Category Archives: Artwork

Sketch Thursday

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I will make this post brief because I just spent 10 min. deciding on how to spell the word sketch and started to doubt the spelling of Thursday as well. Sometimes words just don’t look right even when they are, does that ever happen to you? I had to go look  both words up!

I was chatting to my sister yesterday and she mentioned that drawing classes at university are getting shorter. I was disappointed by that news because my drawing classes were my favorite and most rewarding classes. This started me thinking about drawing and I realized that I need to do more of it. I am often working on drawings and doodling out ideas, but not in the same way as you would in a drawing class. So for my first sketch I worked from a photo of H. mainly because I have been meaning to sketch the subject matter for some time, but I think I would like to set up a still life or try some sketching of my son in action as well. If I am successful and anywhere close to being consistent on this I will post this work on Thursdays. I also need to find my white conte for highlights, I tried to use white acrylic on H.’s nose and other spots but it didn’t really work out. It feels good to draw like this again and I can really see how rusty I am.

Artwork from the North

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My sister brought me these cards back from her trip to Whitehorse this summer and I liked them so much I decided to frame them and put them up. I couldn’t get a good picture of them on the wall so here is a photo of them just standing on the table. They are nice either way. I am very pleased with them and the frames I found for them. The artwork is by Richard Shorty and you can see more of his work at his website. He has some beautiful prints for sale.

Work in Progress (Goldfinch Painting)

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You can see I have a little helper for this painting. All great artists have their assistants right?

I have been getting stressed out because of my lack of posts because I felt I needed to be posting more about my artwork. A good stress though it keeps me working on my projects. I have decided to show you the painting I am working on even though it is not finished and maybe I can get some feedback on it. I am also busy working out some sketches and paintings of African animals. I was asked some time ago if I did any African animals and at the time I hadn’t, hadn’t even contemplated it. I was more familiar and had I guess you would call an emotional attachment to the animals I know around me such as bears, foxes, deer. North American animals were something I knew and had imagined personalities and characteristics for. I started to work on the African animals just to see how it would go, and I found it very difficult. So I left them, then I came back, then I left them. This was around the time my sister and brother in law adopted their children from Africa. I found that as started to get to know them better, and Hugh and I started to dance to some Soweto Gospel Choir music for our dance music parties, and I was looking at pictures and reading about these animals that I didn’t know, I started to get a feeling for them and I am now beginning to get some pictures going that I am finally happy with. The artistic process is funny sometimes. You have to keep working at it like any work and it will usually start to show results, but I find I need to have some kind of deeper connection to what I want to create for it to be successful in the end.

I hope you enjoy the work in progress glimpse of my Goldfinch painting.

Diaper Cake and Hatched!

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caketop

cake

birdcake

hatched

sloane_hatchedMy sisters and I made this diaper cake for a baby shower for some good friends who are expecting their first baby. When I was expecting my son, my sister in law found some really fun cards for me, which I haven’t been able to find again anywhere. Which is unfortunate because I would love to get some more. The cards were pages from Sloane Tanen’s book Hatched!: The Big Push from Pregnancy to Motherhood. One of the cards is a playful take on the popular kids book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, with the caption reading “Goodnight moon, hello martini”. We used this card for our friends shower and decided to continue the theme of the card with the gift. Now our friends who are expecting are fans of pomtinis or pomegranate martinis so in the centre of the cake we put a bottle of vodka, and then along with that we put other little baby things in a bag, including the Goodnight Moon book with a little stuffed bunny and the other pomtini ingredients. Mommy won’t be enjoying them for a while yet of course but eventually she’ll be able to relax with a pomtini. It might be a little weird to give alcohol at a baby shower but they loved it and making diaper cakes is always fun too.

I have put a new print in the shop of three little otters. I am hoping to have another print up tonight so check out my etsy shop.

threeotters

lemon meringue pie and pink quails

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lemon_meringue

I made lemon meringue pie for the first time yesterday. My mom requested it for her birthday instead of cake. I put on extra meringue because it looks so nice. It turned out ok but the lemon was not as firm as it should be. I think I  brought it to a boil too quickly. It tasted good anyway. I have also put a couple of things in my etsy shop and will be adding the quail image below today as well. It rained solid yesterday but today it looks clear so far, so i am hoping to get more work done in the yard.

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Red Bird Painting

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red_birds_closeup

largeredbird

I finished this painting this morning. It is going to go in my new niece’s room. It is going where I had planned to put a grouping of fabric in embroidery hoops. I found that they just seemed a little skimpy compared to the opposite wall and unbalanced things a bit so I decided to paint a big canvas with a simple illustration for the spot instead. The canvas is 3 feet by 4 feet I think. I am moving the embroidery hoops beside the window in a straight line. I will have to post photos when the rooms are finished. I am taking a break this week and waiting to finish the rooms next week when my sister-in-laws are able to help out. I wanted to get this canvas done though so it would be ready to go. I think I hear someone waking up in their crib so I’m off.

Mama Bear and Baby Bear

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hundred_dresses

mamababychair

I finished the bear illustration to accompany the other two that I posted earlier. I have been out of commission for the past couple of days because I am the only person I know to have sustained a whiplash injury from a fridge. Hopefully I will be sufficiently recovered by tomorrow to post about a new project I’m starting. If you have ever read the children’s book The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes then you will have some idea of the subject matter for this project.

Woodland Critters Series

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These two bear illustrations are finished and are waiting patiently for their buddy who will make them a series of three. I have been working away on these and other little critters in order to sell some prints in my Etsy shop. My shop is currently empty but I will be selling my wares soon enough.

The originals of my three bear illustrations already have a home to go to. My husband’s sister and her husband will be flying to South Africa in just over a week in order to complete their adoption of my new niece S. and nephew C. I have volunteered to decorate the kids’ rooms while they are gone and I have been busy planning. C. is the recipient of the bear illustrations and I will have to show you the illustration I am doing for S. as well, as it is almost completed. There is nothing more fun to decorate than kids’ rooms.