-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.

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).