Summer is here...

Alas, today is the last day of school for the little ankle biters, I mean, uh... children. Soon the street will be filled with the pitter- patter of screaming children. An unfortunate occurrence for me since 1- I'm not particularly fond of children and 2- There are many that live on my road.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind them in small doses. You know, for a few hours every so often. Pump them full of candy, get them all wired up and then send them home to their parents. I'd make a fantastic Grandparent, I think, but that would require actually having little mini-me's...an event I'm not particularly interested in. I say this now but I know of many people who've hit a certain age and decided that, for some reason or another, they need to reproduce. Maybe that will happen with me but then again maybe not, and I'm leaning towards the latter inclination.
That said, despite the influx of children on the roadways summer is a time for relaxing, winding down, spending time outdoors and just generally taking time to enjoy life. Being a self-professed non-summer person I do have to admit that there are many aspects of summer that I do like such as going camping, swimming, watching my vegetables grow (and then eating them) and the longer daylight hours which seem to affect everyone's mood in general. I don't care much for the sweltering heat or the bugs but all in all it's a fair trade I guess. Come the end of summer I'll be looking forward to fall, by far my favorite time of year, and all of this will be a memory to me as well as you dear reader. So enjoy it now while it's here for us to enjoy. That's all I can say on that matter as I mentally prepare myself for the 2 months ahead of small people but I will be back on Saturday to comment on the other reason I like summer: Canada Day. See you then!

Slingin' Hay

So "Windy" is safely past the ugly stage and well on the way to being completed. There's still more to go with shading and fiddling with the background but it's simply some fine-tuning at best.
Today was hay day, and not in the jovial sense either. We got some of our hay in and, luckily, I didn't have to handle any of it because there were 5 teen-age boys to do it. The odd thing? Even after slinging 164 bales of hay into the mow they were still full of beans trying to push each other out of the car and such. Then again it's not 40 degrees out either (and I'm talking celsius folks, I'm a Canuck).
So I'm finishing up a commission work that's headed to it's new home on friday and puttering around with some other works that I'd like to include in the upcoming show at Bon Echo. I have an awesome picture that I'd like to use for reference but I'm still trying to decide how I should go about rendering it...heck, I can't even decide what type of paper to do it on so clearly I'm not in a solid enough spot to even be starting on it. Not that something like that has ever stopped me before...
I'll include the completed "Windy" in the next update which will probably happen on Wednesday. Maybe then I'll have made that critical paper decision and maybe, just maybe, I'll be lucky enough not to have to deal with hay (very itchy, you know.)

More of my WIP

So here's "Windy" getting past that ugly stage. I've done more on it but this is the update you're going to have to settle for. There's clearly much more to do like figure out how to make that unsightly bulge on the left side of poor "Windy"'s face look more natural. Horses have very round and pronounced cheeks (must be from all that exercise eating) and generally don't translate well into face shots that are directly from the front. Alas, that is what I've chosen to do.
Oh, I should also note that I lied. The Colourfix paper colour I'm using is not aubergine and is, in fact, burgundy. A tragic oversight on my part, I'm sure, but you'll just have to pick up the pieces and move on.
As you may or may not be able to see I've gone a little crazy with colour in this piece. I have to say I like it, I like it a lot. That said this type of rabid application of colour wouldn't work on everything but for this particular work I'm quite okay with it.
I probably won't do another update this week-end as there are family events to tend to and I have a few works that have been *ahem* neglected that need to be taken care of. So, dear reader, be patient and I will be sure to share more with you early next week. Enjoy your week-end!

Yellow, Purple, Green and Red

Yup, all of the above. I've been a busy little bee it seems this week as I've not only completed another ACEO but also 2, count em', 2 larger pieces one of which I'm going to post here as a WIP. Okay, so technically it's not done yet but should be by tonight. The picture is "sleeping" now so I can give it time to contemplate it's fate in the scheme of the art universe. Here are the first two pics of the work I've decided to title "Windy". The vitals on this nifty piece are as follows: Prismas on "Aubergine" Colourfix paper size 7x10.
I love coming back to these WIP pictures because I like to do big chunks of work at a time and then come back to the ugly stages of a work (they all have ugly stages) and say to myself "Hey, I remember at ____ point when I wanted to scrap this. Good thing I didn't!"
Looks pretty rudimentary right now and, yes, that is bright yellow and red in the horse's mane. Did I drop acid before I started drawing this? No...and perhaps that's what is really frightening. Don't worry, it gets better and I'll be happy to share my progress with you dear reader...tomorrow. (I know, I'm so mean.)

So, as I said I would do I'm going to post some of the work I've been doing in prep for "the show". Above you will notice a chipmunk, a rather mischevious looking chipmunk, who if he's anything like the ones I have hanging around here, has been eating corn seeds that I planted.
Like the chipmunk, this is a little work at 2.5" x 3.5" and is an ACEO. For those that don't like anagrams it stands for Art(ist) Cards Editions and Originals. The idea apparently started with some artists who wanted to have wee cards to trade amongst one another, like baseball cards. The artist community being largely, but not altogether, disinterested in sports decided that they would just make trading cards of their own. Alas, they shall never be placed in a waxy paper wrapper with gum though.
They've become quite popular with people as they are generally very affordable and allow people to own original art from various artists without having to sell their kidneys or mortgage their homes to do so. I just like them because they're fast and fun to do...but then again I'm easily amused.
I've started a few other works but it's funny how you can start something with all sorts of enthusiasm and zeal and then just fall flat and be completely disinterested in what you're doing. One landscape I'm working on has done this to me. I've decided to leave it be and come back to it maybe later this week or next since it's quite possible I'm just suffering from yellow ochre overload.
At any rate, I've probably wasted too much time and have work to do. I should have at least one other picture to post by the end of this week so stay tuned!

Time's a ticking...

So I have computer access again. Something happened yesterday and the computer and I just weren't seeing eye to eye on the whole "working" thing. I also had to drop off some artwork up north and there were other life issues that have gotten in the way of getting work done...but that's just the way things go sometimes.
On that happy little note I guess I'll share my growing excitement/ nervousness about the "big show" coming up at the end of July and the fact that I only have about 1/2 of the work completed that I'd like to have done. Is this a problem? Maybe, but as I always tell myself (and anyone else who'll listen for that matter) I work better under pressure. Yes folks, my life is that mundane that I just live for the moderate adrenaline rush of potentially missing a deadline. I know it's hard to believe but walking dogs, riding horses, sweeping the barn and shovelling horse poop, well, it's hardly the stuff that extreme sports are based upon.
That said, I plan to have a whole whack of WIP's on the go so I may be even more spotty in updating or, in a fit of artisitic voyeurism, I may just decide to post a bunch on these WIP's for you viewing pleasure. I haven't decided...I'm like that sometimes.

Time for the reject to shine

Hello dear reader. So tomorrow I need to drop off my two pictures for the art show that I wasn't notified about due to the diligence of the person responsible for making sure that the members of a certain art association as informed. Apparently they assumed that my fantastic powers of insight and non-verbal communication were at an all-time high and that I would simply find out that way. Alas, my powers have been stripped from me and I have to revert to mere mortal forms of communication.
At any rate I did find out and I did contact them and I did pay my entry fee so therefore I get to submit my work. What work am I submitting? Glad you asked. I'm submitting my juried show reject work which is above and another work which I haven't bothered to re-size yet so unfortunately you'll just have to wait to see it...or go to the Belleville Art Association and see it there!
Also worth noting is that in true form I have once again bitten off more than I can chew and find myself as a guest artist in a group show at a gallery/ gift store located in Bon Echo Provincial Park which is about 45 minutes north of where I live. It's an awesome park, one that I highly recommend visiting, and apparently much like the show they're hosting there that yours truly is to be a part of at the end of July, this gallery/ store features some pretty spiffy artists as well.
Whoops! I forgot about my banana bread. Excuse me for a moment.
Okay, all is well with the banana bread...back to my inane babbling...
As I was saying, there will be spiffy artists and it gives me a chance to size up the other work that will be there as well as whether or not my prices are way off.
Last week I sold another original work. I must say that there's something entirely more satisfying about selling an original work as opposed to doing a commission for someone. I guess it just reiterates that my ideas aren't entirely cracked.
Anyway, I will (hopefully) update this again later in the week preferably with good news rather than something like "...my artwork was stolen and burned in effigy." That would be bad, very bad.