WEEK 8: Change is in the Air

As much as I love a good snowfall before Christmas, I still consider it as part of the decorations that should get stuffed into boxes and hidden under the stairs by January 2nd.   I am tired of the ice, snow, slush and "wake up snap" of chilly weather.  On Sunday Peter and I went for a walk in 8 degree sunshine.  I actually had to remove my hat and gloves because I was overheating.  The sky was that perfect shade of cerulean blue, cloudless.  I understand that most of the valley was under a thick damp blanket of fog but I wasn't and it was easy to daydream of sand, surf and paddling into the wind. Carol Kinnee at www.carolkinnee.com , my partner in crime with 52 Over 50 blogging has embraced the snow this week with snowshoeing adventures.  But I am happy to see the green grass and rain puddles of our warm wet coast.

In the studio this week I have been painting on that 9" x12"  Arches 140# hot press block that I was talking about last week and I'm really having a lot of success with it.  I also downloaded an App called Artgrid (free!).  It takes my favorite photos and re-defines the grayscale and (surprise!) marks a grid.  This makes my initial sketches go  much quicker and easier because it drops unnecessary detail.

I would like to take a moment to invite you to check out 2 more very talented artist friends "Over 50"  www.cathypelter.com and on facebook Melanie Gilette of "sew many quilts so little time".  I am lucky to know Cathy through the Fraser Valley Graphic Guild and Melanie is a paddling quilter.  More about that later.  Please check out their wonderful creations at their websites.

Happy Tuesday everybody and especially Happy Birthday to my niece Jamie.  See you next week.

Cheers!

Week 7: New Paper

I've been playing with different paper these days.  I have a lovely block of Arches 140# Hot Press.  It grabs the paper quickly, but is also much more forgiving than the cold pressed.  It lends itself to ripples and currents and movement.  Lots of fun!

The Ross Islets are a favorite place of mine, to paddle, to camp and to paint.  I try to get there at least once a year.  Peter and I had a week there together last summer camping on Ross and Dianna Islands.

Week 6: I'm Sick!

I don't get sick very often.  I get my flu shot every  year and I think I lead a pretty healthy lifestyle, other than frequenting the company of really sick people in the ER department.  I suppose I got coughed on one time too many or maybe didn't wash my hands for the 300th time on shift.  At any rate, I have a headache, a cough and sinus congestion and I am uncharacteristically cranky and unimaginative.  But as Grandma always said "This too shall pass".  

My intent this week was to blog about the magic of paddling in rock gardens, instead all I have is the misery of rocks in my head.  Rock gardens and surge channels will have to wait until next Tuesday..

52 Over 50 Week 5: Resolutions

I love making New Years Resolutions.  This year I resolve to learn Punjabi.  At least enough to help me get by at work, without any of the cuss words.  I would also like to make this the year that I take a surfing lesson in Tofino.  And maybe fly in a helicopter. And practice yoga everyday. Looking forward to the new year and all the possibilities and potential to become the me I see myself evolving into is a truly heady experience!

The funny thing is that January first is more like a second chance in the year to start fresh.  I still feel like September is the beginning of the New Year, as if I were a child starting the school year.

I think its so dull after Christmas that January 1st was sanctioned a holiday just to lift spirits out of the winter blahs and making resolutions is the perfect daydreamy task to go with an extra day off and American college football games in front of the fire.

2018 holds a lot of promise: kayak trips, road trips, paintings and friends. Also a little work.  

Some would say that one should resolve to be a better person; more benvolent and prosperous,  healthy and generous.  And maybe I will be those things but we should all be those things all the time everyday anyway.  I believe that New Years Resolutions should be like annual promises we make to ourselves to find ways to be interesting, fun and happy. Like an annual Bucket List.

Maybe I should just resolve to meet my blog deadline on time.😁

See you next Tuesday!

52 Over 50 Week 4: Winter Solstice

For the last 15 years or so I have relished the arrival of the Winter Solstice.  The arrival of the briefest day in the year is an indication of  change, that good things are coming.  Tomorrow will last just a little longer!  There is Hope for the coming of long, warm, sunny days of paddling and bike rides and swims in the river and digging bare toes in the sand at the beach.  I love the pull of the tides and the influence of the moon so this day of extremes leaves me full of contentment.  A  great day for Sun Salutations and Reflection , Solitude and Creativity ...maybe even paint.

This week I completed a rather large watercolour painting,  "Arbutus Point", on a full size sheet of Arches 300# cold press 22"x30".    I painted it for my parents for Christmas.  Last summer I had 3 very different, very enjoyable kayak trips to Portland Island.  The first with Helen in early June, the second with John Taylor in early July and the third with my son Peter at the end of August.  I set up my tent at the edge of a bank facing east so that the first rays of sun would shine in the tent door.  I was smitten with Arbutus Point and completed several smaller sketches and works with its beaches and arbutus trees as the subjects.   

This chilly winter morning I am sitting by the fire looking east as the sun climbs in the sky over Mount Cheam, there is still a dusting of snow from yesterdays storm. I am daydreaming of pulling my paddle through  water, landing on a beach, listening to the scrape of sand on the hull, feeling the sun on my face and laughing  with Helen as we struggle out of our boats to beachcomb for sea glass.

Happy Winter Solstice and Hope for long summer days! See you next Tuesday!

52 Over 50 Week 3: The Cupboard Under the Stairs

It's 2 weeks before Christmas.  I'm overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done in spite of careful planning, list making and scheduling.  in spite of being determined to pace myself and remember to enjoy my lovely people I let myself get caught up in the busy-ness of the  pre-Christmas squishing too many events into too little time.

So to make matters worse I decided that it would be a good idea to clean the cupboard under the stairs.  The one that has been holding all the crap that didn't have a place to belong when we moved in 5 years ago.  Its where we stored the Christmas tree last January.  Behind the massage table I no longer practice with and the over-sized suitcase from last May when we cruised to Alaska.  There were also 4 floor fans, an accordion case, and a leather counter stool to squeeze past.  After I pulled everything out and into the narrow hall,  I cautiously ventured forward carefully ducking under the steps wary to not bang my head.   There were several boxes of unknown content in my way.  I wondered what on earth was important enough to pack and haul around and then forget about for 5 1/2 years.  So I opened them.  Candle sticks, canning jars, picture frames, cider bottles, and then paydirt!  I found a box filled with 24 year old treasures.  When I pulled off the cardboard lid I was staring at a dinosaur themed romper, osh kosh b'gosh overall shorts, green corduroy booties, a little pink pig stuffie and a rocking horse music box.  It was my baby boy's baby stuff. 

I grunted my way out of the dark dusty space on my hands and knees dragging the box out with me and then cradled it up 3 flights of stairs and gently set it on my bed. I had no idea where I was going to put it but now that we are on the edge of being empty nesters, now that our son is making plans to leave, all of a sudden that box of memories needs to be closer to me.  Within reach.

The Christmas tree is still under the stairs beside a drum set and a giant gold Ikea star.  I'm not sure how long it will remain there.  We decided to get a tiny pre-lit tree from Walmart that will sit on the shelf.  That way we'll have more room for the special people in our lives who are coming to spend Christmas with us.  

Maybe in a year or 2 Peter will need a 6  foot tree in a home of his own.  I'll pull it out then.

See you next Tuesday!

52 Over 50 Week 2: Just Do It !

A couple of years ago I read The Happiness Project on reccomendation from my daughter Devon.  One of my favorite mantras came from it: "Don't let perfect get in the way of done".  In a way Nike got first dibs on this frame of thought when they said "Just Do It! ". But either way the command to do something is there.  

I"m going to start this blog off with an early confession. Its hard to expose my vulnerability, but I confess that the compulsion to paint is very personal.  I can't put it completely or concisely into words why I do it , I  just know that painting is necesary right now; for the last 2 1/2 years it has been a force that needed to be answered from within. 

When first I started moving paint around on paper and adding ink for emphasis an emotional void was filled.  I know it sounds corny and rather presumptuous but the truth is I was going through a crisis and producing paintings gave me a purpose and satisfaction in spite of not being perfect I was "getting it done".  

I have a lot of paintings waiting to be painted.  

This week was an early attempt at putting people into my paintings.  It is sketched from a black and white photo of my mother at age 19 in 1956 -ish, standing on the shore of Lake Huron  (I think) wearing a cornflower blue duster and matching dress.  I asked mom about the coat and she remembered all the details. So I googled it and found a coloured picture of it.

I"m especially pleased with the movement that I achieved in the coat and dress. I'm especially disappointed with the muddied and yellow tones on the face.   I love the Medussa-esque hair!  This was my first time using  Quinacrodone Red,  and also I have stared upgrading to Windsor Newton paints. I regard this as a baby step in a marathon to painting people.

Tomorrow I will probably paint a sea stack. It will be like eating chocolate or comfort food after a tough shift in emerg.

See you next Tuesday!

https://gretchenrubin.com/book/the-happiness-project/

52 Over 50: A Year of Paintings and Prose

The gauntlet has been thrown, the challenge declared, the proposal accepted.  And so with the first sentence written I will embark  on a year- long journey of words and paint to illustrate my thoughts, dreams, and whims, be they boring or inspiring, colorful, dull, or insightful.  Each Tuesday evening I will install a new painting accompanied with a commentary (which may or may not have anything connected to the art created).

First a little back story.  Twenty-five years ago I was lucky to make the acquaintance of my neighbor, a brand new mom, Carol Kinnee,  RN.  We were living in a townhouse complex on Ozada Avenue in Coquitlam B.C.  In a strange coincidence we both purchased our first homes and moved to Mission B.C. within weeks of each other.  At that time, 1991, I had just completed my ECE degree and was teaching preschool in Coquitlam, but when we moved I decided to renovate the basement and open The PlayHouse Family Daycare.  Carol and her infant daughter Chelsea were my first customers. 

Now fast forward to Spring 2017.  I had just started working as an LPN at ARH where Carol has been a long time PAR RN and I ran into her on my coffee break.  We hadn't seen each other for about a decade.  With a promise to get together for coffee  we exchanged contact info and fell headlong back into our busy lives.  Until this October. 

We met at a quaint little bakery tea shop on first avenue in Mission ( fb English Tarts ), and passed 2 hours of non stop catch-up and discovery and of course cake.  Carol had written a novel The Christmas Presence  www.carolkinnee.com and I had taken up watercolors.  We both acknowledged that we needed a kick in the ass to promote our arts and so sprouted the tenuous roots of "52 Over 50". 

Working on our blogs and  websites seemed to be a natural progression  after a successful  giant leap out of our comfort zones participating in the 15th Annual Chilliwack Christmas Craft Crawl ( www.chilliwackchristmascraftcrawl.com ). 

In case you need it spelled out for you:  52 is the number of Tuesdays in a year, "Over 50"  is a gentle reminder that we are middle aged.  Between us we have over a century of experience.  The title is Carol's gem; she's pretty great with words!  Hers will be a weekly blog of literary wonder and mine will be a weekly blog (or blob) of paint.  This week I'm posting a painting that I completed in August instead of this week, so that I can practice manipulating my website.  I'm amazed that I figured it out!  

See you next Tuesday!

Arbutus Point, Portland Island 2017

Cobwbs, and Dust Bunnies and Messy Closets, Oh My!

Give me Lions and Tigers and Bears any day over the winter blahs and cabin fever that snowmageddon has inflicted this year.  I need to go outside and play!  The alternative to gearing up for outside activity is remaining indoors and I can only turn a blind eye for so long to the impending spring cleaning that is creeping out from the baseboards and closed closet doors.  I may have to succomb to housework! 

When I was a student, if I had assignment deadlines looming I would" binge clean procrastinate".  It was as if cleaning the closets would clean my neuro pathways so that I could study better.  Last saturday I had a whole day to be at home, hanging out in my jammies drinking coffee.  My plan was to clean my bedroom closet.  Instead I painted and then mounted 5 paintings.  Around 430 in the afternoon I got dressed, and kept an eyebrow tinting appointment.  The closet is still a mess, but the studio looks great!

But speaking of procrastination:  I have been putting off making this site Public.  I had a chat with Devon about it the other night and she said "Just do it, Mom!  It will never be as perfect as you want it to be."   So ...here goes.  I'll be announcing it on facebook in 5 minutes.

Oh My!

Daydreams -January 14, 2017

"It's not just a daydream if you decide to make it your life" - Drops of Jupiter, Train

I was invited to submit a few pieces for a mini exhibition at the ACT Gallery store in Maple Ridge.  On Tuesday morning I wrapped a dozen paintings in brown butchers paper and stuffed them in an over-sized suitcase with a quilt tucked around them to keep them safe and I drove them out to the gallery.  I had to write "a brief bio" forthe show; not an easy task as I have never had to refer to myself in the third person before, it felt a bit pretentious.  In the last year I've sold 6 paintings and hundreds of cards,  I've placed a couple of pieces in 4 shows and I have 2 more exhibits coming up this Spring.   Sometimes it feels a bit surreal, this business of painting pictures.

When Peter and I were first married we lived on Galiano Island at Sturdes Bay.  Looking back 36 years it was idyllic, but we were too young and stupid to really grasp exactly how lucky we were.  A typical morning for us was a walk along the beach to Bellhouse Park overlooking Active Pass.  We often passed and chatted with a guy called Denny out walking his husky.  Once he invited us back to his studio and showed us his watercolor paintings.  It seemed a pretty magical existence to live by the sea painting pictures.

Fast forward to the summer of 2005.  My first kayak trip to Clayquot Sound.  On a daypaddle from Whitesand Beach on Flores Island to Whaler island we came upon an artist who had snugged himself a little campsite out of the wind.  He was scruffy ( so were we) and bearded and wore a hat that Van Gogh might have worn.  He still had both ears.  There was a part of me that admired his solitary determination to be there and paint.

I know the exact moment that I decide that I would paint; it was on the ferry from Nanaimo.  I was coming home from a kayak trip and met my parents coming home from visiting my aunt.  They had been shopping in a local book store which was closing out and had bought me a book about local beaches of Vancouver Island.  Sitting beside them on the ferry I glanced through the photos and was struck with the idea that I could paint them.  The next day I pulled out abandoned paints, brushes and paper from previous failed attempts and completed 3.

I decided to make the daydream my life.

December 2016

It's not an original idea , but one of the best things about the New Year is setting goals: a chance for a fresh start to make changes and live a better, healthier, more productive life.  I love making a list of each aspect of my life that I will strive to alter.  It usually always starts with plans to lose weight and exercise.  And it usually always fails there. too.  So, this year I've decide to not make that a Goal.  I will eat and play by whim and if I lose weight and get fit then so be it.  

Welcome

Welcome to my website!  My daughter created it for me as a Christmas present.  I will use this space as a portfolio to showcase my work and to chronical and share my kayaking adventures!  I hope you like it! I have a pretty amazing daughter!