Who turned off the heat

I love hot weather. 

Just came back from a week in Arizona .. hottest day 113F or 45 C. It was great and I will have some more thoughts when I get over the jet lag however WHO TURNED OFF THE HEAT in Stouffville. 

Yesterday bathing suit today I have fleece on and socks and I turned on the furnace when the house reached 59F. 

Can't we ease into this fall weather!

Cactus bloom at night and they are beautiful.
A morning picture.

Happy Friday

Beautiful morning in Southern Ontario.
I have never been a fan of the return to structured life that happens this time of year.

I love summer and the wonderful hot lazy days. This summer has been exceptional for me, lots of heat and sunshine.

While I go back to structure kicking and screaming once it happens I am happy to get back to my routine.  Spent yesterday with my art group and will be seeing another group this weekend. the highlight of my week was Tuesday and Wednesday with the clients of the YorkDurham Aphasia Centre. It was Art for Communication days and they as always were amazing. 

Many of them brought their sketch books in to share. Part of my article for the YDAC newsletter

The Power of Art

Study after study has shown that brains can be retrained to adjust to the new realities after a brain injury. It is not just one thing that helps the brain but many different activities that might help. Of course each person is different and results are varied. Art for Communication is a monthly part of our program in Newmarket. Each month we go through a series of drawing exercises designed to stimulate the brain and exercise our muscles. The most important part is we have fun! By repetition we hope to create these new pathways. Drawing is also another tool to communicate. The more we draw the more comfortable we all feel drawing.  

Last month each client and volunteer in the Wednesday afternoon program received a sketch book from the dollar store to take home. They could draw anything; the only rule was that it must be in pen. The “homework” was due on the next art day. People were so pleased with what they had accomplished that they brought them before art during the month to show everyone. WOW. 

We were all amazed at everyone’s work. I doesn’t matter what is on the page but that they are working hard at retraining their brain by drawing and doodling. Now the Tuesday programs also have books and their “homework”. All of the books will be brought in to share on our next art day. 

I am so excited to see all these books. They are truly wonderful pieces of work, every single page.

More information about the art program can be found here 

Remember that most of these people they are using their non dominant hand, have never drawn before and would have never even considered trying any kind of art. They are very brave!

one person wrote a story with pictures

The courage that everyone that I have met with Aphasia can be summed up by this video of Gabby Gifford last night. 

Have a beautiful Day.

Thank you

Great 5 days at the McKay. Thank you to everyone who stopped by!

At the McKay

We are here at the McKay Centre 197 Main St today until 8 pm. Our opening is tonight 5.30 to 7.45.
Stop by and say hello, have a treat. 
We are open tomorrow and Saturday 10.15 to 5 and on Sunday 12.15 to 5. It's going to be a beautiful warm weekend and Unionville Main Street is a wonderful place to spend some time. 

CNE

The CNE begins today ..... the fair that signals the end of summer for Southern Ontario;  the new food item this year, deep fried bacon and mars bar. Thanks but no thanks, yuck. Of course there is over a month of summer left so plenty of time to enjoy my favourite season.

And next week I am very pleased to be at the McKay Centre in Unionville On with my daughter Allison Bullock and our friend June Probert. We will have 60 paintings on display. Please stop by and say hello! Your invited.

Maybe it is gone

I have been in  a little rut most of this year. Not painting as much and not even knowing what I wanted to paint. This afternoon was VERY productive. Three paintings!
Maybe the slump is gone. 

Not the best photo but these are three separate paintings

Artist Challenge

One day I was discussing my sketchbooks collection, yes a collection, with a fellow artist and how I buy sketch books and don't want to "ruin" them by putting work in them. Turns out she did the same thing so we made a pact to use one of our books and bring it to show the next week. Of course I didn't use one of the really good books but I did start to fill up pages in a book. It has been a really stimulating exercise and I have been surprised with  how it has helped my work. Here are some of the results.

 

 

And I created a couple of paintings from one of the sketches. Sometimes we all just need a little shove to get creativity going. 

  

 

I have finished one book and have another one on the go. 

This has been really a great exercise and one that I think every artist can use. No rules, paint or draw what ever you want. My friend used poems on the opposite page, I just played with brushes and colours and paint.

It is fun! 

By the way, thanks to everyone who stopped by at our show yesterday. It was a huge success and we really enjoyed the day.

If your in Toronto

If your in Toronto tomorrow, stop by and say hello 

Happy Canada Day

Happy Birthday Canada..... Best place to live!

Yikes

End of June already. Where does the time go!

Paintings are still up at the Love of Jo and also I am going to be showing work in 2 locations over the next few months. Busy getting ready with some new work that I will be posting. Details to follow soon.

In the meantime I am enjoying this first weekend of summer.
Hope you are also

Art at the Love of Jo Coffee House

One of the sponsors of the Stouffville Studio Tour The Love of Jo Coffee House showcase a different visual artist every month.


For the month of June there are three artists' work on the walls, mother, Grace MacPherson, daughter Diana Bullock and granddaughter Allison Bullock.

We are delighted to each have six paintings on exhibit.
Stop by, have a coffee and see our work

Favourite

My favourite time of year is now. 

I love the spring, the colour of green in Southern Ontario is so beautiful. 

I love the temperatures especially if it is hot, it's like little surprises of summer. 

The smell of spring, apple blossoms, lilacs, peonies all so strong 

I love the baby animals in the spring, the goslings, calves, horses just enjoying the moment. 

The rain in spring smells so wonderful

My favourite U2 song is Beautiful Day.... 

Enjoy this beautiful spring day

Happy Monday

I know Monday but .... I have had a great busy week and half, art show, anniversary, away for a couple of days and then Mother's Day. All of it absolutely fantastic but busy. I really enjoyed it all but I was ready for a quiet day of catching up. 

Happy Monday, got a few things accomplished! Yeah!

Book

Last autumn the Lemonville Group of Artists had a wonderful exhibition at the Latcham Gallery, Stouffville Views from the Moraine. It was the culmination of several years of work for our group exploring the Oak Ridges Moraine as artists living on or near it. 

We were very happy with our work and I used a website, Blurb.com to create a catalogue or book of the show with the artists statements about their work. The book can be viewed here and if you wish to own a copy you can purchase it through Blurb.

A little tired

Just a little tired after a great 2 days at the Lemonville Show. 

Thanks to everyone who stopped by. VERY supportive people with positive feedback, VERY busy with record crowds and the bonus many paintings have new homes! The energy was infectious. 

A few days of rest and then we are going to start thinking about next year ... our 20th so mark your calendars May 4th and 5th 2013!

All ready

We are all set for the show this weekend. Lemonville Group of Artists, Lemonville Community Centre 13453 McCowan Rd, Stouffville tomorrow and Sunday 10 am to 5 pm. Looking forward to a fun weekend! Everyone is invited.

Almost ready

I am almost ready for this weekend's show. In the past I may have been known to be painting up to the last minute, framing and generally running around. Not this year! I have finished almost everything. Just a few last minute details and I will be done.
I think I rather like this feeling!

C'est moi

Frogs a Leaping

   
Here are paintings that will be on display this weekend.

Donation

As an artist I am often asked to donate work to a good cause. I consider this an honour to be asked but I am also thoughtful about the organization, is it something I really believe in and the audience, how would my work be received. With these considerations I am selective about my donations. 

Jennifer Ashleigh Foundation, www.jenash.org is one organization that I support fully, both in the past and this year for their Gala Friday. Details here

Love/Amour

My donated painting for this event

61

61 is a big number especially when it's a wedding anniversary. Happy 61st wedding anniversary to my parents....still going strong!

Yipee

Crisis over .... I think I retrieved all but one of my blog posts that I deleted yesterday. If anyone out there does it look for the "cache" of your page and copy and paste into a new post. 
Tedious and time consuming but now it is done...going to follow my tech support 's advise and back up everything.
Lesson learned!

annoying

The new blogger has deleted my posts from October on .... very aggravating to say the least. Working on getting them back but in the meantime here is a copy of the invitation for the upcoming show.

Ozzy-it's not easy being green

My cats love to help me paint. They love the music and the places to poke around in my studio space. They do not go in there unless I am working. 

Today I was cleaning 20 palettes and adding paint for the Aphasia Centre's Art for Communication program next week when Ozzy decided to help by jumping into the wet watercolour paint. One white cat with red and green fur, feet, stomach and face! 

 

An emergency bath and he is good as new [stomach fur had a slight green tinge, actually decided to cut it out seemed easier than bathing him again]

Very glad it was watercolour paint and not acrylic!

Happy Earth Hour

Turn off your lights between 8.30 and 9.30 for Earth Hour...why?

Well the crazy weather that has been going on in Southern Ontario should make us all realize that we can't continue on this same path. Whether it is a regular weather pattern or global warming that caused our wacky temperatures it  doesn't matter. We live in a world of disappearing polar caps and bees. Agricultural land that is being developed at an alarming rate and disappearing rain forests. 

Seems silly to turn off power for an hour to help the earth but everything starts with that first step, that seemingly inconsequential movement that mushrooms into something more. 

So for our planet lets turn off the lights for the hour.... what's the harm and it might start some conversations with those political types who can do something about this road we are traveling .

Trees in Sunlight

Everyone should be able to enjoy nature, trees and sunlight.

Stepping down from my soap box!
 

Happy Spring

Awakening

Hard to believe it is spring already, my favourite season and with the weather we have been having in Stouffville it feels more like summer.
Only one week left for the Lemonville Group Show at the Town Offices. A great show!



Gearing up for our annual show at the Lemonville Community Centre. This painting might be there!

3.11.11 - remembering Japan

A sad day for Japan ....remembering all of the devastation of the earthquake, tsunami and all the aftermath that wreck havoc on their country. 

I have heard some people say that Japan didn't need our help after the disaster, nonsense. Japan is such a proud country and their "stiff upper lip" attitude with the strength and dignity that they showed the world could have been mistaken by some as not needing help and so not true. They of course are still trying to pick up the pieces after this horrible event and need help. 

My small effort raised over $600.00. Details of the help that the Red Cross continues to give to this area is here. There are still 3 paintings, Ensō 1, 8 and 9,  left that I will give away for a small donation. Check the  sidebar or here for how it works.

Resting Place

And let us all remember Japan today... their pain continues.

Bob Hope

I volunteer as an Art for Communication facilitator at the York-Durham Aphasia Centre, part of March of Dimes Canada. More details about the program are here,  here and here. It is a program that I helped to develop and we have what I consider spectacular results. 

People who are living with Aphasia [a communication disorder after a stroke or brain injury] have many challenges looking for new ways to communicate, after all speaking is only one way to get a message across.The Art Program helps give them another tool for communication. We stress the process not the product. 

Each year I choose a face for them to draw upside down as a brain exercise. Last year it was Lucille Ball, the year before Elvis; we have draw Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln in the past. 
 
This year I decided on Bob Hope. In this complex world we live in it is nice to remember this wonderful entertainer. 


Thanks for the memories....
Bob Hope for 2012.

New feather paintings

These were both painted with my new feather brush [the small one] and a duck quill with a sharpened point. By the way hats off to our ancestors for writing with quills...it is very challenging to say the least.

I am having fun [the main criteria for anything as far as I am concerned]

Haven't decided if these paintings are keepers but they caught my attention and who knows.......

Brushes

I know people agonize over brushes and have a large collection of them .... me to.

Several years ago I took a fascinating 2 day workshop on making brushes... mine looked good but fell apart when I got home. A master Chinese brush maker taught the classes and even though my brush was not very useful I gained a lot of knowledge and respect for people who make brushes by hand. Last fall I wanted to paint with feathers [one of the brushes at the workshop was made of feathers] ... just wanted to try it out. I fastened several white feathers that I had bought on to the failed brush handle and voila a useable facsimile of a brush. I created this painting with my feather brush and it is now in a new home.

The Wave

This is another painting created with my feather brush. 

And then my brush fell apart [I think the handle is jinxed]

Anyhow today I decided that I enjoyed painting with feathers so much that I would make some permanent feather brushes. And here they are..... painted with them today, had fun getting use to them.

Feathers, bulrush stick and masking tape makes a very useable and sturdy brush. Note the 3 different sizes! By the way they are no longer white feathers.

The Dragon

 Happy year of the Dragon.

This is my painting ... this year is a water dragon ... a gift for my dragon.

....I found it a real challenge because what does a dragon look like? 


I think this is a happy one and ready for a good year!

Happy Monday

So I know this is not what most people think of when they think Monday but after the last 4 weeks of stuff, aggravating, stressful, alright sometimes !*@#  I am embracing this week with positive thoughts....it is going to be a good week! I am grateful that all of this is just stuff that can be dealt with and not life altering but enough already.

I am bonding with my new to me car .... we are getting in sync... zoom zoom.

Went and picked up paintings from the DEBUT show in Markham. It was a great show and I was happy to be a part of it. 

Two of my paintings are still at the Municipal Offices of the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville until the end of March. We are getting positive feedback for this show so if you are in the little town of Stouffville stop by ...... details in previous post.

Starting to prepare for the Lemonville annual show...stay tuned.

HAPPY MONDAY!