It’s just little…


Another teeny painting, just 8 x 6″, to hang out with the little guy I finished last week. This one can be called Twig. Luckily, even in the brown mush that is a Vancouver winter, I can find little bits and twigs to paint from for a painting this size. As an aside, is anyone else in full indoor slug mode lately? Given my druthers, I think I’d spend most of this week in a blanket, on a couch, next to a heater. Hmmm, that veered off into a lesson on prepositions. Anywho, I’m trying to keep working and Josh is keeping me from subsisting entirely on chocolate and cheese.

Look what I made!

I started learning how to knit last summer and have been making a variety of rectangular things ever since. Over the Christmas holidays, since I would have my very helpful Mom by my side, I decided to try and knit something round. A beret, to be specific. The lovely ladies at my local yarn store helped me track down this easy pattern. After much swearing and argh-ing at the double-pointed needles and my uncooperative hands, I have a grey beret! Pay no attention to the pointy face coming out the bottom and marvel at the slouchy beauty of a month’s worth of busy hands.

Knitting contrasts nicely with painting. In knitting, the pattern is already there, it’s just a matter of figuring it out and following it. If you do it correctly, it will look how you want it to. Sometimes it’s nice not to have to follow someone else’s instructions, and then I can paint and take the risk that I will have to sand down a terrible painting.

It’s just a little buddy…

I have a few tiny canvases that I have been covering with extra background paint from the big flower series paintings whenever I have been a little over-enthusiastic in making colours. Waste not, want not, right? So here’s an itty-bitty canvas, only 8 x 6″. Let’s call it Leaf – little canvas, short title.

Speaking of another little buddy, I had some help in the studio this afternoon…

Although his lack of thumbs and shedding of fur makes him a lackluster assistant, his relaxation is my peace and quiet. Otherwise it’s all ankle bites and sitting on whatever I’m working on.

Clearly unimpressed by the photo shoot.

How does he do it?!

These two beautiful paintings are by the very talented Sam Weber. He’s an artist and illustrator, who trained at the Alberta College of Art and Design. (Canada, holla!) Anywho, I have pored over these pixels, I know he uses watercolour and acrylic washes, but I cannot figure out how he gets the oily, veiny texture in the paintings above! Anybody out there know? I’d love to find out!

Moomin!

I know I am very late to this party, but I’m a new Moomin fan. After a recent visit to the library, (the library is a wonderful place, you know. I am very glad indeed to live somewhere where comics, including the darkest of Ivan Brunetti’s, are readily available) I brought a collection of Moomin comics home. I had always thought they were specifically for children and probably a bit saccharin-sweet. What a lovely surprise! They are charming and clever, while telling stories about things like romance, wandering eyes, and creative blocks. Another reminder that the best books speak to the adult and child in each of us, young or old.

New Year, New Clock!

Yes, folks, it’s another clock! This one’s made from a whole bunch of folded paper petals. I think something about my obsessive-compulsive personality draws me to repetitive, careful tasks. It was fun to make something that involved almost no drawing or writing, since I have never considered myself a sculptor. Another bonus? This kind of diorama can’t get dusty! *twitch twitch*

Happy New Year one and all! We are officially out of the noughts!

Here’s my last project of ’09:

A dear old friend decided she wanted a flower series painting of her own, so here it is! It’s 18 x 36″ and titled Forsythia. I often enjoy a green colour range for this subject matter, but I find it a challenging colour to work with. Since my little basement nook of a studio has one small window that looks out onto the neighbour’s foundation, the natural light leaves something to be desired. I’ve found I need to check each stage of the painting by taking the canvas outside during the day to make sure the colours look how I’d like them to. Makes me dream of a studio with storage and skylights. A dream for coming decades, perhaps?