Another Dream City

This one was fun to do with a golden California sky plus a touch of Van Gogh. ----and not a glimmer of fog. I'm told that tourists go out on day trips dressed for summer- then when the fog rolls in, the find themselves buying a sweatshirt yo try to keep warm!  Otherwise, I"d say this is one Dream City that pretty well lives up to its press.

Gateway Show

Well! Talk about a metal lapse! I was too busy with reminders of Richmond Artists Guild group shows and promoting the upcoming GuessWho? show to remember to add that I have a *solo* show at Gateway Theatre for the month of October in my October Newsletter.  The show is called "Dreams and Reality".  When I was painting a sunset scene of Finn Slough, a couple of years ago, I was thinking how magical it looked and then started wondering what would be the result if  telephone poles were minarets?  Eventually this became an imagined version of Istanbul - a place I have never been. This led to thinking about how those "far away places with strange sounding names", as the song put it, are so great in the imagination - before a person arrives to pollution, traffic jams and sore feet. And so, Dream Cities series started.  This one is an imagined Manhattan with the glamour and excitement of a big city.  Eventually, a number of others were completed and they are the "Dreams" part of the show. The "Reality" is life on the lower mainland which is a very nice place to live- and might well be a "Dream City" to visitors.  It has been fun putting this show together and it will be interesting to hear reactions of viewers.

Gulf of Georgia Cannery

Here is the full painting of "The Wheel". Richmond Artists Guild was asked to do an exhibit for the Gulf of Georgia Cannery - which is a national historic site. There are really interesting displays inside and there are tour guides to add to the information.  Several years ago I took visitors from New Zealand through the building and they totally loved it - had fun taking pictures of each other tossing the "salmon" into a bin, for one thing. Since then, even more displays have been added.  When the Grand Prix was on, those who run the Cannery were delighted to find so many paintings being done of the building and they decided it would be a good addition to the indoor Farmers' Market held through the winter. We hung the paintings Thursday and Friday so they were up for the first market Sunday, October 5th. They will remain to be viewed now until after the next market on October 19th. Everything is local scenery - especially the Cannery- or ship-related.  There is no admission charge on Market days - so a good time to tour and see everything- including 26 paintings from Guild members.  I have my little pleinaire painting of the Cannery and also this one of the wheel of the Balclutha.  Shh- it isn't local as the Balclutha is moored as part of San Francisco's outdoor Maritime Museum.

New shows-

This has been a busy week as I just exchanged paintings for Berenice's Braid with flower paintings now hanging there, then hung "Dreams and Reality" in Gateway Theatre and today two paintings in the Gulf of Georgia Cannery. The cannery paintings are part of a show by Richmond Artists Guild and I've just discovered I don't have photos of *either*. One is the small one that I did in the Grand Prix of the Gulf of Georgia Cannery. The other is "The Wheel" which is the ship's wheel of Balclutha which is moored in San Francisco. I sold the companion piece a couple of years ago and I have no idea why I don't have a photo of "The Wheel". I will probably have a chance to photograph it yet. The first indoor Farmer's Market takes place this Sunday October 5th inside the Cannery - with free admission - so a good chance to see the Market, the exhibits and the art display.  The paintings will remain on display through the next Farmer's Market on October 19th. The above painting is "To Each His Own" and is a kayaker amidst larger vessels at Granville Island. It is one of the "reality" paintings from the Gateway show.   More about the show in a further posting....

Coloring Animal Mandelas

I have a review copy of this paperback  and I'm just getting into it. " Mandala" comes from the Sanskrit word for "circle". I've played around with creating some, off and on,  but I'm not that good at detailed designs. Wendy Piersall, the illustrator of this collection, has been drawing mandala colouring pages since 2009. For this collection, she has taken her inspiration from the animal kingdom and spun them into intricate designs. Mandalas have been used for meditation and healing for thousands of years. The idea here is that colouring these designs - and thereby turning them into works of art- will bring relaxation, more focus, a higher state of meditation and simple enjoyment.  I've shared mine around a bit and I'll report further on reactions to colouring these designs. I'm impressed with both the detail and the individuality.  They are obviously created by hand as there are often subtle differences. There is a you-tube video of Wendy colouring at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjK1FOe6Ag  which is fun to watch but since it is time-lapse photography, you don't get the relaxing effect- for that, you have to do it yourself.

Grand Prix show still on-

It was raining on our outdoor painting day, Tuesday, so we headed inside the Seine Net Loft and painted inside. The front part of this building has a museum display and the back part continues the display of paintings from the Grand Prix last Saturday. I had decided to not work in acrylics as I was also going to spend some time going through the receipt books, getting ready for writing the cheques for the artists. So, I picked this artful arrangement of a net with its floats and worked in pen and ink . Then I added colour with water-soluble wax crayons - Cretacolor- and then used water for  a simple little sketch.  I may do some other outdoor work with these materials - and I think I'll do some Life Drawing this way for a change of pace for awhile. Some of the others were much more ambitious and painted the scene out the window. I settled for a few photos and I may try a larger studio painting later, of that scene. In spite of the rainy day, a lot of people came through to see the paintings. With more artists painting this year, we were fortunate that this venue was finished and we are able to use it. There has been a lot of good response to the show - and to the Grand Prix event in general. Wow! this was the fifth year!

September with the railway matreshkas

     Now it is September, I'll put a matreshka set in the kitchen window. This month it will be "Casey and Crew" - my railway set. I had fun with this original design. The engineer is the most important person so he is the outside doll. Because he is outside, I could have projections - so his cap is an "add-on". He has an oil can  and a screw driver. His assistant has a coal skuttle while the conductor, who feels important in his uniform, has his ticket punch all ready.  His pocket watch is shown too. The porter carries a suitcase while the chef is in his whites planning the meals for the dining car. I'm planning a more modern "travel" set with the crew of an airliner and I'm currently collecting references for the clothing and insignia. Should be fun!
     The Richmond Artists Guild has a show of local scenes showing as of Monday the 8th in Rocanini Coffee Shop at the corner of Moncton and #1 Road. It will run to the end of October- stop in and have a look! I have one piece in the show-" Finn Slough- Western Entrance " - a thin painting to fit a narrow spot. There are paintings of all sizes and all are very reasonable so you have a chance to have a piece of local scenery on your wall.