUIT

Sometimes it is okay, even good to be a quitter.  I have stopped doing the 30 in 30.  I found the pressure to paint and produce something everyday was hard.  I was making art and posting things that I wasn't proud of.  The point of the challenge was to encourage artists to paint everyday.  I paint everyday so I don't need the encouragement.  I don't want to post things just for the sake of producing things.

There is a story going around the internet that a teacher told one of his pottery classes they were  to be marked by the amount of pots made and the other class was to be marked by the quality of one pot.  The story ends with the students making the most pots doing better.  It is a lovely thought that if you keep working, you will produce great work. But I think if you make a whole lot of bad pots you end up with a lot of bad pots.

This painting  took me one day and I am proud of the work but it isn't finished and I will work on it tomorrow.

At least it isn't a pot.

20 Minute Challenge - Day 4

I have now reverted back to my childhood.  It is late Sunday night and I am doing my homework at the last minute. Plus ca change plus ca la meme chose (nothing changes). 

I really rushed this - the painting and taking the photograph and now I have paint all over my kitchen.  This is exactly what happened when I was a kid but back then it was these stupid fountain pens they made us use.

I wonder if I will ever grow up.

20 MInute Challenge day 3

I think you can tell from this picture I didn't cheat on the time.  There is so much I want to fix.  Miss L. is really beautiful.

I won't show this to her mother.

Make it So

I have been working on portraits of people that  I like to look at.  I think I got this one but the more I look at it the more it looks like Steve Martin to me.

Make it So

The critic said he recognized it right away but can you trust a man that is waiting for his supper?  I think not.

The Happiest People in The World

Do you know who are the happiest people in the world - Grandmothers.  Ask them about their children and their faces will light up.  They will tell you story after story about what the 2 year old said.  Iphones were invented for grandmothers to share pictures.  They are very happy.

I was content by this try.  Babies are hard to paint if you are used to adults. At this point I am happy if it looks like a baby and not an old man.   Their proportions are all wrong.  Why don't they grow up?

Happy New Year

Some of us had a great new year party.  One of us did not.
It all started when I began cooking.   Mully hates the smoke detector and gets into a frenzy when it goes off.  She is beginning to sense earlier and earlier that it is about to make that awful noise and starts panicking.  Unfortunately  I bake by smoke detector. I am capable of burning anything and everything. 

She did join us and presided beautifully at the head of the table.  All was going well until the noise makers came out. 

That didn't go well at all. Almost as bad as the smoke detector.   Sorry Mully next year we`ll go out and leave you alone. 

This is the first painting of 2018 - a quick painting of how sad she is. 

Mully's unfortunate New Year

Happy New year to all and hope you had more fun than Mully

I remember

Today is Remembrance day in Canada.

I have bought at least 7 poppies, as I have a great capacity for losing them and I have a hard time passing a veteran and not putting money in their box.

I was informed that we do not buy poppies.  We give a donation and the poppy is given.  No donation necessary but can you really take a poppy without giving money?

Each year I paint a picture on this day. 

I Remember

This is my way of honouring the vets and I get a lot of poppies.

Closing Time anew

I once knew an artist who painted with a 1 hair brush.  The brushes weren't available here so he had to order his sable brushes from England.  Normal people don't paint with one hair.  It wasn't as if he made small paintings he made big ones.  One stroke at a time.

I was reminded of him when I was working today.  I have been incorporating letters in my art and I painted these one stroke at a time with a small brush I had to find at the bottom of a drawer.  I can do this for 3 minutes, then my mind explodes.

Closing Time 2

Phew it took less 3 minutes - brain intact.

Adam and Eve Revisited

A long time ago I belonged to a co-op gallery.  Every once in awhile we would have a show with a theme.  This one was Adam and Eve.  I really was proud of my work which is to have Eve give Adam a modern apple.  Let's be honest I thought I was brilliant.

Adam and Eve Revisited

The two paintings hung in our bedroom  for ever and you know if something is there a long time, you stop looking at it.  Well we got a new comforter and all of sudden my bedroom looked different and the paintings looked really  dull.  So I fixed them. 

Adam and Eve Revisited

Now they can go up on the wall again until I redecorate again.

This is a Preparatory Sketch

This is a Preparatory  Sketch.  If it had been a real painting, I would frame and hang it but it is just a sketch.  I think I am brilliant. Stay with me.  I first painted this from a picture and was really pleased. I thought the rocks looked like rocks and when you first start a new subject that is exciting.

I even asked the critic, "does it look like rocks, does it looks like rocks, does it look like rocks?  If I repeat it enough times he will look and answer me. "YES IT LOOKS LIKE ROCKS" he replied.  He didn't scream but he gave me the look which means I will agree to everything - can I go now?

At first I really liked it and then I took a photograph and started seeing all the things I want to change.  Now here comes the brilliant part - just call it a preparatory sketch and move on.  Join the ranks of all the famous painters who did bad first paintings and called it a preparatory sketch.  I am just so smart.

Preparatory rocks

It does look like rocks.

Does it?

More lessons from Plein Air

There are some people who say no to everything and of course there are those who say yes to everything.  I lean to the former or do I mean latter whatever the first one.  I am fighting it.  I wanted to paint outside today, but I have limited time.  I am so proud of myself - I said to myself I can do this.I grabbed my supply bag that was ready from yesterday's class, my water jar, my easel and the first blank canvas I could find and just went in my backyard. The dog came by herself.

Scenes from the back yard July 1/2016

Here's what I learnt today:

1. Painting the worst painting outside is better than laundry
2. Go out earlier.  It was 26 celsius which is 80 fahrenheit.  It always sounds hotter in fahrenheit. The heat didn't really bother me as the problem with the acrylics.  My acrylics were in the sun and the paint was drying faster than I could squeeze.  Not an excuse to not paint (double negative warning) but I need a solution.
3. If you have a canvas with a hole, throw it out.  Don't leave it near the door because you might grab it when you are rushing to your backyard. The really dark spot is a hole. I know I can fix it but I don't want to. 
4. The most important lesson, any place can be a joy to paint.   I would love to live by the ocean or a canyon but I live in the suburbs and even my ugly backyard  can seem beautiful. I did leave out the composting bin there is a limit.
5. Fill up the pool for the dog.  My dog has her own swimming pool, doesn't everybody's?

Shaken

Shaken not stirred, the directions to Mr. Bonds martini.  I think we need a taste test - could he really tell the difference between the two?  A billion years ago when we first were married Hubo (my husband) said he didn't like the lemon juice that came in a plastic tub, the same yellow plastic I was raised on.  This was an insult to my mom and the American way which is progress comes in plastic.  I was going to show him.  I made him a cup of tea, with the plastic lemon juice and I sprinkled 2 seeds from a real lemon.  He knew the difference and I have not bought the fake lemon juice since.  He also didn't recognize who the portrait was of.  He thought it was Louis Jourdan.  You be the judge

Shaken not Stirred

In Casino Royal bond loses millions of dollars in a poker game. After being asked if he wants his martini shaken or stirred he answered "do I look like I give a damn?"  Great line.

Day 6 - Yippee-Ki-Yay

Yesterday's portrait was Spock.  I think the ears gave it away.  I read a book about the original tv show.  In the beginning the producers wanted to cut him out until they found out everyone just loved him. Who didn't?  Didn't we all want to secretly  teach him about feelings?  Hey I was really young at the time.  Okay I still like him. And for me there is only one Spock.
Onto today's victim. The boss (my husband) didn't recognize him until after I told him who he was. Yeah the kind man said I see it now.  Oh well.  Hopefully for you kind readers, the title gives you a head start.

Yippee Ki Yah

Day 5 Not as we Know it

I missed a day.
I wish it was because I did something exciting like fly to Paris for a night but no it was because of DAVE.  After seeing a movie with the before mentioned DAVE, he casually mentioned he was working on a puzzle.  Allow me to suggest that if anyone ever mentions the word puzzle to you quickly change the subject. Don't say another word just change the subject and move on to something more educating like the lifespan of lemmings or something else.

Instead we asked him to pass it on to us.  48 hours later we finally finished it.  Then we discussed it with DAVE for another hour.  The reward of this endeavor is harder puzzles.  Here is the link http://www.gchq.gov.uk/press_and_media/news_and_features/Pages/Directors-Christmas-puzzle-2015.aspx If you pass the second part please tell me the answers.

Back to art.  My last posting was Have to see about a girl.  Robin Williams reads the note that Will (in Good Will Hunting) leaves in his mail box.  Robin ad libbed the line "damn he stole my line" and thats how they ended the movie.

Here is today's victim.

Not as we Know it

Just Watch Me

I mentioned in my blog post that I had got rejected to a juried art show.  Now normally I would have been upset but would have moved on.  This time I didn't recover.  I had so much self doubt as an artist.

Maybe it would have been okay if  everyone who saw the painting hadn't  said they loved it.  Okay maybe they lied but even my husband said this is really good and he never says that.  A close friend said I had upped my game.

After the rejection.I kept bumping into friends who asked how come I hadn't entered the show this year and I had to confess that well, I was rejected.  Then I was at an art lecture where everyone in the audience that I knew,  was accepted into the show but me.

At this time I signed up for a marketing course. I couldn't even participate in it because I thought what's the point?

Well the pity party is over.  I don't want to feel like that anymore. That judge who ever they are, has no more permission to control my life.  Even if I never get into another show again I still want to feel the joy, and passion I have making my art.

#5

We just had a new Prime Minster elected in Canada.  His father, the honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau when questioned how far he was going to go to fight terrorists said "just watch me"  Now I am not saying my art career is equal to fighting bad guys but for anyone who has ever felt down, who was rejected, who needs a power motto, put down your brush, stand up take a breath. Think how far you want to go and say with me:

"Just Watch Me"