First of all, it turns out that there was an article about our art show in the Toronto Observer, including a pic of me and my art table! Here's the link.
Second, I decided to use gouache at our Don Valley Art Club portrait session.
Gouache (opaque watercolour) creates a mat finish of very intense colours.
These 25 minute poses, at 5x7" each, are fellow artists. It's challenging to grab hold of a bit of likeness in the short time allowed. I'm going to keep playing with this medium.
Thanks so much to everyone who came to the show. It was a great turnout. One of our best ever! I think the recent snowfall got people in the Holiday Spirit!
Lots of my hand-painted cards have found a new home. Many customers plan to frame them instead of give them away.
My crochet birds were a new item this year. I just wanted to have a fun little surprise on my table, and returning customers certainly were pleased!
I'm all prepared for the show tomorrow. I'll be selling my original watercolour paintings and my One-Long-Line Drawings. They are so fun to draw. I just keep my pen on the paper and let the line wander.
This is my 7th year in the show. I love it! Come by my table on the main floor and say Hi.
One week away!! Saturday Nov. 17, 2018. One day only!
This arts and crafts show is one of my favourites. There are LOTS of artisans and plenty of cool handmade items to choose from. I'll be there for the 6th year in a row. I'm on the main floor with my watercolour paintings, a few oil (!) paintings and a NEW surprise item! Come by and say Hi! It's free, from 10-5am at 310 Danforth near Chester. Yippee!
$60 - original 5x7" watercolour painting with 8x10"mat
Grey horses can be born any colour (!) and then their coat lightens as they mature. In fact, they usually end up being white horses. Cool! Of course, this dappled beauty will be grey forever. : )
Well, that's it for another Inktober. Working with the Elegant Writer Pen was an absolute joy. It's water-soluble nature made the dark colourful inks merge with the watercolour beautifully.
This little sketch happened today. I'm enjoying making short videos of my painting process. You can see this one painted HERE on Instagram. The clips are 1 minute each because that's the length limit Instagram accepts. So... it's in two parts. ; )
I'm having a blast with this new water-soluble pen that I've been using for Inktober (#inktober2018) It's called the Elegant Writer Pen and it releases green and a bit of pink ink when wet. You can see two videos of me painting it on Instagram.
Inktober Day 4 and 5... the fun continues! I spilled a spot of tea on my husky drawing, right on his little snout. Fortunately, the wash of watercolour hides it.
I drew this with the awesome Elegant Writer Pen for Inktober Day One! With a touch of a wet brush, the pinks and greens in the black ink emerge and flow, with a mind of their own. I added a dash of pink to his nose. ; )
Here's another piece from my last portrait painting session, where we artists take turns sitting for each other. (It's surprisingly difficult to sit still for 25 minutes! If you try it, you'll have a whole new respect for life models.)
I wanted to tie in the red shirt with the red glasses. I'm really happy with her expression but I'm feeling that the 6x12" size might just cut off people's shoulders, giving them a big looking head!
At our portrait session last weekend, I decided to create 6x12" paintings. Mostly because I had paper that size and I wanted to use it up. ; ) I drew a loose energetic line with charcoal pencil then added lots of fresh watercolour paint.
On most social media, like Facebook and Instagram, you can only post pics as a square. So, here's the complete painting.
I painted this sketch of cattails at the wonderful, very green, Corktown. Fellow pleinair painters and I set up our easels at this lovely lily pond, however it was the cattails that caught my eye. (Although fellow artists called them bulrushes). They actually remind my of my childhood since there were plenty of them in my neighbourhood and we always thought they were so cool!
If you're in Toronto, this is the first of a few group art shows I'll be in before the holidays. Over 20 of artists in this one! Hope to see you there!!