….now that the weather is colder and painting outside is no longer an option my husband has decided to work on smaller pieces
One of the things that Kevin is particularily good at is drawing or illustrating fun creatures. He initially started making drawings for our first granddaughter over a year ago and then suddenly stopped. This week he decided it was time to bring back Monster Mondays and Tuesday Birds. Here are his first two drawings.
Ink, marker and watercolour
….a time to reflect on my Father’s life
Dad always said that November was the hardest month of the year for him. It always made him feel sad, especially in the last few years of his life. He was a very young man, only 17, when he joined the army and he saw many of his friends die before his eyes. He often wondered why he was spared.
The other thing that I think he found difficult was the fact that he fought for the ‘other side’ and he knew that no one, here, would be thanking him for his service. He never talked about it but I know that it weighed heavily on him. I do know that he was always very grateful for the friendships he forged after the war, first with the Americans who helped him after he escaped the Russian prison camp and then with the English who gave him his first job.
Years later he emigrated from Germany to Canada with his new and growing family. He quickly got a good job at the Royal York Hotel in his chosen line of work. He was able to buy a car almost right away and four years after arriving in Toronto he bought his first home in Oakville. Dad always made friends easily with other German immigrants and Canadians alike. No one seemed to look down on him because he fought in the German army.
Over the years Dad pursued a variety of jobs but his happiest days were as an entrepreneur. When I was 16, Mom and Dad started their own fabric and sewing machine business and never looked back. Again Dad was at the top of his game when he was surrounded by people and both he and Mom had close ties with the business and local community.
As the years passed, Dad lost my mother while vacationing in Mexico in 1993 and then his second wife in 2017. When he turned 90 in 2016 we had a big party for him. Despite having lost numerous friends already he always made new friends where ever he went and yet come November he would always reflect on those who had died before him and he would fall into a deep depression.
Dad passed away almost four weeks ago. This Remembrance Day I will reflect on all the good times I had with him in my lifetime. It will be bittersweet. This painting is dedicated to you Dad.
…thanks to Jez for hosting A Fan of …. https://jezbraithwaite.blog/2020/11/09/flowering-cacti-fan-of-84/
This week I’m a fan of my husband’s abstract paintings. Back in August he finally started painting again after a 45 year hiatus. He was primarily painting with acrylics but yesterday he started to experiment with watercolour. Here are his first attempts in this new medium.
This last photo is the first painting in a frame under glass. This one has already been slated as a gift to one of the nurses at MacMaster Hospital in Hamilton.
…painting is good for the soul
I find painting small helps me get rid of any inhibitions I might have about the process. The process for abstract painting is varied, depending on the artist or teacher that you speak to. I find the best way to get started is to just lay down some random marks and go from there.
Here are the two studies that I worked on this morning.
…it’s been too long
I cleaned off my art table yesterday. That was half the battle. Now I have no more excuses not to paint. On Hallowe’en I actually painted four individual cards for my neighbours but I forgot to photograph them. Painting is very therapeutic for me and I need to do it more often.
I’ve watched dozens of painting videos in the last four months and even though I felt inspired I just couldn’t get motivated to set up the paints. I want to enter an art show later in the month but I have to put my entries on line by November 6th. I’d better get busy. Here is my first attempt at mixed media ….mostly watercolour and ink.
I need a title for this painting. Any suggestions?
….thanks to Cee for hosting the Fun Foto Challenge
Hand Painted Egg
Part of a Ray Cattell Painting in my house
Watercolour done by me
COVID Painting in the Neighbourhood
Granddaughter’s Painting
Painted Road Sign
Peeling Paint
….thanks to Carla Sonheim for this wonderful class
I’m in the habit of purchasing on line art classes and then not completing every assignment. Luckily I have access to the class forever so I can always go back and see if I am more inspired later on.
The last class I purchased, Flower Crazy 2, kept me motivated throughout all eight assignments. The final assignment involved creating two paintings, using watercolour, gel medium, collage, ink and pencil or charcoal. There were numerous steps involved and with each step the painting evolved into these interesting abstract creations.
….lesson 4 and 5 of Carla Sonheim’s ‘Flower Crazy 2’ class
In the next two lessons we were encouraged to make some abstract flower shapes on Swedish tissue paper using water colour and chalk markers. I didn’t have Swedish tissue so I used a tissue like Japanese paper that I had on hand. Here are the flowers I created, first with the chalk markers and then the watercolour paints.
Then using some of the techniques learned so far I created a new abstract floral painting and layered the collage pieces on top using a mat gel medium. Once the medium was dry I added some shading using pencil and highlighted area with white ink.
….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.
…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.
