The studio is in chaos...

 ...again  always.  I've been working on my larger journal this week, moving from page to page

and utilizing cutouts for fun.

You'll note that my penchant for black is still in force.

Combined with strong colour, it's a favourite.

And one of the side tables holds more inserts to be added - I'm a firm believer in fat, FAT, FAT journals.  

Against one wall is a collection of paintings and supplies for this morning's playtime with Ruth.

Earlier I held my own little gesso party to whiten this 3' x 4' panel

and some smaller ones as well.

Apparently my muse thinks we're going to go to town over the next while...wonder what she's got in mind?

As you may know,

I've been working on a weekly basis with Ruth Bieber, a blind artist here in the Creston Valley.  We started this project pre-Covid and are having a great deal of fun as we find ways to bring her creative ideas into the realm of living, breathing paintings.

The piece that Ruth is holding above, entitled 'Dancing', was for a show that was to be held in late February and early March of this year.  Given the Covid constraints, I believe it was held physically for a very short time before it went online.  Since I was in Mexico at the time I'm a little fuzzy on the details.

We started back working together outdoors on our patio on July 14, and now have a good selection of pieces in various stages of completion.  

And we've even managed to complete three pieces since we started back, two of which are shown below:

Our sessions are always so filled with laughter and a flurry of paint, inks, ideas and supplies that I'm darned if I can remember to take a photo more than occasionally, and rarely when we're actually playing!

My word for 2020 is Expand, and I'm most certainly doing that as we play together.  Ensuring that the work is Ruth's concept and execution is hugely expansive as I find ways to assist her to learn new methods of working with paint, inks and whatever else comes to hand. And ensuring that we work together safely in a time of pandemic is expanding as well; we're both praying that the fine weather will hold until September of 2021 so we can finish enough pieces for the upcoming show.  😎

Do catch me up in the comments below - how has your week been?  What are you up to?  You know I'd love to hear it all!

I'm in...

...the studio again, and it's chaos as usual.

Three piles of Gelli print fragments are strewn across one of the student tables,

a chair is stacked with paintings in progress,

and a folded book in stage three awaits hours of unfolding, and then curling.

A painting, recently coated with gel medium and then textured with a natural sponge sits drying on the drawing table,

along with stacks of mini canvasses from the Have a Heart series, in varying degrees of progress.

My 8 x 10 Gelli plate is anxious to test run a newly designed house wrap stencil, even though it's not yet completed, 

while a stack of 'Head Shots' wait nearby for some attention.  They want to be made into a booklet right now please.

So much fun...so little time.  Isn't the life of an artist the best thing ever?  I certainly refuse to argue that.

An art date getaway...

...is a wonderful way to refresh the creative mind, and yesterday Laura Leeder (left),  Eileen Gidman (right) and I (clicking) did just that in Fernie, BC.  An early start had us visiting The Arts Station

just after a wonderful coffee break at The Loaf.  This decadent latte and caramel-covered date square contained a gazillion calories, and worth every one.

Like most mountain towns, Fernie is totally bike-addicted, and I found more than one I'd love to own, 

although this one especially stuck my fancy.  I couldn't decide whether it was the baskets or the combination of pink and yellow that had me hankering after it.

Fernie is such an artsy town they've even trained their garbage cans to cast the perfect shadows.  I'm loving the sabre-toothed Pacman-style head just under that lovely crown.

Part of my personal mission while we were there was to drop 'Found Art' packages containing a piece of art and a bit of info publicizing my upcoming October workshop at The Arts Station.

We visited some wonderful galleries and shops including The Carosella Gift Shop ,

Brian Pollack Photography, The Fernie Arts Coop, Angela Morgan's Studio, and Clawhammer Press, where we found this lovely display rack created from an old weather-distressed door.

It was a lovely sun-warmed time, filled with wonderfully welcoming people, and we're primed to return sometime soon.  Thank you, Fernie, for making our day!