I must admit that I tend to have a pretty low key life, just doing the daily things, with events from time to time. So the past few weeks, as 2009 ends, have been rather more eventful that usual. As I wrote previously, after the workshop I attended in Vancouver, my Uncle George died. A couple of days before we were to leave to go back to Vancouver for his memorial service, my cousin Rick contacted me to say that my Uncle Doug, his dad and my Uncle George’s brother-in-law had also died. For Rick, this was followed by the death of his mother-in-law, Ivy. So there were a number of endings to parts of the family within a couple of weeks.

Just to say a few words about my Uncle Doug. He was my Dad’s younger brother and was 88 when he passed away. Both he and my Dad had been in WWII. My Dad was in the tank corps with the Army, and Doug was in the Air Force. Doug actually trained here is Saskatoon before heading overseas. I remember the two of them had such great senses of humour, and were always joking when they got together. Doug was an outstanding bomber pilot, flying 32 missions, never losing a plane or crew. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for this. After the war, my Dad joined the Canadian Immigration Services, and after a career in the Air Force, Doug and his family came back to White Rock and he ultimately worked for Immigration as well. I remember back in the 1990s, we were out in Vancouver for a visit. My daughter and I went to visit Doug, and he showed us some of his memorabilia. He still has his hand-drawn bombing maps of Germany. My daughter was in high school at the time, and was taking a German class. There were German exchange students attending her school, and it turned out that one of the towns that as on one of the maps, was the home of one of the exchange students. It was an odd moment. The lives of my Dad and my uncle were for ever affected by their experience in the war. My Dad never really spoke about it, other than a few episodes when he visited family in England, never about the actual war. Doug was always an Air Force man. Eras are ending.

It was good to get in touch with some of the cousins that I hadn’t seen in many years. Nowadays, with all the technology it is easier to reconnect, and I hope that we can maintain that. I have a lot of photos I want to scan of family members and send to them, so that will be a project for the new year for sure.

The month of December brought 2, yes 2, emergency root canals for me. Just lucky I guess. However, the second one was on the 23rd of December. The tooth had gone crazy the night before, so after a poor night, I called the dentist first thing, and fortunately, they were able to get me in that morning. However, we had had snow overnight, not lots (about 10 cm), but it was icy. My car has all wheel drive and snow tires, so I was well prepared, and took my time. I was waiting at the light to cross the street to get into the parking lot, and when the light changed, made sure the cars had stopped on my side. But as I was almost across, a car going way too fast, couldn’t stop on the ice, and crashed into me on the passenger side. Fortunately no one hurt, but both cars damaged. I was mad more than anything, at the idiot who caused all the trouble for everyone – he was driving someone else’s car and had no driver’s licence with him. Anyway, the police came, did the paper work and I went on to get the root canal done, much to my delight as the advil was wearing off at that point and the shooting pains in my head returning. Here is my poor volvo…

It will be out of commission for a while yet as it won’t even be assessed by the provincial insurance folks until next Monday. Then how long to fix. I have a rental in the meantime, but still…

The good thing was that Ariane came home for Christmas and ended up staying a couple of extra days. We had some friends come by for lunch on Boxing Day, but otherwise had a quiet, relaxing time. We listened to our old records – Rolling Stones, Doors, Kaleidoscope, Mother Earth, etc, and looked at the old photo albums. Nice to hear your kid say – hey Mum, you were pretty. Now it is all very quiet again, so time to do some end-of-the year cleaning up.

So that was the Bang to end the year. Hope there aren’t any more. Sticking close to home for the next few days. Happy New Year, and here comes 2010 – can you believe it?

Last week my Uncle George died in West Vancouver. He had been ill for a year and a half, so it wasn’t unexpected. Still it has brought to an end a treasured 50 year relationship, an even longer one than I had with either of my parents, who both died when I was 34. Even though, over those years, I wouldn’t always see him often, when we did visit, it was like a true friend, you just picked up where you left off.

George married my aunt Shirley, my Dad’s youngest sister, when I was about 12 or 13. I remember their wedding as it was the first one I had attended. I wore a red wool suit that I had made, and it was the first time I wore stockings (pre-pantyhose days). I felt so grown-up. Shirley and my Dad were about 18 years apart, Dad being the oldest in the family. The thing that stood out for me, even in those early years, was that George always talked to me like I was an adult. And the fascinating thing was that he was a painter, an artist. You see, my uncle was George Bates, who became a noted BC artist. Originally from London England, he settled in Vancouver in the late 50s and became known for his marine paintings and also for paintings of favourite places in Europe. He became a Senior Signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists.

Whenever we would visit, we would always take time to see what George was working on. I didn’t know much about art, but I always enjoyed seeing his work. Later, he would talk about how capturing the light was so important. That was something his paintings were noted for. He would talk about other artists whose work influenced him, and whose work he liked. It was like a mini art education. When they moved to their house in West Van, George had a place to paint, and by this time was working as a professional artist. I loved to visit and prowl through all the things he was working on.

Among the many things he told me, this one stayed with me particularly. We were talking about being an artist, and he said that anyone can learn to draw and paint. The person might never become a famous or professional artist, but could learn to be proficient enough to enjoy working at it. I didn’t realize then that he was planting seeds for my future.

In 1992, we were out in Vancouver for a 6 month sabbatical leave, and we got to visit frequently. I decided to take a community centre watercolour class. Unfortunately, the instructor wasn’t too helpful, but I did have fun making mud (watercolourists will know what I mean). I didn’t understand anything about how watercolour worked and didn’t find out then, for sure. However, I also had the opportunity to visit lots of the galleries in Vancouver. George was a long-time exhibitor at the Harrison Gallery, which was on south Granville St then. One day I walked in to see what was on. There was a watercolour show by an artist named Kiff Holland. I had never seen anything like the kind of painting he was doing in watercolour. It was a show of his works of glass bottles (unfortunately, Kiff doesn’t have a web site at this time). When I talked to George about them, he told me that Kiff was a friend of his, and that Kiff had an annual painting workshop in France. So another little seed was tucked away.

The other thing that George did was play piano. Self-taught again, as with his painting, he loved to play Bach. It was always such fun to see him play those complex pieces. And another seed was planted.

Nearly 10 years later, I took another workshop and this time, it stuck. I became hooked on watercolour. Three years later, I went to France for the workshop with Kiff. And I took up piano.

I owe so much to George, who always took the time to talk about his passions, which have become mine. He always encouraged me and that meant so much. He’d have a scotch and, when I was older, I’d have a sherry. Shirley would bring out her great cookies, and all of us would sit around and talk about all kinds of things. Everyone got into it, regardless of age. The cousins, Nancy, Dave and Alison were always fun to be with and talk to. I always thought they were so lucky to have George and Shirley as parents. Generously, they hosted my brother and his new wife as our parents were gone by then. Also, we had a couple of Christmases with them over the years. There are a lot of great memories. And I have a small watercolour painting too. There is a story to that, but, another day.

Thank you George. I’ll miss you.

I just got back from a 2 day workshop with Alan Wylie, a noted BC artist. I took a workshop from him last year, on putting texture into oil paintings. This was was on texture in watercolour. Believe it or not, the painting above is a watercolour that he was using to show us the technique he uses to achieve these wonderful effects. When I had attended the previous workshop, he had an album with some of his watercolours and I was struck by the intensity that he created with watercolour. So I was really pleased to see a workshop with him on how he does this.

It was a good 2 days, learned lots, got started with a painting (I am too slow though!) and will continue with it next week, once our Escape Artists show is done this weekend, and the 2 day flowers workshop this coming Monday and Tuesday with the Artists’ Workshop Group here in town. I was invited to participate in this workshop just a few weeks ago, and the timing has worked out well. This group gets together to paint and show on a regular basis. Apparently each year they paint floral arrangements, and I was asked if I’d like to be a part of this, so it should be fun. Lots of activity these days!

The visit to Vancouver was enjoyable, and coincided with both my daughter and niece’s birthdays. It was good to be able to spend some time with both. It was typical November weather out there though, very wet and windy, so I didn’t get any photographs taken, other than from the workshop. Didn’t want to risk getting the camera wet! We had a wild ride coming home because we crossed over the storm to come into Calgary where the winds were hitting 80 kph. VERY bumpy ride. It was good to finally get home.

So tomorrow I start getting ready for our Escape Artists show, which we are having at our place. It will be Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Lots to prepare – particularly have to wash the floors! After all the mud from getting the fence rebuilt just before we left, I didn’t have a lot of time to get cleanup done. So that is on tomorrow’s list.

Off to bed, trying to readjust to the time zone, and then yoga tomorrow and work work work!

It is only just over 2 weeks to our Escape Artists’s show, so I have been getting ready now. I will be taking in a watercolour workshop next week, so time is really going to be pressing over the next couple of weeks. I don’t want to be doing too much last minute stuff – I’ll have to do some cleaning up beforehand as we are having the show at our place this time.

This will be an interesting undertaking. Only 6 of us will be participating in the show this time, and we weren’t able to find a suitable place. We had used the Art au Jus location for our previous shows, but it has been recently replaced by a new arts group called Mix (they don’t have a web site yet) and the space wasn’t available for the time we wanted. I thought – why not use our house, as the house-like setting of Mix was really enjoyable. So that is what we are going to do. We are going to have our opening on Saturday night, with entertainment provided by a flutist, Sam Mitchell, and a drummer Arlan Koop.  I sincerely hope that the weather is reasonable. November is fickle.

I have finished getting most of my cards ready, as you can see above. I might do a few more, but will decide later. This year I am trying something new – calendars. I have done a calendar of paintings and another of photographs. Will see how they are received. If not, Christmas presents for everyone!

I have some small paintings to varnish, but will do that next week so that they are as dry as possible. I had some new frames done, so have to put those together for the watercolours. The couple of oils are already done. Then to decide what to put in the show, make the labels etc. Lots to do. Also invitations and posters are going out and up.

Somewhere along the way, practice piano as our recital is at the end of November. Which reminds me, I’d better go and play for a bit before today’s lesson. One more listen to Piazzolla – the timing is trick!

Nearly the end of October. Why do I so often think in song titles or bits of lyrics? When this bit came to me, I googled and found the Youtube video of the song of this name, by Fairport Convention, from the 60s. I hadn’t heard it in decades, and it is still gorgeous.

Well, most of the getting-ready-for-winter stuff is done now. The fence is back up, the furnace fixed. Car tune-up and snow tires in a week. A little bit of yard things to do tomorrow, then settle in for the duration. I must admit that I am not really looking forward to winter, particularly as it was so long last year, so little summer, and now it is beginning so early again. Must be gettin’ old!

Still then there is the opportunity to just settle in and paint lots. We did get a space for a group show in Edmonton next summer, June through August which is a great time. We will be deciding on our theme and what size of canvases we will be doing so we can have a somewhat harmonized show. We are all planning to do large canvases as the space is very large – the entrance to the Muttart Conservatory. An exciting prospect for sure. And there is the annual April show with the other group to start working towards. So being primarily indoors will be good for that.

I am also looking forward to going to Vancouver next month. First of all to visit AK and hopefully see other family folk. Then there is the 2 day workshop on texture in watercolour with Alan Wylie who is an excellent instructor. I learned a great deal from his other workshop I attended about a year and a half ago on texture in oils. I want to do some more work with that technique over the winter. Also just to be out in BC, by the ocean.

November is going to be a busy month with the trip/workshop, the group show here at our house right after, and then another two day workshop here in town that I was just invited to. The Artists’ Workshop group here in town, one of Saskatoon’s oldest running groups, has invited me to participate in a workshop they hold on floral painting. Apparently they set up  number of floral still life arrangements and spend a couple of days painting those that appeal. It should be very interesting, and it is very nice to have been invited to participate.

Busy is good. Just wish I had a cook and a housekeeper. Well, one just does. So cup of tea time, watch ‘New Tricks’ on PBS, and hopefully a decent sleep.

Well, after our lovely September, October hit like a ton of bricks – straight down to 0 and bits of snow to boot. The snow landed on warm structures and turned to ice, like it did on our sun room. The leaves are still mostly on the trees, many not even turned colour yet, and they now appear freeze-dried in place after 2 weeks of cold. I am wondering if they will even fall – most likely they will just break off now over winter. Very bizarre year. Through the ice, you can see the red cranberries of the tree and its green leaves.

Also, pretty well through the whole summer, we have been dealing with accusations from the man who is the developer for the property next door. He has continually accused us of having our fence on ‘his’ property (he is not the owner). In April he threatened to have our fence torn down. We couldn’t believe his accusations, so this lead us to get a new survey, take our fence down to rebuild (it had been totally destabilized by the construction work), and get legal advice. We were having the fence rebuilt last week and he confronted our fence contractor and threatened to take a chain saw to the fence. So that halted work! I spoke with him to no avail. However, after speaking to two surveyors, documenting everything, with photos, the lawyer says he is totally wrong and just go ahead, which we will do. But this has caused endless aggravation, a lot of expense, and a huge amount of time wasted. Now, finally, I feel that we are in a strong position and will now just ignore the ‘jerk’ (in the words of the lawyer!) .

Then, to top it off, our furnace quit on Sunday. It had been making noises and we actually were scheduled to have it replaced this week, but it beat us to it. Fortunately is has been steady around 0 with little wind. It turns out that our gas fireplace more than keeps the place warm, and with our few baseboard heaters upstairs and a space heater in the kitchen, we are doing fine. Just one more thing to contend with though.

Needless to say, it has been a little stressful this week, and no painting done at all. So I am now going to make the effort to get this all behind me, and put on some good painting music (Sting, Piazzolla). I will get going again.

Miserable weather finally set in yesterday and will go on for a few more days. We are getting a good soak though, which will help water in the trees and such for winter. Just it is also cold and windy. So time to take advantage of inside time.

This is something I have wanted to do for a while. I am not going to say exactly what it is at this point. Needless to say, it is going to be quite abstract looking, even though it is actually something real. I got the sketch done up and then have started to block in the colours. This is the fun bit, just smooshing colour onto the canvas without too much detail. This won’t have a lot of detail anyway, just some refinements of the colours and highlights.

This is probably as far as I will get today. We are going out to a lecture tonight – I’d rather stay in when it is like this. It is a Sir Ken Robinson, who gave one of the TED lectures about education, called Schools Kill Creativity. I wonder if I can skip? I am sure it will be interesting, probably an elaboration of what was on the TED program. GK’s former student, now a new faculty member here is going to so maybe they can go together. Hmmm. I’ll probably go anyway as I am sure it is going to be good. Just whingeing about the weather.

BTW the TED site is a very interesting one with 15 minute lectures by people from everywhere. It is Technology Entertainment Design. It is definitely worth checking out.

Well, had better organize supper early as we will have to get there early for a seat – free lecture so should be widely attended.

We are finally having wonderful weather, temperatures way above average, lovely days. So the flowers are still blooming away and the morning glories are really plentiful this year.

I have been getting a few more house type things done – painting one of the french doors, a window frame, and the downstairs bathroom cabinet. Also time to start cleaning the windows. I hope to get all the french doors painted at some point but as there are 8 still left to do, it will be a while – they are very slow going with all that glass to go around. Although I did discover that using one of my oil painting brushed made doing the edges a lot easier this time. So maybe I might tackle one more, depending on how the weather holds.

Our Escape Artists group is getting geared up now to have our fall show at the end of November. Also, it is quite possible that we will have a summer show in 2010 at the Muttart Conservatory in Edmonton! That is very exciting. Linda will be going to Edmonton in a couple of weeks to check out the space. She has has a show there before, but it has apparently been renovated so she will see what it is like now. We will all have to do big paintings for this, so it will be time to break out that big (for me) 30 x 30 inch canvas that has been lurking upstairs. I have been planning to do a big succulent painting on it, so now I have the motivation to get going.

Our Prairie River Artists group got back together last Saturday to get our new season underway. We have three new members of the group, so it will be interesting to see what kind of work they do. Everyone does something different so it is great fun to watch all the different pieces being produced. So fall is definitely underway, even if the weather is summer-like.

I am also starting to look forward to the painting workshop I am going to in November. Will have to start making travel plans soon for that. I’ll get to see family then and that is always the best part. I also hope to see some friends as well. Always lots to do and see there.

Well, have to get going on making invitations and posters, and getting the advertising underway for the upcoming show. Better hop to.

Yesterday, I was feeling like this, just out of sorts, gnarly, not able to settle. This was partly due to some unresolved things, which today, are now taken care of. The first was deciding to give up the volunteer work I have done for almost 5 years. It had reached the point where it wasn’t really benefiting anyone much, other than the social aspects. I realize that those are important too, but it is something I can do on an individual basis with the couple of remaining people from the group. I had played telephone tag for several days with the program coordinator, so finally today, just left a message with my decision and will get in touch later.

The other was a fall group art show with the Escape Artists. It is nearly a year since our last show, and we were all getting a bit antsy that it wasn’t coming together. We had thought of using Grace Westminster church, but it wasn’t really the best venue for us as we are a small group and it is a big space. I had been pondering this for a while, and the experience of a couple of other artists I know in town lead me to think about using our house as the venue. So we met last night, and I put the idea forward, and we are going to do that. Even G thinks it is a good idea, so it is great to have everyone on side. So now we can go ahead with planning, have an actual date set, something to work toward, and are excited about this new experiment in showing our work.

I think that I like deadlines, or some specific event to get ready for. I was still kind of drifting and not getting anywhere. So last night, after our meeting, and, of course at 3 in the morning, I had lay there thinking about all kinds of ideas.

Today I had to pick up the couple of paintings from the Prairie River Artists‘ group show that was just over, so after that I headed over to check through three of our antique shops for some items that I wanted to find for still lifes. Here is what I found…

I found the 2 copper pots, a white cream jug (not overly visible here on the left), 3 old locks, and a ceramic insulator (again hidden a bit to the right behind the pot). I have a lot of other things too – the little chinese sewing basket, a shell with barnacles that I brought back from Vancouver, plus the floats and my Auvergne pot where I keep my watercolour brushes. This actually make an interesting grouping as it is. Hmm. Will have to revisit.

So now I feel energized and ready to get going again. The days will be full, as there will be lots of gardening to take care of, plus a couple more house things to do before that time, but that is good. I like to have a focus like that.

So on this lovely autumn day,  am feeling more like this…

The beginning of September always seems like the start of a new year, much more so than Jan 1. It is probably because of the link to the school/university year, which has been a part of my whole life, in one way or another. So I thought maybe I should make some resolutions now, although, we all know that resolutions are always broken. Still maybe just to think about what the upcoming winter will bring, and how to make the best of it.

I already know that I will be going out to Vancouver in November, for about a week. A painting workshop and critique session happily coincides with Ariane’s birthday, so it will be a doubly good time to go out. I’ll get to have some family time, particularly staying for some extra days.

I have decided that I will be winding up volunteering with the seniors group that I have been with for almost 5 years. They are all now very frail and not really able to participate any more, even though they try. Pretty well all of them are now fairly ill too, so I don’t want to make them feel they have to show up when they can’t really manage any more. I will just go and visit from time to time.

I also plan to work on some specific paintings, towards submitting them for shows in the next year or so. The idea of a body of work has been in the back of my mind for some time. With shows though, I have put everything out there. I did do a theme for last winter with the coastal paintings and I really enjoyed doing that. I have been thinking about a series called ‘Organic/Inorganic’, using paintings of rusted objects and of succulents together. I am going to try the very big succulent painting I have been planning for a while and hope to start quite soon as it will take some time to do.

One of the painting groups is trying to decide if we will have a show yet this fall. We will have to decide soon as time will fly by! Hopefully that will be decided soon, as it will impact other possibilities. I have also had an idea about doing an at-home, salon type show with the group. I haven’t discussed it with anyone yet, but the place is big enough to do it, and there would be very little in the way of overhead costs.  Something to think about anyway.

There are also some personal issues I really need to deal with, so it is time to get going on those. No success on dealing with it myself, so time to get some outside input. So there will be no shortage of things going on. For now, just enjoying our late summer weather, after a cool spring and summer. Nice to have to warmth and good light.