Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Pen, Pencils, Markers and Crayons

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Cee for hosting the Fun Foto Challenge

Eraser Stamping

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….another interesting technique from Carla Sonheim’s ‘Crazy Flowers 2’ lessons

Instead of buying expensive stamps you can make stamps from kneadable erasers. Simply knead the eraser into a tube or cone shape and flatten one end till it’s about the size of a quarter. Then press the flat surface into something with texture or add marks with a pointy tool or the edge of a knife.

Pick up some ink from a stamp pad and try it on a scrap piece of paper first. You can play around with ghost printing and overlapping colours. Here is my sample sheet of flowers made using this technique.

The next assignment is to use all the techniques taught so far and create three small painting of abstract flowers.

Pattern and Mark Making

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Mama Cormier

…using 12 unconventional tools

Lesson two in Carla Sonheim’s class, Crazy Flowers 2, we had to come up with 12 tools that you would not normally use in painting and use both ends of the tool to create interesting marks. Here are my 12 tools.

Then we had to create a pattern on a large sheet of watercolour paper using all 12 tools. Since both sides are being used you should end up with 24 different marks on the paper. As you can see the paper became very busy but now I have a reference for future assignments when I want to create an interesting mark for an abstract flower.

Crazy Watercolour Flowers

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Carla Sonheim for sharing the techniques I used to make this

This first lesson involved watercolour scraping and creating experimental flower shapes using a Pilot pen. The idea is to stay loose and experiment with line quality.

Collaged Vessels – A New Art Project

Posted on September 11, 2019 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Anne Marie Grgich for her inspirational collage project

Part three of Carla Sonheim’s Year of the Collage features artist Anne Marie Grgich. Our first assignment involved obtaining three vases, piles of coloured thin paper and a glue stick. The paper was to be sorted by colour and cut into large and small pieces.

When everything was assembled we were to attach similar pieces around the vase using a numbering system. The pieces were attached and burnished with a glue stick and your hands.

I did most of this assignment up at the cottage. It was very mediative. The first layer is complete on two of the three vases and now I have to wait for the next lesson to find out what the next step is.

Here are the three vases that I picked up at Value Village.

And here are the vases after the first layer of collage.

Pull Up a Seat Photo Challenge – August 24, 2019

Posted on August 24, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Xingfu Mama for hosting the Pull Up a Seat Photo Challenge

On Thursday I made a quick trip to the library at WAAC. After a short meeting I decided to head over to the museum which is literally around the corner. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people on the street and some were sitting on walls to take in a fabulous group of street musicians.

Inside the museum I only had time to visit one exhibit. I have a membership so I know that I can come back at any time and take a closer look at things that really interest me. I chose to walk around the ‘Treasures of a Desert Kingdom’. What a wonderfully rich display wealth, art and culture.

Some of the most interesting artefacts were the chairs, thrones and modes of transportation.

If you’re in Toronto check out this exhibit. The royal family is still in existence today and kindly loaned the artefacts and jewels to the ROM.

The Life of a Dead Tree

Posted on August 22, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….recently featured at MOCA

Several weeks ago my daughter, daughter-in-law and I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto. My daughter wanted to check out the zine show and I wanted to see the gallery. I’d never been to MOCA and the entrance fee was free that day….BONUS!!!

The zine show was packed with young entrepreneurs, displaying and selling their tiny self published magazines.

In the main gallery, the show that was featured was called ‘The Life of a Dead Tree’ and it consisted of sections of a dead tree that had been taken down here in the city. There was an on going study of the tree and there were experts around the room that could answer questions that you might have about what you were seeing. I’m glad we took the time to ask questions because it made the display that much more interesting.

The part that I found most interesting were the insects that inhabited the tree and were eventually the demise of the tree.

When I saw the patterns on the next two photos I thought that they were done by humans as part of the art project. To my amazement the guide explained how the emerald ash borer had made these marks….beautiful but deadly.

Friendly Friday – Fake

Posted on August 9, 2019 by Mama Cormier

…..thanks to Snow for hosting Friendly Friday this week

The first thing I think of when I hear the work fake is ‘fake news’. I promise I’m NOT posting any of that. These are reproductions of famous art sculptures and wax dummies to fake Christmas trees.