Be an Artist in 10 Steps

"Be an Artist in 10 Steps" is the title of a book that appeared in a catalog. Wow! now if it was just that easy...Not only that, the book covers pastels, pencils, acrylics, watercolours and oils! Most of us consider art to be a life-long learning process, requiring at least the 10,000 hours to attain any level of proficiency! Even then, we don't rest and continue on the same way. We keep experimenting, keep practicing, keep reading, going to life drawing, attending demos and workshops... somehow I doubt that 10 steps is going to do it. However, it does show that many people are intrigued and challenged with the idea of getting into art. !0 steps is just the tip of the iceberg and I hope the purchasers of the book are happy with their glimpse at "what it takes". Sometimes people gain greater appreciation when they try it themselves, so that's another positive.....My illustration for this one is "Three Pears" which will also be in the "Moms in Our Midst" show at Omega Gallery (27th and Dunbar in Vancouver). It is one of my "Iconic Edibles" where I used metallic gold paint to make the edibles like icons. I'll probably get back to doing more fruit and vegetables but they will, no doubt, be a different series again.

Poppies for Mother's Day

There is going to be a Mothers' Day Show at Omega Gallery - all the artists will be Moms. I thought something floral might work well for this show. This is a new painting from a photo I took last summer- Poppies by the Fence. The poppies were part of a community garden. They are pink poppies with yellow centres- not the red ones with black centres. They were fun to paint - trying to capture the way light fell on them and the almost-rustic fence. I'll be taking the painting up to Omega on Monday but here it is for viewing now.

Into April...

I've just done my April Newsletter and realizing that, yes, it is a month until DoorsOpen and there will be quite a bit of organizing to do- setting up displays, doing a re-hanging in the main display area, baking a few cookies so I'll have refreshments and figuring out which painting will be the "free draw". Not to mention actually taking advertising brochures around to as many places as possible. In the meantime, regular activities continue (and we are not mentioning the Spring garden clean-up) -such as Life Drawing and a new session starting for Sculpture. I'm working in water-soluble graphite for Life Drawing- in one of my periodic switches of mediums. The combination of the pencil and wash makes an interesting change....until the next switch. This is one of Lawrence done a couple of weeks ago.