Fall Glory

I went on retreat with other members of my church this fall, with the subject of 'centering prayer'.

It was just at the height of the fall leaf colours, which are really special in Quebec.

Based on my photos, I have done some paintings. The aim of these paintings was to produce a work for the Visual Arts Centre fund raiser. The painting was to be 12 inches by 12 inches, and painted directly on a piece of wood given for the purpose, or on paper attached, or anything else using the wood.

I decided to do a watercolor of the leaves, and to fold it around the wood. Which meant the main image had to be in the 12x12 square, and the painting had to continue some inches around this square. This was more of a challenge than I expected, I kept putting the areas of interest outside area that would be on the face of the painting. Shown are the final submission, and the other paintings on the way.

I had initially thought that 90 lb paper would be best, since the heavier the paper the harder it is to fold around the wood block. However the lighter, 90 lb paper, is generally hot press and does not have much of a tooth, and it is hard to do drybrush effectively on this paper. On reviewing the first paintings, I decided to go with the 140 lb cold press paper, and this worked better.


Fall Glory 2
17x17 inches
90 lb hot press watercolour paper

Fall Glory 3
18x18 inches
90 lb hot press Fabriano watercolour paper



Fall Glory 4
17x17 inches
Arches 140 lb cold press watercolour paper



Red tree
18x18 inches
Fabriano 90 lb hot press watercolour paper



Fall Glory as submitted
12x12 inches on wood block, image continues on sides of block
140 lb Arches cold press watercolour paper

Visual Arts Centre

The Visual Arts Center is holding a fundraiser November 22 to 26 with the Gala Opening on the 23rd of November at 6 PM. The tickets are $25.

Showing at the Mile End Gallery, vernissage September 29 2011.

Black and White, March 2011

Acrylic on Canvas
18 x 24 inches
Private Collection

2011 Watercolour Exhibit of Dix coups de pinceau

The Tree
watercolour on paper
15 x 22 inches
framed
$350

The Beach at Atlantic City III
watercolour on paper
15 x 17 1/2 inches
unframed
$250

The Beach at Atlantic City II
watercolour on paper
15 x 17 inches
unframed
$175

The Garden
watercolour on paper
15 x 22 inches
framed
$350

Ice on the Lake
watercolour on paper
14 x 10 1/2 inches
unframed
$175

The Beach at Atlantic City I
watercolour on paper
14 x 10 1/2 inches
unframed
$175

Exposition 

Le groupe Dix coups de pinceau, groupe d'aquarelliste, vous invite du 26
mai au 5 juin 2011 à leur exposition annuelle à la galerie du Centre
St-Ambroise, 5080, rue St-Ambroise, Montréal.  Le vernissage aura lieu,
jeudi le 26 mai de 18h00 à 21h00 et une rencontre avec les artistes aura
lieu dimanche le 5 juin de 13h à 16h00.  Au plaisir de se rencontrer.


Pour information: Joanne Bolduc 450-508-6107

Watercolour Exhibit

«Ten Strokes of the Brush», a group of nine watercolourists, invites
you to their annual show at the St. Ambroise Gallery, 5080 St .Ambroise
St., Montreal, from May 26 to 5 June, 2011.  The vernissage will be held
Thursday May 26 from 6 to 9 PM, and you can meet all the artists Sunday
June 5 from 1 to 4 PM.  We hope to see you there.

For more information please call Therese at 514-484-0616

The first frost

Salvaging the Plants, or One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Last night must have been the first frost of the year, because as I walked the Peanut this morning I saw several hanging baskets of plants left along the street for the garbage pickup. One looked as though the plant had been hit by the frost; others looked well. One was dumped under other trash, but several were undamaged.

My daughter has recently taken up the growing of indoor plants, and invested considerable time and money in potting, growing, cultivating her plants. It is her new hobby. The waste represented by these hanging plants seemed too much to bear.

I headed home with the dog. Alice was cleaning Jalapena peppers for muffins. I explained about the hanging baskets, and she put down her gloves and we headed out. “I can't believe people spend forty dollars just for a month!” We trooped back to the house with the two best baskets, and I went upstairs to spray them with soap while she went back to her muffins. The I found a place in the sun for the plants to recover, in isolation from our other plants in case of aphids or spider mites.

As I was picking off dead foliage and getting ready to move the plants from the bath to the sun, my husband called from outside; “Why are we taking other people's baskets of plants and throwing out our own?”

“What?”

I went outside and by our garbage and recycling there was another hanging basket. Not ours. One of our neighbours must have seen us coming back with the salvaged baskets and decided to add theirs to our collection!

We brought it in and started the process again. Now there are three baskets of plants recovering on the bureau. The third has the prettiest flowers.

Dix Coups de Pinceau

To all of my friends:

I will be present at the show:

October 14, 6-8 PM
October 17 2-4
October 18 1-5
October 21 6-8 PM
October 24, 2-5 PM
October 25 2-4 PM