More Magic!

Well, the tiling job is finally finished (to my delight & artistic satisfaction, I might add) & I'm off & running with creating art again. I might take a photo of the beautiful honed beach slate with handmade glass mosaic tiles to show you how well my design turned out...if you'd like to see it let me know!

It was so exhilarating to go to a silk painting workshop with a wonderful artist, Deb Strong (cat 'n mouse designs) on Saturday. She's a great instructor & I was really happy with the two pieces I created during the day. I've put the mermaid up for your viewing pleasure.

This image could be used as a t-shirt print, & I'll be looking at it for cards & calendars too. The photo was taken with a phone camera on-site so it doesn't do the painting justice. The silk still has to have the dye set in a steaming process, which Deb is doing for us, so I won't have the original back for another week. I could really be seduced into this art form--the dyes were amazing in how they flowed into the fabric, and the colours are really strong. Unbelievably compelling. Could I be steered away from watercolours? I'm starting to wonder...who was that person who said she was satisfied with watercolours & didn't have any intention of exploring any more mediums?

I also had a great time painting on pottery the weekend before & I'm looking forward to seeing how the second batch turned out after firing. I guess I'd better send off an email to my cousin to get some photos.

That all said and done, I'm feeling a little freer with my time, and have organized my 2009/10 trip down under. I'll be heading out of LA November 17, stopping in Brisbane for a week, then moving on to Melbourne & will hit the road from there after spending some time with cousins & friends & picking up my little car. After 4 months in the sun, painting and developing my art business & contacts there I'll return to Canada mid-March. So, the future in my crystal ball is becoming a little clearer!

Is the magic back? I'm looking for it! If you see it pass by your way send it on!

Back to the future

Hello followers!

Well I'm not quite finished the tiling yet but wanted to get back to you & to my blog, and return to a pattern that was working for me. My latest Landmark course, "An Invented Life--My Life, My Design" is working on me. That is to say, I am seeing how my brain patterns work on my actions and in then my brain starts using those patterns to predict what's in my future...and I'm wanting to shake that up a bit. Not 'cause my life & future isn't already great, it is...just that, well, creating is much more fun that blindly following some pattern that has happened before & unconsciously repeating it because it's easier to be on automatic pilot than to actually generate something new. Of course all that MAY just sound like babbling to you so I'll get on to what else is going on.

I feel like I've lost the magic, hopefully temporarily...although I did think I saw a fairy at dusk flying up into the trees in my garden tonight. So, I'm dreaming that the magic will reappear tomorrow too. Looking for it (as I've written earlier--either here or in my magic journal) is what has it appear, & I've been keeping myself much too busy to look for magic, or be inspired by it. I must say, I have been noticing magic (words or phrases) popping up in some unusual places, and so have some of my friends...so maybe I'm creating a little wave somewhere that I'm not aware of yet. I live in hope!!

I just came back from another session of painting on pottery in my Duncan cousin's studio--learned from the first time, learned more the second time (& looking forward to seeing what happens after firing) & if I get another chance to do some more direct painting, using her straight chemical pigments instead of glazes, before I go to Australia, that'll be even more fun! Some of last week's items will be put in her Christmas sales so we can see if there's a demand for some joint projects next year.

On Saturday I'm excited to be trying yet another medium--dying on silk (ok, I'm not going to kick the bucket, even though my friends tell me that's a guaranteed way to have your art pieces triple in price immediately!) in the studio of Deb Strong, a wonderful Langley artist who does beautiful work with silk as well as more traditional forms of art. (When did I say "I only like watercolours--don't have any interest in doing any other type of medium"??) I've also been toying with the idea of collage so we'll see if that comes to fruition soon.

Maybe I am going through another creative phase--I've certainly enjoyed playing with the slate tiles & patterns that I've been cutting out in the bathroom. However that is such heavy work, & mixing all the thinset & soon the grout isn't my favourite, so I don't think I'll be taking that up seriously. I could be talked into some mosaic work very easily though! From light (silk) to heavy (stone)--I can see I'm all over the map again! I wonder if my coach is going to steer me into more of a focus when we have our session again this week....

Well, I'm off to bed to rest up for another big day--there's a new instructor at the pool where I do deep-water classes & she seems to think we're all hard-bodied 20 year olds. While I am training to climb Mt. Kilamanjaro in 3 years I think it might be easier than her classes!

So, dear reader, stay tuned & I'll be posting more regularly for the next few weeks! Ciao for now
E

Sorry, still tiling!! Finished for the day...but it's tomorrow already!

Hi all
Apologies for nothing! (That is, no postings for a while!) I've been tiling, it seems like forever now...& there doesn't seem to be any magic in that I can tell you! Maybe when it's all over???
Meanwhile I am musing about how to write about magic...something that just appeared (as magical things do!) & seems lately to have disappeared a bit from my life...(as magic can do too.)
However I have created my first fairy painting--actually 4 fairies have appeared in the painting when I only intended one!! So that was kind of cool. I might give you a glimpse of it if you're good!
I have one more day of tiling before I head to Vancouver Island with my mom to paint on cousin Lyndsay's beautiful pottery again, will be thinking more magical themes. I'm also going to watch my Ontario niece play field hockey in Victoria & celebrate her 15th birthday with her! Very exciting. Then back to Vancouver, more tiling, hopefully grouting & sealing & finishing!!! and seeing some Olympic venues with the Ontario girls which will be cool.
And on my list for September is getting my flights to Australia organized for November to March. The 2009/10 tour is about to begin!
So, back to the magic--I have a question for you. Do you have magic in your life? Or do you wish you had some? & what does it look like to you?
Stay tuned, back in a few days.
I'd post a photo of me tiling to show you how hard I'm working but it's really not very attractive with the sweat running down your face! & I thought I was in shape!

A Lick & a Promise

Where are the fairies? I know they're out there somewhere! I just haven't had time to look (or to blog) so since a picture is worth a thousand words feast your eyes!

I'm defaulting to the little fairies looking for fairies in my back yard. And if I wasn't so busy getting ready to re-tile the 70s ensuite shower that was lavender flowered tiles (to match the lavender toilet--now at the dump, & the lavender sink--sometime soon to head to the dump) I might be out there looking. Until then the nieces will have to do it for me--& they're heading to school tomorrow so that doesn't bode well for fairy sightings in the near future.

And I am still holding onto my promise to tell you about how the magic came into my life & art, just getting the composition right...so stay tuned! I'll be back, don't you worry.

Does everyone feel this busy, always?

I can't believe it's over a week since my last post--sorry to anyone who was looking for news more regularly than that! I am back...albeit briefly. I seem to keep creating more activities in my life than I can easily manage...just having too much fun! And then some of the things I love to do get either squished into little slots which is somewhat unsatisfying, or totally missed which is REALLY unsatisfying. Those activities, for me, tend to be reading, writing (& I include blogging in that category), quiet time & (sadly indeed) my painting.

However, today I had LOTS of time painting with one of my favourite, if not the most favourite, instructors, Faith Love Robertson (can you NOT love a person with a name like that?) And tomorrow more of the same. Today we were doing sunflowers (to which I added some fairies) & tomorrow I hear we're doing garden scenes which I might also hide some fairies in! I'm always inspired by Faith & how she teaches--lots of fun stuff to get some paint in various patterns onto the page in a sort of "sub-painting" & then see what you can create from there. I'm almost always pleased by the results & learn lots about colour, texture, composition too.

Today Faith brought me a lovely fairy book to keep overnight & do some research on the various types of fairies & magical creatures, along with instructions about minimizing their wicked spells, and the hazards of playing with them...so I'd better pay attention, since they seem to keep popping up in my life!

Alongside me painting this week is my gorgeous friend Sharon who is a coach in her own right, and so much fun to be around that I remember how lucky I am to have friends like her in my life. She has done so much corporate work as well as start her own training business & go through some of the branding questions that I have been struggling with that she is an excellent resource for me, and so generous in her advice. I want to join her in her "Champagne Club" venture! (& wouldn't you too!!)

The next few weeks are falling into place with the startup fall routine--and a few less visitors to entertain. So I plan to be blogging a little more, although I do have a big bathroom renovation project on the go as well--demolition has already started & will hit the tile removal job hard this weekend while Wes is still available, before he gets into his passion--hunting season. While he's away I'll be (hopefully) creating new slate walls in our shower, and organizing the cabinet/countertop replacement for October. No rest for the wicked!

But right now, off to bed I go, with my fairy book to study!

Stay tuned, I'm going to blog a bit more about how the magic came into my art world, as lots of people are wondering about that...

Ciao for now!