…thanks to Rainee for hosting the 30 Day Creativity Challenge
As I’ve said before my creative juices flow whenever I take a new class or walk through an art gallery. This week I had some work to do in the library at the Women’s Art Association of Canada and while I was there a group of busy women were installing a new art show called Creative Spirit. Here are a some of the pieces that spoke to me personally.
…thanks to Rainee for introducing me to the 30 Day Creativity Challenge
I’m continuing to do a page a day in my sketchbook using words and drawing of things around me. The thing I’m not very good at is posting my work on a daily basis.
One of the places where I’m getting my inspiration for these drawings is from children’s picture books. On day 26 I went to visit my granddaughter in Hamilton and I brought my sketchbook along. One of things I let her do is draw in my book.
We were going through one of her favourite books where she can make faces using the stickers from the back of the book. The faces are taken from all kinds of objects like fruit, vegetables, leaves, acorns, dishes, toys, etc.. One of the faces I enjoyed from the book was the leaf so I drew one in my sketchbook. Winnie chose a geometric pattern that she tried to replicate on the next page to mine.
We enjoyed making dialogue balloons and making up things that the object might say. I went from a leaf to acorns and the page started to come together. Winnie enjoyed the process so much that she wanted me to redraw some of the shapes on a clean page so that she could add her own details using a pencil and blending stick. The blending stick was new to her and she loved the effects of smudging her lines to create shadows (her words). Here are results of our time together.
…thanks to Rainee for introducing me to the 30 Day Creativity Challenge
One of the least known Group of Seven artists was Lionel LeMoine Fitzgerald. He originated from Manitoba and was famous for his prairie landscapes. Later in his life he painted abstracts and still life and enjoyed using pen, ink and pencil. It was one of his abstracts that I saw at the McMichael Art Gallery that inspired this work of art. I used a ball point pen and pencil.
…thanks to Rainee for hosting the 30 Day Creativity Challenge
Last week I had an opportunity to go to the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg and see the Maud Lewis show. I’ve been interested in her art and life for a few years now but have never had an opportunity to see her work up close and personal. To be honest I was always a bit curious about her success as an artist because her work is so simple and somewhat primitive.
Maud used to sell her work to tourists who would buy her pieces for $3.00 to $5.00 and later she got as much as $7.00 for one of her oil paintings. She used to paint right from the tube and never mix her colours. This was very evident when I saw her work last week. The colours are very bright and fresh and the scenes of the countryside in Nova Scotia are delightful. I can now understand why the public liked her work so much.
Anytime I go to an art gallery I’m inspired to make art. Here are a few of her wonderful works of art. The larger pieces are done on wooden shutters.
…thanks to Rainee for hosting the 30 Day Creativity Challenge\
I’ve been making art with my granddaughter again and making pizza with her. I’ve always loved her free style but she does have a vision and you don’t want to tamper with that. That was clearly evident when she decided to make her pizza in the shape of a ‘stop sign’. The adults kept wanting her to add cheese to her creation but she refused and when they didn’t listen she had a melt down. Oma and Papa to the rescue. Lots of dough left over so we started again. Here are our efforts from last Sunday.
….thanks to Becky B for hosting January Squares
Last night my neighbour and I went to the Distillery District to see a play. As we walked through the historical area we were confronted with beautiful lights. I researched why we were seeing all these light sculptures and discovered that they were part of an annual Light Festival. Here’s one sculpture that changed colours while we looked at it.
….thanks to Rainee for introducing me to the 30 Day Creativity Challenge
Lesson two of 2020: Words and Pictures was taught by a new instructor, Martha Rich. Our assignment is to draw or doodle a page of thoughts and pictures of things we hear and see. We are suppose to use a black brush pen and just go for it. It’s not the quality of the work that matters here but the quantity. Once I got over the insecurity of drawing without being able to erase and using such a bold marker I started to enjoy the process. Here are the first four pages from my sketch book.
…thanks to Rainee for getting me going on the30 Day Creativity Challenge
I’ve just completed my third art piece around the saying ‘This is impossible to read but it was fun to make.’ My inspiration came from watching Lesson two for the 2020: Pictures and Words year long class hosted by Carla Sonheim. The teacher for this class has us doing something very different but I was mesmerized by her glasses and decided to use her as my subject for this drawing. Thanks Martha.
….thanks to Rainee for starting me on my 30 Day Creativity Challenge
Here is the second assignment of lesson one for Carla Sonheim’s class, 2020: Pictures and Words. Using the phrase ‘This might be impossible to read but it was fun to make.’ I created a way out collage using facial features and words.
…thanks to Rainee for connecting me with the 30 Day Creativity Challenge
Today I finally got around to starting my first assignment for the year long on-line course called 2020: Words and Pictures. Carla Sonheim’s first lesson was taking a phrase and creating at least three different art pieces using any medium we wanted. The phrase is:
‘This might be impossible to read but it was fun to make.’
I kept writing the phrase from the centre of a circle and just kept going and going, around and around. In the end I decided to add some collage detail and write the phrase one more time. 
