…over the years I’ve played with one-liner portraits with limited success
One liner portraits literally involves drawing a face without lifting the pen off the paper. After doing that I added detail with paint and more mark making. These were a lot of fun to do and are somewhat similar to Picasso’s abstract portraits that made him famous.
….thanks to Frank from Dutch Goes the Photo for hosting the Tuesday Photo Challenge https://dutchgoesthephoto.net/2021/01/26/tuesday-photo-challenge-all-you-need-is-love/
I love the theme this week. Love does make the world go round. What do you love? Here are some of the things that come to mind for me.
Being surrounded by water year round.
My husband and how he makes me laugh and for all the wonderful meals he cooks for me.
My family and the joy they bring from near and far.
For some reason the photos I have of my sister who lives in Calgary would not allow me to post them. I miss her terribly.
I also love to walk in nature, take photographs and make art.
…a monster with a comment about Monday’s
….two more intuitive abstract art pieces in my sketchbook
I’m experimenting with my intuitive paintings in my sketchbook. I find I’m less inhibited and am willing to take more chances with my mark making and use of colour than I would be if I used a good sheet of watercolour paper. I will definitely go back to watercolour paper at some point because the quality of the paper makes a difference to the final outcome as well.
...thanks to Sandy this week for hosting the Friendly Friday Challenge https://thesandychronicles.blog/2021/01/29/friendly-friday-challenge-special-treats/
I have quite the sweet tooth but mostly for cookies or cakes. I’ve never been one for candy, other than chocolate. My husband also has a sweet tooth and he has asked me not to bring any sweets into the house for awhile. If I have one cookie he’ll eat three.
For the challenge this week I’ve gone back into the archives to search for special treats. I soon discovered that not all yummy pleasures have to be made with sugar. Fresh strawberries and homemade pizza are always special in our house.
…thanks to Jez for hosting Water, Water Everywhere #61, https://jezbraithwaite.blog/2021/01/25/koi-pond-water-water-everywhere-61/
On the weekend my husband and I took a drive to Ball’s Falls in the Jordon Valley. It was a perfect day, brisk and sunny. I met Kevin 48 years ago and I’m pretty sure he’s been telling about Ball’s Falls for the same length of time. Well he finally took me there and I wasn’t disappointed. I love most waterfalls and in the winter I particularly like them because of the ice that forms from the spray.
Ball’s Falls is situated on the Ball’s Falls Conservation Area and is named after the family that lived there in the 1800s. In an earlier post I wrote about the heritage site that is connected to this area. The falls helped generate enough energy for the the grist mill to make flour until the water flow diminished to the point where it wasn’t feasible to stay in production. Today the mill operates on day a year, using electricity to mill flour for a festival.
….but not posting every day
Sometimes it takes me three days to finish a piece like this which I started with Winnie last week. After I filled in the spaces with watercolour I add to add some marks, so for the next three evenings I sat in front of the TV and added the tangles with black and white ink.
…haven’t posted flowers in awhile because I haven’t been able to get out
Today I had to take my husband to the hospital for blood work and his annual check-up in the oncology department. Currently the hospitals don’t allow visitors to accompany patients so I spent time walking through High Park and up and down Roncesvalles. Not many stores are open but the green grocers had flowers sitting in front of their stores and I treated myself to a bunch of these yellow tulips. My husband is fine by the way and his cancer is still in remission after 9 years.
….finished way too late last night to post my finished piece
Yesterday I was inspired by Lisa Congdon after watching one of her art videos. I really enjoy making line drawings of flowers and Lisa takes it a few steps further by adding lots of mark details and another thing that I love, collage. Adding all the marks is very time consuming but also very meditative and I think that’s why I lost track of time when I made this piece.
The second photo is the piece that I just finished today. After not being very happy with my last ‘family portrait’ for Carla Sonheim’s class I decided I would try another. I’ve discovered that if I take my time and let things dry before moving on I get a much better result. Also this time I really enjoyed the assignment where as with the first attempt I wasn’t having much fun.
….I could do these all day long
I started with a random doodle with charcoal and then started to add blocks of watercolour. When the watercolour dried I added marks with black and white pen. Is it wrong to like your own work?
Mama Cormier 