The 20th Annual Lacombe Art Show and Sale is less than 2 weeks away now. With the Bursary applications I was working on (see
my last post) completed, packed up and sent back to the Educational Foundation last Monday, I was able to get back to show prep...and other things (READ: yard work).
It's about time -- as the wind howls outside and the rain comes down in fits and starts -- that I shared with you more of what I've been doing to get ready for this show, and other studio news.
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| Before the Crowds (C) 2019 |
In my last "studio post", I'd finished "Before the Crowds" and submitted it for consideration by the Grand National jury. The deadline for entries was yesterday...so now I wait. It needs its sleeve nonetheless, and that will happen this week, because if it isn't accepted at GN, it will go with me to the Lacombe Art Show/Sale.
Since then...several pieces have been finished -- mainly mounted on canvas -- and most have been framed. I have three that are being framed now, and that will be the end of it for the time being.
So let me start from the top!
The problem is, it's a bit of a blur! I've just been making and making...
A couple of Sundays ago I got a chance for my favourite walk around Cranna Lake in Lacombe, and shot some tree photos, like these:
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| Yes, this one's been cropped! 😉 |
I just
love these "March Trees" with their bits of berries and detritus, and all the layering, so I decided to do a series.
The top photo served as inspiration for mono-printing:
NOTE: the front piece wasn't mono-printed, but if you look closely you can see trees drawn on the surface. It becomes something else, so read on!
I ended up with two pieces, one of which became a new "mini", mono-printed and beaded:
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| March Trees II (C) 2019 |
Another one became a piece that was faced and beaded and mounted on painted stretched canvas...and is now in for framing (stay tuned for a photo sometime after Easter).
And then there's that photo of a myriad of trees over-looking the lake (scroll up). This one is now finished and at the framer's...but here are some of the steps I took to creating it:
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1. Quilted the sky; 2. needle-felted the grey "trees on the far
shore"; 3. layered those "trees" with "grass" on the shore:
4. attached both to the background. |
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| Auditioning the evergreen branches on the tree trunks. |
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Auditioning and positioning deciduous tree trunks
over and around the evergreens. |
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Message from my Pfaff Performance 2.0:
"Take a break, would ya? I'm working too hard!!" 😄 |
Sorry; you'll have to wait for the final photo -- this is one piece that's over at the framer's and might not be finished till a couple of days before the show! It's mounted on 12" square stretched canvas...just to let you know the size. Title:
March Trees I.
And yes, there is a "March Trees III", resembling the mini (above) but larger and mounted on painted stretched canvas (it's also 12" x 12"). It too is in for framing. Stay tuned!
Continuing in the 'tree' theme, in the process of making sleeves for a couple of soft pieces (
In the Bleak Mid-winter and
Content of Our Waiting, now finished), I came across a piece of fabric on which I'd made marks in a short workshop with
Susan Purney Mark at the SAQA Western Canada Regional Retreat a couple of years ago. I hadn't filed it with my 'samples' because I knew that eventually I'd want to make it into something, and this week it became another new 'mini':
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| Night Woods (C) 2019 |
And remember that piece of sky and foreground with trees drawn on the surface (scroll up)? Well...it became a mini too...
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| Rear Guard (C) 2019 |
Yes, that mat is not my "usual". It was one I got on sale from a shop that's now closed. It has a "faux suede" surface and I've been waiting a good 3 years till I found a piece it suited! This piece is based on a memory I have of a trio of grain bins set against a tree line that I drove past on my way to work in late winter/early spring this year. Slices of blue in the sky amid the clouds, and snow still on the ground. I had to hold on to the memory until I could sketch it out in my sketch book as I had no camera handy and I was driving!
The New Directions series has continued. This is
New Directions 2, mounted on canvas but of a size that it won't be framed -- just wired for hanging.
New Directions 4 and
5 have been framed but -- sorry, no photos as of this writing. Clearly they got lost in the shuffle! 😉
Remember "
Blue Pot"? It was a piece I made for an Alberta Society of Artists fundraiser last fall. Well...I've followed it with the smaller "Red Pot", based on a photo of lobelia I've managed to over-winter in my sunny back room...
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| Inspirational photo |
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Before framing - mounted on painted artist's panel
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Red Pot (C) 2019 - 8" x 8", framed
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| Red Pot - detail |
I certainly hope some of these sell at the Lacombe Art Show/Sale, because pieces are starting to pile up!
Blessedly I was able to take six (count 'em!) older pieces -- in a 'rural' theme -- over to sell on consignment at a new shop that opens next week at the nearby Village of Alix. I went over there on Friday morning to mount them, with Carrie, the owner's, help. Her laser level is amazing!
Here they are, on two different walls:
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| Left to right: One Step Ahead of the Gulls, Rural Rhythms |
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Clockwise from top: The Old Corral, Uphill to Mirror,
Canola, Waiting for the Train |
This second one is on a narrow hallway without a way to take a really good photo, but you get the idea. Carrie loves them and is sure they'll be a hit. She's a bit more optimistic than I am here in Bed Quilt Central! -- but at least I've got them out and into the world, so I need to remain hopeful. I certainly appreciate her support!
And now, my friends...that's it. You're all caught up except for a few photos! The knitting and spinning continue, as I'm determined to spin up roving that's been around for far too long. I'm determined to finish a shawl and a wrap before I begin my "Summer of Socks". And there's a bedroom wall to paint and an old trunk to refurbish as a planter this summer...so...
Onward and upward! Linking this to
Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday", and thinking perhaps a retreat like the one she just enjoyed wouldn't be a bad idea! 😉
Have a great week, everyone!
