Fraserview Church View Gallery

Sunday, the View Gallery opened a new show, following Margreth's.Larry Tillyer is the featured artist. This is called "Around the Corner" and is streets and houses around Vancouver. Done in Larry's colourful style, it is a joy to see. Barb Bowen, as usual, has done a great hanging job and the space shows off the paintings well. We are fortunate to have Fraserview doing this community outreach and giving artists a space to show their work. I know I certainly appreciated having paintings on show early this year. The picture shows Larry with Barb Bowen and a glimpse of Larry's impressionistic take on a house. I think I"d like to live there!

From October 21-

Steveston Folk Music Guild put on a very enjoyable evening's entertainment on the 21st. Marvin forgot his picture (!) and Rita hadn't finished hers, but Bonita, Adrienne and I took our paintings of Elsa for display. Elsa was really pleased with them all.Each one was individual and captured different aspects of the model and the idea of performance. In the photo, Bonita's painting is just peeking over Elsa's shoulder. It shows the drama and ambiance of performance. Adrienne's is in her colourful style. In mine, I wanted to have a lot of warmth as well as the sparkle of the model. Elsa has a wonderful voice and can do those "trills" to perfection. (Do not expect knowledgeable music critique from me!) - Jose Gimenez is Guitar in the duo - Sangre Morena. Songs from many Latin countries were performed and Elsa often made variations on her costume to suit the country. There was a good crowd out- even on a rainy evening!

Music and art together-

A few weeks ago our drawing group was fortunate to have Elsa Rojas Marquez model for us. I did a pastel as well as several sketches. Elsa allowed us to take photos so I had a photo-reference as well as the pastel.Then, it turned out that Sangre Morena - of which Elsa is the "voice" was slated to perform at Britannia on October 21st and Rita McArthur arranged that we could show our artwork. I decided to work on a painting as it is more "complete" looking. The pastel would have to be matted and framed with glass to be shown properly. I also wanted the painting to have more warmth than the conte' drawing. So - here it is! I will take it to the performance on the 21st.

-we try again

here is the photo

Grand Prix of Art- Steveston

The "sun dance" a volunteer said that she did for us, must have worked because we had a beautiful day for the first annual Grand Prix. For next year, I have ideas for improving the registration procedure - but, we did it and got everyone through on time! I had a bit of a time adjusting from my organizing part of the brain to the artistic section- and no time to go anywhere but stay at Britannia- but I did paint and had a bit of fun. I just painted two other artists in action. No masterpiece, but passersby enjoyed the concept. Everyone did a great job and the judges had difficulty choosing. All the results are on the website - www.grandprixofart.com ....so, here I am in a floppy Tilley hat, collapsed on the "stage" with my stuff all spread out. Not so sure if I'll post the resulting painting or not!

New show at View Gallery

Work and planning continues for the Grand Prix of Art ****this**** Saturday, but other art events continue too. Margreth Fry's show "Once Upon A Story" opened at the View Gallery in Fraserview Church on Sunday. Some of the paintings have accompanying stories that tell about growing up in a little Swiss village. Other paintings are some of her more recent work. I took this photo of Margreth by a fairly new one. Someone has converted a boat to shelves for potted plants and Margreth has captured it in her colourful way.

Sculpture class

Painting, of course, is a two-dimensional thing- although a person is representing something three-dimensional. Back at Art school, we took a sculpture class in the first year. I liked it- to a certain extent- but didn't feel it was my strongest point. However, we did work in pairs and did portrait heads. We had calipers to measure each other as they were life size. They were meant to be cast and never got to that stage.Last year I had the chance to take a sculpture class through Richmond Potters. We worked on sculptures that were fired. We did have an inner support that had to be removed later and the inside hollowed out. Since they were to be fired in a kiln, they were definitely not life-size. I worked from photos of Marjanka who had posed for some of us. I decided to do a head, rather than figure study - and- a bit to my surprise- it actually turned out quite well. It even survived firing! Now I have signed up for another session and am doing a complete (clothed) figure of a friend. It is a good experience to be working in three-dimensions. It is supposed to help your drawing...not sure of that... but it is interesting to do. The photo is my head before firing - now she is white in colour.