Writings 2000 Book Cover

It was another busy day at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio as the last few artists came in to hang their paintings in the show.

The gallery looks wonderful with all the poinsettias, ribbons, tinsel, twinkle lights and a handmade creche set up.

It reminded me of the Christmas book launch we had when I took my first credit course at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Creative Writing. At that time we were still allowed to have "Christmas" in the schools and we did not have to be politically correct lest we offend anyone.

Each of the students was allowed to submit one piece of writing that they had been created during the 10 week course.

I was given the task to compile all of the submitted pieces, design a book cover with the book's title, create a table of contents put in the masthead into the front of the book and get everything print ready to take it to the print shop at Fleming and have the copies made in time for the book launch.

This is the cover I designed for the book.

If you have a chance the opening reception is tomorrow from 1-4pm. You are more than welcome to come out, join us in the festivities and enjoy the art work. I hope to see many of you there.

Christmas Show at KAGS

I spent a busy day hanging twenty one paintings in the Christmas Show at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio.

I will have to go back tomorrow to help with decorating the gallery. We do however, have the Christmas tree set up and decorated. It looks lovely with all the ornaments, tinsel and lights.

I will also have to finish setting up my table and putting my note cards into the carousel.

Shown here are two of the paintings I have in the show: Christmas Day and King of the Hill.

Dandelions - A Work in Progress

Today I just played with French ultramarine blue and once I had a graduated wash painted onto the paper I then threw salt into the wet paint.

I left the salt to do its work on the painting while I got my all the things together that I needed to take to KAGS for the Christmas Show.

By the time I had finished loading everything into the Blazer there was no more time to work on my painting.

With the way the salt worked on the paper it looked like a field of dandelions gone to seed just before the winds blows sending them up into the air and on their way to a new location to grow.

I will post this painting when I complete it at a later date.

Winter Snow

The first day of December started off with mild temperatures for the season and a light rain falling when I drove down to KAGS for the life drawing class. If you would like to see some of my artwork from the life drawing classes you can follow this link to my Life Drawing Portfolio which I should have up and available towards the end of 2011.

When I came out of the Gallery three hours later I was greeted by a blizzard and had to brush over an inch of wet packing snow off my car. I was glad that I took the Blazer with its four wheel drive since this type of snow usually makes the roads icy if the township hasn't gotten out to put down sand and salt.

It was easy to pick out which people hadn't realized that there was ice under the snow and the roads with all that white stuff on it weren't dry as they spun their wheels and fish tailed all over the place.


















Needless to say the drive home was an interesting experience, especially when I watched a car approaching me from the opposite direction going down the road sideways. He continued that way right past me and on down the road as I glanced at his progress in my mirror until I could no longer see him through the blowing snow.

I was happy to finally make it home in one piece and be able to watch the snow through my living room window instead of being out driving in a major snow storm.

By evening the storm ended and we had almost four inches of heavy packing snow covering the ground.

Winter Snow is an original 5" x 5” framed watercolour and is available for $95.00. SOLD

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Polly

This was a sketch from I did in the barn area at a horse show with a charcoal pencil on a 9" x 12" sheet of pastel paper.

The horse, Polly stood patiently in the stall while the groom finished the mane braids before going on to braid up her tail.

Congratulations to new collector Mlle. Martine Veillette of Trois-Riviere, Quebec for selecting this piece to add to her collection.

Quiet Moment

Early morning on the lake with the sun just coming up and hidden behind the treeline.

But the sunlight is starting to light up the clouds and it looks as though it is going to be a bright and beautiful day.

Quiet Moment is an original 5-3/4" x 10” framed watercolour.

Thank you to new collector Ms. Kerry Delany-Dennison of Whitby, Ontario on her purchase of this painting.

The Taylor Place

This is a painting of my neighbour's house and barn.

Their farm at the corner of my road approximately 2-1/2 miles (4 kilometers) away; we can see each other's farms, in fact you can see my barns on the hill from the highway.

The Taylor Place is an original 9-3/4" x 14” framed original watercolour.

Congratulations to Ms. Sandra DaSilva of Ottawa, Ontario on her selection of this painting for her collection.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and enjoy the artwork. I hope you will return often