Tis the season

It is hard to believe it is the end of November already. Where has 2009 gone! Remember the Y2K panics.......it seems like yesterday.

Well I have a holiday card.....penguins singing. I am not a wildlife artist but I paint a lot of animals. Interesting!

These are my combination paintings of Sumi-e on canvas. I did these for the workshop demonstration 2 weeks ago and finished them on Friday. I have been living with them for the last few days and decided this morning that they are complete.

I have a very strong urge to paint.....haven't felt like this for a long time. It feels great. Timing is a little off with the holidays coming up but I can work around that.

November days

The short days of November are here. At least it has not snowed which is fine by me.

I have been doing some painting...trying to get a suitable image for a holiday card. Not an easy task because each year people tell me how much they like the card and can hardly wait til next year.....no pressure.

I have painted several images, not sure which one I will use or I might start again. We will see where this takes me.

Great workshop

I was asked to conduct a workshop on wet mounting oriental paintings.

These paintings are done on rice paper that is thin so they need a backing to stabilize them. I have developed a fast and easy way of doing this. It is not the way the books say to do this but I have had great success with my method and the results are good.

Pictures of this workshop can be found at the Sumi-e Artist of Canada website....click here
It was a fun morning ...it went very fast for me .....hope it was for the people in the workshop!

Beautiful Day

Another beautiful day in southern Ontario...hard to believe it is November. It is important to enjoy each day.

It is also a sad time....a family member passed away yesterday. He was 7 days short of his 90th birthday. A very proud, independent man who was always in my life. He would visit us every week when we were kids growing up, never forgot a birthday was always at every family function., never saying a lot, a man of few words.

As per his wishes there will be no service for him... so very much like him.

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My memorial to him ........ Flowers for Hughie

A day to remember

Without getting into politics, we should all be grateful to the men and women who gave their lives in the Armed Services of Canada.

Having gone to a reunion of the women who served in World War II, I was amazed at how young they were and the responsibilities that they had. Sometimes we forget that all the men and women who served were heroes, the ones who survived and those who didn't...they risked their lives to make a better world. And let us not forget the people at home who worked in factories, raised children by themselves, did without, made many sacrifices.

I know a few people who are serving now in dangerous places....may they be safe.

Thank you to all of them.

Aphasia

One of the other things that I do is volunteer at the York-Durham Aphasia Centre based out of Stouffville Ontario. I have done so for 20 years, since it's beginnings. It is a community based program for adults living with Aphasia, a communication disorder that occurs after a stroke, brain injury or brain illness. Volunteers are trained by professional staff to work with clients and help them with their communication skills. I am a communication facilitator and have also done a few other things in my 20 years with them, but as an artist I developed and deliver an art program in one of the centre's locations. The paintings are truly amazing...they stress the process not the product...after all this is about communication and the main goal is to develop new ways to communicate. Together with the public Latcham Gallery in Stouffville in 2001 we had an exhibition of client's work that has since been in several other locations. It will be displayed for the final time in the lobby of 19 on the Park, Stouffville. It is an inspiring collection of paintings so if you are in downtown Stouffville go check it out Wednesday to Saturday 1-6. This is one of the paintings that is in the show called The World is Listening...stop by and see it.

Wonderful Time

I spent the day with my art friends at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. It is a beautiful spot with a great collection of Canadian Art. Well worth the visit if you are in the area of downtown Klienburg. All and all an inspiring day!