Terry's Transom

El Camino - Pages

2011-12-31T23:27:00.000-05:00

"El Camino - Pages" 2011
Pastel 14x11.5 inches
Pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes

Happy New Year, everyone!

This is my post for the year 2011, and I must apologize for being remiss about posting, but as we all know, life happens J

It's been quite an eventful year, for some more than others. Through it all the one thing that has amazed me is the closeness of the artistic community, and how much of a family you all are, even though you're spread around the world. The creativity you all share is reflected in the largesse of your hearts, and in the alacrity with which you spring to each others' sides in times of need. I'm proud to be part of that family.

It's amazing how, even though only connected by email, newsletters, blogs, the ephemeral world of cyberspace, photons, electrons, bits and bytes, I feel as if I know you all personally. This is most evident when I participate in webinars, as I have been over this year with various instructors. The 'regulars', with their colorful aliases, are old friends, and the chat rooms take on a life of their own during the webinar sessions J .

It always surprises me to find out that I'm speaking to someone in South Africa, Norway, China or the southern US. And that, while it's early afternoon. here, there are those of you who are participating even though it's 2 a.m. and you've been up since sunrise! That's passion for your art!

This past year I've been painting, drawing, pastelling, and Thinking - oh my how I've been thinking J Seems that at least 40% of the time my mind is on the next work of art - muddling around with subject, placement, design, color, style, and medium. And that's when I'm at my day job ...

So I wish you all a happy new year - may it be better than the last, may you always be creating, and may your hearts be filled with light and color J

See you next year!

Terry

eBook

2011-10-23T13:54:00.000-04:00

Folks -

As you may know I have authored 2 books (CARS! A Love Affair with Form and Colour, and Heat of the Night) in print, both available from BLURB.

Now CARS! is available as an eBook for the iPAD and iPOD ! The colours glow, you can take them anywhere, and they make wonderful gifts (they're affordable too, at $4.96 US).

Christmas is coming - why not take a look?

I will be making more eBooks - so stay tuned :-)

CARS ! by Terry Rempel-Mroz | Make Your Own Book

No (r)Egrets

2011-10-02T12:24:00.000-04:00

No (r)Egrets, 2011
5x7 inches, wax pastel on watercolour paper

I'm sitting at my PC in an ice-cold house (15C, about 59F, because it's too soon to turn on the heat, yes, it is), getting ready to post this blog before I go pick up my son Caleb and grandson Jade to go to the Butterfly Show at Carleton University. My fingers are numb! Can't wait to get into the warm, humid building full of live, free flying butterflies and moths!

I'm really enjoying wax pastels. What? Are they new? No - they're actually the Caran D'Ache Artist Crayons, which are no longer recognized as colored pencil media by the major organizations like CPSA, and so are now called wax pastels.

Any way .... the above piece has been created specifically for the Wildcard event - to be donated (if accepted/juried in to the event) in support of the Le Nichoir Wild Bird Rehabilitation Centre in Hudson, Quebec. It's based on a photo from Florida when I visited a few years ago - the egret was standing on some rocks on the seashore, and totally ignored me as I snapped photos :-)

The wax pastels, being reminiscent of my childhood crayon experience, allow for greater interpretation of scenes - hence the fuchsia and turquoise rendering of this magnificent bird. And it's great fun, feeling the waxed pigment melt and move under your hand - very liberating!

Back to the Wildcard event - a worthwhile cause. I strongly recommend supporting it, or whatever serves in your neck of the woods to rehabilitate wildlife.

Gotta go - need to warm up before I set off to pick up my boys and see some jewelled beauties at the Butterfly Show.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

TTFN

Terry

After Merrow-Smith - an Exercise in Oils

2011-09-24T12:54:00.000-04:00

After Merrow-Smith Pont D'Avignon, 2011
5x7 oils
(click image to enlarge)

This is an exercise in the traditional sense - copying a master's image in order to learn the techniques and gain an understanding of the gaps that need to be addressed. The master in this case is Julian Merrow-Smith, whose blog "Postcard from Provence" I follow. Below is the image which enchanted me enough to attempt to copy it.

You can see why I wanted to paint it - it's a beautiful painting which glows with soft light, executed with minimal well placed strokes that give the impression of vast amounts of detail in a small size.

Looking at my painting, at first glance it's not bad. The resemblance is quite strong, The colours are off in tone - attributable to the fact that I painted alla prima, only took 2 hours to do it, and oils are not my primary medium. (in other words, inexperience).
But it's close.

Close but no cigar, as the saying goes :_). This is what the exercise is all about - what's wrong with it, where can I improve it?

What I did was to superimpose (in Photoshop) Julian's image over mine, to see where the issues were, with respect to the construction - the drawing phase. Below is the result - my primary drawing was way off in terms of the buildings in the painting - as you can see by the yellow lines.

Interestingly enough, the horizon line, the bridge beginning, and the reflections are very close - but then I got sloppy. This is where I start to learn: -

use the right size brush for the feature you are painting (I tried to use the largest brushes I cold get away with, which didn't work out too well)
measure measure measure! (seems I really like to center things, and again I rushed. I drew with charcoal, but didn't check against the original, just eyeballed it. )
don't over-correct (my trees on the right 'grew' as I tried to fix the colours. This happened under the bridge as well)

Finally, the colours. I don't normally paint in oils - allergies etc. In my other mediums (acrylics, pastels, charcoal and graphite) there is no wait time, and if I make a mistake, well it's easily corrected.

In oils, you have to be careful - very deliberate, and very delicate where it's warranted. I'm so used to fiddling until it's right, that I tried to do that here - and as a result contaminated the colours. You'll notice that there's blue in everything....

Now I could let it dry and go back and correct, but my main reason for painting alla prima is that I want to paint en plein air. I want to be able to take my pochade box and set up in a location and capture the essence of what's before me.

So I'm leaving this as is, to remind me of what I need to improve, before I step out there and try to capture reality the way Julian does. I feel good about this exercise, and am looking forward to doing more in my journey to plein air :-)

Happy painting!

TTFN

Terry

It's a Grill !

2011-09-08T20:51:00.001-04:00

It's a Grill ! 2011
7 x 10.5 inches
Neocolor artist crayons on watercolour paper

It's been a while since I last posted. A lot has happened - new job, did more work on my studio (I now have a whole wall of reference library! ) and have been working on a number of projects.

I decided to revisit the Neocolor experience, and I'm glad I did. When you combine the brilliant colours from Caran D'Ache's line of artist crayons with the wonderful melting and blending features of the Icarus art board, you can't help but be pleased with the result. And working with Prismacolor pencils for refinements just made it so much more enjoyable.

The piece above shows my love affair with the colour and lines of antique cars, especially when they've been lovingly restored and put on display in summer car shows. Just remembering the bright sunny hot day, and lots of shiny old cars, trucks, and motorcycles brings a smile to my face.

The car shows are over for another year, and it's back to school for the kids. It was a good summer for me, got a lot of painting done, had every Friday off to decompress in the studio, and now it's time to think about building up a body of work for next year.

Time to get back to work :-)

TTFN
Terry

DRAKO

2011-08-22T21:34:00.000-04:00

Drako 2011
20x24 inches, Acrylic on canvas

Drako - dragons - can you see them? How many can you find, floating on the red night sky?

I've long had a fascination with dragons. their mythology, their presence in almost every culture throughout history. In some cultures they are evil malevolent creatures which must be appeased with virgin sacrifice. In others they are bringers of good fortune, protectors of forests, noble beasts, heraldic symbols and astrological ideals (I'm a Leo in western astrology, and was born in the year of the dragon in eastern astrology). And in today's world they are also characters in role-playing games and pewter collectibles.

I choose to see them as bringers of good fortune, with characters of utmost courage and wisdom.

As for looks - the uglier, the better! Bring on the scales, the whiskers, the warts, the battle scars, the holes in their wings, the broken claws.

My dragons can talk, play chess, hold forth on philosophical minutiae, and speak several languages with ease. They're vain, easily bored, have a major case of ADD, and love to adorn themselves with bright shiny things.

They're very crafty - you can't see them if you're looking for them. But once you find them you can't miss them.

Lovely creatures.

TTFN
Terry

A Dasch Of Redundor

2011-08-18T21:45:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I contacted an artist to commission a portrait of myself. I love this artist's work, and wanted her to paint me. We emailed back and forth; I answered her questions, sent her some photos, agreed to a price, and then I waited.

Today she sent me a photo of the completed painting, as an early birthday present (my birthday is tomorrow), and I am SOO HAPPY :-)

A Dasch of Redundor
by Brenda York

(click on image to enlarge)

It's PERFECT!

There is so much going on in the painting. Brenda puts scribbles (writing) in the background, little snippets of my answers to her questions, the colours are so me, and she even put in my dog Dasch - a true gift, and a surprise.

The title is so apt - Dasch is my Red Tri Australian Shepherd, and I'm Redundor, the superhero who constantly states the obvious (my son named me one long car ride as we discussed what kind of modern superheroes we might be - that was a hilarious ride, the whole family got superhero monikers).

But the resemblance is amazing - there are enough likenesses (she has my mouth, chin, and yes, my jowls down pat) that the abstracted parts are pure personality. I held the photo up to my face and my son broke out in a huge grin - "yep, that's you, Mom".

The painting should be dry sometime next week, and I expect to receive it sometime the week after, most likely. I can't wait to see the original - it will be amazing, as the photo is wonderful.

Please check out Brenda's website - you'll love it. Who knows, maybe you'll be inspired to commission her yourself.....

Brenda - THANK YOU :-)

COUNTERPOINT

2011-08-13T20:14:00.000-04:00

Counterpoint 2011
30x36 inches Acrylic on canvas

It's been a while since my last post. Since cleaning my studio (at least 2/3 of it) I haven't had much time to create. The new job (5 days old) had been taking all my energy, it seems. This weekend I have been resting up - mid afternoon naps are wonderful, aren't they? But they mess up my biological clock and I find myself staying up way later than normal (for me).

The painting above, Counterpoint, has been finished for about a month, but I haven't posted it because it's been difficult to photograph. It's highly textured, very glossy, and just plain big! It's also dark, and incredibly detailed, and the photo doesn't do it justice, but for now this is the best image of it I can get. The camera flattens the depth of the colours, and blurs the details because of the texture, so it's hard to explain that you feel like you're falling into it when you're up close.

My grandson Jade says it reminds him of a volcano :-)

I think it's a metaphor for the ebb and flow of existence. Tumultuous, sometimes dark, many times passionate, with threads of brilliant light breaking the surface - the perfect counterpoint to the main melody of life. Never dull, always exciting. often beautiful.

I promise I will get a better photo of the painting, but for now I just had to share.

Next post will be another painting that has been finished for about 3 weeks, but I still haven't found a name for it yet. Sigh.

TTFN
Terry

Renovate! (or How I cleaned up 2/3 of my studio)

2011-08-06T20:10:00.000-04:00

This past week I started to clean up my studio - I had let it get messy, so messy I could no longer move around easily to paint - aargh.

Now, if you're like most artists, much of the furniture in the studio has been re-purposed, and you've spent your money on easels, paints, and tools. That's exactly how my studio was, and how parts of it still are. But something had to be done, and while sitting in my computer room looking at my shelves of Cd's and DVDs it hit me - IKEA!

My new storage shelves
(click to enlarge )

Now I had a perfectly good utilitarian grey plastic storage unit - 5ft tall, 30 inches deep, 3 shelves - but it was too deep. I never could find what I was looking for because there were 30 bottles of mediums on each shelf (or so it seemed to me).

The tall skinny Ikea CD units, on the other hand, are about 8 inches wide, 6 inches deep, about 7 feet tall, and with many adjustable shelves. I could separate my mediums, they fit 2 deep (so are easy to find), and all my brushes and palette knives are right there!

I bought 3, my son gave me a fourth, and my 6 year old grandson Jade and I built the shelves and installed them in about 3 hours. Heaven!

new tables and paper drawer
(click to enlarge)

Then I bought 2 tables - well, in Ikea speak 2 tabletops (24x40 inches each) and 8 legs - cost of each table = $29! Placed so they form an L, on one table I now have a perennially clean surface to draw on, and on the other table space for my pencils, charcoal, erasers, and my Icarus drawing board.

And bonus - my old Ikea paper drawer fits perfectly underneath one table!

I am in heaven. I now have room to walk around, room to stand at my 2 easels, to step back about 5 ft when I need to, or sit at my drafting table.

Now for the final 1/3 of my studio - where the reference bookshelves are, and the canvas storage - it's behind the tables (so I don't see it when I'm painting, smart move eh?) - but I'll work on that next month.

It was a good weekend - I'm itching to start painting again.

TTFN
Terry

CALDERA

2011-07-24T16:55:00.000-04:00

Caldera 2011
16x20 inches Acrylic on canvas

This past week was one of momentous decisions. I refinanced my mortgage (for the first time in 30 years, except for my house and car, I will be essentially debt free), I opened up a TFSA, and I accepted a letter of offer for a new position in another department.

I felt it was time to make these changes for my personal well-being, and after some anxious moments (I nearly threw up on the way to sign the letter) I have accepted my decisions and am ready to tackle the new way forward.

In much the same way my art has changed, as I embrace my new vision of abstraction - more fluid, full of unanticipated surprises, yet more controlled and very, very detailed.

Caldera comes from the Latin caldaria meaning cooking pot. It is also a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption (Wikipedia).

My painting Caldera represents this new beginning - all fire and ice, the change of the old into the new.

Ah, exciting times!

TTFN
Terry

BEAN-SIDHE (banshee)

2011-07-18T11:21:00.000-04:00

Bean-sidhe 2011
20x16 inches, acrylic

Funny how people see different things in a painting. I was painting this one horizontally, and thinking oil-spill in the Gulf, but my son saw ghosts. So ... a quick 90-degree turn, and OMG there they were!

The Banshee, hair streaming, mouths open in their trademark wail. Here's a closeup of them.

detail

Actually - maybe they're the banshee steeds - they look a bit like dragons, don't they?

Click on the images to see a larger view.

Well, back to painting, I've already started another one. This is so exciting!

TTFN

Terry

OLDUVAI

2011-07-17T10:46:00.000-04:00

Olduvai 2011
16x20 inches, acrylic on canvas

Chasing a fancy butterfly in the green wilds of Tanganyika 50 years ago, a German entomologist named (Wilhelm) Kattwinkel tumbled off a rocky ledge and nearly killed himself. When he regained his senses, he found himself in an anthropologist's dream world: an erosion-created rift with layer after layer of fossils, bones and ancient artifacts. The find was named Olduvai Gorge, and Kattwinkel's heirs ever since have been scrambling up and down its sun-baked sides in search of clues to man's earliest awakening. (Time, Friday 10 March 1961)^[1]. (from Wikipedia)

It's amazing how things morph when you're painting. You start out thinking and doing one thing, and then the painting takes on a life of its own. You, the painter, are merely along for the journey.

TTFN
Terry

TROPOSPHERE

2011-07-10T17:39:00.000-04:00

Troposphere 2011
16 x 20 inches, acrylic on canvas

For the last few weeks I have been driven to paint abstracts. There are realistic images backed up in my brain, but they can't make it out, for as soon as I enter the studio my hands reach for a blank canvas and I'm drawn into an abstract vortex. The resulting paintings reflect that, I think - layers upon layers of colour melding, swirling, opposing. These are unlike anything I've done before - guess I'll go with the flow and see what happens next.

In the meantime reference photos are piling up on my desk for at least 3 realistic painting projects. It's like the abstracts are letting me 'see' the real world in a sharper clearer light. When I do finally get back to painting in realism mode I think there'll be a change there, too.

I'm not good at waiting - the suspense is driving me batty! But the journey is more important than the destination, n'est-ce pas?

TTFN

Terry :-)

TECHTONIC

2011-07-08T16:01:00.000-04:00

Techtonic 2011
16x20 inches, acrylic on canvas

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory which describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere, the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of thousands of years or greater. (Wikipedia)

With the number of volcanoes becoming active and the earthquakes that seem to be increasing, one can imagine the movement of the mantle - a massive, yet minute, slow dance over many years ( the plates (all of North America, Greenland and parts of Eurasia comprise a single plate!) move 0-100 mm - yes millimeters - per year).

Wouldn't it be something if we could film this over - let's say - 1000 years, then speed it up, like those films of flowers opening - and see the dance of continents? That would be the 'tech' part of Techtonics.

Too bad time travel doesn't exist...

TTFN
Terry

Portent

2011-07-05T20:41:00.000-04:00

Portent 2011
20x16 in Acrylic on canvas

Portent - a glimpse of what's to come - A sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen.

Originally this was painted horizontally - an abstracted landscape I was going to call Mountains of the Moon. The my son Caleb turned it 90 degrees and said "That's it! Can you see the pressure building between the edges of darkness and light? Squeezing out that thin red molten stuff?"

The more I looked at it the more I saw what he saw. And then the title came to me.

Don't you just love abstracts? Everyone sees what's important to them, what they're feeling at the moment, what's in THEIR mind's eye.

Truly a personal experience - on every level! Such fun!

TTFN
Terry

Octopuss's Garden

2011-07-03T11:49:00.000-04:00

Octopuss's Garden 2011
22x28 inches, acrylic on canvas

Remember that old Beatles tune? (I'd like to be ..... under the sea...) Boy once that's in your head it's hard to get it out - a real meme!

This is a fun piece, with scads of detail, colour and texture, and SO SHINY! (that's a by-product of the medium I'm using with my paint, it has a natural high gloss to it). But it also makes it really difficult to photograph, so I apologize for the blur in some parts and the highlights in others.

It's great to be doing abstracts again. I missed them while I was painting realism. Feels like I have my balance back on the bipolartistic seesaw!

Have a wonderful Sunday.

TTFN
Terry

Atoll

2011-07-01T15:21:00.000-04:00

Atoll, 2011
12x24 inches, acrylic on canvas

It's Canada Day, the sun is shining and everyone is celebrating. Here in Ottawa there are scores of activities which started early this morning and will end (officially) with a giant fireworks display at Parliament Hill tonight just after it gets dark (it's summer, so it won't be dark enough to see the fireworks until maybe 9:45 pm).

I've been napping at intervals, to get my stamina up for babysitting my grandson Jade tonight - he's 6 and an unbelievable fireball of energy, and I need all my strength to keep up with him :-)

But now, before he comes, I'll go into my studio and start another abstract - they're calling to me, and I absolutely must answer.

Happy Canada Day!

TTFN
Terry

Daybreak

2011-06-25T08:46:00.000-04:00

Daybreak , 2011
28x24 inches, oil on gallery canvas

A foggy autumn field early in the morning. The mists are rising off the yellowed grasses. It's going to be a beautiful day.

Skies and clouds can't be done to justice in any other wet medium (IMHO). They can be done beautifully in pastels, especially with major judicious blending. But acrylics, encaustic (is that wet or dry or a mixture?), tempera - unless you add mediums that end up extending wet time, and so mimic oils - it's just not the same as what you can do in oils.

I rarely paint in oils - I've developed some allergies to the paints themselves, not all brands but some, so I'm careful. It's not the solvents either, although they can be nasty, it's actually the carriers the pigments are suspended in. I don't know what exactly, as the tubes never list everything, but I pick and choose my paints accordingly across the different brands.

I am definitely going to do more skyscapes, most likely in oils, and because of my allergies probably limit it to about 4 a year. But oh what fun I'll have!

TTFN
Terry

Yggd

2011-06-21T20:56:00.000-04:00

Yggd, 2011
8x8 inches, Acrylic on gallery canvas

The world tree - Ygdrassil - around which nine worlds exist, where Odin sacrificed himself to himself by hanging from the world tree. Under whose roots three maidens created laws and decided the destinies of the children of men. Norse mythology at it's most descriptive.

Cool !

TTFN
Terry

Early Morning on the Ottawa River

2011-06-19T15:19:00.000-04:00

Early Morning on the Ottawa River, 2011
10x16 inches, pastel on Wallis paper

One early autumn day a few years ago my husband and I were on the shores of the Ottawa River at Petrie Island. The sun had just risen, and the fog was starting to rise off the still-warm water. There was a brisk breeze (and an early frost!) and the fog was skimming over the surface of the river, churned up by the wind. It was quite a sight.

The brown border you see is the actual colour of the Wallis paper. I prefer this colour, called Belgium Mist (what does the brown say about the mists in Belgium, I wonder?). Even in the beginning stages, when I'm just laying down broad washes of colour, everything looks so much more vibrant than if it were against a white background.

As the sun rose higher in the sky the mists burned off, and the river was just a river again. But for a few minutes, it was magical. I hope I brought that magic to the painting.

TTFN

Terry

Smyrna Dunes

2011-06-11T22:08:00.000-04:00

Smyrna Dunes, 2011
10x16 inches, pastel on Wallis paper

Can you feel the breezes? The sand is so soft and smooth on the beaches at New Smyrna Beach, Florida. It gets eaten away regularly by wind and water, so they plant sea grass to anchor it in place. I don't know if they'll ever win the battle, but it's a beautiful way to spend time.

I think I'll be painting seascapes (or maybe I should call them beachscapes) for a long time - I have so many photos to remember my times in New Smyrna Beach, I have endless references for my paintings. And with the ceiling fan whirring away and music playing - I'm right back there on the beach each time I pick up my pastels...

TTFN

Matin

2011-06-04T09:38:00.000-04:00

Matin 2011
10 x 7.25 inches soft pastel on Willis pastel paper

Oftentimes in the morning I wait for my bus in a light fog (the weather, not me), which burns off as the sun climbs higher into the sky. This is especially true in late summer early fall, when the air is cooler than the ground.

I live far enough north (in southern Canada, but still north as far as latitudes go) that the sky is light about an hour before the sun actually rises. Such was the case one mid-September morning. So here I am waiting for the bus to come round the corner minutes after sunrise, when the sun is still hidden behind the trees, waiting to burst onto the scene.

A magical time, this liminal period between dark and light.

TTFN

Four Horsemen

2011-06-01T15:34:00.000-04:00

Four Horsemen 2011
8x10 inches Acrylic on Canvas

I feel like an explorer - new mediums, new methods, new ways of thinking.What happens when I do this? What if I add that? How can I fix this? Why did I ever try to do that?

And in the end, in the back of my mind there's something trying to get out, but it's not quite ready yet. It's peeking around the corner, sticking a toe out, inching forward - and I can't wait until it decides to come out.

In the meantime, I play.

Do you see the rhino guarding the goldfish? Or the stallions galloping across the starfields? The mythology is rampant in this piece.

Hmmm....

TTFN

Deltas

2011-05-29T21:38:00.000-04:00

Deltas 2011
8x8 inches, Acrylic on gallery canvas

Well, it's been a busy weekend. Started playing with Liquitex Pouring Medium, Liqutex acrylic ink and Golden Fluid acrylics, and voila! A throwback to the psychedelic 70's, or a false colour satellite photo - take your pick. Personally, I think it looks like an Amazonian river delta in enhanced infrared, don't you?

Only five colours were use - deep red, phthalo blue, sienna, white and cad yellow.

No brushes or knives touched the surface of this canvas. The paint was manipulated by rocking the canvas through a number of degrees and letting the paint interact to produce the patterns.

What's more fun, although you can't see it in the photo, is that the 'deltas' (which were acrylic ink dropped onto the base paint/medium combo and allowed to spread) are actually inset into the paint layer ever so slightly, and highly textured. Interesting how the different viscosities interact to provide surprises.

I can see that I will have to explore this medium and fluid paints and inks in greater depth - this will definitely be great fun.

TTFN!

Shadowplay

2011-05-28T21:13:00.000-04:00

Shadowplay 2011
7x7 inches, coloured pencil

It's 10 minutes before 9 on a Saturday evening, and I've just finished saving my artwork. That's right - saving it from an ignominious death because of a stupid accident, which was all my fault.

You see, I was speeding along with my coloured pencils - I was in the Zone, yeah - the music was playing (ZZTop, Sharp Dressed Man), the windows were wide open to let in the spring breezes, my dog Dasch was snoozing on the floor beside my chair, and everything was perfect. I was in-the-zone.

And then it happened. I reached for the odourless solvent to dissolved the layer of wax bloom, and I knocked it over onto my piece.... aaarrrghh !

Quick - blot up the solvent with paper towel! Oh no! It dissolved the wax, but also made the pigment loose - so when I removed the towel the whole bottom of the image smeared - and stained the paper to boot! AAAAAARRRGH!

Luckily it hadn't come near the green leaves at the top of the painting. So I wiped down the bottom - what an UGLY brown stain on 2/3 of the image - sigh. Then I went to bed, absolutely disgusted with the whole situation.

It's amazing what a good night's sleep does for you, and a couple of days not even looking at the mess.

I went back to the painting two days ago, and started to repair the image.

I notice the paper has softened considerably - the solvent must have dissolved some of the sizing. Have to be careful now, the paper is fragile. Add white to the spaces between the shadows - OK that's looking a bit better. Now make the shadows multi-coloured so the staining blends in - hmmm, that seems to be working.

OK - now leave it alone!

And here it is - my Monstera (yes, that's the actual botanical name of the plant) throwing shadows on the ceramic tile in my bay window.

I will sleep much better tonight :-)

TTFN

Allison

2011-05-21T10:33:00.000-04:00

Allison 3121, 2011
7.5x11 inches, soft pastel

After a night of thunderstorms I woke up to a beautiful sunny day, and the promise of a gorgeous long weekend. Met at a local restaurant for coffee and breakfast with the ex, and back to the studio - all before 9 am. Things are lookin' good!

Completed the above figure study in pastel after two weeks of fiddling with colour nuances. It's amazing how much purple and orange are in skin. The brain says we are 'skin coloured', but the eyes say 'whoa there, what about lavender here, pumpkin there, don't forget the carmine, and Oh!, you need a touch of vanilla on that spot right there!'

Bought a new pencil sharpener - heavy duty - worked for 2 days then started crushing and ripping apart the pastel pencils - will have to return it, sigh. Back to the scalpel and shaving the pastels.... the old tried and true, but it feels so wrong to sharpen the pastel pencils on sandpaper, like I'm wasting all that colour.

I'm trying to get ready for a number of competitions, all before September. Allison (above) is for a figure competition, also working on some other figure studies, an abstract, some coloured pencil, and some photography.

It's going to be a busy summer. Time for more coffee, and then back to the studio.

Happy long weekend!

TTFN

Seagrass

2011-05-08T21:40:00.000-04:00

Seagrass , 2011
11 x 14 inches, soft pastel on Fawn Wallis paper

The Pastel adventure continues - with a new paper and shredded fingertips.

The piece above is based on a visit to New Smyrna Beach, Florida a few years back. Having never been on a sandy WARM ocean beach, I took hundreds of photos of sand, grass in sand, gulls on sand, water on sand .... I was mesmerized by the soft white sugary sand. This year I thought I would like to paint some sand ....

I thought I would try some Wallis pastel paper for this latest piece, and bought a sheet. Little did I realize it was basically a heavy grit sandpaper giving an Oscar-winning performance as a specialty art paper.

Don't get me wrong - it's a beautiful paper for pastel work, but oh my, does it tear up skin!

You see, after a couple days of frustration with the piece not working the way I could see in my head, I decided to erase the grasses and just focus on the sand. So I became mesmerized yet again by the shifting shapes in the sand, blending the pastel colours into the paper with my fingers, applying lavenders, pinks, blues, yellows, blending again ....

After a few hours I stood back and said - Yes! That's how I remembered the sand. I washed my hands and - OUCH! I had a monster blister, which when it flattened turned out to be grooves in my fingertips -- I had sanded my fingertips down!

That was yesterday - my fingertips still hurt (you would not believe the difficulty keyboarding with shredded tips).

So today the grasses went in with pastel pencil, and my fingertips were covered with band-aids and finger cots (think latex gloves with the palms missing). Much easier on the fingers, but a little strange for blending.

Oh well, I'll get used to it. The things an artist does for her art - sigh.

Anyway, I'm learning about pastels in leaps and bounds, and they are fast becoming my second favourite medium.

I think I'll do another beach scene - hmmmm....

TTFN

Terry

Haiku

2011-04-26T21:50:00.000-04:00

Haiku 2011
Neocolor II water soluble crayon on Canson paper
8”x12”

I continue to work with the Icarus drawing board. Haiku was done with the Caran D'Ache water soluble crayons using the heated side of my Icarus board. They melt and blend so easily and smoothly, and are a real pleasure to work with. The pigment colours of these artist crayons are amazing - rich and brilliant, yet soft and highly dimensional. In this piece, they were blended to achieve a dreamy smooth impression, with just enough detail to suggest the surface texture of the orchids being painted.

The 2011 Annual Ottawa Orchid Show was held this past weekend. Literally thousands of orchids were on display, and judging events were held for the many classes of orchid species. An art gallery was also present, showcasing the art of the orchid, ranging from stunning photographs to oils, watercolours to pastels, pottery and sculptures, all with an orchid theme. And if you were so inclined, you could take home orchid plants, orchid jewellery, orchid-growing supplies and reference books.

I volunteered in the art gallery on Saturday afternoon, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I also went home with an orchid - I couldn't resist! - a very fragrant Miltonia, pictured here - it looks like a giant pansy, doesn't it? The blooms will last for about 6 weeks - delightful!

Years ago I grew orchids, but I ran out of time to devote to their upkeep, and so I stopped. But now that I have a new orchid to keep me company, who knows? Maybe I'll get back into growing orchids again - they certainly are eye candy, and each species has their own unique personality.

Happy Spring everyone !

Time to Play

2011-04-22T11:15:00.000-04:00

Clucking Ridiculous! 2011
6 in x 6 in
Caran D'Ache Neocolor II Artist Crayon on Canson Watercolor paper

I had so much fun doing this opinionated lady :-) The Neocolor II crayons put me in a child-like state, which was helped along by the fact that I was melting the crayons onto the paper using my Icarus board.

I kept erupting in giggles the whole time I was painting this piece!

The inspiration comes from the Daily Paintworks Weekly Challenges - you must visit the site. It's great!

I wonder if she lays Easter Eggs?

Nuphar

2011-04-10T21:37:00.000-04:00

Nuphar, 2011
10x8 inches, Pastel on Arches 140 lb watercolor paper

The Nuphar is a yellow water lily common to North America. During the cold winter this year I decided I needed to remember warm days and free flowing water, so I was looking through my photos and chanced upon the series from New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where I spent a few weeks some time back.

Looking at the pictures of a lake filled with lily pads brought back good memories, and the idea for this pastel was born.

Pastels are fast becoming a favourite medium for me. As you can probably tell from the snapshot of my studio east wall, I tend to work on more than one thing at a time (from left to right, pastel, acrylic, and oil). Pastels afford me the luxury of stopping and starting at will, such as when I get frustrated with my other works-in-progress. Perfect for someone who hates being bored, and who hates waiting - for anything J. And the colours are so-o-o vibrant. Fun all round.

Now I must force myself to do a large pastel - at least 12x16, so I can take advantage of the full sticks and colours, and the freedom to play. A new challenge!

Happy spring everyone!

Camelot Winter

2011-03-13T16:15:00.001-04:00

Camelot Winter, 2011
Soft Pastel 7x14 in on Arches 140 lb watercolour paper

Continuing the pastel discovery journey, here is my first winterscape. I used Arches 140 lb watercolour paper, coated with Golden Acrylic Primer for Pastels, 4 coats.

This is a different medium from the one I normally use (ColorFix Primer ), and the texture was definitely finer, and grabbed the pastel better.

But that was scary in itself, as it was difficult at first to get a light coat until I got used to the 'grab' of the medium.

Here is a picture of the stages this pastel went through:

progression work in progress
left to right, top to bottom

You can see that it started out quite ugly, blocking in the masses in complementary colours, then starting the sky, then adding trees and snow masses, then refining the image, just before it was completed.

I'm having great fun, and seeing where I need to improve - like the trees - they should be much more abstract :-)

On to my next discovery - another winterscape, but no trees this time! I'll put in something else to break up the snow, maybe a fence ... hmmm

This is so much fun!
TTFN

2011-03-07T22:13:00.000-05:00

untitled exercise, 2011
8 x 10 soft pastel on hardboard

So here I am on my continuing journey exploring soft pastels while I wait for my oils to dry. This time I took a hardboard, clay board, which I coated with Colorfix Primer to give it more tooth. This tree portrait is an exercise from a little book on pastel landscapes for beginners. I don't have a lot of pastels and I certainly didn't have all of the colors stated in the book, but I tried it nevertheless. I'm nothing if not adventuresome, and I'm a perennial student. I love to learn new things.

On a side note: I've been watching a video by Richard McKinley called “Three Stages For Successful Pastel Paintings”. What an excellent video - I've actually gone ahead and ordered his other one called “Bold Under Paintings For Lively Pastel Landscapes” which I can't wait to receive.

I must say that my attempt at amalgamating what I had learned watching the video and what the little booklet was telling me is only somewhat successful. I'm particularly proud of the sky and the foreground lawn shape. My tree on the other hand is awful (the trunk insisted on growing with every stroke) but for a first try on a tiny board it's not too bad.

I think I’ll have to go much much larger with pastels. And I'm going to have to do lots of exercises while keeping Richard’s words in mind before I'll be satisfied - but you know what? Pastels are kind of exciting.

And I think I have, at long last, found the medium for my landscapes. I have thousands of landscape photographs - approximately 21,000 (if I'm counting, and I am not kidding). I think I'll finally be able to put them to use.

Hmm, snow scene or cloudscape next?

Until next time, TTFN :-)

Series 605 The Continuing Saga

2011-03-06T16:59:00.000-05:00

Series 605 – Sunset 3363
9x12 in soft pastels on Canson 2011

This is the next in the 605 series, and my first try at a larger size than I normally do. I've taken a lot of shots from the sixth floor balcony of an apartment I used to live in years ago. The sunsets were outrageous; there were many days when I sat for couple of hours until it got too dark to see.

The skies really do look like that over West Ottawa. There are some gorgeous sunsets and you’re never disappointed. I'm having fun with soft pastels, learning new ways of applying color. (I’ve learned it's not easy to erase pastel). And I'm having fun - did I say that already?

I think I'm going to be doing a lot more of my Series 605 work. There's a lot to play with. Talk to you later.

Dusk Returning

2011-01-30T22:00:00.000-05:00

"Dusk Returning", 2011
7x10 inches, soft pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes

This is Number 4 in the Gull series - finished yesterday evening. I finally found a pencil sharpener that won't break the Derwent pastel pencil leads (a General's red sharpener), and now I'm on the hunt for more Derwent pastel pencils.

Seems my local art stores are no longer carrying them, in sets or open stock, because they're no longer selling well. Everyone is buying sticks. But I do small work and it's hard to sharpen a stick - well, actually, it's easy, but you lose so much pigment, especially if you want a point for the small details. And sticks are so messy.

Hmmph... (Don't I sound like a curmudgeon, though? I will most likely order from the States, where everything is available, so I guess I shouldn'tcomplain.)

Sprayed the pastel today, then watched Lust for Life, a 1956 film about Van Gogh, starring Kirk Douglas (Van Gogh) and Anthony Quinn (Gauguin).

All in all, an artsy weekend, so I'm quite content to let the dog out one last time before I turn in.

Hope your weekend was good, too. Till next time, folks.

Terry

Ocean Breezes

2011-01-17T22:03:00.000-05:00

Ocean Breezes 2011
10 x 6 3/4 in, soft pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes

So this is number 3 in the Gull series. I'm very pleased with this one - captured the ruffled feathers, the thin film of water on the sand, and the backlit quality of the feathers. I can feel the warm winds, and remember that day clearly. (And that's good too, because I woke up to -23 degrees C this morning, that's just too cold).

This painting went much quicker than the previous pastel - don't know if it was because the image was larger, especially the bird, or I'm getting my 'sea legs' for dry pastels. Whatever the reason, I'm looking forward to the next one.

It's late, my dog Dasch is wanting to go to sleep (he's giving me that intense 'you know what I want' doggy stare), and I keep yawning, so I'm signing off, until next time.

TTFN

Terry

Saltwater Dreams

2011-01-15T10:10:00.000-05:00

Saltwater Dreams, 2011
7 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches, soft pastel on blue Canson Mi-Teintes

It's mid January, and winter is finally behaving as it should. Cold days, colder nights, the promise of snow (although we've been extremely lucky here in Ottawa as the major storms seem to have bypassed us, unlike our neighbours all around us).

The perfect time to sit in the studio under bright lights, listening to music and dreaming of warm seaside beaches ...... and sketching them, of course!

This is the second in my Gull Series - studies of gulls on the beach at New Smyrna Beach, Florida, which I visited twice, back in 2006 and 2007. And of course I took hundreds of photos of the gulls, which were in no way intimidated by all the activities going on. The gulls shared the beach with the surfers, walkers, talkers, trucks (yes, they allow trucks on the beach), and cormorants. Good memories, good fun.

If you can't go to someplace warm, the next best thing is remembering, and putting it down on paper.

Only 64 more days till Spring!

Redux

2011-01-02T13:20:00.000-05:00

ApollocKiss Redux, 2010 (original 2005)
30x30 inches, acrylic on gallery canvas

Happy New Year everyone! It's January 2, 2011 and all the snow has melted - an unheard of thing here in the "Far North" (Ottawa) at this time of year. It feels like Spring! The sun is shining, I have a window open in the living room for some much needed fresh air - it's unreal. The weather channel says it will snow for most of the rest of the week, so I'm enjoying the great weather while I can.

New Year's - a time of renewal, refreshment, moving forward.

As with life so with art - hence the title of my last abstract of 2010, ApollocKiss Redux. Redux means 'revisited, brought back'. This painting was originally painted in 2005 for a themed art exhibition. I didn't like it then (I won't post the original image, an homage to Jackson Pollack, whose style I dislike intensely), and I still didn't like it 5 years later, until I finally decided to redo it after the untimely passing of a new friend.

It is a highly textured canvas, so I was constrained to work around the texture. Many weeks later I was finally satisfied, and what was relegated to the storage area for 5 years now hangs in the living room, where the light from the bay windows plays on the texture and colour variations. I've even discovered some aspects I didn't realize were there, so it's renewed for me too.

I have so many plans for my art this year. I know they will change, but I'm certain that many of them will come to fruition. The rest - well, they will be added to next years list :-)

I hope this year brings renewal and refreshment in your life, too.

All the best,

Terry

Gourds of a Feather

2010-12-27T14:43:00.000-05:00

"Gourds of a Feather" 2010
Oil on canvas, 6" x 6"

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and best wishes for the New Year! I've been so busy lately - a lot of life changes - that I have been totally remiss in posting anything on the web. My deepest apologies.

I've started playing with oils and realism. This is my first still life - three tiny gourds (the white one is only 4 inches across). What fun!

Oils are not easy for me - I'm an instant gratification person. But I'm in love with glazes. (You should have seen the actual (as in realistic) colours of the gourds before the glazes - yuck!).

But a little glaze mix of burnt sienna and raw umber layered over and voila! Dripping with chiaroscuro, and looking so old :_)

I've also completed an abstract - will post on that later.

For now, it's back to hunting for my next subject, and following some of my favorite artist blogs as well. I've got a free week to fill up on art - a wonderful way to end the year!

First = Paper

2010-08-01T11:52:00.000-04:00

First = Paper
Graphite on paper, 9x12, 2010

Carrie-Ann wanted to give her husband Steve something special for their first wedding anniversary. But the traditional first anniversary gift is paper - you know, new couples starting out, new lives, you work up to the glitz and glamour slowly. That made it a little more difficult, as they are already established in their lives. So what could make a good paper gift?

Carrie-Ann and I work together, and she had seen my renditions of other co-workers, so she came to me with her idea - a surprise portrait of the two of them.

Surprise? Hmm - normally I take photos of my subjects - which I couldn't do in this case. No problem - here are the wedding photos, but there's a teensy catch - he's not smiling (enough) in most of the photos. Aha! Here's the perfect pose - where he's signing the register.

Now what about Carrie-Ann? There were a lot of nice shots of Carrie-Ann, she has a great smile. But none where Steve was also smiling. No problem - found the perfect shot - she's even facing the same way ! Out comes the handy-dandy PhotoShop, and I cut and paste the two head shots together and Voila! Now I have a great couples shot to work from, and it stays a surprise.

It was fun working on this commission. Normally I draw single portraits only, so I was a bit nervous about this. What would happen if everything went well until the very end, when I might mess up on the second head? I wouldn't be able to save the first one, and would have to start over. I was on a deadline, and wanted to do a really good job of this for Carrie-Ann because she's a sweet person and this meant a great deal to her.

I started with the eyes on both people - the eyes are the windows to the soul, right? - and then went to work from left to right. Personally, if I could be assured I wouldn't smudge, I would have bounced around on the page, but there was no way I would chance that. I didn't want my hand smudging everything, so there had to be a method to my madness. I worked on Steve's portrait for a long time, getting it just right. Done! Now it was Carrie-Ann's turn.

Here my speed went from a comfortable cruise to a crawl. I was sooo careful - I couldn't afford to make any mistakes (at least not ones I couldn't erase), and I could NOT smudge Steve! It was my biggest challenge to date - conquering my trepidations and getting on with the job.

When I felt I was done, I brought the artwork and the reference photos to a group of fellow artists and asked for a critique - had I missed something? Had I emphasized anything that I should have left out?

New eyes are such a boon - when you have worked on something intensely, you don't always see what is right before your eyes. Their comments allowed me to see where I could touch up tiny areas (believe me, moving a line 1 mm makes a big difference sometimes). I added the finishing touches, and then had to steel myself to leave it alone.

I'm a tinkerer by nature - there's always something more I can do, or so I tell myself. It's how I do portraits too, usually - work on a bit every day. That way I satisfy my 'tinker-ness' and look at the image with new eyes each time I approach it. (I don't do this with my abstracts - they're a frenzy of creation that can sometime last 10 hours straight before I take a break). But this was hard - every time I looked at the work I thought - what about that spot over there? Maybe it could use.... NO! Enough! I rushed to get the piece matted so that there would be a barrier preventing me from tinkering with it.

I delivered it to Carrie-Ann, and from all accounts Steve was very surprised, and likes it a lot, so I'm happy.

In the end, this was an exciting journey for me. A triple challenge - two heads, tinkering controlled, and satisfaction (mine and Carrie-Ann's). I'd like to think I met the challenge head on and came out the other side a better artist and in better control of some of my 'quirks'.

What better way to keep life interesting, eh?

Happy long weekend folks!

Botanical Art - what a trip!

2010-07-11T11:38:00.000-04:00

Cyclamen persicum 2010

4 in x 5 in

Watercolour on Arches 300 lb cold press

My first botanical art piece - and also my first complete watercolour! I just came off a 5 day introductory course on botanical watercolour painting with amazing artist Kerri Weller. What a week - 4 students total, 3 of them watercolorists (2 of them very experienced) and me - an abstract painter and graphite portraitist with a fear of watercolour.

But Kerri's approach, patience and teaching style quickly pushed my phobia to the back of my head (where it belongs, in a nice little cage with a huge lock), and let me absorb as much information and technique as possible, so I could produce the little gem you see above. Kerri - you rock!

The class was intense. Kerri is a strong taskmaster - she knew we had to learn the basic botanical techniques in order to be able to produce a painting that would allow "...an accurate description of a plant for scientific purposes in order to identify a specimen to genus , if not species, level." (quote from Botanical Artists Exhibition 2007 ).

This is not simply artistic interpretation (the painterly, aesthetic view) but artistic accuracy with conscious design to make the paintings aesthetically pleasing. One of our challenges was to draw and paint from live specimens which were drawn to 1:1 scale. No photographs here, folks, just the living plants sitting in front of us on our tables. Even the colour had to be as accurate as possible.

The first day was handling the paint and brushes, and mixing colours. Oh those greens - who knew greens were so hard to depict accurately? Value scales, types of washes (aargh, one of my downfalls! I'll have to practice washes A LOT). Oh, and STEMS (yep that's it folks - stems).

Day 2 - leaves. Day 3 - flower heads. Days 4 and 5 - put it all together for a complete specimen, our choice (we had 'easy' flowers to choose (from Kerri's garden) - iris, lily, geranium, pansies. I bought a cyclamen from the local grocery store.)

At right is a photo I took of work in progress.

I must say, I like this type of painting. It's intense, focussed, and immensely satisfying. I'm adding it to my repertoire of media (personally, it's the only type of watercolour I want to do).

If you get a chance to take a course from Kerri, I highly recommend it. She's an amazing artist and a very very nice person to boot!

Proud Mom Alert

2010-06-19T11:35:00.002-04:00

My son Caleb graduated college yesterday. You can imagine how proud we were watching him receive his degree! It was a long journey, both for him and for us, with many eventful periods along the way, but he stuck with it, and we are so proud of him.

He has a BAA-ID degree - Bachelor of Applied Art - Interior Design. I like to call it Mini-Architecture.

When he receives his professional designation (after working at accredited firms and taking the professional exam), he will be licensed to design and build edifices up to 3 storeys tall, and up to 20,000 square feet per storey. That's 60,000 square feet of building - that's HUGE, man!

That's anything from mid-sized shopping centres, professional office buildings, restaurants, homes, apartment complexes, museum additions (and small museums) - WOW.

The design includes all aspects of architecture - electrical, structural, engineering, materials, equipment and HVAC, ideation, renderings, CAD plans and the psychology of usage and workflow.

(It is NOT interior decorating - I am so upset with the TV shows that don't make the distinction, and lead people to believe that it is decorating)

To give you an idea what REAL interior design is all about, I've attached some pages from his portfolio, so you can see what he's about. You will be amazed, as was I, at what he can do. NOTE: I don't know how to attach a PDF of his portfolio to this blog entry - so sorry for the multiple files. If they don't show up on your emails, please click the link to this blog and see them all here.

Government Office fit up:

This is the rendering for a large technology division fit up.

If only government office spaces could look like this - wouldn't we all want to work for the Feds!

Here are the working drawings - all the plans, materials, etc.

A High-End Nightclub:

This is a conversion of an existing building space into a multi-storey high end nightclub.

Of note here is the ingenious design of the staircase support (top right) - it was actually reviewed by an engineer to verify that Caleb's design was feasible -which to the engineer's surprise it was, and very accurately so.

Here's the gorgeous design rendering of the restaurant. Wouldn't you love to be able to go to this place for a special occasion?

Pediatric wing of a Hospital

This has to be one of my favourites - the pediatric wing of a hospital where the design is based on the maximization of the well-being of the patients by taking into account their mental state during recovery.

It includes a theatre area where the children can watch performances or perform themselves, a Snoezellen room, a pottery/sculpture area, an art gallery, as well as the traditional treatment areas and recovery areas. How much faster would our children heal in a place like this!

He's also an artist - but I know he's working on his own website, and I've taken up too much space being the uber-proud Mom here.

Next post will be back to all things Art.

Have a great weekend!

Capturing the Mind's Eye

2010-06-13T09:50:00.000-04:00

Untitled (so far)
Photograph, June 2010

A-D-D - I'm afflicted with it - Artistic Deep Desire ( to create). Doesn't matter what medium - something catches your attention and the mind goes into hyperdrive thinking of ways to express itself.

Take the above photograph. I was watering my spathyphilium yesterday and noticed a yellowed leaf at the back of it. I pruned the leaf, and discovered that half of it was brown but still soft, and the other half was a glorious golden yellow. (The leaf, by the way, is about 8 inches long and three-four inches wide at its widest.)

What to do, what to do? Well, I'm an avid photographer, so I took it into my studio and placed it on my shadow box, which is black. Turned on the small spotlight and looked through the viewfinder, and 56 photos later looked up from the camera.

I think the juxtaposition of the clean hard lines of the glass perfume bottle with the organic softness and intense colour of the leaf go well together. The details of the veins and the silkiness of the browned areas is amazing (sorry you can't see it here, but my original photo is 79 Megabytes in size, and doesn't upload well).

I also had some VERY dried Poinsettia leaves, with amazing textures, that I photographed. These leaves had shrunk from about 4 inches in length, to what you see here - the final size of these leaves was just under one inch! There were about 8 leaves in my 'collection'. I took many photos of varying combinations of these leaves, and this is just one of the resulting photos.

I'm trying to decide whether I want them to stay as photographs, or whether I will express them as paintings. Oils, coloured pencil, maybe watercolor?

Ah, A-D-D --- the possibilities are endless. This is so much fun!

Beacon - the journey back

2010-05-24T20:19:00.000-04:00

"Beacon"
2010, 8" x 10"
Acrylic on stretched canvas

I've been in a painter's block of sorts, my own particular flavour - an 'abstract' block - for months now. Ideas have been knocking around in my head, but not coming out. I've not been completely blocked, as I have been creating art - as you can tell from my portraits and other art I've been stuck in the representational or 'real' world for some time now.

But my passion - abstraction - has been muffled, stifled, plugged up. Like I said, the ideas have been knocking around in my brain, colliding with each other, chipping bits off each other in their attempts to breach the brain/hand barrier and land on the canvas - but to no avail.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm starting to see some glimmers :-) A little painted-over canvas has been patiently sitting on my easel for months, waiting for me to pay it some attention. This weekend I finally did, and my experiment and reintroduction to abstraction is the result you see above.

It's a toe-dip into the pond, a peek around the curtain backstage, a sneak taste of sauce from the pot simmering on the stove. It's those first tentative steps when the cast comes off, a slow walk before you run the race - it's the beginning of the end of the block. Yes!

Those ideas banging around in my head? They're starting to line up in a neat and orderly group, and soon they'll make the journey down my arm and onto the canvas.

In the meantime, I have a whole bunch of little canvasses waiting for me to play with, and I'm still looking for my next portrait model, and preparing photographs for entry into several Calls to Artists. So the block is dissolving. It has a lot of holes in it now - as a matter of fact, it's starting to look a bit like a sieve.

Hope you had a happy long weekend !

Terry

Perfect Prefect

2010-05-09T17:41:00.000-04:00

"Perfect Prefect"

2010

7 5/8" x 12"

Coloured pencil and watersoluble crayon on Arches watercolour paper

The Ford Prefect was a car made by the English branch of the Ford Motor Company, in Dagenham Essex, UK. It first came out in 1938, and models were made from 1938-1941, and again from 1945-1961, and it became the basis for the Hotrod. It (he) was also a character in The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy !

My perfect Prefect was discovered while I was on vacation at Calabogie Peaks Resort last June. I was driving down a back road and passed by an automotive repair shop that had quite a few old clunkers out front - rusting out classic cars and trucks that just cried out to be photographed. I got out and asked the owner if I could shoot his car collection, and then spent a happy hour shooting cars and trucks in the warm sunshine.

This painting depicts the nameplate and the knob on the trunk of the Prefect (where the engine actually is, remember the British cars have the storage up front and the engine in back).

The above painting was made using Prismacolor pencils and Caran d'Aches Neocolor II watersoluble crayons on 140 lb Arches watercolour paper. I first laid down the basic shapes and shades with the Caran d'Aches crayons, then used the heated side of my Icarus Drawing Board to even out the tones.

Once I was satisfied with the tonalities I used my Prismacolor pencils to refine and add depth to the shapes. Many layers were added, and both the Icarus board and a technique using odorless solvent were used to bring out the character of this wonderful old car.

I had fun getting back into coloured pencil, and it was a very zen experience layering on the transparent colours from the pencils.

Wonder what I'll do next?

Happy Mother's Day.

Terry

Paul

2010-05-01T22:46:00.000-04:00

Paul
9.5" x 6"
Charcoal & Carbon Pencil
Canson 90lb Classic Cream Drawing Paper

This is Paul. I've been wanting to do a portrait of him for about 9 years now, and finally got up the courage to approach him a few months ago. (So I'm shy about my art).

Paul's another co-worker (work is an artist's jackpot, it's beginning to appear). He's a techie - really into gadgets and new ways of doing things - and in my opinion a soft spoken genius. He also reads cool books (maybe that's because he reads some of the same kind of books I do, haha), and listens to neat music, and lives with his partner and 3 llamas, 2 horses, 20+ chickens (I think), 2 dogs, 2 cats and a bird - and I met almost all of them - really cool! All in all, a well rounded renaissance man.

As for the portrait, I'm finished - as far as I can take it, as far as I want to take it. This was my first foray with rendering dark skin, and I was, frankly, afraid I might not be able to do it. The hardest part was - believe it or not - making the skin dark enough while keeping the details. Every layer of charcoal wasn't dark enough, yet I was terrified that the next layer would be too dark and obliterate everything.

Finally, there were so many layers on there that when I breathed a fine black dust cloud would rise above the paper - no kidding, folks! I didn't know what else to do - it still didn't look right - and then my Carbon pencils arrived. I had read about them on a number of sites, and had researched them on the web, so I ordered some from my local art store. It took 2 months for them to arrive, but they saved me.

They are called Wolff's Carbon Pencils, and come in 4 grades - B, 2B, 4B, and 6B. They are a mix of graphite and charcoal, and have the best properties of both. They go on smooth like graphite, with a very fine grain, but give a flat black colour like charcoal. The best of both worlds. They let me go darker where I need to, and smoothed out the lighter areas so they didn't look so grainy. And they don't dust as much as charcoal.

Really folks, you ought to try them out. They're a wonderful addition to my repertoire of art media.

So now I'm on the lookout for my next interesting victim - I mean portrait subject :-)

Happy art everyone!

Le PROF

2010-03-22T22:17:00.000-04:00

Well, I finished Yves - his portrait, that is. It was a long time coming, too. I knew I wanted to do his portrait for a while, and so asked him last fall if he would mind my taking some photos of him. He agreed, and then we played tag for a few months until we could get together for a photo session.

Le Prof - 8.5 x 12 inches
Canson 90Lb Drawing paper, Cream
(c) 2010

Did I start working on his portrait then? No - I mulled over the photos until I had my choices down to 4 poses from the original 46 : Le prof (The Professor), L'âme douce (the Gentle Soul), Le joyeux homme (The Happy Man), and Le philosophe (The Philosopher). At the beginning Le philosophe was my favourite, but I couldn't make up my mind what medium to use and how I was going to create the portrait. This took another 2 months (it was now almost 6 months since I had first asked his permission).

Then one day at the local art store I happened across a medium while looking for a toothed paper - it's called Fine Tooth Colourfix Primer, and it's made by Art Spectrum in Australia. I couldn't find the shade of paper I wanted, and the store clerk showed me 3 bottles of the medium - in grey, beige and what I thought was white, but actually turned out to be Clear.

Well! It's water soluble, acid free and non-toxic, and applies with a damp craft sponge (you know the ones - black sponge-on-a-stick). It dries down flat, and if you've applied it unevenly it can be sanded, but it's so easy to apply I don't see how you can be heavy handed enough to need to sand it.

The resulting tooth is almost like close-cropped velvet - and SOO easy to use! I was so pleased with the texture I took out my photos, and Le Prof just jumped up and said Paint Me! Paint Me!

I have always been leary of charcoal - it can be quite messy you know? And it's so BLACK. But this medium allowed me to apply the charcoal whisper thin, and blend it with stomps and sable brushes, and apply many many layers - Such Control! And the charcoal lifted quite easily, because it had been applied lightly. Even through repeated sprayings of workable fixative.

I do believe I have fallen in love with charcoal. And I am a huge fan of chiaroscuro, so they go hand in hand.

I'm happy and pleased, and can't wait to do more charcoal :-)

Painting with Lipstick 2

2010-03-17T22:07:00.000-04:00

Well! I haven't posted in a while - been busy - sort of - and now my PC is on its last legs. I'm afraid to turn it off (it took me 2 days to get it to turn on), so I went out and bought a new monster gaming pc from Gateway. It should last me for a LONG time :-) But I have to copy and take down all the settings and serial numbers etc so I can transfer/reinstall my hundreds of s/w to the new PC. So it sits in it's box until that's done, and my old PC never gets turned off....

But I've also been busy working - just finished playing with the Sennelier Oil Pastels again (hence the title, painting with lipstick), this time on canvas. I did a portrait of my son Caleb, who's 26.

Caleb, oil pastel on canvas, 8x10 inches, 2010

While I enjoyed working on canvas with the oil pastels, I didn't think about the ramifications until after I had framed the piece.

Oil pastels never dry out! They stay sticky!

The canvas is framed in a beautiful frame - but it is open to the air. And because the pastels are applied fairly thickly, there is a relief to the image.

Now this might not seem too bad , except for the following:

I have a dog
I have a dog that sheds copiously
I like to open the door/windows to let fresh air in
I have a fireplace I use on a regular basis

What's that got to do with anything, you ask? WELL -

Since oil pastels don't dry out, they can't be dusted, because the dust will adhere to the sticky surface, which stays movable - so if I try to 'rub' the dust off, I end up mushing the pastels, and messing up the portrait.

OY! Guess I'll have to figure out how to put it under glass.

In the meantime, I will start using paper as a base, and coat it with gesso to seal the surface so the oil doesn't affect the paper. I'll also do larger paintings - Sennelier pastels are about the size of lipsticks, and so soft you can't really get a point on them - so they're suited to larger images. Think I'll try a landscape next :-)

I've started work - finally - on the charcoal portrait of Yves that I talked about some 3 or 4 blogs ago. Should have it finished within the next couple of weeks, and will post it to the Transom then.

In the meantime, happy St. Patrick's Day!

Prud'hon - Lesons in light - a cool technique

2010-02-18T11:05:00.000-05:00

I just discovered Pierre Paul Prud'hon's charcoal technique, from a website ( http://art.net/~rebecca/OnPrudon7.html) where another artist, Rebecca Alzofon, had analysed his technique and offered a lesson on her interpratation.

Isn't the Interweb ;-) wonderful? You can learn soo much!

Well here is my attempt to follow Rebecca's lesson - I started it at 10 PM last night and only spent a couple hours on it, but I liked working on it. This is a technique that can be built on to get beautiful results that glow with light. I used the subject in her lesson, so that I could gauge how well I was following instructions.

"After Alzofon" 2010
6 in x 9 in, charcoal and white charcoal on blue Canson paper

I learned a lot with this lesson - the biggest thing being to keep going! This drawing starts out soo ugly - a mishmash of large very loose hatch marks that look quite childish - but rapidly statrs to build and transform into a very 3D soft representation.

You have to be very gentle with the stomp - charcoal is so messy, and the white charcoal very quickly disappears into the background if you're not careful.

As you can see I had trouble with the face and the cloth, but hey - it's my first attempt - and it was quite small. I feel that with some practice and a larger scale of drawing I could improve on those areas.

I particularly like that Prud'hon left large hatch marks on the finished product. I'm not as bold as he was, but I did leave some. The juxtaposition between the 'finished' and 'unfinished' areas (smooth vs hatched) is quite dynamic, and can be used to focus the viewer's eye. That makes the painting very interactive. And that's what we want, afterall, isn't it? That the viewer lingers on the artwork, and absorbs it.

I urge you to try out Rebecca's lesson - even if it is simply to gain a new experience - it's quite fun, and who knows - you may like it :-)

Until next time - keep creating!

Terry

AFTER HILLBERRY

2010-01-16T19:56:00.000-05:00

"After Hillberry" - 5.5x8.5 inches, charcoal and carbon pencil on cream Canson Sketch

Well, January 2010 is full of surprises! I chanced across a website and fell in love with the techniques and artwork I saw, and decided to try some on for size. The website is Charcoal and Pencil Drawings by J.D. Hillberry , and his portraits and trompe l'oeil are fantastic.

The image at left is my attempt at using some of his techniques for charcoal, based on an online description of one of his drawings, called White Bouquet.

As you can see, I have used his drawing as the basis for mine, and just moved the objects around (I also left out the rose, put in a ball instead). I did this so I could gauge how well I was understanding his descriptions. I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt - I got the basics down, now have to refine my techniques.

I'm excited about this technique. I stayed away from charcoal because it was so messy. At least, when I tried to use charcoal it was messy - I looked like the Peanuts character Pigpen about 5 minutes into using charcoal!

But from my interpretation of how Hillberry uses chamois, paper towels, stomps, and charcoal pencils I found that there was very little mess around. I could work in a small area (about 20x20 inches) and not worry about charcoal dust getting on everything. BONUS! I particularly enjoy the smoothness of the finished piece - it's very difficult to tell what the medium is, once it's done.

And his use of a Carbon pencil for the really dark areas is great (I'm still not quite sure what the actual difference is between a charcoal and a carbon pencil is). But the Carbon pencil is truly a deep velvety black, and it makes the charcoal look browner, and definitely lighter. Interesting....

Hillberry offers courses at an extremely reasonable price - about $300US. However, he's in Colorado, and I'm in Eastern Canada. So -- that reasonable course would end up costing me about $2500 after airfare, accomodations, food, and the exchange rate. Sigh - some day I'll get to take one of his courses, but I'll have to save up a lot first. Hey - maybe that can be one of my resolutions - to take a Hillberry course before August 2011.

Well, tomorrow I'm off to take some photos of my next portait subject - Yves. He has a very interesting face, and I hope to be able to capture just the right pose that will match what I have floating around in my head as an image of the yet to be started portrait. Wish me luck!

Terry

SURF'S UP!

2010-01-09T21:58:00.000-05:00

Pastel on Canson Mi-Teint (blue) 6x9 inches

Happy New Year, everyone ! With a new year come new resolutions, new thoughts, and new adventures. I thought I'd try a new medium and new techniques before settling back down into my tried and true methods, and so I played around with my pastel pencils. I'm new to pastels - bought the pencils as an adjunct to my graphite work, to see if I could gently apply subtle colour washes to portraits, but chickened out and didn't try that. I still wanted to use them, though, so started messing around on scrap paper and then decided to try my hand at seascapes.

The painting above is what came out - my 'scribble' technique, I decided to call it. This image is from a series of photos I took while in Florida - early morning on a beach, with the gulls facing into the wind and waves. The pastel pencils are large, and blunt (even when I sharpened them the point wasn't pointy enough).

However, after scribbling the waves in I found that in doing the same with the gulls I was able to get a 'windy' misty kind of look, reminiscent of the actual morning when I walked along the beach. Plus, because the pastels were dull I didn't have to worry about detail - and they STILL look like birds! Especially from a couple feet away :-)

The paper is already blue, and so I didn't need to cover the whole sheet with pastel - Bonus! I did, however, add some lavender, turquoise and light blue grey to the background and waves to liven it up.

I like this loose technique, and may play around with it some more. So, here it is - my first painting of the new year. Only 70 more days until Spring - and surf's up!

Terry

Girl With A Pearl Earring

2009-12-31T16:24:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

This is the last post for this year, and this is the last piece I have worked on in 2009. As you've seen this year I have shown works in acrylic, pastel, graphite and charcoal.

This is my first foray into Oils and traditional painted portraiture. I took a class in a tradtional oil technique called Grisaille, where we copied Vermeer's painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring" using the grisaille technique. It is painted on a 9x12 streched canvas.

I have never worked in traditional oils and traditional techniques (my forte is acrylic abstracts, after all), and I thought this would be a good way to learn. It was a good way to learn! We started with grey scales, and then colour scales, and from there a greyscale value study, to underpainting and then overpainting in layers and lastly glazes. The photo at left shows some of the colour studies.

I always thought I didn't have the patience to work this way - lots of preparation, colour studies, then paint and wait for the layer to dry, then paint the next thin layer and wait for it to dry, then paint the next --- you know where I'm going with this :-)

Well, our instructor was excellent, patient and kind, and the class was very relaxing - the whole course was 12 sessions, with each session being 2.5 hours long. And you know what? My patience built up - I was able to compartmentalize this technique and accept the conditions timewise, and have learned that I can enjoy this kind of painting, so I came out the better for it.

Now - back to my final product. Putting it beside the photo reference of Vermeer's painting, one can see a close resemblance - for sure you know it is a copy of his painting and not something else. I'm pleased that the resemblance is quite close, and the colour matching is not too far off as well.

What is really good about the comparison is that I can see where I have missed the mark. This is the best part of the course - I can see where the outline of the body 'grew' (see the coat, and her cheeks), and where the shapes got a little out of whack (check out her eyes), and where the highlights weren't bright enough (in the top of her turban). After analyzing the painting against the reference, I now know what to watch for the next time I do this painting - and I WILL redo it and correct the errors.

After all, that is how one learns - making and then correcting mistakes, training your eye to see and your hand to create. And while you're doing all of this learning, you lose your fear of the medium (and I was chicken hearted about oils and portraiture for sure) and can concentrate of getting better. Besides - it's also great fun!

To top it off, finding a good artist who is also a great teacher (there are lots of great artists out there who can't teach worth a damn) is the icing on the cake. The instructor for this course is one of those gems - Kathy McNenly (see her site http://www.kathymcnenly.ca/ ) a professional realist painter who also spends some of her very busy time teaching others to enjoy painting. I'm glad she does, and I'm glad I was able to find her. I hope you can find teachers that inspire as well.

Anyway - 2009 was an interesting year for me - lots of forays into new media, lots of discoveries, and some sad time - sounds like Life, doesn't it? Here's hoping 2010 is at least as good, and hopefully better - way better. For me and for you :-)

Happy 2010 everyone. See you next year!

Terry

Gerry's Boy

2009-12-28T19:16:00.000-05:00

This is Nicholas - a beautiful little boy with brilliant strawberry hair. His dad, Gerry, and I work for the same department. This year our department held a silent auction to raise money for charity. I donated a certificate for a portrait to the auction, and Gerry's dad had the winining bid.

I got to see his little boy in person at the Christmas Eve Children's party - what a cutie!

Nicholas' portrait is done in graphite, using sable brushes for the subtle shading. (The scanner exaggerates the contrast, the actual work is much more subtle and modulated). His extraordinary high colouring cried out for a high-key treatment, and I was worried about getting his hair just right, but looking at it on my computer screen it shines like it does in real life, so I'm pretty pleased. I wanted the focus to be on Nicholas, so his hoodie and turtleneck are subdued - fading out of the frame.

Unfortunately the scanner picked up the smudges around the background - you can't see them in real life, honest! - so this image looks a bit peculiar. But I will be taking a good photo for my reference and records, so this scan at least gives you an idea of the portrait.

Drawing kids is fun.

Have a Happy New Year, everyone, and I hope your Hollidays have been good.

Terry

2009-11-30T15:29:00.004-05:00

Thursday a week ago my mother died. She was 86, and her life had been filled with experiences both good and bad, joyful and sad. Through it all her most enduring characteristic (besides loving all us kids passionately) was this - she was a fighter. An inborn stubborness allowed her to fight fiercely for what she believed was right, no matter the obstacles placed in her way.

This was counterbalance by a playfulness that came out at the oddest times, and allowed her to see the good in situations as well. I caught that playfulness a few years ago, during a visit with her at the nursing home where she spent the last 8 years of her life, and transferred it to this portrait in coloured pencil. Although she looked very different at her end days, this is how I will always remember her - full of experience, and with a twinkle in her eyes.

Another fighter I admire is the Orchid - a plant adapted to living, in many instances, without soil, getting nutrients wherever it can, stubbornly existing where other plants would fail, and producing the most amazing variety of shapes, colours and scents.

This painting is done with oil pastel - my first foray into what I call "painting with lipstick". I recently acquired some Sennelier oil pastels, and was looking around for something to try them out on when I ran across a drawing of orchids I had started (a white outline on the black Canson paper) and never completed.

Although somewhat small for the oil pastel sticks (9x12 paper), I enjoyed the texture and blending qualities of the Sennelier pastels, and their ability to cover and stay true to their colours. Blending was interesting - as with most media, if you persist in overblending you get mud. However, even with their lipstick-like consistency - I'm not kidding, folks, these pastels are very soft and oily - I was able to layer on many colours.

Now I'm ready to tackle a larger piece, and see what this media is capable of. Did you know that Sennelier invented these pastels for Pablo Picasso? How cool is that!

Talk to you soon :-)

Dowry

2009-10-23T15:52:00.002-04:00

Dowry, 8"x10", 2009

Graphite and Charcoal on Dove Grey Maidstone

This is an experiment in combining graphite pencil with charcoal. I used the charcoal to get the darkest blacks - graphite never gets truly black, and if you press too hard it gets really, really shiny. Aargh.

The image is from a photo I took of antique baby shoes on a wedding veil with satin sheets. We were staying at an artist's house, and this was in one room. Everything had a warm yellowed hue, which is why I chose the dove grey paper. Pure white wouldn't have worked, or given quite the feeling I was trying to convey.

I must say I had quite a lovely time working on this piece - a little bit every day after work - and it grew slowly and easily inch by inch. I'm normally an instant gratification type of person, but this was such a wistful and soothing piece to work on - it's helped my patience immensely!

I had great fun with the lace! I have a small electric eraser that isn't easy to hold - it jumps around as soon as the eraser hits the paper - it was PERFECT for the random 'embroidery' on the veil. I recommend the electric eraser (the cheap 5$ plastic ones ) highly if you want a random yet realistic effect :-)

I hopeto have another portrait soon - have lined up a model (a friend) with an amazing profile - can't wait to start.

Until then - happy painting. Terry

Ally-kat

2009-09-05T17:11:00.005-04:00

Ally is my other niece, older sister to Ashley. She's 13, taller than I am by an inch, with thick curly hair and big soulful eyes.

I thought I'd try a high-key portrait this time, to see if I could bring out the inner personality using a minimum of medium (just noticed the juxtaposition of paradoxical terminology there -sheesh).

I think I was mostly successful, although I had trouble with the hair - wanted to keep the image light but still get across the colour. Ally's hair is a dark blonde/light brown colour, and in certain light can seem very dark indeed, yet other times appears to have very light highlights. I think I caught that quality, but it took some work.

I like her eyes the best - they talk to you - and they follow you around when you move! Always wondered how artists did that - now that I've done it, I still don't know how it's done...

Anyway, I'm still enjoying 'painting' with graphite pencil - laying down a layer or two of pencil and then using a brush to contour and sculpt. It's so soothing and time flies, especially when I listen to music at the same time.

My next project will be different - I've lined up someone with a very expressive old world face - I'm really going to have a good time painting him.

See you soon :-)

"Ashley in Progress" - finished!

2009-07-27T19:59:00.003-04:00

Well , it's finally finished! Although Ash is a dark blonde, I made her hair a little darker in keeping with the pensive mood of the piece, and to focus attention on her beautiful eyes. She's 10 going on 100, full of energy - so a quiet moment is fairly rare, according to her mom.

As for the title - she's definitely a work in progress :-)

Boy, I must say using a brush for fine shading and laying down broad swaths of pigment is addicting. One has to keep in mind that a picture that is all 'soft' is boring and unreal - so her eyes, and certain edges had to be 'sharpened' or 'hardened' to make things a little more interesting.

I think my brain is now ready for some more abstraction, so I'm putting away my pencils for a little while, and letting colours, moods and shapes percolate through. I wonder what I'll find?

Ciao for now!

2009-07-25T14:40:00.002-04:00

I have become entranced by the new technique of painting with graphite. I'm currently working on a portrait of my niece, Ashley, and am really pleased with my progress. Am now stuck on the hair - will get some tips from my sister (a watercolorist/graphite artist) for Ash's hair.

The brush adds so much control and subtlety to the process, I am amazed at the effects one can get, while still retaining the graphite look. But I should forwarn you, at a certain point the brush takes off more than you put on. So it needs to be used sparingly and lightly, in combination with traditional graphite techniques. You can't get away from that.

The photos show my progress - from laying down the basic shapes, to building up the shading (many,many,many layers) to getting close to finishing. I'm using 4 pencils - HB,2B,4B,6B (woodless, aren't they great to work with?) and occaisionally an 8B Wash graphite pencil fore the darkest colours. The brush I currently use is a Royal Soft-Grip SG155 - a very inexpensive brush (costs $5 here in Canada), and I'm looking at other brushes (smaller and larger).

I hope to finish Ash's portrait next week. Have spent about 13 hours so far, expect the hair will take me another 5-6 hours.

What fun!

Painting with Graphite

2009-07-18T16:34:00.003-04:00

Last week my sister and I took a workshop titled Secrets of the Old Masters, held at the National Gallery in Ottawa. The show associated with it was "From Raphael to Caracci - The Art of Papal Rome" - an absolutely gorgeous exhibition of paintings and drawings that took your breath away. The workshop introduced us to some interesting techniques in drawing, including using paintbrushes to shade our graphite drawings. I fell in love with the technique.

Pictured above is the piece I did in the workshop, and below is my first try on my own. I've a lot to learn yet in manipulating the medium, but the results are well worth the work.

Now to find some models I can photograph so that I can continue to practice the techniques.....

Silent Sunday Mornings

2009-07-05T09:49:00.000-04:00

King Mountain Lake, 2005
6" x 6",
Acrylic on
stretched
Gallery
canvas

Have you ever noticed how quiet Sunday mornings are? Maybe it's because we live in a Western society where Sunday is traditionally a day of rest (apologies to those millions who work on Sundays). But even Mother Nature seems to take a breather.

I just spent a blissful 90 minutes in the backyard drinking my favourite jasmine green tea (Dragon's Tears) and reading a very interesting book called "I am a Strange Loop", all about the human mind. My dog Dasch slept in the shade, the sun was warm on my back, and the birds were singing - what a deeply restful time!

I highly recommend a timeout on a Sunday morning - emphasis on out . It restores the spirit and leaves you ready to face the day.
Happy painting!

ATAXIA

2009-07-03T16:30:00.000-04:00

ATAXIA

8" x 10"

July 2009

Acrylic on stretched canvas

Well - it's finally done! So much for a painting a day - BUT, it got me back into the swing. I'm quite proud of it - it's the first small painting I've done in a long time. And I worked with some new paints - Atelier Interactive Acrylic. Longer setting time - very glossy - different handling. But I like them for the smaller work. Will have to try them on a larger scale sometime.

Back to the easel now - I need to paint!

Painting a day - getting into the habit

2009-06-20T08:29:00.001-04:00

I've been following some people who have the tenacity and discipline to create a painting a day. They keep it small (about 6x6), but by no means simple - their work is amazing. My favourite one is Carol Marine's, http://carolmarine.blogspot.com , - her work is clean, fun, and very very good.

I've been telling myself I ought to try this (my works are quite a bit larger, the smallest being 16x20), as I've been away from painting for awhile now, and painting small but daily would get me back in the groove.

I tried one the other day - it's 2 days later and I keep looking at it. Maybe I'll start a 'painting every 3 days' movement - haha. But the desire is there - so I know I'll be going back again this weekend. It's like evry other habit - takes about 3 weeks to get established. But I'll say this - that small painting felt good!

To see other paintings by this amazing group of people, go to www.dailypainters.com .

Try it yourself :-)

New Book

2009-06-17T15:18:00.000-04:00

Here's a screencap of some of the photos in my new book. It's almost ready to go, just a few more pages of text, and then labelling the catalog of shots at the end. Oh, and a Forward to explain the whole thing (almost forgot that).

BTW, you can view my first book ("CARS! A Love Affait with Form and Colour") at

www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/114876

2009-06-17T12:16:00.000-04:00

Hello World -

I'm new to this, but I hope to post something every day. I welcome feedback - let's start a conversation and get to know each other better.

I'm working on a book of photographs right now, deadline early July. When I get more comfortable with this blog, I'll post some of the images.

TTFN

Terry