It's a new year...

with new opportunities, new paintings to create, and new playshops in the works.

Part of this morning was spent at the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce, filling three glass cabinets with small paintings, altered books and paper sculptures for a show that will be up until the end of February, 2014.  (2014, already?  Really?  Happy New Year to you!)

Here, The Golden Girls mixed media piece is paired with a dancing shoe

 

A floral hair pin dances attendance on 'Islands in the Sun' 

Orange You Glad?  is an altered book with a twist...or two.

Val van der Poel organizes all the rotating shows at the Creston Library and the Chamber, and does a bang-up job.  Please make sure you get to see both of these shows - with seven artists in the Chamber and two more in the Library, you're bound to find something you love!

And while you're thinking art, it's time to register for the Mixed Media II Playshop at Centre 64 in Kimberley...it's two weeks away and you need to get your supplies yet!  Further information available here, or you can contact Christine at Centre 64 directly, if you're not a Facebook member.

And thanks for starting yet another year with me here in cyberland...I'm delighted to have you along on the ride.

Occasional Play...

Autumn is always such a busy time of the year, as we bring the garden inside, put away food for the winter like proverbial squirrels, finish up reno projects and prepare for the workshop season.

In between, I do get a chance to play in the studio, mostly in fits and starts.  Some of the pieces I've been creating over the past couple of months started as part of sessions with visitors (see here), and some have been percolating in my mind for some time.

Sweet Summer Sun  mixed media on mat board  6" x 8"

One of the former, Sweet Summer Sun got started (and finished - most unusual for me) at a Claresholm play session on my way home from a holiday in Ottawa.  A group of my students and I had a mixed media afternoon at the home of Judy Dahl, just outside of town, and we all went at it like fiends.

Golden Girls  mixed media 10" x 8" on wood panel

Another visitor session came about when Alice Saltiel-Marshall and her husband Bill were here in September.  Alice gave me a stamp bearing (or baring) these three beauties, and we both used it in a painting while she was here.  You can see her version, in progress, on her Flickr page here.

Opening  mixed media  10 x 10 on wood panel

The Opening had been incubating for some time, and sold as the paint was drying, which is always a fun thing to have happen.

Still in the process of working on larger paintings for the Key City Theatre Gallery show in April of 2013, I've been picking away at two pieces, each 2' x 3' in the floral vein.  Barring any further studio cat issues, I hope to post at least one this month!  In the meantime, I'm basking in the long autumn sun in the studio, wishing you colour, colour, colour in your life.