Elsa-

Last Saturday, at Adrienne's, we had a flamenco dancer model for us. Elsa is very dramatic looking and the poses were striking. For the "long pose", I worked in coloured conte' again ( hard pastel) as I am not a really fast painter. (I guess I will have to speed up for the Grand Prix of Painting in Steveston at the end of September!) I felt pretty good about capturing the tension in Elsa's arms in this pose. Now I intend to make a painting from this. Serendipity arises in that Elsa will be performing in October in Steveston and we will have a chance to show our paintings at her performance!

Doodling

One of the things artists are often asked is to make a donation. This is something most of us like to do - but, on occasion, as it can get out of line otherwise. However, I've just taken part in a fun "donation" - three sets of doodles being sent to "Oodles of Doodles", the fundraiser for Surrey Hospice association. I don't usually doodle in an abstract way - but rather faces or "things". For this, I did cats, kids and birds. Of course, they are fun and imaginary - and I hope they will work hard to help raise funds for the Hospice. Here is the bird one- birds have such extraordinary variety that they are quite "imaginary" to start with... but I tried to go "one better" in most cases.

Progress on the Plein Air event!

Well, much progress has been made on the plein air painting in Steveston. We are getting sponsors so there should be lots of "participation" awards for both artists and volunteers. There is a website set up now---www.grandprixofart.com which will have more information as time goes along- but whoa! time is moving along as this is all to happen on September 25th! The limit is 50 artists and I wouldn't be surprised if it fills up well before the date. The excitement is definitely building! In the meantime, I have turned the pastel (shown on the blog on November 27th,2009) of Milford, into the inspiration for a painting- shown here. Milford has the most interesting costumes! (and is an interesting person).

Another go...

As I've said, one of the good things about acrylics is that you can change things. Remember "Grandmother's Gown"? As in previous posts, I did work to warm it up once- but now I've had another go at it. This time, I made even more changes to the warmth- and also added an earring- and I feel much happier about it. The other thing I have been working on is an event for "Cultural Days" - a cross-Canada celebration of the arts at the end of September. The Guild is going to sponsor a plein-air painting event. Artists will have three hours to complete a painting - in the Steveston area- and there will be prizes. People can walk around to see the artists at work, and later even vote for "people's choice". It will be open to all artists but there will be registration. We don't have registration forms yet but Saturday, September 25 is the day to mark on your calendar for Steveston's Gran Prix d'Art.

Show in Hallway

Today the Richmond Artists Guild hung a show of member's work in the Minoru hallway of the Richmond Art Centre. I have two paintings in the exhibit. One is "Baskets" which is posted on my June 11 blog and the other is "Iris Garden"-which I intend to post here. Iris Garden is a view of a house (gardener's house?)and nearby irises as seen from the gardens of the Lieutenant-Governor's residence in Victoria, B.C. We had an enthusiastic group out with their paintings and there is a nice variety - definitely worth dropping in to see if you are in Richmond. Blogging has fallen behind as there have been many meetings and other events. Stay tuned for something exciting to happen for Cultural Days at the end of September. I've been working on something which is not ready for an announcement yet.