Planning for Fall

Yikes! I hate the thought of fall, it seems we've had no spring and summer hasn't been up to scratch yet either. Too much wet and cool weather. Not that I like it stinking hot and humid but....

I met Satuurday with 3 friends, we are planning a show in September on encaustic painting. Her is a prelim photo for the press release. The show is called FUSION and involves Wendy Orr, Anna Koot, Michelle Salter and myself, Wendy O"Brien.

                                                                       

Each one of us has a different style, which should make for an interesting show. Here is  work by Anna Koot. You can check out more of her work on her new website  http://www.annakoot.com/

I love the sculptural effect in the pears.

I will give you some sneek peeks of the others as we get closer to the date. The actuall show is September 9,10 and 11 at STRAT STUDIO , Stratford, Ontario. We are open 4-9 on Friday the 9th and 12 noon to 5pm on both Saturday and Sunday.                                                                                                            

June shows and some new work

Where did the time go? Silly question actually, when I know I spent alot of time working on pieces for two shows and neglected my blog, amongst other things. Two shows that opened on back to back weekends. Who's crazy idea was that? And, as if we didn't learn anything with that, I'm doing two shows back to back in September. Not very good planning, I admit.

                            " Go Fly a Kite" acrylic 18"x24" $135 Cdn

The first show was "4 Artists", Wendy Orr hosted myself,  Anna Koot and Ev Scott for a show in her home. She didn't seem to mind the nail holes because she plans on painting. The Friday night opening was a fun party with a few sales, Saturday wasn't as busy but the sales were good. I was happy with what I did. All smaller pieces, but they do add up. Here are a few shots from that event.

"Back at the Bush" acrykic 6"x8" $95 Cdn

"Nest of Eggs" acrylic 6"x8" $95 Cdn

"Circ" mixed media 18"x24"  $140Cdn

"Remember When", mixed media sold

Here are a few of Wendy Orr's beautiful pieces. Her work is available through Village Studios in Stratford, or through the artist herself.

Here are some more of mine; "Arch in Moonlight is 6"x8", acrylic/mixedmedia,is framed and sells for $95

 "Jungle Ruin" is much larger at 24"x 30" and is also acrylic/mixed media and sells for $ 230 Cdn

                     'Tightrope Walker" is another mixed media piece 18"x 24" and $135 Cdn

 These are a set of illustrations by Anna Koot for one of her Children's books.They are books that help tell children about "hard to talk about subjects", this one deals with death.

                                             Her are a couple more acrylics by Wendy Orr

 This next bunch are from the Gallery 96 Members show that opened last night at Factory 163. The first one is by Victoria Shannon, I had to take it on an angle to help with the glare and the reflection of a near by window. I love this piece.

                                   Here are a few more, featuring a tryptych by Carolyn Horley

 This next one is one of mine, "the Old Front Porch" and it sold immediately. It is faux felt with a photo transfer and machine embroidery.

 Also one of mine done the same way. It was in the 4Artist's show and moved here for this exhibition. It is available for $150 Cdn.

 Here is one of Lucinda Jones prints. she and I are working together on pieces for a collaboration show, "A Line of Thought". One of those infamous back to back efforts in September. We are planning a play date, to expoeriment and come up with some solid ideas for that show. Should be fun.

 Another printmaker with Gallery 96 is Gloria Kagawa, these are 3 of here pieces, something new for her.

                 A lovely little piece by new member Heather Ruthig.

This show runs for another week if you are in town or live close by. Gallery 96 won't be doing another show until September. Stay tuned for more looks at that project and the encaustic show "Fusion", that I am involved with as well. It's going to be a full summer with trips to the cottage, gardening and making artwork.

May

 Still dreary, with chance of more rain. Canada is gettting a cold wet spring this year. I think everyone is just about had enough. My B-in- law says we are to get this until the middle of the month and then we are to get one of the best summers we've had  in years. Let's hope so. I haven't even been out to clean up my flower beds, it's just too wet. My husband is tired of picking up limbs, because all this rain has come with alot of strong winds, which brings down more twigs, and branches. I live out in the country with alot of beautiful old trees, but they do continue to drop their dead wood.

I'm almost to the end of my teaching at the Gallery Stratford and The Foundation For Enriching Education, at least until the fall. I'm actually looking forward to being able to concentrate on my artwork instead of juggling the two. It means no money coming in or very little anyway. Guess that's the price you pay. Anyway it's a good thing I will be able to work on more artwork as I have two shows coming up in June and two in September. Two of those shows are with Gallery 96 the artist co-op that I belong to and the other two are are small shows with three other members from Gallery 96 that we are doing independently. You will be hearing more about them as time goes on and I have work to show.

One of the shows I"m excited about is the September Gallery 96 show , "A Line of Thought", which is a collaborative show. We willbe working on pieces with other artists, members and non-members, on ideas of our own choosing. I"m actually involved with two groups, the one group has my self and 2 members- a potter and a printmaker. That could be really interesting. The other one is also exciting, because I have asked Cathy Connolly of One  Pink Goose to work with me. For anyone that doesn't know, Cathy lives in the UK and we are doing this long distance. We are each contributing one individual piece each and one joint piece; and how are we going to accomplish that, you might ask. Our plans are all on the hush-hush but you will get to see and hear more about it as we get closer to the date.

Meanwhile, I thought I would feature some of Cathy's work that I particularily like. The above photo is of some of her note cards. Below is "When  The Sun Rises"

I admire the detail in the drawing of the bird nest. Cathy does such a variety of work. Below is a drypoint etching of  a "Bird Carrying Heart", something I"ve never tried, but would like to.

So can you guess what theme we might be working on? You can see more on Cathy's Blog here http://onepinkgoose.blogspot.com/

The other ladies I am working with from Gallery 96 are Lucinda Jones , a local printmaker. This is "Birth in the Sea", from her show at Gallery Stratford, last winter.

The above is a clay collar by Bonnie Steinman from the "Wearable Art" show , at Gallery 96 last fall. Below is a dress that Lucinda made for "Wearable Art", all made from printmaking paper scraps. Best in show , I thought.

So you can see I will be working with talented ladies.

Another group of talented ladies, are the friends I am doing the smaller shows with. The June Show is with Wendy Orr , painter, Ev Scott, photographer and needle felter as well as Anna Koot, a painter and encaustic artist. In the fall Wendy, Anna and myself are joined by Michelle Salter in an encaustic show. More on these ladies in the next post.

Spring?

As Easter is late this year I think we were all hoping for great weather, especially after a long winter. But, this is Canada and it seems like winter is never going to leave us this year. I live in southwestern Ontario, relatively mild in comparison to some parts of the country and on April 10th we got damaging hail. Golf ball size hail that was ankle deep. This Sunday it was snow, sometimes so heavy it was hard to see. this coming week sounds grey, cold and just plain miserable.

On the other hand the Gallery 96 show "The Goddess" was a success as far as attendence and sales went. It helped to have other artists invited to participate and the evening events brought in more people. Didn't hurt that there was a concert in an ajoining space one evening, as they all went through the gallery. Hopefully this raises our profile around town a bit. Here are my 3 pieces, encaustic on plaster. The faces were casts I made of one of the other artists faces ages ago.

                                                                The Three Graces

Now, in between teaching classes at Gallery Stratford and in the schools it's time to start on new work for other upcoming shows. I find it hard to get any amount of work done in between, I seem to be always preping for the classes. It's very frustrating.

This coming Friday a couple of friends and I are going to try some abstarct work. This will be a challenge for all three of us as we all tend to narrative works. Let you know how that goes in the next post. Happy Easter, everyone.

I actually did finish  some work this week, but it went out the door before I got a picture of it. When it's hung for the show later this week I will get a shot or two. Always better on a nice white wall anyway. So instead I'm going to show some work by artists that I am inspired by,

First is Virgil Burnett a internationally known resident of Stratford who is currently having a show at our local public art gallery. Virgil is an illustrator, sculptor and author. I have always been enchanted by his pen and ink drawings and their fantastical detail.

Muse by Virgil Burnett

                                                                      End Papers

One of his own books

Books he illustrated covers for.

Another artist I wanted to feature is from the UK, Nikki Whitlock. She has a unique style incorporating both painting and mosaics. They too, are fantastical and full of detail. I like the fact that she also incorporated words into her pieces.

Coincidentia Oppositorium - The conjunction of the opposites

                                                     This a very mystical piece: The Underworld

The Spirit of Autumn

The Masquerade in the beginning, I'm waiting to see what this one looks like finished

Another Stratford artist and  friend, is Wendy Orr. A one time graphic artist and currently a high school art teacher. Wendy is looking forward to her retirement and the opportunity to paint full time.

The Porch

Harmony of Opposites, something new for Wendy and it is now at the Stratford campus of the University of Waterloo

Fall

and Auntumn Floor

...

and my all time favourite, My First Collection. I watched her paint this one at my house, a marble a night. I think the light reflection is brilliant.