Grandkids are the best, aren't they?

I especially like the bit where they're learning to talk, and one of my favourite word scrambles came from Owen when he was around two years old as he attempted 'camoflage' for the first time.  It's been niggling at me ever since -  this study for a possible future painting arose from his spoonerism.

Study for Ineffective Camelflage  2025  5.5" x 7"

Starting with an alcohol ink background (second photo below), I added some mark-making with Sharpie paint pens and then masked the camel off.

The finished study was a good reminder that alcohol ink backgrounds bleed, although if that's the effect you're looking for, it might not be such a bad thing.  😉

I also started some mark-making on the canvas 'palette paper' I used last week, and have some thoughts about where this might go as well.

And I just have to show you the sunshine we've had this week.  It's most unusual for this valley in the winter, and a delightful treat!!

May your week be filled with sunshine and colour (bleedable or not  😄).

While this post is...

...short on artwork photos, it's not because the week has been lax in any manner.

The big news, for me, is that I've finished my tenure as President on our condo association .  The last months have truly felt like years, and I'm doing so much happy dancing and singing I'm sure you could hear it all from where you are.  This means I will actually have some time to spend in the studio and I fully intend to get crazy experimental with it,

starting with some abstract colour play in the mini journal, and using a piece of canvas as a palette.

I've been ironing snowflakes (every time I use that phrase, I think how crazy it sounds), and may eventually get to the card/painting I have in mind.

A major project I've been working on this week has been my life story, and a paragraph from it had me wondering whether this particular event was the cement to my snowflake obsession:

'My sister and I lived with six other young women in an old and ramshackle house on 6^th avenue just off 10 St. in Calgary.  At 17 years of age, I have a memory of being woken from a dead sleep-walking exploit, wearing nothing but a shortie nightgown and cropped jacket in -40 degree weather about half a block from home.  Barefooted, my housemate (who had followed me) and I struggled back to the house in a raging blizzard.  Goodness knows what I was dreaming about, but it certainly turned into a cold, albeit a stunningly beautiful, adventure.  It was just one incident in a lifelong fascination with snowflakes.'

I've also made a couple of birthday cards for condo residents who are celebrating this week - one for a full 80 years and the other for 82.  

And I took a few moments for some household signage that will help John with his memory.  

These aids continue to grow in number and I hope will continue to help for some time yet.

I hope that you had something fabulous to celebrate this week - do let me know in the comments, if so!

It's a quick and lackadaisical post...

 ...today, given that not too much has been happening in the studio this week.  I've been lounging like a swooning 1920's flapper on a fainting couch, due to a oh-so-severe cold.  

I have been cutting snowflakes this week, just for the fun of it, and hopefully they will make their way onto a card or painting in the next week or two.  

I did get a feeble start  on filling another mini journal;  this one will be all about colour and texture, although it's hard to tell from this photo.

The remainder of the week has been mostly R & R as I beat this bug into submission.  I'll be back next week with something more exciting to display, with luck.  Send those healing vibes to me in the meantime, will you?  Many thanks!! 

Am I tidy?

Not in the studio, I'd say.  I did, however, spending some time sorting and doing some finishing details on projects completed last year.  I actually labelled the mini collage book, as well as the quote book, so they're presentable and identifiable.

^ That collage book looks as though it's choking it's stuffed so full!

The quote book books like a party with all those ribbons and beads pouring out from the envelopes.

 

Here are some more quote photos in case you're not yet overwhelmed with my faves.

And of course, I'm doing some experimentation as I search for a winter alternative to creating papers with alcohol inks.  The top one is ink, and the bottom Golden High Flow acrylics.  I'm still preferring the alcohol inks for their intensity, and look forward to warmer weather where I won't freeze my fingers off when I play.

Was your week just as full and fun?  I sure hope so.  I'm going to wander over to your pages and check it out!!

2024 is gone...

...and I was wondering how it went so fast, especially in the studio, until I realized just how much I'd accomplished.

I finished 'Another World' (a 3 x 4' project that was a year in the making),

made a collage page or two (read 10-12),

realized a full table size butcher paper mess into something entirely different,

resolved 80 mini collages in this Bits & Pieces journal,

some of which I really liked,

completed a 6" x 6" series of five colour scraps on black paper,

finished (abandoned?) a 16" x 12" 'Wild and Dark' painting,

made a book to house some of my favourite tags,

and readied another travel journal which will eventually house (who knows what?). 

Usually  as winter approaches, I hand-cut a host of snowflakes, a life-long passion.  This year, I only managed one when I found a simple basic snowflake cut online.  I alterered it a good deal, and managed to decorate a Christmas gift with a Loveflake.

I'm nearing the end of my quote book, and look forward to finishing it in January.  It holds some of my all-time favourite quotes, along with some collages and other colour play.  Oh how I love books!!

And of course, there were many more forays into the studio than these, from gel printing frenzies, play dates with artist friends, glazing experiments, a massive project to sort 114 years of family photos, Christmas card-making, paintings for the grandchildrens' birthdays, and hosting a group of ladies to create bookmarks for the library.  

In truth, my studio life is just as much about decreasing my stash of paper scraps as it is about creating new things or fund-raising on behalf of the library.  As always, I am hugely grateful for my creative life.