New Abstract paintings

I have been trying a new technique.  Instead of picking up a jar of paint and using that color, then picking up another jar and using that color, now I'm laying out all of the paint colors on my wooden palette. Much more exciting and then with the remaining paint I add layers onto a huge canvas that I have leaning against my wall.  I am very pleased with this and this painting "Triad" sold as soon as listed on Ebay.

I'm still working on my ravens and crows.  This is a very interesting time of year for the crows and the crow watchers.  The young crows have been tossed out of their nest to learn how to fly.  The adults do keep a close eye on them and chase away any bothersome animals or people.

Who'll Stop the Rain?

rain, sun, hail, wind, sun, rain, rain.....on and on.  I never know what to wear when I go out for my daily chores and exercise.  The weather is changing minute by minute. I don't mind the rain it's not knowing what the next minute will bring.  Today is glorious though.

My poor garden is suffering.  The bindweed is back with a vengeance and my giant Cannas seemed to have disappeared over the winter.  I hope I haven't planted over them.  I did put in some anemones near there.  I should take a picture of the last vestiges of summer so I know what areas to avoid.  I just got the sequel to the Gin and Tonic Gardener from the library; Another Splash from the gin and tonic gardener.  That should give some incentive to get out even in the rain.

I've been reading the autobiographies of Marianne Fathfull and have become obsessed with her.  It's lead me to other people that I want to know more about; Lucien Freud, Francis Bacon, Henrietta Moraes, Caroline Blackwood, to name a few.  I love it when books lead you off onto other paths of knowledge.  I feel now that I want my brain to full to bursting with knowledge when I shuffle off this mortal coil!

A couple of tributes I painted to Marianne Faithful.  Can't figure out how to upload an image with this new version of blogspot.

More later!

New York Times paintings are back!!

While going through some of my gigantic stash of bits and pieces, inspirations, books, vintage scraps, I came across my pile of New York Times newspapers. I had recently entered and online gallery competition and won a special recognition award for my "Business Day in New York Fog" mixed-media painting and this gave me the shove I sometimes need to get started on a few more of them. It worked quite well and I now have five more on the go. I also have some Los Angeles Times editions so maybe in the next little while I'll switch cities.  Of course New York City is my dream city.

The Real World

At Christmas my adult children, their spouses and my husband and I fill stockings for the adults. I usually put a magazine into each one. The last two years I have been unable to buy any magazines at all after the trauma of "going through" the hundreds, yea thousands of magazines that my mother had collected while dealing with her funeral, house and all manner of other things. This was a good thing for me actually because I realized that I didn't really need certain things. This year my search for the perfect addition to the stocking of my daughter-in-law became a problem and a thump on the head. She has cancer on top of MS. Every magazine had an article on "how to lose belly fat", how to cook amazing meals for your children, how to invest, the top hairdo's for the season, make-up tricks, all things that seem so trivial now. Good health is our treasure, our investment, the most important thing in this life.

Vodka Martini Gardener

I'm reading a really good book right now called "The Gin and Tonic Gardener" by Janice Wells. It's very amusing but very helpful, too. I am more of a vodka martini gardener myself. I work in the garden until martini time which is 3 o'clock for me. Now don't gasp that it's too early for a cocktail at 3 because it usually takes me about three hours to drink the whole thing down. Here are some pictures of the front yard, known affectionately as "the semi-barren wasteland". I won't even show you the backyard, which is overrun with English ivy, an invasive plant in the area. I will tackle the back another day or should I say month. I had a couple of landscapers come in and at least chop down the "pricker" bushes; blackberries. I'm thinking of a rock garden for the front. I have been wandering up and down the allies with my shopping trolley picking up likely suspects. I found two beauties at the air show that we went to on the weekend and another couple at a rocky beach in Point Roberts, Wa. There was so much beautiful silvery grey driftwood but I didn't know how the customs people would be about me bringing back to Canada. My daughter and two grandchildren are at a cottage this week and I have given orders for rocks, rocks and more rocks. After looking at a gardening magazine I'm thinking maybe a dry bed stream might be nice too. I have also added a picture of my next door neighbour and friend's front yard and porch. You can see what I have to live up to.

I'm also starting a new series of paintings using the "impasto" method, huge slabs of paint piled onto the canvas. My studio is upstairs in our 100year old house and it's hot as hades up there in the afternoon.

blocked!!!

Last week I was really excited about the new nude paintings I decided to concentrate on. Today they all look horrible and I hate them. This is a really slow time of year and every year I do something new and risky. This year I first started to do the cities in abstract, well I did one. Then I did the nudes, all different sizes. What to do now? I have a stack of blank canvasses. Maybe I should do some collages, that sometimes wakes up my creativity. I am listing more work onto Etsy.com, I'll see how that goes.
We are having a federal election in a couple of weeks and I am in a tizzy about that, too.

Cities in abstract.

So I have finished my first "City in Abstract" and listed it on ebay. I started off with New York City, of course. I've done many paintings of that favorite city but this is the first textured abstract. Next will be Seattle, or maybe San Francisco, or New Orleans. How will I decide?