Well the Perspective Art Show is over for another year.  I broke my ankle while loading the supports for transportation to the venue, the day before the Gala.  Six to eight weeks the Dr said, but I know it could have been so much worse, so I am very thankful for being spared worse.
It was another very wonderful event.... the art show, that is.  We are such a varied group, and we are always challenging ourselves to do something  different than previously.
The weather was rainy and cold but the turn-out was pretty good.  It seems the weather is always unpleasant for our chosen date, but our supporters are a great bunch and come out if at all possible.  The comments from visitors were encouraging and inspiring.  I sold two of the large paintings on burlap.  I hoped that I would sell something, so this is very encouraging.  I hope to get back to the studio in about a week to finish working on the Thai paintings and to begin more paintings of flowers on burlap.
 Here are a few photos from the Gala.

  These photos above show young ladies  modelling the hand made beaded tops... I don't know how to spell corsette... anyway they were very lovely.

These are the two paintings of mine that sold.  They are 60 x 34 acrylic on burlap.

Popp-ies not popp-ing

Worked on the poppies again.  The red is duller than I would like so I am trying out a pale green for the lighter areas on the poppies and a darker green introduced into the dark or shadow areas of the fushia coloured blooms.  I worked at home today so tomorrow I plan on getting to the studio early.

Poppies

Another late night painting because I did not get to the studio until later in the day.  Feels good to make progress though.  Hopefully I will get to the studio by 9 AM tomorrow.  I will be going away to celebrate with my grand-daughter, her 5th birthday, so if I want to get anything done tomorrow I will have to be in gear early.  Off to bed...

Here are photos of the painting I was working on today and Tuesday.

Hello Blog reader,  we were away for a couple days.... went for one night , and got storm stayed.  Yes, a spring storm, complete with blowing 80 km/h gusts and sideways big flakes.  I was unable to go online or paint so I am looking forward to the studio tomorrow.  This evening I have been looking at artists blogs and web sites.... very inspiring!

Trying A Different Approach

Two more paintings started.   I usually work on one painting at a time, but I am trying to work on several at a time now so I have more paintings done by the time the art show rolls around.  I'm not sure if any of the ones I have done for the art show are actually finished.  I plan on having them all out where I can see them and work on each of them as I see something that needs adjusting.

I had not painted in acrylics for several years and now I am getting back into it.  It seems that it will take me some time to get a system worked out to approach doing a painting.  I don’t think too hard about what colours I am going to use to start with, but I think I should plan it out so I can have colour mixed ahead of time.  Right now I start by doing the drawing in soft pastel or charcoal and then begin placing lights and darks, not always in local colour, but sometimes.  

Gene had been away for 10 days or so, so I was able to focus on the painting more than usual.  I’m glad he’s home safe, only 5 stitches, and it was fun showing him all the new work.  I am hoping I can keep up the momentum that I seem to have gained this past while in my work.  We’ll see. 

 Go Fourth....
I did not get to paint today.  I spent the morning, and half the afternoon installing and uninstalling from a faulty windows XP installation disc, and talking to the techies at Apple and Microsoft to help me with the partition and installation.  I made a 2 hr run to get a new installation disc so I can try again to install it tomorrow or Monday.  Why did I do that?  I want to use Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 to manipulate my photos to compose references for my paintings.
I already have that so if I partition, I will not have to purchase another software for photo editing on my Mac.  At least that is what the plan is.

Another day at the studio.  This splurging is taking it's tole.  I went to the studio about 9:30 this morning and came home at 10:30.  I completed a soft pastel landscape on suede mat-board.  This was the medium I am most comfortable with, and most of my paintings are done this way.  I have just started to paint in acrylics again after several years away from their use.  I think using soft pastel teaches you lots about colour because you see the immediate results of mixing the colours you have chosen.  I find that it is harder to get muddy colour with soft pastel too.
I worked more on the crocus painting that I started yesterday but decided to start another "scribble" landscape in an effort to have five for an adjudication in May.  I am not too thrilled with how it turned out, I think because I don't like light grounds as well as medium value grounds, but there is probably more to it than that.  I'll have another look at it tomorrow with a fresh eye and see what comes to me.   I think I should have darkened the land/ solid parts more before I began putting in the local colour.  It is interesting to see the paintings in photos at the end of the day.  It gives me a fresh view.
I'm not sure what I think  of the crocus painting's development.  I guess it is development at any rate, whether successful or otherwise.  I'm calling it successful so far because I worked on it and it is in progress.  Better than not worked on at all.
 Well, I'm calling it a day.
Here goes with the photo of the work done today.  

I just came in from working in the studio all day!  What would we do without deadlines.   I belong to a group of artists called Perspective Art group.  This year we will be holding our 9th annual Gala, Art Show and Sale.
We rent the community hall in the town next to ours and transform the venue into an art gallery, and hold our two day event.  The Saturday night is our Gala, with a small piano concert by Marylou Dawes.  Our art is displayed all around the room and on supports in the center in different configurations every year.  We serve hors-d'ouevres, coffee, tea and lately even wine.  The quality of the work is outstanding if I do say so myself.  Each of the artists has a unique way of working and several different genres are shown.
Well it's midnight and I have to continue tomorrow.  Want to see what I am working on?  They are not finished, but I am happy about them so far.

The First Post

Welcome to my blog.  My name is officially Victoria, but I started out being called Vickie as a little girl.  I like the name Victoria so I decided to sign my work with my real name and also to let people know I preferred it to "Vickie" as I came of an adult age.    
I am an artist in a rural town in midwestern Canada, with a studio packed with my work.  I need to get my work out there.... I feel like I am running out of time and space.  So, with this blog, my plan is to publish my work to the wide world, a few at a time, with a brief statement about the work and maybe the process.
I am begining with the one I am working on most recently.  The painting is inspired by a morning in Thailand.  My daughter-in-law's mother goes to this park often during the week to exercise early in the morning.  We were thrilled with the outing, and returned a few times more while we were in Sakon Nakhon.

The painting is started on canvas with acrylics.
Well that is all I am going to blog for today.  I have made a start.  Thanks for being there and reading what I have blogged.
Victoria