Saturday 22 October 2016

Getting Ready

August was the time to get ready for the fall art exhibit at the ASSC, (Art Society of Strathcona County).  'Shades of Joy' was a fitting name for a fall show I think. 
After following two well known plein air artists; John Stuart Pursey and Dennis Perrin, I really wanted to give plein air a try and create something new and different for the fall show.
John Stuart Pursey was giving a workshop ASSC. Oh the excitement, but sadly when I tried to register, the workshop was full.
Dennis Perrin was offering a three week online 'Still Life' workshop on facebook. His live webinar looked amazing and I was all ready to sign up, but quickly realized that $450 USD turns into $600 CAD. For that much money I had too many questions and doubts.

So now I am on my own to work on a new painting style. After several attempts at painting a scene in my backyard, this is what evolved. 
(A few years ago I painted a mural on my backyard fence, the flowers, the window and the slate are real).

acrylic on canvas / "Tranquillity"

For twelve years now I have been painting transparently with acrylics using hand painted tissue paper as my underpainting.  Now I am venturing out and trying acrylics on canvas without the tissue paper underpainting.
If you would like to see my step by step mixed media process, go to my website: www.terrieshaw.com and click on 'slideshow'.

acrylic on canvas - "Fall Trails"

Painting small 5" x 7" watercolour, pen & ink paintings in my journal have inspired me to paint two special little Nova Scotia scenes for the fall show.

 "LaHave River"

"Marybell"

The fall show Open House was held October, 14 in the middle of a blizzard! Understandably very few people came to see 160 wonderful paintings on exhibit, experience the flutist's lovely romantic music and taste the scrumptious horderves served with wine.
Fortunately the weather cooperated for the exhibit for the rest of the weekend.
Sunday afternoon the exhibit was over at 4:00 pm and it was time to pick up my paintings. What a surprise, I sold three paintings! (If no one was watching I would have done the 'happy dance').

What a delight to meet the people who came to pick up their paintings and what a huge pleasure to hear why they chose the them. 
Can you tell I am grinning from ear to ear with joy!?

Sunday 16 October 2016

Volunteer Enchantment

This blog updates you to August

This year for the SAGE directory cover (Seniors Association of Greater Edmonton), I thought it would be a great idea to paint a picture of a volunteer reading to children in a library.

First I had to find a library that would be a great backdrop for the scene I had pictured in my mind. Then I had to find just the right person that would be great reading to children, find two children that would enjoy being read to, take hundreds of photos and then paint the scene on a 22" x 28" canvas. 

Finding the library was the easy part. Sherwood Park has a fabulous new library, and the staff were fantastic to work with. Finding the volunteer reader and children was easy too, but trying to schedule a photoshoot with 3 very busy families was the tricky part. Somehow it all came together. 

There were two families, one with two boys and the other with two girls and I only needed two children for the painting. Picking two was the hardest part, they were all so adorable. 
So I took photos of all of them in various combinations and decided to go with the photo that was best suited for the painting.

The painting took 14 days straight from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm. without interruption. 

My sanity savers to whom I will be forever grateful and prevented me from going cross eyed, were our two dogs, Abby and Shadow. 

They came and sat at my feet, taking turns pawing at my feet and knees, giving me those big sad puppy dog eyes, demanding a walk around 3:00 pm every day. 



Why the long hours? The painting was due by August 1st. giving me only three weeks. 

Phew I made it. I promised myself, that if I am asked to do the cover for SAGE next year I will start much earlier.



Volunteer Enchantment

SAGE was very happy with this years cover and yes I will be creating next year's cover!

Ideas for the 8th cover are already in motion. I will be starting this week making contacts and looking for some handsome faces to paint.




Free Footie

A few more blogs and you will be up to date with my 'art journey!'

Did you know that there is a free soccer program for kids in Edmonton?
There are 1300 kids and 200 volunteers who run a soccer program called 'Free Footie'. 
My good friend Pat Letendre is a sponsor for one of the teams and decided her team needed a smart looking jersey. After sharing her vision with me she asked if I would consider designing a jersey logo for her team. 
To be asked to design a jersey for such a wonderful program was an honour and a pleasure.


 Here's the jersey logo! 





Happy kids getting their jerseys for the first indoor games.




Thursday 13 October 2016

So Much Fun!

When my Alphabet Journal was complete I was sad because it was so much fun creating a small sketch a day. Alas what to do?
Not too many days passed by when another journal idea popped into my head, and I am sure you have already guessed what that is! 
You got it! A 'Garden Journal'.

The little seedlings developed quickly and soon inspired and provided great sketching material.

To view the sketches please click on the first picture and it will take you into a proper viewing mode.


Note to self; "When thinning out the tiny little plants be merciless and throw them away. Do not, I repeat, do not start another pot!"
Oh my goodness I suddenly became frantic trying to find extra pots and a place to put them before they were released to the great outdoors.









While browsing in Home Depot one day I discovered this adorable little seed sack pot with Sage seeds to plant. Hello, do I need more plants? The packaging was so adorable I didn't have the heart to open it. With self confirmation and diagnosis it is sadly true, I'm a nut case!



Paul's Grapevine Cafe is a new addition to our backyard. Painting murals on our fence, and creating little spaces is like watching my imagination evolve. Two of my granddaughters loved having breakfast and reading in this cosy little spot.






Don't get excited, this homemade mosquito repellent recipe didn't work!

















Wednesday 12 October 2016

OUCH!!

Has anyone ever suffered with tennis elbow? Doctor's orders, "stay away from the computer and let your elbow heal."
After blogging thousands of blogs in my head I decided that it was time to share a few of them. 

April was a good time to start planting seedlings, but where could I setup my grow light? 
Hmmm, my dining room won't do because I turned it into a studio. The large dining room table was removed and replaced with my beautiful art table. No room for plants there. Shelves were filled with art displays and crystals to provide sparkle. No room there.  The walls were covered with paintings and special lighting was installed to provide just the right light for my paintings. Plants could not be standing in front of my paintings, that certainly would not look good in a studio!  
Why this quick studio makeover you ask? Well, I couldn't pass up a great opportunity to be a part of a studio tour the Art Society of Strathcona County was offering in June now could I?

 The Studio Tour was a huge success!


Now what to do about my seedlings? My mind scanned all of the rooms in the house and quickly came up with what I thought was a mighty fine solution, the den!  
It worked perfectly. Stay tuned for what evolved from here, oh my!