Canvas Unbound

Canvas Unbound III opens on May 20th and runs to June 3 at the Federation Gallery on Granville Island. As with all FCA shows, it is a juried one. I have a canvas in this show- " Birches-Winter". It is actually just *one* birch but you don't see the trunk in the painting- you see the five sections- which is what you see looking out the window while seated at the computer. This painting should probably be subtitled "Albert's Choice" because Albert the cat was sitting on my lap. I had finished what I was doing on the computer but Albert was in no mood to move. When I looked to see what he was looking at, I noticed how nice the light was catching on the birch trunks and grabbed my sketch book to check out how it might look. There were Redwing Blackbirds visiting from the marsh so I felt they needed to be in the drawing too. After colouring up the sketch, I decided to work it out as a painting. It took quite a long time as there were so many branches to deal with, but I was quite pleased with the end result. Margreth commented that it was "very fresh". Albert has made no comment.

Doors Open Report....

Doors Open is over for another year now- but I still haven't tidied everything away. One hundred and twenty-one people came through my studio. Many were doing a complete "studio tour" as their choice of visits. There was a lot of interest and everyone seemed to really be enjoying themselves. A lot of people expressed pleasure at finding how many artists are here, working away, right in Richmond. Making art is a "must" activity for an artist. It can be lonely so it is a pleasure, too, for an artist to have people come and look and enjoy looking.