Happy 2010

Here we are at the end of a decade! Remember when the big fear, going in to 2000, was computers crashing and airplanes falling from the sky? Well, they didn't and here we are looking back on ten years and wondering what this next year will bring. For me, I hope there is lots of art activity. The guild managed to get the painting room for the weekend of the 19th and 20th and we had a good session painting a model. It was great to get actual paints out - rather than pastels- and have enough hours to finish. Unless I am painting something small, outdoors, there is no way I can complete a painting in two hours. As usual, I was painting with acrylics on canvas. We had our lovely model in a replica ballgown, kindly supplied by Sharon. It made a good subject. From my position, a couldn't see very much of the skirt, so I just did head and shoulders. Since then, not much in painting - but I did "create" Christmas dinner - and there is a whole year ahead!

Happy Holidays!

I put Happy Holidays on my cards this year because it can apply to everyone - no matter what their religion. This year, the transit buses flash Happy Holidays in between telling their destinations. It makes a happy greeting when a person is out driving.
This year I used "Towers, Cesky Krumlov" on my cards. There is the clock tower from the castle and a church tower down below. Memories of last years "happy holiday".

Here we go again-

This should show "Homeward Bound" this time. Well,last blog, I clicked on "show image", uploaded the image and it would have published to the post once I clicked "done" -only "done" did not show up to be clicked. This is a Mac and it usually works "tickedy-boo" as people used to say. Every now and then it doesn't - as you can tell from past posts. My theory is that computers have moods and some just "don't wanna.."

Paintings at Steveston

The Richmond Artists Guild was invited to display paintings in MLA John Yap's office in Steveston -right around the corner from Starbucks. Some paintings are on the Olympic sports theme while others are of Steveston and Finn Slough. Each one is by a different artist but they all work together very well and quite bring the office walls to life. Parking can be dicey in Steveston, but I got lucky and parked right outside the office - a good thing, since I had a four-foot ladder in the car for our hanging job. I took a little 24' x 12" acrylic on canvas painting called "Homeward Bound" so it would fit a little wall. It is a fishboat heading back up the Fraser River. It is a nice opportunity to show works- and we are hoping that we will be invited to continue with different shows.

Another day, another drawing

Today was drawing at Gail's and we had Helene for a model. She has such a twinkle in her eyes. I love her curly hair and had fun with hair in my pastel drawing. Well, I call it a drawing but some people refer to these more finished pieces as pastel *paintings*. We were talking a bit about modelling and how some people think it is easy -"just sit". However, holding a pose is not that simple and getting back into the same position, after a break, requires a real sense of presence. Also, there is a rapport between the model and the artist or artists. Helene said that the model has to be in the present moment. If she is modelling for a class, she will adjust her poses to the points that the instructor is teaching. We got the lighting just right and all the results turned out well. Of course, each artist has his or her own style so there were individual interpretations. I love drawing people and am definitely interested in doing portraits - should the opportunity arise. Some artists do a lot of obvious measuring. I used to - but quite often I just "eyeball" it - comparing shapes to shapes as I block it in - maybe it is a bit looser that way?