Black Christmas

Buying art is the same thing as falling in love. - Nohra Haime

I was given a great 2008 calendar from an art gallery that I visited in Saskatechewan. SPAGA produced a very popular 2007 calendar apparently, so they're doing it again. And its free from SPAGA member galleries! The prints in the calendar are large and well printed and this is one calendar that won't disappear into a drawer or worse.

The little glass snowman is one of my favourite Christmas ornaments. I had produced a pen and ink drawing of him a year or two ago and thought I'd try my hand at him again for a class on hand drawn Christmas cards that I'm giving. The drawing is done in coloured pencil but not completely finished, just the scarf and some smoothing out left to do. Its drawn on black card stock, that comes with matching envelopes. Black Christmas?? Just another unique twist on a bizarre season already.

Using black paper has its drawbacks and the colours change and seem to sink into the paper. Its a challenge working on it, but rewarding when it does come together.

Home home on the range...

I've spent the last week on the prairies Saskatchewan, both in Regina and Moose Jaw. I've been fitting in both business and pleasure, visiting my daughter and trying to catch up on writing some course curriculum and the inevitable drawings that accompany it. And today I got to see some bison, albeit from a distance. I do enjoy my time on the prairies and have a love affair with the land and sky which expands and surrounds you and is unlike any other landscape. I always go out of my way to find grain elevators too. They are so evocative of another time and stand as monuments to farms and farmers.

I'm creating a course on drawing animals in coloured pencil which will go public in the near future. I'm honing my writing skills and hope that what I put on paper in word form somewhat matches expectations from those taking the course.

I've had a couple of days to unwind and this mid-week break is my 'weekend' as I'll be doing a demo on Saturday and teaching courses on Sunday then back to my 'real' job on Monday. I was emailed by one of the organizers of the Health Care Foundation's fundraiser that there was some interest from a couple of people for possible commissions. Commissions are starting to come through now and I may be in the position of putting people on a waiting list if it continues, depending on schedule. Or I'll just see how fast I can produce work! For the work that I do, which is usually high realism, speed usually isn't a factor. But it depends on the size of the piece and exactly what an individual wants.

Travels

Blog posting may be more sporadic for the next week as I'm in Saskatchewan for meetings and to spend a couple of days with my daughter. I'll try to fit in some sketching and some photos when I can to share and keep for the future. I love the old grain elevators here and they are more a rarity now with farms closing.

I'm in the process of writing some lessons for an online class. I've done this before, but its always a challenge as the left and right sides of the brain compete for attention at the same time. I have to separate the two tasks and its usually the drawing part initially and I draw a bit then explain what I just did in language that I hope people will understand. I've been doing snippets in planes and airports today as I try to play catch up on the backlog.

I did get three pieces into the City of St. John's art procurement program and will have to wait til the 21st of November to find out if any were chosen. Even then, I have to check online as they don't contact individuals who have applied as there are too many I'm told. At worst, they will reject them all and I'm ok with that. It gets my name and work out there and you never know who is on the jury.