Monday, November 30, 2009

Let it snow

This is the view that greeted me this morning:

Yes, that is right. The first snow of the season. Can't complain. This year, we had 106 hours of sun in November; last year we only had 60 hours. This year, we had 1cm of snow (not counting today) and last year 16 cm. That is great if you ask me. The least snow, the better. I run. Outdoors. Contrary to what some may think, icy sidewalks and frozen winds do not a running pleasure make. I am hoping for a mild winter. Some of my running buddies are gearing up for a 6 hours run on Jan. 2 and I thought about joining them, but it all depends on the WeatherMan.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Fall...

I have not sketched anything in a while and I decided
to hurry and draw the quinces I bought last week. Good thing I did, because I ate them as soon as I finished drawing! Pen, pencil on St. Armand paper.


Thursday, November 26, 2009

A clean house

Another first last weekend: first time to see a French play! About twelve years ago, I saw "The Glass Menagerie" at the Royal Alexandre Theatre in Toronto. Kiefer Sutherland and Shirley douglas played mother and son in the play. I enjoyed the show, it was theatre as I remembered it. And since then ... nada. But Friday, I went to see "The clean house". Well written, well translated, funny. The acting however dissapointed. Hardly any voice projection at all, mostly high pitched unnatural talking.If this has to do wit the directorial vision, then it is fine. But if it is a symptom of what became the norm these days, then it is sad. A good actor should know how to project his or her voice, have excellent diction and speak a clean language, devoid of accents. There is no way around it. I remember seing "Caligula" in the mid-eighties. The hall was probably five times as big as the one Friday. There were no mics and no technology. Yet, I could hear everything clearly from my seat all the way at the back. The actors had such voices that they could have read the phone book and make it sound like Shakespeare. Or, this was definetely missing Friday. Next week, I will go see "Le roi se meurt". Can't wait to "hear" that one...

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Jingle Bells

Getting to town Saturday was unusual. For one thing, there was a long lineup at the ticket distributor. And it looked another working day almost, not like a weekend morning, that's how many people there were. It would have been nice to see so many kids going to the Salon du livre, but I suspected that was not the cause of the commotion. Indeed, the children were going to the Christmas Parade! I was on a mission - to be at the Salon by noon. I would not stop at the parade, but I will go to the art store first. And on the way there, somehow I started talking to a grandma and her 2 years old grandson. It was his first parade and grandma forgot the camera. I, on the other hand, took the camera. No idea why, I never go anywhere with the camera. I offered to let her borrow it and snap pics, then I would email them. Once the parade started, this idea turned out to be no use. I ended up taking lots of pictures with and without the boy. Here are some of them:

 
 
 
 
 

Monday, November 23, 2009

Sketchbook project

Few weeks back, I discovered "The Sketchbook Project". What do you think I did? Right! I signed up! What are the chances anything I make will ever make its way in a museum? Seriously. Not even when I will be way past the 10000 hours of practice needed to become an "expert". Of course I signed up. And five minutes after I did, I regreted it. I found out I will have to wait two - three weeks to get the notebook. Factoring in the delays in mail delivery over Christmas, that leaves me two week max to fill the notebook. What was I thinking?!

I found the notebook yesterday in the mail - so I missed one weekend. My theme is "elephant in the room". My first impulse was to pull all the pages off and make on big page that will fold back to the original size. This way, I will have to worry only about one huge elephant. But it would not be too easy to read. The pages are very thin and inks bleed through. Anything wet will have to be done on another paper that I will glue in the notebook. I have never worked with a theme. I usually start with the backgound and work it until something clicks but there is not time for clicks now. In the end, I figured not all pages have to be paintings and such. There can be writings too. And not every inch of the page has to be filled either. So, I think the strategy will be to do somethign on each page and then if i have time left, I will go back and add more stuff. Really?! Time left?! I think there are  twenty spreads. So twenty elephants....

'nough said! Sayonara everybody, I am going on a safari!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Salon du livre

The biggest book fair in North America happens every year in MontrĂ©al. I have never been, but this year I decided to remedy the situation. Saturday turned out to be a gorgeous day and off I went. I wanted to see Barbara Reid. My plan was to spend a couple of hours strolling leisurely from booth to booth checking the novelties from Europe. Can you guess what happened? Of course, not what I planned. When they say this fair is big, it is not an understatement. It is huge. There was hardly any place to turn around, that’s how many people there were. A lot of kids too. I don’t think I spent more than one hour there. I walked around the perimeter of the fair, toured quickly the children’s section to have a look at the illustrators and left. Crowds are making me antsy. And there were too many books! Imagine being Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. At the beginning, everything is exciting, but after a while there are just too many candies. There is no way Charlie can ever taste them all. Same with me. No way could I have a look at all those books anyway. If I will go back next year, I will go with a plan, get in, follow the plan and get out. I was happy to see so many kids though. And parents.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Journal spread



The left page just happened, as they usually do. I wanted to use some of the security envelopes I saved. To that. I added various bits and pieces that just happened to be lying around. The postcard in the middle is the chapel at O'Cebreiro. This is on the way to Santiago de Compostella, in the mountains on the border between Galicia and Castile. It is hard to see, but under the woman's face there is a small picture of Josephine Baker wearing her feathers. I love the contrast between the stern  faces and the image of a famous cabaret dancer from 100 years ago.

The right page is where I channelled Teesha Moore. It is probably the first time I make solid borders like that. I could feel an internal rebellion going on as I was going around closing every gap. There was no way to escape anymore, everything was "in the box". I contemplated painting over, but that would have defeated the purpose of the experiment. I used a fotocopied image as focal point and I decided to paint with oil paints! Of course, it took one week before the page was dry. And somehow I stumbled on a quote that fitted nicely with the image. Unfortunately, I do not remember who the author is anymore. Now, I feel better about borders as they can also be a mean of protecting what's inside the box. All this to say that I might use borders like this in the future.






Thursday, November 19, 2009

Smell of fall


Quinces are to me what madleines are to Proust - doors to times long gone. Fall is not really here, in spite of the barren trees and the frosted ground, until I find quinces.But now it is time to stop being in denial as I have found them!

Grandma had a quince tree in the backyard ans every fall, she picked up the fruit and brought it inside. It filled the whole house with its ripen smell. The quinces lined up in a sunny spot on the windowsill or next to the wood burning stove like soldiers at the parade. Then grandma turned them into my absolute favorite: jam. Quince jam and plum jam were a must in winter. I liked them spread on tea biscuits. Bread was good too, but only as a last resort. All this is gone now, the house, the tree, the jam. The only thing left is the smell of ripen quince to usher in the fall.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Reach for perfection

All my efforts to turn this page into another face have been thwarted. I set out to do the background, but the result was dreadful.I gessoed over it and added more layers of paint. As I was about to start my face, I started "seeing" eyes. And the dark area at the top left corner screamed "hair! hair!". It made me think about the wigs they worn at the court of Louis XIV and about the pink wig I used as part of my clown costume few years back. I thought there was going to be one figure, but in the end there are three. They seem scared, trying to balance the balls in the air as well as one another. The text at the left reads "In case of loss or damage"; the text at the right reads "Art advertisement".

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Have spray, will paint

I gave in and conveniently forgot that I promised not to spend any more money on art supplies until the drawers of stuff loose some of their content. This time, I bought spray paint and made a mess on the living room floor.

The good:
The colors are sharp and the result has a graffitti look to it that I like. I sprayed on some old background papers as well as on some of the faces I made, some of the ones that looked kind of unfinished. Maybe I will finish them at some point.
The bad:
Nothing really. Reading the instructions always helps, especially when it comes to the distance between the spray can and the paper. When the paint is sprayed at close distance, it tends to puddle on the paper. Using repositional adhesive helps. I sprayed it on the paper, then I layered stencils and colors. The adhesive has a drying window of about one hour, making layering easier.
The ugly:
This is not an activity to entertain indoors in the winter at -30C. Ventilation is essential as the paints are toxic. Wearing a mask is a must. And gloves! The paint does not come off easily.

Here are the results:




 

Friday, November 6, 2009

Burned the midnight oil...

...two days ago, watching the videos from Teesha Moore's blog. Very interesting and a lot of fun to watch. She used only paper from magazines. I used images as a whole, but they can be cut up! Duh ....Makes sense. So I did a trip to the recycling box and salvaged more paper. Never know when it will come in handy! Looking forward to the lettering videos.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Big mistakes

I recently found these at the dollar store. You have to admit, they are quite funny. Unfortunately, they do not erase past mistakes. Instead, they make a good carving material for stamps. I made these two watching House the other day. The erasers are thick enough so both sides can be carved. I think I'll buy few more and have them handy when inspiration strikes.


Tuesday, November 3, 2009

It is good to have ...

... an office assistant to keep thinks on track in my work/art studio. This morning, he woke me up on time as as he displayed his football skills. Pardon, soccer skills. He was too busy chasing a pompom under the bathroom vanity to pay attention to walls and doors. His might could not be stopped by these nuisances ..until ...goooooooaaaaaaaalllllll! Needless to say, the raucous noise woke me up. Did I tell you his name is Napoleon? Now you understand why he can't be bother with any kind of geographical limitations.

Here are some new journal spreads.
I did not planned to have the Pierrot face here, but one stroke at the time, he emerged. Or she ?!

For the background here, I used craft paint in reds and oranges. Mixed on the page and scraped around. Then I looked for a face and whatever other creatures cared to emerge. On the right side, I wanted to play with the stencil, but then again one thing led to another and I have a half-face showing up.

Monday, November 2, 2009

More faces

These are two other faces I painted lately. I keep trying different things, as there are few little details that I am not crazy about. For the second one, I did some "cloud gazing" and came up with other creatures from the paint spots in the background. I think I might become adicted to finding critters and creatures in the paint!

Carbon paper and pen nibs

Today, I found carbon paper! Not an easy task it seems as most people confuse it with tracing paper. I find it handy when I want to transfer a design for carving or cutting up. So of I course I had to test it and I cut stencils from cardboard and craft foam. I decided to do a test run with the spray paint - in the laundry room of all places. No ventilation in that room, but I figured what harm can that be, right? I only had 3 stencils. Wrong! That stuff is toxic XXXL. I have a mask, but I suspect I will need one of those contraptions that look like they are coming straight from the WWII and keep the fumes at bay. The stencils worked quite good - the birds will be soon glued in the journal.

I also managed to pull out from a stack or writing paraphernalia a pen and its nib!
These writing implements date from oh, maybe 8-10 years ago when I wanted to learn calligraphy. I did, just not enough. But now I started to use the pen to write in the journal or whenever I do writing exercises and such. And I love it! Now of course I will need some of those acrylic inks in gorgeous colors! But I am putting my foot down in the expense department!

Oh, and I finally found the Sharpie poster paint markers! Water based and oil based. I sould get a few as I ended up with a bunch of various markers and 3/4 of them don't work. I will not .. yet (see above). If I do, I will stick to white, black and red. Maybe one grey ... later.

Now, I'd better go make something ...

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Paint splotches

Few days ago, I took painting splotches to a new level. I used a paper doily to print out on my background pages, then I printed splotches of left over color on the pages of my altered book. And then I saw them - the faces. The left one reminds me of the faces on the roman frescoes from Pompeii.