The Return

"Number One" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

I’m back!

So the week-end was great and although I didn’t get to take as many pictures as I would've liked, I did have a fantastic time and got to meet lots of new people and see some folks I hadn’t seen in awhile.

Today’s post is going to be short again because I have another show on Thursday that will probably wipe me out, it’s from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. which makes for a veeeeery long day. However, it’s a show that’s been going on for the past 24 years and is well attended so I’ll be sure to drink my coffee, eat my cookies and keep the sugar buzz going at least until I get home where I will hopefully collapse in a pile of money...hey, I can dream can’t I?

So, as promised I’ve got some pictures to show of the natural stunner that is Bon Echo. It was fun, the weather was great, I made some sales and I’ll do it all again next year!

I thought perhaps some Smurfs lived here. I knocked on it but they didn't answer...maybe Gargamel finally got them?

This was the guard squirrel assigned to our campsite. I tried to sell him some art but he screamed at me and ran up a tree. Later he then tried to eat my candies. I had to tell him the candy was for paying customers.

Just some absolutely hideous scenery. Terrible, just terrible...

Finally...The Rock:

PS- I will resume my gardening posts on Friday as I’ve accumulated an abundance of Patty Pan squash. Want to know what that is? Tune in on Friday and find out...oh yeah, and how to consume them as quickly as they grow!

Round Two

"The Dream" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

"Tabletop Decor" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

I’ll just be doing this post for the week and then late Thursday afternoon the Other Half and I are off for the week-end to the annual Bon Echo Art Exhibit and Sale.
Bon Echo has to be, by far, one of my absolute most favourite (there’s gooder grammar for ya) provincial parks to visit. The park is nicely laid out with plenty of beaches and hiking trails, the scenery is stunning, the park is well staffed and most importantly it’s one of the only parks the Other Half and I have gone to where it doesn’t rain heavily during our trip. I’ll be sure to take lots of pics this week-end so I can back up my claim of the park being a geological super-model and landscape painter’s paradise.

The Bon Echo show was also my very first taste of art fair life last year when I was one of the artists exhibiting there and I've returned for Round Two this year. Let’s just say I’ve learned a lot between then and now... and I still have much more to learn! I’ve learned that heavy display panels are bad and cumbersome and that light and easy to set up are the way to go. I’ve learned that the fine art of hiding one’s packing materials can be done quite easily with the aid of a Rubbermaid type bin. I’ve also learned that folks are ridiculously fascinated with watching an artist at work...I still have yet to invest in a wizard’s cape and magic wand, but it’s on the list. For any other helpful little tidbits of info on art fairs for those of you wanting to take the plunge I highly recommend the art fair blog of Casey Klahn. He’s been doing the art fair scene for awhile and has learned what works and what doesn’t. I dutifully read what he has to say so I can save myself a headache later.

I must admit that I haven’t gotten myself a nice white EZ Up tent but as soon as I get the moolah together I’ll be sure to invest in one. Thankfully for this fair I secured a spot under the massive white canopy they have for some of the artists so the lighting situation should be favourable. I’ll try and remember to get pics of my display but quite often once I get babbling to other artists and people coming through I forget to take out my camera. That and at this park the Other Half likes to abscond my camera and go off on photography hikes.

So, on that note I’ll take my leave so I can make my list and check it twice. I still have lots of work to do before Thursday rolls around and time’s a-tickin’. I shall return next week tired and, hopefully, a few dollars richer. ;)

Chocolate and tomatoes..what!?

"Dapper Dressage Dapple" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Yup, you read me right yesterday, chocolate and tomatoes.
This recipe is for Meg Lyman who had a request in my comments from last week’s gardening post. I suspect that she didn’t really think that I’d find any recipes that involved such an initially gut wrenching combination, but I did! (Sorry, no chocolate and cucumber...I’m still searching)

I figured this would be the ideal recipe for Meg because, in case you haven’t clicked the link to her blog or website yet, she’s a beer afficionado as well as being one heck of an illustrator/ artist (is there really a difference??). Although I don’t eat the stuff much myself, the Other Half loves it and so I make it from time to time to accompany his beer, the “stuff” in question being chili. So, without further ado, the recipe that involves both chocolate and tomatoes:

Look! A tomato!

Cincinnati Chili

INGREDIENTS

* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 2 pounds ground beef
* 1/4 cup chili powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1 bay leaf
* 1/2 (1 ounce) square unsweetened chocolate
* 2 (10.5 ounce) cans beef broth
* 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
* 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add 1/4 cuo of the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 6 minutes.
2. Add beef, in batches if necessary, and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned.
3. Add chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, cloves, bay leaf, chocolate, beef broth, tomato sauce, cider vinegar, and red pepper. Stir to mix well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. It is the best if you now refrigerate overnight.
5. Remove the bay leaf. Reheat gently over medium heat. Serve over hot, drained spaghetti. Top with shredded cheddar cheese and the remaining chopped onion.


I made this once before and, although I’m not a big chili fan, I have to say that it actually was quite tasty and that I would make it again. My amendment? I added chunks of chopped tomato because I have so darn many of them. I like the texture and flavour the tomatoes add. but they're optional. I’m told this recipe isn't “authentic” Cincinnati chili, but pretty darn close. A nice winter dish for those times when only chili featuring chocolate will do. I will also say this: it tastes good even if you don’t hail from or live in Cincinnati.

Also submitted to me was an easy- peasy recipe for a quick summer salad by Lisa Bachman. I had this with dinner the other night and it was indeed easy to make and tasty! I love simple ways to use up masses of veggies and dishes that taste just as good a day or two later.

Lisa’s Easy Veggie Summer Salad

Into a bowl, cut:
Carrots
Broccoli
Cauliflower
into bite size pieces.

Toss with Kraft Zesty Italian salad dressing. Place in fridge and marinate for 2 hours. Toss ingredients again and return to fridge for 2 more hours. Done.


See? Easy! She wasn't kidding folks. The only amendment I made to this one, again because I have too many veggies and not enough people willing to take them from me, is that I added some baby corn and cucumber. Colourful and tasty. I suspect that I may also make this one to take camping/ art fair-ing with the Other Half and I next week-end because it tasted awesome the day after as well!

So that’s the gardening post for today, using up Summer’s bounty in new and unusual, as in chocolate and tomato unusual, ways. Next week I’ll only be doing one post (maybe two) as I have a 3 day art exhibit at Bon Echo that I’m participating in... it’s also an excuse to go camping. So, there’s lots of prep still to be done for that as we’re leaving on Thursday evening and won’t be back until Sunday evening, I can’t afford to forget to pack something.

Have a great week-end!!

Colour: It's good for you

"Three Cherries Down" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Welcome back, dear reader!

So I don’t know of you recall aaalllll the way back to Friday but I mentioned that I would be sharing with you some of my artistic exploration/ development that I’ve been going through lately.

I’ll start off by explaining that this came about due to my own inability to break out of a rut. I found myself doing the same type of subject matter and, what was worse, it was all starting to look the same. It was safe and it was easy for me to do and ultimately I was disappointing myself and I knew I needed to do something about it.
With that in mind, I wasn’t planning anything wildly dramatic like switching subject matter completely or to change from realism to abstract or anything of that nature. Simply put, I knew I needed to work on my values (it keeps repeating in my head like “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!” from the Brady Bunch...it’s horrible) and I also wanted to add more colour to my work, which I felt would help with my value issue as well.

Colour, and what it’s capable of, is obviously nothing new to a lot of artists. However, for me in general it’s something that I’ve never really explored thoroughly. It was getting to the point where part of me wanted to slap down a big ol’ blob of sky blue and pale vermillion somewhere the viewer wouldn’t expect.

In order to not scare myself silly I decided that horses would make an ideal subject for the yet unnamed series since I’m quite comfortable with drawing them and, let’s face it, they’re just plain gorgeous to look at. I stuck with my paper of choice, Colourfix, but decided that I wanted to use not only my beloved Prisma’s but also some pastel because they apply vibrant colour like nobody’s business and that was really the whole point of this exercise-in-progress.
The pieces I’ve done so far were fast as I wanted to rely more on instict rather than a calculated placing of colour and understanding of value. I used darker colour supports (dark grey and dark brown Colourfix) to help the colours pop more and have, so far, done 8x10's and 5x7's. I also did these as “play” pieces, that is to say, I didn’t set out in creating them with the intention of them being saleable although I may wind up listing these on my eBay depending on how many of them I amass. Here are a few samples of the pieces I’ve been working on:

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Copyright Rita Woodburne

I won’t say which one came before the other, although you’re more than welcome to guess, but I’d love to hear anyone’s comments about them. I’m very much experimenting with these so any feedback/ ideas are more than welcome to help me along. I'm trying to keep these pieces within the confines of my style but I'm hoping that this will help define my style more and give me more confidence in the experimentation department. I don't know yet how this will translate to my larger pieces but, of course, that's half the fun of doing this!


Anyhoo, I’d love to hear what anyone has to say about the pieces above or about the use of colour in general as it really is a subject unto itself. I’m no expert and as I trek along with this project I’ll post updates on any new (for me) things I find or insights that strike me as being interesting.

Back on Friday with recipes, one of which includes both chocolate and tomato for those of you with a surplus of tomatoes and a hankering for chocolate!

Chocolate and Zucchini, a match made in Heaven

"The Thinking Cat" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Happy Friday again, dear reader!

So I suppose you’re wondering about this Chocolate Zucchini cake I was talking about, aren’t you? Well, you’re going to have to wait a little longer...

In today’s gardening post I’m going to touch on second crops again with the focus this time being on beets.
In some regions, like here in good ol’ 5b, the first crop of beets are still growing, but they’re getting close to being ready for picking. Like the peas, perhaps you think you don’t have enough and would like more for freezing to be used in winter months (mmmm, borscht) or for pickling. Unlike peas, however, beets are much more tolerant of warm weather making them ideal for yielding a decent second crop. With that in mind, you can plant your second crop now if you have the space available and if not, you can plant your second beet crop a day or two after picking the first.

Look, beets!

All the same planting guidelines still apply but be cautious of using too much composted material as that and hot weather can potentially lead to scalding the soil and your plants. If you worked a fair bit of composted material into the soil in Spring don’t even worry about adding more at this point. Turn the soil well and plant your beet seed by placing it on top of the soil and pushing the seed into the ground. Then, simply water as you would normally and wait for those little beets to start popping up.
The plus side of doing a later crop is that the beets will probably be ready for picking in mid fall and because they’re a root crop the flavour of them is actually improved by light frosts. Bonus!

Now, as for that cake....

Look, zucchini!

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 cups white sugar
* 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 4 eggs
* 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
* 3 cups grated zucchini
* 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the eggs and oil, mix well. Fold in the nuts and zucchini until they are evenly distributed. Pour into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cake completely before frosting with your favorite frosting.

If you don’t care for walnuts you can omit them or replace them with chocolate chips and if you don’t want to use so much oil (I know I never do) just use 1/2 cup oil and 1 cup applesauce. I promise it won't taste low-fat.
As far as icing it goes you can use whatever you like. Sometimes I eat it plain, sometimes with chocolate icing and when I'm feeling really decadent I use cream cheese icing.

The flavour and texture of this, to me, is reminiscent of a German Chocolate cake. A chocolate flavour that isn’t overwhelming, nice texture and a cake that isn’t too dense. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Speaking of recipes that use the bounty of summer, I invite you readers out there to submit recipes to me (my e-mail address is rita@ritawoodburne.com) and, in turn, I’ll publish them on my blog during a gardening post and with the recipe I will also give credit and provide a link to your blog and/ or website. Recipes can be desserts, side dishes, main courses, snacks, you name it! Just wanted to throw that out there for those that might be interested.

As for next week, and I’ve had a hard time keeping mum about this, I’ll be sharing portions of a new series I’ve been working on and some personal artistic exploration and discovery that I’ve had the good fortune of experiencing. A teaser? You betcha, so be sure to come back next week and find out what the heck has been going on in my little corner of the artsy-fartsy universe!


...gotta go make some cake...

Silly n' Hot

"White Wind" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

It’s been disgustingly hot here lately, I’m going nutty from getting ready for more art fairs and as a result of the aforementioned two factors, am feeling silly. So, without further ado I present some more Revelations From the Drawing Board:

- Is the irony of finding a “Dead End” sign at the entrance to a cemetery really lost on anyone?

- I feel that ‘inquisitive’ is just a polite word for ‘nosy’.

- Murphy’s Law dictates that when someone calls to talk to you and you happen to be busy they will engage you in a rivetting and long-winded conversation that involves them explaining how their goldfish grew to a monstrous size when they put it in a big pond. (this actually happened to me)

- There’s a reason that tent manufacturers supply you with pegs for anchoring your tent to the ground, and you must use all of them... trust me, it’s not just so you stub your toe in the middle of the night when you get up to go to the bathroom.

- What the heck is the phrase “fit as a fiddle” supposed to mean?

- While on a road trip, that large cup of coffee you drank will “hit you” just as soon as you pass the sign that says: ‘Next Service Centre in 75 miles’.


The weather is supposed to cool off later today and I’m hoping to regain small portions of my sanity here and there. Tomorrow or Friday I’ll be posting about the fun and frivolity that is gardening and, because of the unavoidable surplus of zucchini that plagues gardeners I may share a recipe for zucchini chocolate cake that I came upon many years ago. It uses a fair bit of zucchini and is tasty like nobody’s business. Cake made with vegetables, does it get much better than that?

Abundant & Fruitful

"In The Spotlight" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Happy Friday, dear reader!

We’re into the thick of gardening season now and you should be starting to see the fruits (get it? Fruits? This is a gardening post? Okay...that was just bad...) of your labour. There are a few plants that are either bearing veggies or are about to. Some of the plants that should already be giving you food are peas, strawberries (although in some regions this has already past) raspberries, snap peas, beans & new potatoes (if you have an early growing season) and beets. Some of the plants that are on the cusp of producing veggies are tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash and possibly corn if you planted an early season variety. For those that are bearing veggies now you should be sure to pick them regularly to keep the plants productive and to avoid veggies that taste bitter or become over-ripe and, therefore, undesirable to eat.

As far as peas go, it’s worth mentioning again that peas are not warm weather lovers. When the mercury hits a certain point they will not only stop growing/ producing veggies, they may also die off completely. This is why it’s important to note planting times for temperature sensitive veggies and adhere to them. However, all is not lost if you planted your peas too late! If you’re current crop has gone by the wayside from late planting or if your current crop has already produced peas and you don’t think you have enough I’m going to try and help.
First, clean up all the debris from your current crop. This means you’ll need to remove the plants (root and all) and tidy up the soil by removing any weeds that have sprouted. Keep this area clean for the rest of the summer and, if you’d like, add another layer of well composted materials and mix it into the soil.
When late summer rolls around, say about the 2nd last or last week of August here in zone 5b, plant another crop of peas. The soil will be warm and daytime temps will be warm but the nights will have started to cool off. Continue your regular garden maintenance and besure to water the peas on a regular basis and by early to mid-fall you should have a tasty second crop if peas!

I’ve also decided to re-visit the planters that I started awhile back and, as promised, I’m posting an “update” on how they’ve grown so far. First we’ll take a gander at the planter when I first started the flowers:


and now they look like this:


That abundance, dear reader, is the result of a good application of manure/ composted material at planting time and regular watering. It’s really that simple. No chemicals, no plant food, no making sacrifices to planting gods... it’s just the result of plain old regular maintenance.

So after you’ve gone out and tended your veggies and flowers, sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour. Have a super week-end!

Humble pie a la mode

"Trouble From Above" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne.

Hello there, dear reader! First and foremost, let me wish the Americans a happy Independence Day! So today, because I don’t have any mildly amusing stories to share, I figured I’d wax poetic on the phenomenon of artistic growth...and eat a bit of humble pie while I’m at it.

In case you didn’t notice, I’m big fan of doing ACEO’s. For someone that works in the time consuming medium of coloured pencil they offer up (almost) instant gratification. I used to take about 4-5 hours to complete them and in the early stages of my “education” in doing small format work I’m embarassed to admit that I was quite pleased with myself. Thinking back though, I believe part of it was that I was pleased with the fact that I completed such a small scale work since previously I had adopted the “bigger is better, massive is magnificent” mind-set. Over the course of doing these little guys (I’ve been horribly addicted to them just shy of a year now) I’ve seen, literally, my skill develop and ultimately translate to the larger works that I’ve done.

Here’s where the slice of humble pie comes in and I’ve got my fork ready...

"Grey English Study"- Copyright Rita Woodburne

The above is an early ACEO and, like I said, at the time I completed it I was tickled. Once you’re done chuckling to yourself I’ve posted below for comparison purposes, and because looking back I seem to have a penchant for doing greys, a recent ACEO:

"Vistoso Caballero"- Copyright Rita Woodburne

So there you have it. That’s what a year’s worth of ACEO’s and setting a few artistic goals can get you. Don't get me wrong, I still do stinkers from time to time but they have value as learning tools... as in what not to do. I also try to be objective as I can when I'm looking at my work (easier said than done) and what I do know is that I’m not where I want to be yet, but at least I can see that I’m getting there.


I’m having one of those “I need to see where I was to see where I’m going” moments in my artistic development. I can distinctly remember telling myself that I had to work on values, values, values and that’s what I did and will continue to do. I had also set out some other artistic goals for myself that I’m still working on, mostly pertaining to “background angst”, and will continue to work on those as well.

I know it's been said before and I think it's worth mentioning again and that is the value of keeping around old/ early pieces of your art to remind yourself how far you’ve come. While I’ve sold my early ACEO’s (only two of them were soooooo ugly that I threw them in the fireplace) I do keep digital images of all of my artwork that ultimately wind up in a portfolio so I can refer to them if need be... like when I need a reminder of how much I’ve grown. Doing this is also a great way of getting out of a funk. You know, those times when you hit a creative wall and mope around telling yourself that you must be the world’s worst artist. That's when old and/or your bad art comes in handy.

The more recent ACEO from above is, right now, my humble pie a la mode. It's better than my old one but as good as I think that one is right now I know in the back of my mind that they'll continue to get better, as long as I'm willing to remain objective and honest with myself.

There's my art babble for the day, back to the drawing board!