Catch Up

I can't think of how many pairs of glasses, both sunnies and regular, that I now own.  They're scattered everywhere; around the house, in the car, every bag and everyplace I may experience either sunshine or the need to see.  These ones are of the $12 variety.  Much less painful when they get scratched, squished, stepped on or stolen.

Still loving this challenge and playing with crayons.  I bought a bigger box while I was in the city, full of metallics, neons, and other fun stuff.  I got a bit behind since we were trapped on the road or in business meetings pretty much around the clock.  Time for a little catch-up.

Day 8: Draw Your Watch

Day 8.  Still standing.  I started a different drawing for this challenge yesterday to get ahead of the curve, a sketch of my paper bead necklace, but it accidentally turned into a self portrait instead.  I put it aside and went to the First Friday event.  They had boxes of crayons and paper on all the tables.  More colouring.  Then I went painting all day today at the Plein Aire event.

I'm art-ed out.

I have a cramp in my art hand.

Penticton En Plein Aire: Elephant Island Winery

The Penticton Art Gallery held their annual En Plein Aire event today.  We all (about 20 of us artist types) were send out to the different wineries in the area to paint for the day.  Maps were made up for those who wanted to drive around and watch us in action.  All the works are then hung as a show in the gallery, and then auctioned off at the annual Starry Starry Night event.

Last year I painted the view from God's Mountain (here it is).  I know that I'm more comfy (and have more fun) staying on the sketchbook side of art.  I couldn't quite see putting a sketchbook in the show or having one go at auction, so I thought I'd do the next best thing and make my piece like a one page sketchbook adventure.  It was a gorgeous day.  My location was Elephant Island; a place I've painted before.  There were lots of good views to choose from.  I drove by there the other day and scouted locations; did a preliminary line drawing, so all I had to do today was paint.  This colouring book concept is like a weed, invading everything I'm doing!

Here's the line drawing:



I may make some adjustments to the painting before I hand it over.  The bottom garden sketch looks a bit blotchy, but I think I'll just live with it for a couple of days first; look at it with fresh eyes when we get back from Vancouver.

Wednesday Night Breakthrough

The subject of artistic progression came up at life drawing on Wednesday.  Someone was saying that they think it's easier to see progress in someone else's drawings than in your own.  My last couple of sessions look virtually the same, with the exception of the fact that the model is different.  Then, this Wednesday, even though my sketches aren't much different than before, I finally saw a little evidence of a shift I'd wanted to make.  I have an internal struggle with the difference between making art and making a map of something.  When I'm at my best, I'm experiencing something by looking at a deeper level and translating that into line/colour (blah, blah, I know).  At my worst, I'm making a map.  'Leg?  This shape, fill in with flesh tone.  Next? Belly.  Curves here, sticks out there, flesh tone.  Next?'.. and so on.  At the end of each session I always find myself looking at the drawings of some of my favorite Wednesday night artists and I think 'Wow, they don't make a map, they draw what's interesting to them.  I want to do that.',  And then then next time I forget until we all hang our drawings up at the end and I think 'Doh'.

Well, finally I caught myself in the middle of the first sketch/body map, and remembered!  This second sketch, it was just the shadow of the nipple that was really a wow to me, and so I only put in what I felt supported that.  Then I started with the dynamic between the coffee cup and her hand and worked my way out from there, not worrying about what would or wouldn't fit on my page.  May not look like a big deal, but for me it was a Wednesday night breakthrough.

For the record, I said yes

Day 7 - Draw a bottle, jar or can from your kitchen.  Well, I do keep this in the kitchen.  We've had it since last September, drank the first 9/10ths of it that night, and the rest has sat in the cupboard above the fridge ever since.  I won't re-write the story here, but it was a very cute life moment.

Can you see the little mini self-portrait hidden in this drawing?

I'm participating in the Penticton En Plein Aire event again this year.  It's tomorrow.  Last year I got there and all the other artists showed up with half finished paintings.  This year I'm being smarter.  I went out to the site I'll be painting at (Elephant Island) and took some photos.  I mapped them out last night onto watercolour paper in a sort of a storyboard layout, and will just do the painting part on site.

Kind of like I've been doing with these colouring book pages.

Crayon Memories

I bought this pack of crayons to fix a divot in my parents cork floor.  We picked them up at the Bargain Store in Kelowna.  The floor is dark brown, and by melting a little of the black and brown crayons, mixing them together to get the right shade, and feathering it into the hole, the divot was magically returned to its original state.

The box of crayons kicked around my art bag for months, just waiting to be noticed.  And now, like rediscovering a childhood friend, we're having great fun playing together EVERY SINGLE DAY!  The smell of them reminds me of Mrs. Cumisky's playschool; plastic farm sets and trampolines, riding my Mom's hardwood floor polisher, running down the back lane barefoot, trying to build up the callouses on our feet.

Do you remember your first box?

Day 5: A Bed

Ok, truth be told, this sketch is a bit of a cheat.  My current bed is a large white square against a blank white wall.  It is the most comfortable bed ever, but not very exciting to draw.  I took out on old sketch of my bed in Collingwood and re-drew it for today's challenge.  I actually was at M&D's house, where the bed now lives, so I was able to look at the original while sketching the details.

I loved this house.  Once in a while I pine for the old house on Pine Street.  I remember listening to 'Love Me Tender' stream uninterrupted through the old single pane of glass in this window late into the night during the annual Elvis festival.  I remember all the intricate tile and woodwork on the fireplace surrounds.  I remember how the floors looked after I had the old carpet ripped out and all the layers of the years hand scrapped and sanded off to reveal the old wood below.

I forget how the furnace died the day I moved in (in February), how not just music but every gust of wind slipped unhindered through the hundred year old windows.  How, if I added up what I spent reno-ing and subtracted that from what I sold it for, it would almost equal what I paid for it.  Old houses.  You have to love them.  There's no other way they make sense.