365 Days of Art – Painting Without Brushes

…..Days 20 and 21

In Carla Sonheim’s on-line class we were instructed to create a still life using a scraping technique using an old credit card. Any left over paint on the card could be scraped off onto another piece of paper that could be used in future projects.

I loved this process. My brush pens didn’t give me the desired effect that Carla was looking for so I used the credit card to make all my marks. Jill Kuhn also used bubble wrap to stamp on some colour and I really liked that so I tried that as well. The flowers go off the page in this piece so the vase and the pear are the focal points of this still life. I know that I’m going to experiment with this technique some more. It’s very addictive. I even really like the art paper I created from the left over paint.

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A Busy Weekend

……surrounded by family and friends

This weekend started on Friday when my husband and I drove up to Vaughn to buy a porchetta for our family dinner on Saturday. I really should have taken a photo but I didn’t. I find more and more that I’m just enjoying the moment without having to document everything with my camera.

On Saturday I continued to organize my studio and I started to put together the last piece of furniture from IKEA. At least everything is now in neat piles and I’m able to move around the studio without tripping over boxes and random bits of paper, frames and canvases.

Later in the afternoon I went to a surprise birthday party for a friend from my teaching days. It’s been a busy week for this lovely lady as she and her husband are getting ready to fly to Mexico for her son’s wedding. Her son and future daughter-in-law were in town for a few days so they were able to attend the party. They actually boarded a plane later that night and are now in Mexico to make final arrangements for the wedding.

When I got home around 5:30 my family were already at the house and my husband had prepared all the food for dinner. Again I didn’t take any photos. We had a very nice time and Winnie and I snuck off after dinner to give her parents a few moments to relax with the rest of the family. Winnie’s favourite TV show is Peppa Pig and she was mesmerized for about 15 minutes.

Today started off nice and sunny but quickly became very grey and overcast. Fortunately is was very mild so when Kevin and I went to visit a friend in the hospital we were able to park on the street a little ways from the hospital. We didn’t mind walking and I was able to get in about 4000 extra steps. After our visit we decided to walk up one of our favourite streets in Toronto, Roncesvalles, and look for a coffee shop.

When we got home tonight, Kevin made dinner again and afterwards I phoned my sister in Calgary and then my Dad and I played a game of cribbage. I haven’t yet painted today but the evening is still young and I tend to do my best work at night anyway.

Here are a few shots that I took on Friday when I went for my walk.

365 Days of Art – Day 19

…..I’m truly caught up

Today I spent time developing a piece of art around the theme “Target Animals”, except that I opted not to make an animal. Instead I made a completely abstract piece. You might see an animal or some kind of character in my design but that was not intentional. This assignment is part of Carla Sonheim’s year-long on-line art class.

I used marker and acrylic paint on 185 lb. acrylic paper by Canson. It is 9 x 12 inches in size. The background is actually a lot whiter. I really need to take photos of my art in natural daylight.

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