Earth Spirit Vessels

These two vessels went to a lovely lady who has supplied me with cording for adding to my creative projects. Its delightful to take what others no longer need or want and make something different out of it. Its serendipitous  to be able to give those people something they do want and and would use. Have a wonderful Easter weekend.

Bear Bear Bear

This post was written awhile back but for some reason it never posted.

I'm  being inspired by bears we watched last spring in Waterton Lakes National Park. It was a wonderful chilly drizzly windy with periods of sunshine kinda week spent admiring the remote beauty as mountains drifted in and out of sight amongst rain clouds. I love Southern Alberta landscapes where the rolling hills blend up to the mountains. The exception being constant gusting wind everyday, the constant howl does tend to drive one a wee bit crazy after a while.

Though Grizzly were spotted at higher elevations we pretty much stayed to the lower levels aside from one bitter cold windy rainy afternoon at Cameron Lake. We partially hiked the lakeside trail looking for glacier lilies and thankfully found two of the yellow beauties not too far along the trail as we really were not prepared for the extreme wind chill so headed back to the boat rental place to warm up.

With the experience ingrained in my spirit and diverse reference photos to work from I composed a few more bear paintings after finishing "Watching the Hikers" Acrylic, on wrapped canvas, 16x24 inches

"Masked Cinnamon Bear in Wildflower Meadow" 

Acrylic on wrapped canvas, 16x16 inches

I love the face of cinnamon bear as it was dark like a mask. I may at some point do a closer up view of its face but for these paintings the bears are in natural habitat and I want to maintain the impression of being viewed in the wilds, not close up photo-realistic as I tend to do. When out viewing we see form and shape and how light hits that form with contrasted dark shadow. Sometimes the animal is close enough and the light is just right to see their eyes but mostly not. Its more an experience. Excitement increases the adrenaline while almost silent exclamations escape the lips as we breathe out, all the while breathing in the moment, the beauty, the Wow of creation that we are but a tiny part of.

"Rocky Mountain Black Bear"

Acrylic on wrapped canvas, 10 x14 inches

This bear had the most black glossy coat, so shinny and rich looking that I struggled to achieve the look I wanted to portray. Did I get it?

There is one more on the drawing board of a bear I called Saddle Blanket. We watched Saddle Blanket and his/her mom traverse across an open meadow grubbing for roots and bulbs one eve at dusk. The light was fast receding behind the mountain but we were able to watch them for about ten minutes through our camera lens before them ambled over the hilltop out of view. Yes I view distant wildlife through a 300 prime lens; sure wish I could afford a pair of quality binoculars but with limited funds I make do with what I have.

SkirtsAfire fashion show and media blitz

What a great morning. We walked into the hall and noticed I was the oldest participant, which of course made hubby chuckle and call me an ole boot, Matriarch I corrected him, both chuckling by now. Then someone questioned if I was there to support my daughter, I laughingly replied "no this ole boot is one of the designers who decide to expand her comfort level".  I can now say I participated as a designer and model in the SkirtsAfire fashion show media blitz and had a blast. I loved the energy and the coming together of creative women, it was wonderful, its how it should be. Creative women supporting and promoting creativity in women, what a wonderful thing to be a part of. SkirtsAfire is now in its third year and I am so looking towards taking in some of the events. 

The opening ceremony is thursday March 5th from 5-7pm at the Nina Haggerty Gallery 9225 118 Ave.

My art work is in the juried art exhibition at the gallery, so we will be in attendance. 

From 1-3 pm on saturday there will be artists talks and viewing at the Gallery, I will be talking about my work but don't know what time.

Ok I promised photos, so my loving husband set to the task of capturing the show to share.

 Getting ready.

 I was the lead out and as my dress is titled "Dance the Night Away" based on 1920 Flapper era I shimmied, shook and twirled, in essence had great fun.

 Skirt made from used plastic tablecloths, surveyors tape, kitchen strainers, christmas tinsel, cassette tape and mesh fruit bags. The judges are sitting to the right and you can see some of the camera crews that were recording the event.

Next up was a fantastic creation by three young students Madison Braget, Brooke Fersovitch and Kaylee Gaines titled "Midnight Truffle" which was made of tarp layers fringed with a duck tape waistband fastened with bottle cap buttons. I loved seeing their youthful creativity they did an excellent job, the bottle cap buttons were in my mind a stroke of genius. Sorry no close up, though hope to take some close up photos on the mannequins when the SkirtsAfire Festival opens.

"Mas Claro" by Joan McFarlane. Great geometric design by arranging tea towels and bubble wrap. (this one is a runner up)

 Can you believe its door screening as the base of this skirt that is covered with receipts and cigarette foils. "Not-your-ordinary Lace Skirt" by Paola Cantal.

 Ira Tuzlukova made "Paper Couture" skirt totally out of folded paper, amazing. Founded on the idea of Alexander McQueen couture lines.

 "Save Our Trees, No Flyers Please" by Tessa Stamp and Christie Hutchinson. Tree branches and flyers attached to a burlap base, I love the matching head piece that pulled the woodsy look together. (This is the the winning skirt)

And "Sleight of Hand" by Kia Day, a fitted Pencil style skirt made from playing cards with a hint of red lace at the leg.

As one can tell the designs are varied, creative, fun and best of all they are made of reuse and upcycle. During the festival all skirts will be on display in the SkirtsAfire Cabaret Space at the Alberta Community League 9210 118th Ave.

I can honestly say I am pleased to have been chosen to be a part of the SkirtsAfire skirt design competition. Well done Ladies.

Waterton National Park Bear Painting in acrylic from start to finish.

I love bears and I love watching and painting them. Last spring we camped in Waterton to study bears as they grazed on the open mountainside meadows. In all we were blessed with seeing about eight different bears and the meadows were abundant with a blaze of colorful blossoms.

 Mostly I paint tightly with high detail so this time I made a conscious decision to paint in a looser style. Instead of doing a highly detailed drawing onto canvas I only noted the bear and the mountains basic outline with a bit of detail to keep me on track. Keeping with the notion for my brush strokes to have more freedom I painted standing up, normally I sit while painting. Mixing a good quantity of acrylic gel into the paints brushed on with a one inch brush in a very loose manner to cover the canvas gives an initial color tone.

 The next step was to mix color with less gel though still keeping the colors washy yet darker tone shaping the forms with paint. The colors are Liquitex Cadmium red med hue, cadmium yellow light hue and Ultramarine blue (green shade) as well as titanium white mixed in to shape the moody spring sky that blends into the snow ridges on the mountain. I always use quality paints and high quality canvas to work on. It costs more but is well worth the extra dollars spent.

 Adding more paint and less gel the painting advances as more detail is added. Greens are all made up of blends of Cadmium yellow and ultramarine blue with varying touches of red to tone and mute some areas.

 I now push the paintbrush flowers with vivid pure strokes of cad red & cad yellow and add white to ultramarine to define the blue flower shapes.

 Passages of gray tones are created using the primary colors to add depth to effectively push the lighter mountains back into the distance. With a touch of burt sienna into the ultramarine the foreground is glazed to tone down some areas and some of the paintbrush flowers are toned down.

 The completed painting converted to black and white on the computer to check tonal balance.

The painting is complete, at least at this point I believe it to be. I will leave off painting at this point and see how I like it a week from now. Sometimes I get too close to a piece and don't see the flaws till later so its best to leave it alone and work on the next. Actually I work on up to three paintings at a time  bouncing back and forth between them. If I get stuck on what to do next I switch to another to keep the momentum going, well thats the theory if alls going well. This painting which is 16x 20 inches took about one week to produce. Title which came to me as I was painting is "Watching the Hikers"

2nd post about SkirtsAfire design competition

Wish I could say making a plastic tablecloth skirt is an easy-breezy chore, but, I cannot. Its a good thing I didn't procrastinate on this project as there have been a few minor set-backs. First was breaking threads and screwy tension on the sewing machine. I figured the top tension was askew so I went online to investigate how to remove the top cover. Frustration set after a few hours searching. Thank goodness Super-hubbies excellent google skills got it figured out. The cover was removed to reveal an astounding amount of dust and fibre lint staring me down. After a bit of dusting and finagling with tweezers removing thread from deep moving parts I was impressed that I was able to put everything back together; good thing attention was paid to how hubby removed it.

 My initial idea was to use tinsel held together at one end figuring I could just stitch across the top attaching it to the plastic. Well, not to be as the plastic is too fragile, too thin, too old, tears easy. Yes, tears easy, oh my the words emitting from the depth of the studio was… well lets just say its a good thing hubby has a sense of humour and finds my outburst funny. So time for a rethink. I dig through more old recycle stuff destined for the Reuse store and find the mangle of tinsel you see above.

 Since the tinsel cannot be sewn to the plastic I decide to loop it through the strainer parts instead, whoohoo, looks like it going to work. So after three hours looping and tying progress is made.

As the skirt needs a display stand during the SkirtsAfire Festival an old dress form purchased for an art project years ago needed bulked up as its a good six inches smaller than the breadth and depth of my body shape. I cut up an old quilted coat and hand stitched it to the form filling in the waist area, then wrapped and stitched an old blanket to fill out the rest of the form topped off by a t-shirt to hold it all intact. Oh shiiii..t the legs on the stand wobble and tip the form over. Once again Super-hubby to the rescue to tighten bolts. The skirt is placed on the form and ahghhhh... the tinsel has shook loose due its slipperiness and is falling to the floor. NOooooo!

Rethink time!

Tea time.

My Achy Breaky Heart cassette is cut and tied in with silver, red and gold tinsel for varied texture. 

The fix is thick pink cotton thread from a rummage sale. 

The re-thread job after two days of work as it is a finicky slippery process.

As one may now realize I've only given a glimpse of materials, the reason for this tease is that the completed skirt will be shown in a fashion show on february 23, so please be patient as the completed skirt will be after that date.

2 more mini paintings

"Morning Star Fox"

There is a den under a patio in Camrose. When I got out early for a walk around the lake one day an older fella told me to walk at  5am and I would see a fox and kits. Well I can barley move at 5am let alone venture outdoors. Wonderfully one day I was graced with this young upstart who refused momma fox heeding and sat outside the den in the morning sun long enough for me to get a few fuzzy shots.  I was quite a distance away on the opposite side of the lake when I spotted him and by the time I got close he had vanished under the decking. 

"The wind through the forest" Pileated Woodpecker

I have been wanting to paint the Pileated woodpecker for some time now. It was difficult deciding on the background as my canvas base color is a bold cadmium yellow which although did not take away from the bird, did nothing for it either. After a few tries at backgrounds that did not satisfy I finally decided on warming it up with azo yellow and cad orange, underneath is also cad red which helps with the warmth.  Now I believe it works.

Chip'n Dale

 As promised earlier I am now posting the new paintings, this is Dale, inquisitive little fella isn't he. I am having so much fun depicting birds and critters. Its a pleasure to photograph them in their natural habitat and then get creative in the studio.

an well this is Chip of course. Both paintings are 8"x8" acrylic on canvas.