Silk Painting II "FLAUNT IT"

Here is my new silk painting just finished in Oct. 2011.
It has just been accepted into the fall show Transitions at the McKay Gallery on Main St. Unionville. This show is on until Sunday Dec. 4th at 4 p m.

Markham Fair 2011

Well I entered some art in the fair this year and received three second place ribbons. Two people left their names with my art as they were interested in buying Topaz and Arabian Nights.

Dinner for the Arts York Region

I received this email today: Growing the Arts 2nd York Region Dinner for the Arts Exhibition in the lobby of Le Parc. I am pleased to inform you that the jury process is over and your work has been selected for the show!

Art in the Park Markham 2011

Here I am in July 2011 at the Markham Art in the Park. It was the first time that the MGA had been represented as a group of 19 at this venue.

Non objective art

I am here at Haliburton School of the Arts for the week studying with Lila Lewis Irving of Toronto. She is teaching us about non objective art and it is surprisingly much more difficult than it looks. We are doing acrylic studies on watercolour paper. We started with tiny line/shape drawings for a design idea. We use only 5-7 shapes. Then we did colour design studies using light and dark also. Next we tried value studies on 1/4 and 1/2 sheet using darks that we created ourselves. Today we started on full sheets with colours also. The town had a parade tonight which I went to and tomorrow is the walkabout at the college and high school showcasing all the art from the different classes.Thursday and Friday we continued doing pieces with colour, value, shapes, repetition . Lila demonstrated the use of textures that she orders from Curry's. Lastly on Friday afternoon we did a critique of 6 pieces of art done by each student. Here is the address for Lila's own work.
wwwlilalewisirving.com

Topaz

Here is the second promised abstract for the Art in the Park. What does it remind you of?

Art in the Park Markham 2011

Here is the first of two abstracts I am entering in Art in the Park this weekend in Markham. It is called Tide Pool and is 30 x 24 acrylic mixed media. I will be helping tomorrow to build our supports for the art by the Markham Group of Artists which will be in the pavillion.

Artcures!

How happy am I? Two of my abstracts,"Reflection" and" Tibetan Turquoise" got into the juried show'Artcures" in Aurora, On next week. The official opening is Fri. the 17th of June. I have also joined some of the other Markham Artists and entered the" Art in the Park" show here in Markham on the 16th and 17th of July. I have found a fab framer who will do the work last minute and reasonably to boot. He is Stan Scott of the Art and Gift Gallery in Newmarket 17817 Leslie St. N. 905 895 8726.


Well Artcures is now over and you can see the work of the artists on youtube; just copy this link
http://youtu.be/ebzZR5DnQr4

Marrianne Broome

On Sunday I took a one day workshop in abstracts from Marrianne at Edward's Gardens. I now have a good start on two medium sized abstracts. It was a lovely setting and large room with air conditioning. At lunchtime we were able to roam some of the grounds that were close by the main building where our art room was situated.I learned to carve into the medium to produce grooves to fill for later and to start using analagous colours for the work adding only one contrast colour. Fluid paint works best as it remains open longer for blending. I have a hard time planning to do an abstract with sharp lines or shapes preferring soft blended areas.

Cloaked in Scarlet

"Garden Party" in MGA"s show Awakening on now!

Here is the finished product from my recent silk painting workshop. This was accomplished using dye and gutta. Sorry for the flash. You can see it now at 197 Main St. Unionville in the show "Awakening" at the McKay Gallery. I assisted with photographing the show to put onto the MGA website.

Art Auction Volunteer

Today is the Varley Fine Art Auction and I will be volunteering to help with the silent auction table for the first time. Several Unionville and area restaurants will be providing appetizers and desserts as well as wine for the occasion. It is the thirteenth year of this auction. More information can be found here: http://www.visitthevarley.com
Well it seemed to go off without a hitch.Lots of people were there including local artists and dignitaries. It was opened with a short speech by the Mayor and then on to the auction by about 7:30.

Silk Workshop Images

These photos are from the workshop I attended this past weekend on silk painting. Since it was my first silk workshop I did find it challenging getting used to the materials and procedures but the final product was thrilling to see.

Silk Painting

I am very excited about a new painting support and technique, at least to me that is. It is painting on silk with dyes. Here is a link to youtube which demonstrates this : I will be taking a workshop using this technique in the near future.

http://youtu.be/vjFBz4Fzb10

and here is another one: http://youtu.be/v_IdsZDDhoM

Snooze you lose

Well I have just sold two more paintings to a very nice couple from Richmond Hill: "Chariots of Fire" an abstract and "Along the Milne" an impressionistic style. Chariots of Fire was loved by all and was accepted into a juried show at the McKay last fall. The couple actually saw the painting on the website www.markhamartists.org Then they were directed to my blogger page and saw the second painting that they purchased.

Tibetan Treasure

This is my latest abstract which was in the juried show Breaking Boundaries at Art Square on Dundas St. in Tor. and then in Markville Mall for another show along with my Arabian Nights.

Arabian Nights

Here is the first of two larger abstract paintings that I have done for our show next week at Art Square on Dundas. I am hoping one of them will get in.

Arabian Nights

Quote

A painter should not only paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees within himself. (C. W. Eckersberg)
I like this quote. I do paint with happy light colours.

Slacker-not

In case you think I have been slacking off the past two months let me assure you I have not. I have five paintings on the go, four abstract and one impressionistic landscape. I also attended an exciting workshop with Didi Gadjanski demonstrating new techniques in achieving textural effects in acrylic media.