Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge: Week 4

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..last week in Calgary I saw this knight standing on the sidewalk

http://ceenphotography.com/2014/03/20/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-week-4/

Abstraction Using Watercolour

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….lesson 2 with Karina Swensen

Today’s lesson used the same technique as the charcoal drawings but the medium was watercolour, gauche or acrylic paint. I used watercolour and did about 10 samples. It was fun and somewhat challenging. I certainly didn’t like all the pieces that I did but I chose 5 to share with you. I may try a few more because in the next lesson I have to choose one of the designs from the first two lessons and make one large painting from it. Choosing one will be difficult. Do you have a favourite?e

Abstraction in Charcoal

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….learning a new technique

This week I started a new on-line art course with Karine Swensen. She is an abstract artist and a friend of Carla Sonheim. Our first assignment involved taking 8 to 10 pieces of paper and compressed charcoal and laying down some lines. The idea is to do this quickly without too much thought. It shouldn’t look like anything and if it did you were suppose to change it. After laying down one or two lines on each piece of paper you are suppose to go back and add more details. You can smudge the charcoal, use fingerprints, erase areas and use different types of charcoal.

My first four drawing were started with charcoal pencils, mainly because that’s what I had on hand. Today I found some compressed charcoal and started four more pieces. I went over some of the first pieces with the compressed charcoal and I used the kneadable eraser to take away some of the dark areas. I really enjoyed the process and can’t wait to find out what the next assignment will be. Sometime tomorrow I’ll receive the second video with an explanation and demonstration of the next task. Here are a couple of pictures of my first assignment.

Share Your World – Week 11

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….what ice-cream would I be?

If you were an ice cream cone how many scoops and flavors would you be and why?

This is tough. I love ice-cream and I love having a variety of flavours. I think I would go for two scoops (in a cup, not a cone) and hopefully my partner in crime would have two different scoops so that I could sample some of his. The one flavour that comes to mind immediately is coffee or mocha. My second scoop would be cinnamon (a specialty flavour at Greg’s) or a rich French vanilla ice-cream with a swirl of chocolate, nuts and cherries. Yum!

Are you left or right handed?

I am left handed. My mother was worried about that because as a girl she was forced to write with her right hand and would get her knuckles rapped if she tried to use her left hand. Luckily that archaic practice had ceased to exist when I started school. I’m actually quite ambidextrous and I bowl, bat and knit right handed. Years ago I taught a knitting class at the community school and my mother owned a wool store. One of her customers took my class and she went to my mom to ask for some advice. I use the European method of knitting and since all my students were right handed I instructed them to follow my mirror image. Little did I know at the time that I knit right handed and I was forcing my students to knit with their left hands.

Before making a phone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say?

It depends on whom I’m calling. I never rehearse social calls but when I used to do demonstrations at home parties and I had to cold call people to book parties I definitely rehearsed what I would say. I hated cold calling.

How many rings before you answer the phone?

I usually let the phone ring three times or until the call display comes up. If the number is a 1-800 number I often let it go or I’ll say ‘hello’ twice quickly and then hang up if no one answers back after the second hello.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful for four days with my sisters in Calgary and for the beautiful weather we had last week. Who knew travelling west would be almost as good as going south. This week I’m looking forward to another concert put on by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto, featuring Yegor Dyachkov on cello and Jean Saulnier on piano.

I’m also taking an on-line art course for the next two weeks and learning about abstraction and how to paint an abstract. I’m finishing my first assignment and will be posting it shortly.

For more Share your World posts check out http://ceenphotography.com/2014/03/17/share-your-world-2014-week-11/

A Word A Week Photo Challenge – Running

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….our dog Frances and her buddy Lucy love to run

For more photographs check out Sue Llewellyn’s a Word a Week Photography Challenge

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….even though her actual birthday is in December we celebrated on Friday

Last Christmas my sister’s husband surprised her with a gift certificate for a dinner for three at the Chef’s Table. That was only half of her birthday gift. The other half included flying her two sisters from Ontario to Calgary to join her for the dinner. It was as much a gift for her as it was for her sisters.

We arrived in Calgary on Wednesday and the dinner took place on Friday. After a long afternoon of shopping at the outlet mall we returned to C’s home and showered and dressed for our special dinner.

I’m not really that short. I wore flats while my sisters had on heels. C’s husband drove us to the restaurant. We arrived at 7: 00 and were seated immediately. For the next four hours we were treated to a five course meal with a wine pairing for each course. The sommelier took extra care to explain each course and the reason for his wine selection. We were truly pampered.

We had a wonderful evening with great food and wine and we loved reminiscing about our childhood together. I started to photograph each course but at times I was so anxious to try each course that I forgot to take pictures of some of the plates. I truly savoured each dish and was surprised that I didn’t finish first. This is not something I’m proud of. I tend to eat too quickly but for some reason that didn’t happen on Friday. At the end of the meal C’s husband picked us up. It was nice not to have to worry about drinking and driving.

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge: Week 3

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….a recent trip to the AGO gave me some great material for odd ball photos

Apologies to my regular followers who’ve already seen these images but they were the ‘oddest’ ones I could fine. This installation piece is by the artist David Altmejd and can be seen on the 5th floor of the AGO in Toronto.

For more odd photos go to Cee’s odd ball photo challenge.

Sharing Memories and Reconnecting With Old Friends

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…watching old V8 movies of us as kids and meeting up with friends from university

Thursday was a laid back day. I couldn’t sleep past 6:00 am so I got up and wrote my first post about the flight to Calgary. I took my time getting showered and dressed and then I went downstairs to join my sisters for breakfast.

My middle sister had given each of us a DVD that she had transposed from VHS. Years ago our mom took all the old V8 movies that my Dad had taken of us as kids and had them put onto videotape. It’s pretty rough and of course there’s no soundtrack. We decided to watch the DVD together, not realizing that it was over two hours. It was great seeing all those clips again. It brought back great memories and we couldn’t help but notice how different life was 50 years ago.

The one thing that really struck us was how formally our parents dressed. Outings to the park, going on picnics and day trips to Niagara Falls involved dressing in your Sunday best. Mom wore heels, dresses, hats and gloves and Dad wore dress pants, jackets and ties and of course all the ‘sisters’ wore dresses and party shoes. The only time I saw us in trousers was when I went roller skating down the sidewalk by our house in the Junction. Good thing too, because I took a couple of nasty spills.

It was also interesting to see the transition from long hair to short hair and then back to long hair when we were teenagers. My Mom wore her hair in a bun for many years and her hair was actually quite dark. Sometime in the 60s she cut her hair short and became a blonde. I never saw her with long hair ever again.

I’m sure there’s some way of copying bits and pieces of the DVD to share with you but I just haven’t figured out how to do that. I’m thinking I need to go to Garage Band and cut and paste segments onto a Youtube video but I’ll have to investigate that a bit more. If any of you have any suggestions I’d be more than grateful.

After lunch, I arranged to meet two friends from university at the Learning Centre in Fish Creek Park. Melissa McKinnon who I follow on WordPress has an exhibition there and one of the things I wanted to do when I got to Calgary was check out her work. I’ve seen it on-line but there’s nothing like seeing it up close and personal. The staff at the centre were very friendly and told us how successful Melissa’s opening was. Her paintings are beautiful and it looks like half or more are already sold. You can check out her blog, here.

I haven’t been to Calgary in over 20 years but I have seen my sister and my friends, L & L, on numerous occasions in Toronto. It’s been great seeing them on their home turf, something that’s long overdue. My next trip will be with my husband. He hasn’t been to Calgary in 38 years.

From a Blast of Winter to Sunny Skies and Warm Temperatures in Four Hours

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…from Toronto to Calgary

Who knew that travelling west to Calgary could be the equivalent of going south in search of warmer weather. Well that might be a bit of a stretch but the temperature in Toronto went down to -30 celsius with the wind chill and the visibility was close to zero as I sat on the tarmac waiting for our plane to be de-iced.

When we arrived in Calgary most of the snow had melted, the sun shone brightly and the temperature was sitting at 14 degrees celsius. When I got to my sister’s place I had to change my clothes because I was literally too uncomfortable in my fleece lined pants and sweater.

It is only 7:00 am here in Calgary but my internal clock can’t seem to adjust to the time change. I’ve only had six hours of sleep and I’m wide awake so I’ve decided to post a few pictures of yesterday’s plane trip. Enjoy!