Dreaming of sunshine...

Although spring is in the air, for me it's just not enough.  I'm craving sunshine and the glow that bounces off the sidewalks in the hot summer sun.

When the skies are grey and the body craves hot weather, I turn to my paints to get a glow on.

Last summer when the poppies had finished their glory, I quickly painted a wood panel, and did some stamping on it with the pods before they dried too much to use.

The panel sat, unused, waiting for inspiration until the yearning for sunlight grew too strong to ignore in January.

Some dried leaves turned into trees, and

Sunlit Woods  Mixed media on cradled wood panel
6" x 6"  © Win Dinn

some scattered saffron threads finished the painting with ground cover.

I do hope that now I'll be content to wait for the sunshine that's sure to follow these spring showers;  I'll be watching for it.

It's a Case...

With spring hard on here in the valley, many of us turn to gardening.  While I am the furthest thing from an outdoor gardener you could imagine, I've been working on my garden throughout the winter.  In order to get it ready for a show in Canmore at Sunny Raven Gallery this coming summer, I actually started it last fall.

I first spent some hours getting the right colours for the grass, and interspersing the blades between the pages of a disused law text (I was gifted a couple of dozen of these books some years ago now, and they've been a delight in the studio as well as to my students).

Layer upon layer of 'grasses ' interspersed between the book pages

Once the grass was thickly planted on three sides of the book, I started coring  . . .  and boring . . .

Starting to core the book

 and occasionally gnawing with my teeth, to clear out the centre of the book.

More coring - messy abounds!

Finally it was time to make those flower beds, and while I ultimately only used two in the garden, it's not so bad to have a spare bed in the house.

Creating the flower beds

A garden sign and additional grass finished off the top of the book, along with a tiny birdhouse that the resident carpenter, John, made for it.

Cover of the finished book

 All my flowers are tucked away in the garden, safe from all the rougher elements and cozy in all seasons.

A Case for Gardening  Altered book  (Inside)  ©Win Dinn

How's your garden coming along?

Wynndel Art Centre

It's mixed media time at the Wynndel Art Centre, and yesterday, the second of three Wednesdays there, was a blast.

 Val and Dena work on some of their starts here - they're very intent.

 I fell in love with the above subtle background which began with a dryer sheet palette paper transfer, and morphed into this lovely richness.

  Shelly and Laura work through some of their pieces, with their book palettes nearby.

 Kendra's adding levels of paint to her drywall compound start and it's really starting to sing.

 The room was bursting to overflowing with wonderful palettes, transfers and skins in progress.

Some of the results were approaching edible;  it's a wonderful thing to see so much colour in a room!