…..meditative and fun to do
I’m loving my personal challenge so far. Three days in and I’ve managed to produce three pieces of abstract art. I won’t always do the same type of art and I will eventually move onto larger pieces. I may even take some of these smaller pieces and use them as inspiration for a larger piece using a different medium, perhaps acrylic or ink.
January 1st, 2018
January 2, 2018
January 3, 2018
…..I’m not a believer in New Year’s resolutions but I have set a challenge for myself for 2018
With all that went on last year in my personal life I felt that my art suffered. Once I stopped teaching I found little time to pursue my art. Ironic isn’t it that retirement was the reason for not making art but rather than go into all the details as to why that happened I want to focus on the now and how that will change.
Recently I complained to one of my followers that I couldn’t find time to make art because my studio space was still in a shambles from the renovation. This very wise woman suggested that I take my sketchpad and just start drawing anywhere in the house. So that’s exactly what I did and when everyone had gone to bed I would open my book and start making marks. Then I added some watercolour. I’m loving the process and have decided to make art every day, even if it’s just a doodle.
I started the challenge on New Year’s Eve. Here is my first piece of art made on the last day of 2017.
I will try to post a work of art every day or if I start on something larger I will post the progress on a daily basis.
…..what am I easily distracted by?
There are probably a lot of things that distract me, make me lose my focus but one of them is seeing art. I’m fascinated with abstract artists and I can get lost in their paintings. This happened to me last year when I had the opportunity to see numerous famous works of art at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in Venice.
Check out other WPC – ooh, Shiny! posts.
…..thanks to Carla Sonheim for getting me back to drawing
After weeks of inactivity in making art I’ve finally opened my art journal and made two new entries. I’m participating in Carla’s 365: A Year Long On-line Class. Every day there’s a new video with interviews, quotes from artists or art assignments.
….do you have photos of soft pastel colours? …..check out Cee’s fun foto challenge
…..here we go again…..thanks Cee
You’re given $500,000 dollars tax free (any currency), what do you spend it on?
I think about this every time I play the lottery because in Canada a lottery win is tax free (for now). First I would pay off all my credit cards and then I would give each of my children about $50 000 to pay off school loans and any other debts that they have incurred. This would still leave me with $300 000 so I would probably fix all the unfinished projects around my house and cottage, take a trip or two (Europe and somewhere exotic) and put some money away for our retirement.
What’s the finest education?
The finest education is the school of life. If you don’t or can’t learn from the hard knocks of life all the expensive education from Ivy League Schools schools is worthless.
What kind of art is your favorite? Why?
My favourite art is abstract art. I love colour, line and texture and some of my favourite artists are Ray Cattell, Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miro and Marc Chagall.
One of Ray’s paintings.
Is there something that you memorized long ago and still remember?
I hated memorizing poems or anything for that matter when I was in school. Having said that I have to admit that I know a lot of nursery rhymes and the national anthem.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful that my husband’s surgery went well. He had half his thyroid removed and a very large, unattractive cyst in his neck was also removed. I’m also grateful that my son-in-law’s procedure on his heart also went well and any future problems with his birth defect has been eliminated.
After surgery, the next day
Before Surgery
Looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner with the family this Sunday. The kids are doing the bulk of the cooking. Bonus!
…..paintings that is
Today the grade 5 students in my art class managed to finish painting all the circles and background of their art project for the silent auction. After school I started putting a second coat on some of the areas that needed it. Tomorrow I’ll pull a few more students out of class to go over the background one more time and then I’ll redraw the black lines around and inside the circles.
The two canvases that the one grade three class designed and painted had the finishing touch ups done today. Tomorrow I’ll have all the students sign the back of the canvases and they will be good to go. The first one actually has a grey background. I’m not sure why the colour looks so beige.
….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?
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….after two years of looking at this piece of art work I finally changed it
I knew when I started this piece that it wasn’t turning out the way I had hoped. Yesterday I finally pulled out the few paints I had with me at the cottage, set up the easel and went to work to “fix it”. I went to the opposite end of the colour wheel and started to cover the red with greens, blue greens and blues.
When I paint I don’t always have an image in mind. I just go where the colours take me. I am so much happier with this new piece. I’ve signed it and am declaring it finished.
….my grade 2s,3s and 4s loved this project
Even though we only have less than one week of school left, my students really wanted to finish their Picasso portraits. I love all of them. They are all so different and so very colourful. The ones that were started two weeks ago were painted with acrylic paint and the ones that were started only a few day s ago were completed with coloured sharpies.
Mama Cormier 
