a tiny bit of art

from my retreat at Manitou Beach.

I was totally inspired here and here before leaving on my art retreat and thought how much fun it would be to start a similiar project while retreating from the world. in preparation, I chose to sort through most of  my paper stash. a wonderful start to organizing that a little bit. I did not have washi tape in bright colours, but did find some pink polka dot duck tape in Saskatoon. it also made a good excuse to order more of a supply. though I knew it would not arrive in time for my get away, I truly thought it would be good to get some mail love after my return. 

one of my fave songs which made me pause, and nearly always brought tears to my eyes as it played on my ipod.
this favourite usually seemed to make me feel comforted.
and this kept me entertained additionally, as I preferred to stay away from the television as much as possible.

"If you can attain repose and calm, believe that you have seized happiness."
    Julie-Jeanne-Eleonore de Lespinasse

time to myself

time to create. time to live in the moment. for bits of time anyway.

 peonies. daisies. dragons. robins. butterflies. dragonflies.

 sunlight. trees. wind. thunder. storms. safety.

fireflies. magic. first time ever. wonderment.

time to myself.  
                                  
                                       ************* 

Please find a fabulous give-away at my friend Cat's post.

Creative endeavours to be shared in future posts. Hoping you are able to find moments to yourself, moments for creating and time to be within the moment.
Angels be with you dear friends.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
    with your one wild and precious life?” 

Mary Oliver

a little bit of art and some exciting plans

I am beginning to get very excited about my annual art retreat when I get to spend time by myself with an opportunity to be away from the typical demands of everyday life. I was very concerned, until a very few days ago, about the retreat. The cottage this normally occurred in had been sold last fall. We went in search of a light housekeeping unit in the same beach area. At first the prospects did not seem promising. Then we did find a place. It is tiny with very little table and counter space. But still it is a space. Still I can have my retreat. Still I can plan to do art, but only when I truly feel like doing art. Maybe for that week my art will be in my dreams and mindfulness. 

In the meantime I continue to sometimes straggle on and sometimes burst forth with energy and creativity beyond imagining. I have remembered how much I love my outdoor times and gardening. I have learned that when I am extremely frustrated, the choice to go cut down numerous small trees growing in our back garden, and pull up unwanted grass, can be a very good choice. Yes, my shoulders get a little sore and my blood sugars tend to do their usual bouncing but still a good choice.

Below are some very small marker portraits in a water colour paper journal from the past days, with water used to spread the colours.

 The following work in progress continues to offer a beginning with which to work. The very obvious misconstruance of the placement of the girl's head gives me pause to wonder, when I even realize how wrong it is. I think I have decided to not change it. I have come to realize I have placed it where it is probably for a reason. I had no perception for the longest time of what I had drawn. Even now, when I come back to it, I have forgotten about the placement of that smaller head. No longer will I forget. I will explain to you next time I post the picture, hopefully in final stages. I will try to describe my thoughts about it. I suspect the picture will raise its own meaning for you.

And finally to reassure* that I am still sometimes in that bright and cheery warm colours mode, here is part of a background I have been working on together with a book from a few years ago which has numerous quotations as well as my happiness for the day recordings. The background is on a map that came with the ledger book I have been altering for an art journal book. It is a phone exchange map for a part of our province. The map is perfect for providing background lines and words.
*my friends like Jeanne

Angel blessings my friends.

June Is

bustin' out all over 
and I love the excitement in the air
the birds are singing
baby robins are exploring and observing
daisies are dancing
peonies are near bursting
daylilies wave hello
and good bye
bachelour buttons stand proud
lilacs are glowing
allium stay tall
doves coo-ooo
baby ducks scurry
staying close to momma

 











                                     ************
June is a wonderful month. I love it particularly as I am able, every year, to do a retreat on my own. I find this to be extremely rejuvenating. I am preparing to leave at this moment.
When I return I will have much news to share with you from the past months and hopefully more art to share which is new, and also from the past months.


Angels be with you dear friends.

retreat time

Every year in June I am very fortunate to go on a retreat at nearby Manitou Beach. I adore the solitude and opportunity to do art and writing. This year I am taking my sewing machine along and jewelry supplies. Of course I will also take a few paints.
I hope to return feeling refreshed and energetic. I know that inspiration is always close at hand.
May angels be with you.

all this excitement

Besides sharing my website yesterday and working on a new site with tips and tutorials, I have recently been interviewed by my very dear friend Dale Anne Potter. I have had the pleasure of meeting Dale in person when I attended an art retreat she held in April of last year in the southern portion of Saskatchewan, the province in which we both reside.

You can find the interview here.

Following are two pictures from the retreat last year. I learned some really neat creative tips from Dale and am sincerely looking forward to more shared creative times with her.

HAPPY EASTER

Please click on image for larger view
Happy Easter dear friends.
Angels be with you.

about that ART RETREAT - time for art journaling

The day after I returned from the art retreat I was very tired. I did not feel like doing anything but art. And so I worked with some of the pages in the altered book which I had started to prepare for MY project. I seem to have some difficulties with letting my muse in when there are more people around but she was quite willing to make suggestions and bring brilliant discoveries the day after.

Oh yes, this picture was taken the day after the retreat. The icicles had been hanging just outside of our front door for the previous week or more but this day it was supposed to warm even more. I knew if I wanted a picture it would have to be that day.



I totally abhor the idea of name tags BUT the suggestion was made that we do some altered art for this tag. I had forgotten about it till the morning I was packing to get ready to leave. I quickly looked around coming up with some perfect supplies that would truly suggest the person I am. I was very proud to wear this name tag. Sigh. Hardly any of the others had made tags. That's alright. Making this was great fun for me.



Now to some pages. This background was done with chalks and then sprayed for preservation. When my muse joined me I chose to use some of my fave markers and white gel pen for the lettering. I used watercolour pencils for the flowers and ribbon. Edging was done with a tiny ink pad. I also made use of some of the wrappings from the oil pastels. Dale, our wonderful teacher, was surprised that I was so willing to take the wrappers off that I might save them to use. I especially liked the purply pink effects on the one mid-bottom of left page.



I was not too certain about the coloured paper towels. I really liked the ones that Dale had done with leftover fabric dye on a full roll, but uncertain otherwise. I think it was residual from when a College taught artist friend had thought something I had done had a paper towel texture, when in fact it had not even been paper towel. You know the feeling - "oh, just cheap paper towels". I decided I really liked the colours of the one I had chosen for the page below. I then used another warm colour acrylic paint for the paint transfers. We were not certain how the transfers would work on the paper towel but I am quite pleased with the result. The top one is an inkjet image. The bottom one is laser. I really like the bottom picture, will have to find out from Dale where she got it. Now what about that paper towel texture? I want to put a glaze or something on top of it so that particular texture is not so evident. What would be your choice?



The next spread is about learning to do rubbings with textured wall paper. Ummmm, I love the textured wall paper. I intend to buy some as soon as I am able as we were just using a piece of Dale's which she got in a swap. I will also be looking for old plastic doilies which are excellent for rubbings. I had used oil pastels for all of the rubbings I had done. They would be my first choice. I need to put some kind of glaze or wash on, I believe, for doing journaling over top. The left page was done with paint mixed with a hardware store glaze. I had quite a bit left over after the initial project so chose to use it up on extra blank pages. I then did my own thing on Monday to make this page spread very unique to me.


Dale gave each of us a piece of sequin waste. I fell in love with it. I began the background with sponged acrylics. These pages are only started but I absolutely love the effects, especially on the right page where I overlaid the black pattern with the pink.


These two pages were so simple. I enjoy different patterns on napkins. I played a bit with the tearing and placement on this. After it dried all I chose to do was add a few words and a tiny bit of ink on the exposed areas. I may still add some other things to this but it will be minimal.


The next pictures are a couple taken outside the Mainstay Inn at Riverhurst. Our hostess treated us as royalty with fabulous food and service.






This last one is a red blanket and reflections of light. The photo was taken in our room when I just had to snatch a few moments to myself to rejuvenate. Light reflections always catch my eye. the blanket just happened to be there.

If you ever have a chance to do an art retreat I would like to recommend them very highly. A retreat provides an excellent opportunity to be away from the daily challenges of family and home. A solid block of time to do art with like minded folks cannot be topped. Thank you Dale for offering this opportunity. I truly appreciated.

Happy Easter if you are of the Christian faith.
Angels be with you dear friends.

ART RETREAT preparations and...

Just taking a moment as I hurriedly pack for the art retreat for which our niece and I are leaving in a couple of hours. I'll just share a couple of art journal pages and some weird things I've recently found to be interesting. I'll have more news to share down the road, explanations perhaps about some of the pages. In the meantime angels be with you.