Art at home

Today my piece that was entered in the Arts and Letters competition was picked up and is back home after its vacation of 4 months.

I put a pen and ink piece in the competition just before Christmas and waited to hear its fate.  It wasn't until late March that I received the letter telling me that the winners had been chosen.  My piece wasn't one of the winning art works, but was it was given an honourable nod and was on display at The Rooms from April 6 - 18th.   I visited the exhibition and spent time trying to figure out which pieces would be the winners.  I think some of my favourites made the cut. You may view the winning pieces here. I wish they would provide the sizes of the pieces when they're posted online, otherwise there is no way of knowing the scale.

From time to time I add a little piece of art to my own collection.  Today a new piece arrived in the mail. Its a shodo chine colle by Ambera Wellmann of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  I came across Ambera's work on Etsy and the sombre piece 'Weight of the World' caught my eye.  The beluga whale, weighted down by its anchor tail  in the dark water, bubbles floating around it, appealed to me.  The paper is a mottled silver grey, adding to the overall appeal for me.  The print is 1 of 6, so a very limited edition and measures about 9 x 6 for the print, 12 x 8.5 overall.

You can see more of Ambera Wellmann's work in her Etsy shop.

An aquatic circle

 

I'm having a little break from drawing  beads and have been working on a piece that's been in my head for ages.

I've tried endless subject matter and compositions and think that I may have what I was thinking of finally.  Of course it could all change again.  My plans are to execute it in watercolour.  Its on 300lb Arches paper, measuring 11 x 15.  The circle that makes up the drawing is 8.5 inches in diameter.

Its strange how we get something in our heads, but can't quite make the connection onto paper sometimes.  Fish, water, movement and connection through the seaweed binding the fish.  Yes, there is symbolism there.  No I won't tell you what, that down to you to decide.

Masai update III

I've starting working on the bead necklace for this piece, trying to get at least some base colours and shapes down then defining them.

Tedious detail work is the making or breaking of many drawings for a lot of artists.  Its easy to lose interest in broad stretches of repetitious work.  To make it easier, I break it down into small sections instead of contemplating the whole piece.  So once the base values are in, I take perhaps just one colour section of the necklace and complete that then move on to the next.  It gives me an easily achieved goal and helps things move forward.

Kim Barker of.Top Artists Directory has kindly featured me in Featured Artist of the Week, highlighting the fun, but slightly sinister, painting of the child/clown that I completed the other week.  Thank you Kim.