A Gift: Lilies In My Garden

I did a watercolour sketch of these lilies in my garden this morning. They were a gift years ago from my mother's garden and have faithfully returned every year since. They have always intrigued me because their seeds appear to form at the base of their leaves, having nothing to do with their flowers. Mom always called them Tiger Lilies, but I think their spots make them leopards!



Newfoundland

Guest Artist Cheryl Radford at Sunset Arts

If you are in Grand Bend, stop in at our Artists' Co-op Gallery, Sunset Arts to see our new displays and our guest artist, Cheryl Radford's work.

Sketchbook: Victoria Park: New Field Sketch Box



Gate at Central and Richmond

  I met up with Cheryl to do some sketching and to test out a new set of watercolours made by Sakura, a Koi water color field sketch box. It will take some getting used to, but the advantage of the little brush which holds water (so you don't need to cart around bottles of water as well as something to contain the water while you work )was wonderful for sketching (especially now when the airboot thing on my foot makes getting around tricky enough). I am not convinced it would do for a painting on location, but for sketchbook work it was great. The whole thing fit easily into my bag so I can take it with me everywhere! The sketch above was done with the Koi watercolors and then modified with pen.

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