Feline Capers with Flying Carpets!

Max (full name Felix Maximus) and Oscar were chasing each other around the place going full tilt boogie, Up and down stairs, through the family room down the hall, through the living room up to the dinning room, onto the dinning room table (which is a no-no!). Alex has been sorting through boxes of slides on top of mom's persian table carpet. In any event they were doing so fast that the carpet  went flying onto the floor with cats and boxes of slides . I've never seen them jump so high with the unexpected carpet ride. Their genuine surprise at having everything go flying was quite something to see.Currently they are sitting on the desk beside me watching as I write this blog.

As to art projects, I.ve been trying e few new techniques with mixed result. Here are two small paintings I did using a brayer to apply watercolour right from the tube, Then I applied water and saran. Finished it off with pens to highlight.

Also tried my hand at using pastels again. This time its a drawing of trees..

Week 11 is done!

I'm rather glad this week is over. I have felt that I have had very little control over my time or anything for that matter. I did have to take the new plasma TV back to have it replaced and then the cable repair supervisor came back to hook everything up again. Lots of running around just having to do stuff. I can't even say that it amounted to much. Oh yes, I almost forgot the wing chair and ottoman came back from being re-upholstered, so the living room is pretty well set. I am still on the hunt for a unique side table or cabinet. That will be serendipity.

As to art work, I have been working with acrylics trying different techniques and mediums. Here are two small paintings using stamping and gloss gel. The stamp was cut out of an eraser.

The other one is bigger and was my first attempt at using a self leveling gel with acrylic. It did not respond as I expected. I thought I could get the paint mixed with the gel to "flow" . Not much viscosity. I will try this again, but not without a bit more information as to how it works best. I have seen some artists produce works where the paint seems to just flow beside or through other colours of paint. that's what I wa aiming for. Instead I got more of a Jackson Pollock approach with a lot less control than he achieved! Oh well, this year was about experimenting and learning (I hope)!

TV and Terrarium Wars plus Mom turning 98!

On Tuesday Mom turned 98. Beautiful day! I did have to remind her constantly that it was her birthday. I put out fancy clothes for her, but she came down with an old outfit on, so we has to go dig the new ones out of her closet. In any event we were able to go out for a drive, have some company over for a visit, and go out for dinner with her. Her mantra is the countdown to 100. This picture was taken a couple of days later.

Still having problems with the new TV and its set-up. It may come down to taking it back and getting a replacement as the lesser of all evils. On top of that we had to do an emergency cleaning of the terrarium, since Tuesday morning there was a white film floating on top. Big job!!!! The last time we took everything out was in May. We need to come up with a better system for keeping it clean longer. The pumps were quite plugged.

In spite of it all I did get a watercolour abstract done. Used modeling paste and glass bead gel to create texture for the watercolour. Then I went back in water soluble ink pencils to hghlight.

Week 10 Blahs!

This has been a frustrating week, what with technicians breaking off a connector while rewiring to complete the installation. Still not complete in that now the new TV has to be taken in for repair. Many hours wasted with this. That, plus a lot of heat and humidity and short tempers all around, its not been too pretty.

I've also been trying a couple of new techniques with less than stellar results. Its hard to be patient with myself so that I can learn to master a new medium and/or technique. So I will have to try again. One of my personal lessons. Its always been easier to go off in another direction, rather than dig in to master something that does not come easy. At least anything for myself has always been like that. If I was tackling a client project, I would just dig in until I got it done to everyone's satisfaction. Oh well, it isn't a "journey" without introspection, hurdles, and small victories.

I did manage to do another couple of drawings in pastel sitting outside this week with mom. Pastel is such a messy medium, so outside seems to be the ideal place to work.

The perspective is not quite right, but I do like the intensity of the cheetah's stare.

For some reason, I am drawn (pun intended) to wildlife drawing lately! That and abstract. This last one that I will post is an acrylic with drops of isopropal alcohol to disperse the paint. Less dispersal that I expected, so I went back in to enhance patterns.

Mid-week ten! TV hurdles!

I had been working on a pastel drawing of Anemones sitting outside since it is such a messy medium, when I got interrupted by Alex to say that Hydro was here to replace the meters to the new digital ones. All the power was off for a while. Fine! So with the power off , all the electronic equipment needs to be pampered and changed, in this case including our old TV in mom's den. Its the one we all watch together. It decided to lock up and not take any input. After a lot of fiddling we decided the time had come to dump the old one and buy an new Samsung Plasma flatscreen. We've had the old Zenith for 19 years. so no regrets, although I had been thinking that Christmas would have been the time to do this. So off to the store....... has to fit in my car..... hoist it upstairs and get it set up. Took quite some time and effort, but not nearly as much as wrestling the old one downstairs. Weighs a ton!! At any rate, nothing goes easy. Finally broke down to get Rogers in to get the connection hooked up. Some channels look horrible... most look fab!. By now its 10:00 pm. The verdict is that the reason that we don't have perfect reception on all channels is due to the old line feeding the upstairs TV. Should be replaced. So yesterday we decide that this too should be done. They are coming on Friday to replace the cable. Needless to say, I've not gotten much painting done. Worked a bit this morning on  a painting of what I hope will be a Thunderbird and perhaps this afternoon I can get back to the pastel drawing..

Well I did get it done this afternoon. Here it is.

I do love the rich creaminess of pastels, but I'm going to have to practice more to get better control over the medium.

Creativity or mediocrity?

I'm having a grey day today. Heavy and grey sky may have something to do with it, but it may also be where I'm at. Starting this creative journey feels a lot like doing a detox or throwing up a hairball. What comes out is not pretty.So what I'm feeling about what I am producing or trying to produce is that its off the mark. Probably mediocre. I've been experimenting with different approaches ----- that was after all the intent for this year----- but the results are less than satisfying to me, but still I need to just let it be as it comes out. Does not always help either to get friendly advice, in that when something is done for me, its done. I'd rather try again, later when I'm ready. I do not do well with fixing something that's not quite right. Makes me feel mediocre and like I have to meet some outside criteria. I may or may not post these thoughts. For now I'm just putting them down.

I came back to this about 6 hours later. What is creativity anyway? Who creates? I'd like to think it is God working through me. I do know something is pushing to get born. Sometimes if feels like a hairball, but I hope sometimes it can also be something inspired!  Who decides?

As to creative endeavors the last couple of days, I have created two new neckpieces. One is a tri-colour freshwater pearl necklace.

.The other was a little trickier. I had a curved piece of abalone shell, that I wanted to have as a centre piece with a potato pearl strand across it. It needed something to create contrast, so I put in a caged shell drop on one side. Odd, but it sits quite interestingly on the neck bone.

Lastly, I just finished a piece I call Whale Dreams. I have no idea where it came from, but I guess I was channeling my inner Shaman.  Although there are dark connotations to whale symbolism, I like the interpretation of the whale with the seed of renewal and the flow of the cosmic water of life
Source: The Complete Encyclopedia of Signs & Symbols: Identification and Analysis of the Visual Vocabulary That Formulates Our Thoughts and Dictates Our Reactions to the World Around Us

Mid-week nine

Its already the ninth week of this journey, and I have still so much I have not yet tried. One of my concerns is that I will go off in too many directions at once and not get to my true destination. But hey, its the journey that counts, isn't it?

Alex and I went to see Inception yesterday. Quite intriguing concept that is well done, but leaves me guessing as to what is real. Brings up the question. Is this life the real dream? When will we know what is real and what is just a pale imitation of a dream?

On to my creative endeavors this week so far. Here is a study of an golden eagle that I did sitting outside on Monday with mom. I may want to learn how to do this properly in oils someday! This is done with water soluble Inktense and Graphite pencils.

On Tuesday I worked outside with pastels. I've always loved the creamy texture and rich colours some artists are able to produce using pastels. Difficult medium to control.

I also did an abstract, but I'm not sure that I'm finished with it yet.

Tomatoes, Apple of Peru plant, and interrupted sleep

I have been reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love. I'm about two thirds of the way through and I find myself reconnecting with some of my post divorce passage to independent, self-sufficient womandhood! Long time ago and not something I think much about now, but this current journey has some parallels.

Tomatoes!!! Out of the garden, fresh picked and popped into my mouth! I had forgotten the intense sweet taste, unlike anything you can buy from the grocery store or even a farmer's market. Its been years since I have planted my own tomatoes. I can't imagine why it took me so long to try again. Another discovery this week has been a plant that came from a branch with seeds that I picked last year during one of my early walks through the neighbourhood. Not one I had ever seen before. I planted the seed head and forgot about it, until I discovered it peeking out from under a bleeding heart plant several weeks ago. Grows quite rapidly, so I will have to move it to another part of the garden. Sandy was able to have it identified by the Biology Department at Trent University as the Apple of Peru, or Nicandra physalodes. Lovely mauve trumpet shaped flowers  on a tomatillo type shellcase. Apparently its an annual that self seeds quite rapidly. I'd sure like to know why its called the Apple of Peru though!

On to interrupted sleep. Mom has taken to waking up in the middle of the night again and thinking its time to get up.  In the last four or so nights that has been the case. Several nights ago Alex woke me up because she had been rattling around in her closet for some time around 1:30 am or so. I went to check and she was fully dressed and had made her bed! Saturday night she calls me to wake me about 2:30 am to ask if she can have her bath. She was up again at 4:00 and at 5:30 am! Last night a bit better. She woke me about 6:30 to see if she could have her bath. I always get her to go back to bed, but its hard for me to get back to sleep after that.

I did get some more painting done. A couple of studies working outside sitting with Mom. One is from a photograph I took of a wall of hydrangeas a long time ago when Alex and I were able to take a short break and go to visit wine country in the Beamsville Bench.

The other is a study of a Swallowtail butterfly. I got a lot of positive feedback on the Monarch I did last week, so I thought I'd give it another go. Not quite as real.

Lastly, another abstract done with acrylics and modeling paste.

Aquaspas, afternoon tea and making paper

Yesterday Sandy and I went out for the afternoon in anticipation of her birthday next week. Spa day!! We went to the Aqua Massage spa in Oshawa and got massaged by water jets, and energized with pure oxygen. Next "tea" in Brooklyn. Not at the tea room I was familiar with, but at another tea room. Lovely afternoon. It just reminds me how important it is to my sanity to go out and spend time with my female friends!!!

On Tuesday, I had my first full experience making paper. A friend who has been making paper for years, offered to show me a while a go. I've always been interested in the process and have bought myself some of the equipment required. I looked at the box and I got overwhelmed with tackling the process by myself. As a hands-on learner I do best when I can do each step myself with someone guiding me. So I shredded my paper, soaked it, and brought some petals and leaves from my garden for inclusions. Discovered that I had not prepared the inclusions properly, so we cooked them in the microwave as a stop-gap. (Not sure how that will work out!). Then put the pulp in the blender and used my frame and deckle to scoop out the pulp to form a sheet. Flip it out on felt (without messing it up), load the felted sheets into a press to squeeze out as much water as possible; then peeling off each sheet to get them ready for the drying process.  Let it be said that there quite a number of steps before you have handmade paper. I look forward to seeing the final product once it's dry. I'm getting lots of ideas of how to work with this process and develop my own approach. So many ideas.....so little time it feels like.

I did do painting this week. This is one that I have finished using a modeling paste to create texture and I used four colours in acrylic which I got  to blend in the middle ground. A little addition of gold and I like the results.

Monday I had to sit outside and keep mom company, so I worked on these two studies of a picture of a sunflower. the first one is done with water soluble ink and graphite pencils and the second one is done with watercolours.

Week 7 Update

It's already seven weeks into this year of living vicariously through creativity. This week, I got focused on getting re-focused if that makes sense. Some ideas about what direction to go into next or what to re-do so that I can get more versed with a technique is pushing-pulling me. I am in the process of redoing a painting that I completed several weeks ago. I will show it when its done, maybe even today!In the meantime today I sat outside with mom and did a study of a Monarch on an echinacea blossom.It was a gorgeous day. Humidity is gone for now..

The other painting I finished this week is an abstract landscape that I finished yesterday. Acrylic with tissue paper texture. I got the idea of the very high horizon from Celebrate Your Creative Self

I think I will try something like this again, but see if I can move from realistic to abstract in the scope of the painting.

While searching for ideas for how to work with coloured  inks when I came upon a website for a collective of "daily painters". Wow! This group has set a goal for them selves to complete a painting a day and share it. Not too ambitious you say, well think again. It requires a great deal of freedom of time commitments as well as self-motivation. I am thinking of seeing if I can challenge myself that way. It would require a lot of re-focusing of my time and priorities. As I write this I realize that I'm not there yet technique mastery wise. But that is where I want to be once I find my specific voice and song.

Cats versus Alex

Spent most of the afternoon working on this study of hydrangeas from my garden. Working with miskit to preserve the whites. Been continuously hot and humid for about 3 weeks now, with no break in sight. Makes it harder to get things done.

We've been having fun with the cats lately. Alex saw a mouse in our family room late at night a few weeks ago and decided that the Max and Oscar have to earn their keep. Up until now, we have locked them up in the laundry room area at night so they won't startle mom during the night. So after running around trying to find a folding door that fits the opening to the dinning room (smaller than standard door size) we are able to  expand their space at night to include the kitchen and family room. This means that they can't get upstairs to startle mom at night. I still put them to bed as normal, and then Alex lets them out into the expanded space when he goes to bed. Always later than me, since he is a night owl. Bit of confusion for the cats the first night. Fine for about a week. Saturday morning I came down stairs and see they cats sitting in the living room They had jiggled the latch until they got it open. Alex now decides that he will put a wedge in as well to keep them confined. Sunday morning they are sitting outside our bedroom door proud as punch!! So now the games begin. New strategy to secure the door. No cats this morning, but my money is on them figuring this one out as well.

Week 6 update

Six weeks are finished already! So many techniques to try, so little time it seems. Quite a frustrating week in some ways in that I am feeling that I am being pushed and pulled constantly and that I have to fight to find snatches of time for me. Between what I have to do to "take care of" mom, cats house, plants, cooking, weeding, repair people etc etc etc., and what I want to be doing some days its a struggle to keep my temper from blowing over. I know there is a delicate balance that I have to try to maintain, but sometimes its a bit overwhelming, and being my hot-tempered self, I just blow. Had one of those this week. Not pretty and not comfortable. Thank heaven for time and cooler heads prevailing eventually.

As I reported in my last post, I got the greenhouse put together and attached this week. Here it is!

This week I experimented with watercolour  to see if I could create the atmosphere of a grainy black & white photo that I got out of the paper several weeks ago. It showed a Buddhist monk on a mountain top at Summer Solstice. I feel I got the atmosphere I was looking for, but the execution is not quite right. I may try this idea again. At any rate, here it is.

Hot Summer Days!

Mid week 6 of this journey. Its been hot!!! hot and humid. Makes getting on with things somewhat more challenging. Finally got my new greenhouse assembled and attached to the side of the house. Quite an undertaking, but this birthday present to me is finally done. Getting back to my Mother Earth persona I think! At any rate, I did complete a nature study today sitting out in the shade with Mom. She seems to be sleeping more during the day, but she loves the heat. I have become quite fascinated with the diversity of leaves. Every one seems to be unique. If only we humans could be as creative as the Great Spirit. When I stop to look (this is quite an important step for me since I always seem to be in a rush to get things done or on my way to get something) I feel my self becoming quite peaceful. I think that is why my garden is so important to me.Things that grow from tiny seeds just blow me away. Creativity takes on new meaning.

Just in case I forget, sweet potato vine, coleus, Rieger begonia and one unknown species.

It's official! I'm 65

So as the tag line indicates, I'm now officially a senior citizen! I don't feel "senior". There must be some more politically correct way of identifying this period in one's life. I do like Moses Znaimer's term "Zoomer", in that it connotes a boomer with zip. I want to feel 'refired" not retired! So there!

Since this Blog is part of my journey into "refirement", I'm focusing on all that is possible, motivating and creative.

This week has seen a lot of moving and organizing as a result of the wall unit for my stereo system. Fours rooms ended up being affected, all for the better. Lots of pruning of stuff, so now its sorting to give away, throw out or sell. Upshot is that I did not have too much time to paint this week, but I do feel that I worked effectively to recreate my space and our space. Cats are quite confused with all these changes of course. But that cats!!

Here is a picture of my new (used) wall unit in the living room. Plus the recovered sofa and chair was delivered today as well. Just waiting on the coffee table which is being refinished. You can see the new upholstery on the chair in the left bottom corner.

This is what I did finish this week, a  nature study of leaves from my garden; geranium, two different types of Japanese maple, and a dusty miller.

And last, a picture of me on my 65th.  Not sure if its how I think I see myself in my mind's eye, but not too bad.

Week 4 update

Bought a wall unit through Kijiji on Thursday to house my stereo system in the living room. Was on cobbled together units that I was not too happy with. Working on house decor is part of this 65th year mission. On Tuesday they came to pick up the couch and chair to be recovered. (Only a 6 week wait for pick up!!!). That meant it was time to shift into gear. I has been looking for several weeks at new and some not new units. Checked Kijiji on Wednesday. Atrocious picture quality but I decided to contact and made arrangements to see it the next day. So now that meant dismantling the existing units, as well as my glassware cabinet since it too will move. Then the old unit will move to the office and a storage unit there is freed up to go into my studio space upstairs. Boxes everywhere, but my studio is set up!!!! I'm just trilled. Here are the pics.

So the upshot is that I did not get too much finished this week. Working on a mono-print which is on the drafting table/art desk and experimenting with a new string gel and acrylics that's on the easel.. Interesting stuff. Need to play more to get the hang or how to apply it consistently.

This week I hope to get the rest of the house organized!!! But I can work and play.

Mid Week 4

Its been hectic. Yesterday Andrea stayed with Mom and we were able to do running around. Thirteen stops ( I counted) in 6 hours. Got a lot done though.

Been doing some nature studies when I'm outside sitting with Mom this week. I have to be close or she is looking for me or asking Alex where I am. Does not need or want anything, just needs to know where I am. Makes working in my studio a bit of a challenge sometimes. So early morning and snatches of time in between.

Here is my study of two different coleus leaves from my garden and tree branch detail from pictures in a book.These were done in water soluble ink and water soluble coloured graphite pencils.

Week 3 update

I am pleased that I have been able to snatch small blocks of time during each day to do something: prep a canvas; draw: prepare the glass for mono-printing and pull a print; work a section of a painting. Something no matter what. This to me is a great accomplishment!

At any rate, as to this past weeks results. I worked on a large canvas to try to capture a scene I saw for a brief moment on a nature program on the Arctic. It showed greenish-yellow lights filtering through grey misty skies. Here is my take on this. Not quite what I wanted, so I will try something similar, not in acrylic but in watercolour

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The other work I finished this week are two abstracts in watercolour. I saw a technique using  cheesecloth and decided to try it.

Week 2 of this Journey

I found myself this week. So many choices and so many ideas. Hard to sleep and anxious when I got called away from working on a piece. In the end I went back to using an idea from "Celebrating your Creative Self" to work with tissue paper and acrylic. So here are the results. I call this one "Dragon Bones".

I also carried on with my mono-printing. Love the accidental nature that I am actually learning to control. Up to doing 3 to 4 overprints with each one.

The first one is called " Inference. The next one " Dragon Flies" And last is " Seahorses" The names just come!

I also started a large painting this week. Results in the next post.