"An Artist's Richmond"

     I was in the Richmond Hospital the other day and managed to get a photo of the three-panel painting I did for the Hospital Foundation. It is hanging in the waiting area for Diagnostic Imaging - so take a look when you are passing by.  The "dots" are to make it more magical. There are lots of silly things to make it fun to look at and to take people's minds off any stress they may be experiencing. I was talking to a couple of hospital employees and they had picked up on some of the fun things - the cats shopping for fish in Steveston and all those bunny ears in the shrubbery at Minoru, for example.
    Another bit of pencil history... the Eagle company was founded in 1856 in New York by the Berolzheimer family. In 1969, it became part of the Berol Corporation.  Eagle made pencils especially for Thomas Edison  - three inches long and with a softer graphite than normal.
     "Berol" is another name very familiar to artists. It is interesting to find people and stories behind the names we see printed on our pencils and other artist's tools.  Following on the idea of Derwent's  coloured pencils of 1938, P.G. Hooley invented Powdered Color in 1952 and then sold to Eagle. We know these great coloured pencils as Prismacolor now.  In 1989,  Berol also bought Osmiroid International, started by James Perry in 1824. Osmiroid drawing pens are another popular artist's tool.
     Prismacolor has a really interesting website with samples of artist's works and hints for using coloured pencils. The easy spread of information is a great boon for artists today.
     Studio work continues as various  events are around the corner - Richmond Artists Guild show will open in the upper lobby of Gateway on April 1st and run until June 1st, the Finn Slough Show is from April 7th to 10th in the Performance Hall, Richmond Art Centre, and a four-woman painting show, "Four by Four", will be showing at Rocanini Coffee Shop in Steveston from April 18th to June 1st. I have work in all of these - as well as two paintings currently over in Taiwan on exhibit in the National Taiwan Art Education Center. Then there is DoorsOpen June 4th and 5th- so much activity in the art world.