Fundraiser

My artist friend Anne Babbage, who studied art education with me at Concordia University in Montreal,asked me to submit a painting for a fundraiser. It was held to help her work colleague Sue, who was stricken with breast cancer. The silent auction took place yesterday at Sue and Anne's workplace, the Whitlock Golf and Country Club in Hudson, Quebec.

Reto and I went by and found an enthusiastic crowd, milling around the great collection of paintings, photographs, gift certificates and vintage wines to bid on.
My submission was:

“The Wave “ 2008
36” x 36”
acrylic on canvas

This work is the second to last in a series, in which I focused on the theme of rocks. Using a newly acquired technique, I was able to capture the various textures and markings of rock surfaces. I was interested in the personality of each individual rock. The arrangement of the rocks gave the painting the appearance of a family portrait. Finally, I became interested in including the environment of the rocks in my painting and working with the depth of the painting materials and a larger format. The series of rock paintings ended with a 36” x 48” work featuring sand and aquatic materials applied to the surface with acrylic medium. It was sold at the Art Fayre in Dunvegan, Ontario, June 2009.

Cape Cod

Our drive to Cape Cod was 750 km long and took us 9 hours, including stops for lunch and supper. Our route this time was along Highway 40 to Montreal, then on the 10 east to Highway 50, south to the u.s. border, Highway 91 and 93 to Boston, taking the 95 around the city and then Highway 3 along the coast, over the Sagamore Bridge onto Cape Cod. Highway 6 took us to our destination: Brewster and the Sweetwater Forest Campground.

It was great to be "home".....yes, we felt that way because we knew our way around this area from last year's vacation. The campground was almost empty (off-season) and our spot was close to the little lake, where we later rented a canoe to explore the shores. The next 10 days were sunny, sometimes with a crisp a breeze. It was a glorious time of cycling, walking the beaches and relaxing in front of the fire.

The return trip went over Highway 2 from Boston to North Adams , to spend a day at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, known as Mass MoCA. The most impressive exhibit was a retrospective of the work of Sol Lewitt, on three floors, to cover the 3 stages of his life's work. More about the exhibition in my next blog.

At 4 p.m., filled with fresh inspiration for our ATCs, we drove north into Vermont, following Highway 7 all the way to the 89 and the Canadian border. This home route was only 50 km more and well worth it: we must go back one weekend to stop at all the sights south of Burlington!
P.S. I found the name of my "miracle flower": it is an Hibiscus!

Little Miracle

Last summer I spent two weeks in Cape Cod in August and was enchanted by the bushes of magnificent flowers that were blooming at that time. I found examples of different colors, all equally impressive. Before going home, I decided to visit a nursery and purchase one of these shrubs for myself, although I was warned that my climate was not ideal.

Well, a small miracle has happened. I think this plant enjoyed the cool and rainy summer we had here because it is covered with buds and blooms right now!. The top two photographs show my flowers; the bottom photograph is one I took last year in Cape Cod. Sorry, but the name of them has escaped me. Anybody who can help? We are leaving next Sunday for another 2 week stay so I can find out!

August ATCs

This month, our ATC group has become integrated with a Wood Fair being held in the community center where we usually trade. For the occasion, we were given a theme for our cards: wood , of course! I cut a sheet of wood veneer, used to make "floating floors", into card size and glued them to a matboard backing. I went to work with my wood-burning tool to make a frame, a different one for each featured tree.

Since I had recently read "The Soul's Code" by James Hillman, I was inspired to see the seed produced by a tree as a capsule of it's future possibilities. Luckily, I had some rubber stamps of an oak, pine and spruce tree to use for the "genius" image. Then I got out my felt pens to draw the fruit of each tree. The final touch was a background, using my trusty liquid acrylics.

End of August and getting cooler already. On the way to work at 3 p.m. I have my AC on at 19 degrees and on the way home at midnight, I turn on the heater! It's already dark at 8 p.m. when I look out the window of the cafeteria. That's Nature.

First anniversary

Yesterday I celebrated the first birthday of my Fortune-Workshops blog with Kate, who got me started and inspired me with her own blog. We had lunch on my veranda, enjoying her scrumptious cheese and onion pie, followed by mesclun salad and my black currant parfait for dessert. Sorry, no photos! We were too busy ruminating about art, work, food and plans for the future. Although the sky was sunny with billowing cumulus clouds, we heard thunder rumbling and sudden flashes of lightening. All of a sudden, dark clouds moved in, wind whipped the treetops and sheets of rain pounded down. We watched, heard and smelled this drama from our table: it was over in a few minutes and the world seemed newly born. The air fresh and cool and the colors bright and clear.
Thank you August 11th 2009 and Lady Fortuna for all your blessings!
Another gift: this crocosmia blooming!

Daylily Season

Last fall, I made a flower bed in which I planted all the day lilies that were spread over my garden. They seem to like their new sunny spot and the cool and rainy weather we are having this summer.

July ATCs

This month I decided to use the matte medium transfer method to take images out of a magazine and re-design them into ATCs.

The method is this: choose an image and brush on a layer of acrylic matte medium. Let it dry well and apply another layer. I did about 20 layers until I was satisfied that it was really solid.
Step 2: Place the image in a bowl of water and wait a few minutes until the paper is well soaked. Then rub the paper away. The ink of the image will be imbeded in the medium....in mirror form. That is why this method doesn't work well for text transfers!
Step 3: Turn the image ink side up and glue it onto your ATC card with some acrylic medium. Now add color, lines and words with paint or pens to integrate the image is into your artwork.
p.s. I used the rubbed off paper to make a little "papier mache" bowl, by spreading the paper mush thinly over an upside down wire sieve. When it was dry, I cut the edge smoothly and painted it with acrylic paints.

The magazine I chose for this project was a 1980 edition of "Art-das Kunstmagazin" I had stashed away in my barn. I gave this project the title "woman Series, 1-13". Here you see 6 of them.