This fall is turning out to be a busy time for art shows. Currently, I have my own show at the Crimson Gallery at the Circle Park Mall in Saskatoon. That show, entitled ‘Pacific’ goes until October 19. I have 6 new paintings in that show. The day that show comes down, one of the groups I paint with, Prairie River Artists, puts up a group show that will run until November 23. The other group, Escape Artists, met yesterday and decided we want to do a fall show, so we will be having that show at the Art au Jus Gallery downtown, from November 8 – 11. Because it falls on the long weekend we decided to keep open two extra days. So lots to keep me busy!

We have had the most lovely autumn this year. I will put up some photos on my flickr site today. We had clear, warm, sunny days up until today, which makes up for our wet spring. I love September most anyway, the colours and light particularly. I spent 3 days cleaning the windows inside and out so that there will be a clear view during winter. We face south, so I really don’t like grimy windows with the low winter sun coming through, for months on end. Once the rain goes, there will be a ton of leave to get up. We had lots of wind the past couple of days, and most of them are down on the ground now. Even though it is raining right now, it is very ‘glowy’ outside because of the colours.

I was painting right up to the last minute, getting ready for the Circle Park show. Then we went to Vancouver for a few days. George had a meeting, and I stayed on a few extra days. I got to visit with Ariane, and also with my brother and my uncle, and with two of my friends from the painting excursions to France.

In making the link above, I had forgotten about my old blog and photo albums on another site. Moving to this new computer, I lost some links, so am glad I remembered where they were.

Lots to do in the next month. I want to do some small paintings for the Escape Artists’ show. I will have several large ones from Circle Park,  and a couple of others, so I should be in good shape for that show.

The other interesting thing that has happened recently is that I have been to a couple of painting afternoons with a small group of artist that have been painting together for several years. They paint on Friday afternoons, and Iris Hauser, the artist that I have taken the oil painting classes with, works with them like a mentor/tutor. Iris has a new website now, so you can see that she is a fantastic painter of figures. Her paintings are unique and full of imagery. I have been very lucky to be put on their ‘alternates’ list, so that if someone from the group can’t be there, I might be called and asked if I’d like to fill in. Well, would I? You bet? I have been to two of these Fridays over the past few weeks, and it is just great. I really want to start adding figures to my works, and not having any experience drawing figures, I thought I’d ask Iris, and of course, she gave me some great pointers, and I managed to make a reasonable beginning. I plan to do lots of practice drawings over the winter, something I really need to do.

This is the sketch – about the fourth try. Lots that needs refining of course, but it has showed me that with practice, I should be able to make some reasonable figures for some landscapes that I want to do.

I also just bought a couple of new books, one on drawing and one on painting, both in the atelier style, that is, like the traditional way of learning. They are by the author Juliette Aristides. I just now looked at her web site (I only received the books yesterday) and wow! And she does workshops, one on still life in January in Seattle! Hmmmm! Will have to investigate further. So much to do and get on with! Which I had better do now.