I'm looking forward to this weekend's studio tour in Grand Bend. Stop by for a visit if you are in Grand Bend. My work will be in Sunset Arts Gallery on 63 River Road during the tour and for the summer too.

Busy Day

It was a busy day today. I drove to Grand Bend to pick up the Grand Bend Studio Tour brochures, prepared note cards for Sunset Arts Gallery, delivered the watercolour painting you see to the left to the framer's so it will be ready for the studio tour, finished my tracking sheets for the work which will be in the Lambeth Art Association Show and Sale this weekend, and packaged up the paintings and matted work for the LAA Show. I am now going to relax a little.

Studio Work

Since I am restricted by a cast on my foot, plein air painting has ground to a standstill. While I am able to walk well on floors and sidewalks and anything flat, level and sturdy, walking on grass, paths through the woods, fields or rocky shores are off limits. Very frustrating, since this is the time that the Gallery Painting Group paints twice a week on location.
I have been working from sketches and photos in my studio and today I finished a 30" x 20" acrylic painting of Medway Heritage Forest in Autumn. I will take it up to Sunset Arts Gallery and hang it on Monday, when I am scheduled to work.

A Voice from The Past: Memory Work, Kindness and Miss M.

When I was a child in grade five my teacher, Miss M., was in the habit of giving us memory work. I remember only the following lines  now, from a poem, the title of which I no longer know.

" Slowly, silently, now the Moon
  Walks the night in her silver shoon
  This way and that she peers and sees
  Silver fruit upon silver trees."

I think the poet was Walter de la Mare, but I may be wrong. Last night at the Sunset Arts Gallery Opening a woman walked through our door with some companions. She looked very familiar to me but it wasn't until I heard her voice as she was talking to her friends about her favourite painting in the gallery that I could place her. I introduced myself to her. I am sure she didn't remember me, since I have changed quite a bit in the many years since grade five. I reminded her of the great kindness she had shown me when I inadvertently destroyed many of her files when I was plant monitor and over watered ( to say the least ), causing a river of water to run down the shelves and on to her work.  I was sure I would be in so much trouble, but as I tried to explain what had happened, she laughed and said she understood and helped me to clean up the water. I have never forgotten her kindness to a terrified little girl. Before she left the gallery she purchased her favourite painting, Near Ril Lake, which was one of mine  which I did plein air near a friend's cottage. Thank you Miss M., for the purchase and for so much more!

Near Ril Lake

  

Getting Ready For A New Season

Today I drove to Sunset Arts Gallery in Grand Bend to get ready for the Grand Bend Studio Tour , Arts & Eats. The tour will take place on Saturday May 14th from 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday May 15th from 11am to 5 pm.
Sunset Arts will be open on weekends until June 17th when it will be open daily until September.
The photo is my wall at the gallery. Every year I either under or over estimate how much work I will require. As you can see from the photo, this year I underestimated! So... another trip to the gallery this week to finish hanging my wall. I really don't mind. This time of year the countryside is lovely to drive through. Today the willows along all the streams and creeks were a breathtaking sight and the orchards we passed were pink, not with blooms yet, but the bark was pink in the light rain.