This is how 2011 ended - taking a mixed media workshop from Miranda Jones through the USCAD program. It was great fun. I had been wanting to do a workshop with Miranda for some time, as she incorporates metallics into her works and that is something that I have been thinking about for some time now. This workshop also gave me the opportunity to work more with acrylics, something that had been on the 'to do' list. You can see I was having a great time!

Also, we had a great time with our Escape Artist's 'Art by the Hearth' show. Thanks to everyone who came by. The weather cooperated, and we had many visitors.

Now that January is here, I plan to do some work with mixed media; I have some ideas about rusty things that I'd like to work on. Now to toast some gold leaf! I will show you more about that in a future blog post. I have just about finished tidying up my studio space, as well as my computer. If you have a look around this site, you will see that I have updated the various galleries too. It is a good feeling to be ready to get going again.

So here we go for another year! I hope it is a good one for everyone.

This weekend is the third 'Art by the Hearth' show and sale for the Escape Artists group I belong to. It is being held at my house on Saturday and Sunday. Everyone welcome!

I will have some new pieces for the show (I will get them up on the New Works page shortly). Here is a glimpse of part of one of them. It is a mixed media piece, something completely new for me.

I hope that you can come by and see us! Mulled apple cider available to all!

Where does the time go? This Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I will be participating in the 'Little Gems' show at the Mix Artist' Collective Gallery. This is the white house behind Knox United Church. See the 'Upcoming Events' to the right for details. It begins at 4 pm Friday. This is a fundraising event for the Saskatoon Food Bank. There will be work from 50 local Saskatoon artists, all small works, hence - Little Gems!

Then the Escape Artists' group is having its 3rd Annual 'Art by the Hearth' at our house. It will take place on December 10 and 11. Again, check details to the right. Our group of seven local artists will have a variety of works on display for the two days. We hope to see you at both these events.

Back to work!

This Monday I finally got to get back to painting. The cold that I got in Vancouver set me back several days, so it wasn't until this week that I was able to begin again. Monday is the day I paint with the Artists' Workshop group now. I am just in the process of setting up a website for this group, so it is fairly basic at the moment.

Anyway, on Monday I was determined to begin practicing some of the ways of painting that I had learned about at the Alvaro workshop.  One of those things was to practice making people in the landscape. Alvaro showed us how to pull people out of just a dark squiggle. So that is what I did - made lots of dark squiggles and then proceeded to turn them into people. I still plan to practice doing it a lot more. These were my most successful people so far. Doing the legs was the hardest part! One important thing that I learned was to hold the brush at the end, not down by the ferule, which is what I have been doing. Alvaro's method of painting is big strokes, lots of paint and you just can't do it by holding the brush tightly. To get the legs to work, you have to use your whole arm in one big motion. Something I have to work on more.

I tried a couple of quick landscapes from photos I took in Vancouver. They are strictly learning pieces and not for public consumption. Again, lots to practice.

Here is a painting I have just finished.

Not the best photo because the light right now isn't great. It has too much reflection on it. This is a piece I started back in the spring, and I have worked on it off and on over the summer. I was not sure how to work on the foliage. From the workshop, using the brush loosely, with lots of colour, was how I went at it, and I am quite happy with the way it turned out. So what I learned transferred to oil painting as well. I might still have to work on the darks a bit more, but it is nearly there. When the weather cooperates, I will get a better photo. I actually have someone who might be interested in the painting. It will go into our Escape Artists' 'Art by the Hearth' show otherwise, in December. 

Now I feel like painting! Most of the house stuff is done. Next weekend, I will be taking the multimedia workshop, for two weekends running. I have lots of things to get together for that, so that will be next weeks undertaking. I am glad that I already have metal leaf. It should be lots of fun.

Last week I went out to Vancouver to participate in a watercolour painting workshop with Alvaro Castagnet (aka the Passionate Painter). The workshop was through Art Escapes Vancouver, which is essentially Jamie, who organizes the workshops at the Granville Island Hotel a few times a year. He is bringing in international level artists for these workshops. The location is fabulous, right on Granville Island. The hotel is great, and quiet. And you get to go out and paint all over.

The photo above is Alvaro using a hair dryer to quickly dry the underpainting he was doing of a scene on Granville Island. He was painting the scene directly above, with the bridge flying over. Challenging to say the least.

I think 'challenging' sums up the workshop altogether. I had seen his work in International Artist magazine, and knew that he did workshops in Europe. By the way, this is one of the best art magazines around. I can't remember how I found out about Art Escapes, but decided to sign up last winter for this workshop. I haven't been painting much with watercolours lately and wanted to get back into that. Also, I haven't really done much with landscape painting and watercolour, other than when I went to France. This is now quite a few years ago, and I was out of practice. Alvaro does urban landscapes and that is what interests me most. Plus his use of intense colour was intriguing. How does he do that? Also, he paints plein air, something I have wanted to do but have been too shy to try. A group would be a good way to start.

So off I went, easel under my arm, suitcase packed with paints and paper. Alvaro's approach is totally different to any previous watercolour painter I have seen. He works with a fairly limited palette. This is a necessity when you paint on site as you can't drag around a massive palette. He showed us how to travel light, yet be able to paint half sheet watercolours. His easel is light and has a handy, small board that holds the water and sponge (something to look into). Because he does instructional videos, we weren't able to take photos of him painting. He did give me permission to take the one of him drying the painting, which I really appreciate. He pointed out that if you spend all your time taking photos, you aren't concentrating on what is happening, which is a very good point. And people aren't jostling all around to get the best shot, which can get very annoying.

Alvaro (ALvaro) is a very physical painter and showed why it is important to stand to paint, and how to literally attack a painting. Boldness, relaxation, confidence. Put your free hand in your pocket. Stand back and look at your scene a lot, then when you paint, just look at the painting. In some ways it seemed like he was painting like one would with oil paints because he would put down big strokes of dark watercolour and then work into them with other colours. He did 2 demonstrations a day and that was really needed to be able to understand how he thought through the process of getting the painting down.

At the end of the day, he would do 'surgery' on our paintings. This was really instructive, showing better composition, better use of darks and lights.

This is my really awful first try at painting outdoors and using this approach to painting. I am putting this up to show that learning is always going on and that you just have to jump in and try it, realizing that you are going to make a lot of messes. It was actually quite a lot of fun to just do a brief sketch and then just start putting paint down. That is a big contrast to how I have worked with watercolour in the past. This way of painting uses mostly semitransparent and opaque paints as opposed to the transparents I am used to. I really need to know how to do figures. This one looks stunned.

Believe it or not, this is the same painting after surgery, done in less than 10 minutes. I really like the figures, and Alvaro gave us a session on how to do them because so many of us struggled with it. Now I am going to practice this a lot. First you start with a dark squiggle.... Also, I learned about two new colours, neutral tint and chinese white. I didn't have either one, nor have I used them. Neutral tint is great, it is transparent and takes any colour and makes it darker and more intense. The white, you can see how it was used above to highlight the car windows. It is really useful for urban landscape painting, for windows, and steam etc. Something else to experiment with.

Another lesson I learned was about seeing the landscape. I knew about the idea of squinting to just see the shapes, particularly the darks and lights, when you are looking for a composition. Alvaro suggested letting your eyes go out of focus, and then you see the colour blocks. This is really helpful to understand where you do and don't want detail. I walked back from the market to the hotel one afternoon doing this and all of a sudden it clicked into place and I could see the composition like a painting. Another skill to practice.

One other aspect involves the first photo, with the hair dryer. Being able to do an underpainting while outdoors is tricky, because it takes time to dry. And painting on location, you want to paint fairly quickly to capture the light of the moment. It changes incredibly fast when you are in the city, particularly right downtown among the skyscrapers. Alvaro painted right on the corner of Burrard and Georgia. In several places he found electrical outlets, like the one in the garden in the above photo. You just have to look around and they are there. Sometimes though, you have to forego the underpainting and just go for it.

There was a lot to learn and absorb. We even did our final painting right on the waterfront at Granville Island, with all the tourists hovering over us, taking photos. And it was fun. Now that I am home, I plan to get practicing. I did get one of the videos (the one of Paris) to help reinforce the learning. I'll show you my practice people soon. If I practice a lot, maybe I can go back to Paris and paint along the Seine.

So, great workshop, great location, great experience. Thanks Alvaro and Jamie.

We have had the most beautiful and warm end of summer, early fall this year. Today, finally we are having rain which has been needed. I feel like it is getting me in the mood for Vancouver, where I will be going soon to take part in a 4 day painting workshop.

I haven't taken a workshop in a couple of years, and am really looking forward to this one coming up. The instructor is Alvaro Castagnet, a Uraguayan painter. It will be in watercolour, and, weather permitting, we are going to be painting outdoors too, around Granville Island. This looks like it will be great fun and a great way to get back to painting in watercolour.

This summer, very little in the way of painting was done. It turned out to be one of those where there was a lot of demand on my time because of things that needed doing to the house - lots of things needed fixing, replacing, painting etc. Now those are pretty well complete and with autumn definitely here, I start to look forward to painting more steadily.

To start with, I am now a new member of one of Saskatoon's long standing painting groups, the Artists' Workshop. I am in the process of setting up a web site for the group, so check back from time to time as I get information and photos added from the other members of the group. The group has met a couple of times so far and I realized how out of practice with watercolours I am. So this workshop will get me back into the swing again.

Also, our Escape Artists' group has begun the planning for our Third Annual 'Art by the Hearth' show in December (the 10th and 11th). Suddenly, that is only two months away. Deadlines are motivating though.

And then in November I am going to take part in a multimedia workshop being put on by the University through its Community Arts program. Miranda Jones is doing 2 consecutive weekends and will be doing collage and working with gold leaf, something I have been wanting to find out about for some time.

So now is the time for turning slowly away from summer, enjoying whatever autumn we get, and looking forward to settling in for the winter months and hopefully painting, painting, painting.

July marks a couple of anniversaries with regard to my painting efforts. Ten years ago, I went to my first watercolour painting workshop at Emma Lake. I had dabbled a bit before that, but never really got into painting. It was something that I wanted to try and thought that a week long workshop would be a good way to immerse myself in it to see if painting was something I really wanted to learn and pursue.

This is a photo from that first week (predigital days). It was a great place to get away to and just focus on learning about and practicing painting. The location was lovely, people friendly, instructor (Christine Lynn) excellent, and food wonderful.

These were my first paintings. We had lots of fun experimenting with all kinds of ways to paint and went out into the forest every day. I can still remember driving home afterwards, trying to pay attention to the road, but getting distracted by all the views and thinking of how I could paint them.

I went again to Emma Lake the next year, even celebrating my birthday there. One of these days I hope to go again - September would be good, with the light and changing colours of the vegetation.

I was still working then, so painted in fits and starts. After I retired in 2003, I again painted on occasion and took a class at the University over the winter. Unfortunately, it wasn't too inspirational. That was when I decided to follow up on my dream to go to the workshop I knew about in France with Kiff Holland. Three weeks of focus on painting was what I needed to get in gear. Don't they say that it takes three weeks minimum to make any change? Well, it worked. Since then I have painted continuously, and have taken workshops and classes that I have thoroughly checked out to be sure I would really learn from them.

In 2006, my computer guru (my daughter) convinced me to set up a website for my paintings. In July of that year, Redberry Art was launched, so this month is its 5 year anniversary. She has done all the Drupal upgrades for me and fixed glitches as they have occured. I wouldn't have been able to do it without her, and her cohorts who have helped too. So nice to have a wizard behind the curtain making sure everything looks great out front!

So it seems like events happen at 5 year intervals. I wonder what this year marks the beginning for? I guess I will just have to see what unfolds.

Looking back over the past 10 years, I am so pleased that I decided to go to Emma Lake which set me on my painting path. I can remember hearing many years ago, I think on Peter Gzowski, about someone who had regretted not taking piano lessons as an adult, thinking that it probably would be wasted on him or her. It was 10 years later, and he had reflected that by now he would likely have at least been playing for his own enjoyment. That thought spurred me no only to give painting a try, but to take up piano. Seven years later I can play at a level I never imagined I could do, and I love it.

So from one who started new ventures in her 50s, all I can say is - go for it! I have my Uncle George to thank also, who always told me that anyone can learn to draw and paint, just do it for yourself and enjoy the process. Wise words.

So Happy 5th Birthday Redberry Art, and hope for many more to come!

It is hard to believe that one week of June is already done. I did manage to get small drawings done, and am surprised at how hard it was to do. Now I can really appreciate those people who do a painting a day, for 100 days or a year. I have been putting them on flickr in a set called June 2011 drawings.

The one I like the best is the charcoal sketch of the old creamer. I used pen for the others, and put a little colour into a couple. Making the time has been the challenge. The garden takes a lot of time but now I finally have it all in and it is primarily maintenance now. So I am hoping that I can put aside more time each day for drawing.

What I might have to do is schedule a specific time each day. Make an appointment with myself. It looks like we have a week of good weather coming up, so I can sit outside and put some things up to work from in natural light. I really do need the practice of working from life.

So, looking forward to week number two and see what I can accomplish. I will take my inspiration from the blog 'Drawings from Nature'. Milly (Eileen Postlethwaite) has been posting weekly drawings of her beach finds. I love them. I also envy her living beside the sea. Maybe I can walk around here and see what I can find. I did find a huge bug yesterday. But I let it go (it was very smelly). I will see what I can find.

The other day I got a nice shipment of new art supplies. Among them were two new little Moleskine watercolour/sketch books. One is little (3.5 x 5.5 inches) and the other a bit larger (5 x 8 inches). I also got some new Pigma pens. My old ones had all dried up or run out. I plan to carry the littlest one around with me, along with pen. I also plan to do one drawing a day this month. I haven't done a lot of just drawing, and thought that would make a good summer project.

Today as I was walking home from piano lessons, I found this nice big pine cone on the grass by the sidewalk. A house in the neighbourhood has a good sized jack pine. So I brought it home and decided that it would be number one. I used my littlest Moleskine and sketched it with the pen, and then decided to add a little colour. I used my Derwent Inktense pencils - you colour with them, then add a bit of water and they are like watercolour/ink. I also want to use the various pencils I have, including the Inktense, the watersoluble graphite and graphitint pencils (all from Derwent).

So this month I'll play with these and see what happens. It should be fun and something quite different for me.

PS - you can see them posted on my flickr site as they go up - Lorraine's flickr site

I have some news to impart. That sounds a little dramatic, but it is news of upcoming changes.

This spring, I applied to, and have been accepted into the Artists' Workshop group of Saskatoon. It is one of the city's longest running groups. I am really very honoured to have been accepted. At this time, it doesn't have a web site, but I hope that come the fall, when the group starts up again, I can volunteer to set one up for the group. I am quite excited about being in this group, as it has several well known Saskatoon artists in it. I have had the opportunity to paint with them for their floral workshops the past two years. The group meets and paints together every Monday, which will be great. They do occasional workshops during the winter, and also will do some figurative work as well, something I haven't really had an opportunity to do yet. So there will be lots of new things to look forward to. Also, having a dedicated day is great for motivation and continuity.

Moving to this group will mean another change or two. The first one is that I will be leaving the Prairie River Artists group. I must admit to having mixed feelings because this group really gave me my start in being able to participate in our local show. The challenge of showing my paintings has been a great incentive to keep working and hopefully improving. I will miss the people in the group. This group is also going through some changes, with a number of the group members leaving for a variety of reasons. They will have some new people and that is always good.

The other change will be Monday morning workouts at the Field House. I will have to do the weight training on another day to keep it up. I think I will have to go to the occasional Monday though to see all the friends I have there. I will still go on Wednesday and Friday as usual. A little rearrangement to do.

So what is life but change? Mostly it is a good thing. These changes will shuffle things around, and bring some new opportunities and that is something to look forward to.

Now, to look to the garden!