june flower fairies

The last day of June. How odd that it should come and go, like every moment, so quickly. The only way to savour it is to be intentionally present.

The summer heat has finally struck. It will be a good day to stay in. This kind of heat is like a blizzard to me. The best excuse to ensconce myself in the studio and make something new.

I cut around some old flower paintings for want of any direction and calmed myself with this focused activity. They lay on the table overnight and the next morning, as I turned them about, I saw the inherent dresses they made...

and glued and drew

very dancey

a red tulip

and then I turned the forget-me-not around and so liked its abstract form that I glued it face down

and drew the bunny above

Consider creating as an act of giving and you will see that you can give in many ways.

Consider giving as an act of creating, and you will see that you can create in so many ways.

In the pink

What a beautiful day to wake up to!

The sun was well up by the time I had risen because I stayed up so late playing with...

THIS!

 

Done only with paint pens, and a limited palette as well, I also had trouble bringing up

the pinks on the computer that likes to turn them to a tint of violet

 

Tonight I tried a detail shot under the stove hood to bring up the glitter in the metallics.

It's funny how I love to work with colour but keep my home in neutrals.

 

I understand many are enduring the damp and cold of late autumn, so I'm grateful for the extra sunshine and moderate temperatures for a little while longer. Keep warm and well my dears.

 

 

an hour and a half holiday

How hard we try to be good little ants and not naughty little grasshoppers as we focussed on the yard work on Thanksgiving Monday, mowing the lawn, planting the perennials that decorated our deck all summer, and bringing in our small harvest of giant zucchinis, artichokes, cucumbers and eggplant. A few hardier veggies remain like the chard, beets, kale, cabbage, carrots and parsnips.

It was a long time coming, our belated drive in the country to see the autumn colours, but at 5:20 we shut the door and headed off for... ONE HOUR and a half.

Up into the hills of the "south mountain" we drove seeking out our beloved maples,

with the colour that is so necessary (to us) for an autumn drive.

 

Higher and higher we drove, still finding farms at the very top

 

with old apple orchards, that this part of the world is so famous for

 

til finally, we were about as high as we could go

and looking to the north we could see "the north mountain" with its famous Blomidon capping it off

 

Several turns in the road took us lower and lower til we were driving along a ridge that overlooked the Gaspereau River, resplendent in the evening light

We found a place to stop (posted with a warning to watch for the difference between Brook Trout and young Salmon which look similar but must be protected.)

 

a beautiful view of the Gaspereau River in the evening light

 

How lovely the reflections of sky and water and trees, beautiful trees

 

This is what we've been missing from our beloved northland

 

wild asters grow everywhere this time of year

 

another view to the left (west) bank of the river, flowing ever so gently

 

and a closer detail of this pretty maple

 

Across the road a little white duck preens itself in the shallows before bed

 

as above

 

so below: COLOUR!!

 

The colour we sought was SO CLOSE by; the wildness we missed within minutes of our town home

This is what we needed. A shot of raw nature to boost our immune system

highly recommended !

 

Oh! I just realized!

 

You might want to see what I've been up to!

 

sweet dreams

 

 

autumn gratitude

It is a Quintessential Autumn Day here, or what I like to call a Calendar Day because of the crazy bright colours against a cerulean blue sky like the calendar photos of old, so brilliant you don't believe it could be real!

Yesterday, the colour looked more like this in the hazy morning sky.

 I love them this way, all muted and romantic.

 

Our waning garden: only one eggplant grew; you can barely make it out near the back, third plant to the right. On the right you can see 3 of our Harelson apples, red and ready.

 In the foreground, the top of our massive hydrangea.

 Beans and tomatoes are gone. Beets, parsnips, cabbage and kale and chard remain.

The little maple at the corner of our neighbour's lot has lost so many leaves and never did get the brilliance of the maples I miss from northern Ontario. Both my sister and I pine (hey! a pun!) for Algonquin Park this time of year when our family would holiday there.

 

Last night I got out the Prismacolors and played around on top of the acrylic ghosts of figures I put down a few days ago, still a work in progress or wip as they say.

Fairy#1 wip 

Fairy #2 wip

Fairy #3 wip

 

Fairies 2 and 3 wip

 

Working on this much texture is a revelation to me. And the way the Prismacolor coloured pencils blend so well because of all the wax they have in them is another eye-opener. Then, of course, that one can use them on top of acrylic paint! Well, I'm thrilled.

 

It is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. Personally, I don't get it.

I think every day is a day for thanks giving.

Thank you! for visiting.

 

a sunset fairy tale

Have I told you? I don't believe I have. I've started a new online art journaling class with one of the same teachers as my last class, Jane Davenport. This one is called JOYnal. Such a great name with a Bronx accent (even though Jane is from Australia). The focus is once again on mixed media techniques based on a structure of drawing and painting. I am learning about altering old children's books. But the big stretch for me is that the subject is fairies, or elves or sprites or gnomes. Whatever strikes one's fancy in the realm of magic.

I've been in the class for a month now and I have been struggling with the whole fairy thing even though I once was a HUGE fairy tale lover. Therein, I've learned, lays the secret. Before there were ever pictures of fairies, there were TALES. Its the tales that hold the magic for me. What lays in the recesses of the human mind where these very serious stories originated and continue to resonate, that's where the magic resides.

Imagine walking out of the shopping mall on Monday night and seeing - THIS!!

As I gaped, struggling for my camera, a man walked past and said,

"Someone just got released from Purgatory"

I cracked up. Talk about a fairy tale!

 

The sky burned redder and redder; I'm having a hard time recapturing it.

but OH, it was stunning.

Then, almost as suddenly as we came upon it, it faded to purple and was gone.

Like a story, it got told-  and disappeared,

  Only a memory remains- and a few pictures that can never recapture the emotions it aroused.

 

And so it is with my first mixed media project done in my first altered book,

never quite what was in my mind's eye.

 

I am encouraged though. What I thought was inaccessible to me - fairies - seems somehow more viable as a subject on which to hang my explorations in mixed media. I am enjoying watching the process unfold.

peace



a September start

I had to look at the calendar because I couldn't believe it's been a good 4 weeks since I last posted here. Thank you to those of you who expressed missing me. I am so grateful that anyone even noticed with the myriad of wonderful things to see on the net.

With all the busyness around here, renovating and a new roof, I haven't had as much time as I want or need to devote to my playtime with mixed media, and therefore nothing profound to share with you.
And that is fine for now, for essence comes with time devoted, and that will come with...time.

I did continue to play in my little altered book art journal a little bit after my last post. 

 With 3 scant weeks left of my access to the online class Mermaid Circus at the end of August, I was feeling a little forlorn.

 

 It was much harder than I thought it would be to release this class into the Universe as the teachers and students had created a safe place in which to share and grow and help me to rediscover my love of making which was on shaky ground when I started way back in April.

 

On the weekend of our 1st anniversary in Nova Scotia, Wally and I went to Halifax to celebrate.

 

But still I saw mermaids everywhere.

 

Halifax is a special little city with a vibrant downtown core.

I call this picture Three Sisters for this amazing juxtaposition of old and new buildings.

 

The planes and angles of this old church delight me

 

as does this candy cane scaffolding

 

This rare and dangerous opportunity to photograph so close

 to this crane in action was too good to miss.

 

Needless to say this huge piece of iron and steel made it to its destination

and I didn't die

 

I never imagined that we, too, would have the services of a crane to lift out shingles to the second floor of our house. Fancy schmancy! Here you see the 2 windows of my tiny studio as well.

 

a paint pen and gel pen sketch from my imagination

 

Now it is almost a week of September come and gone, and while I sit in the midst of renovation chaos, I know I need a good dose of the sweetness and light that a creative time can give- not that renovating isn't creative. One always knows where one's heart lays, and for me it is in the fey, the fantasy that is more real to me than reality... and so I've signed up with another of Jane Davenport's classes, JOYnal, a mixed media class using fairies, sprites and elves as foundations with which to learn new skills.  

wishing you sweetness and light