Wednesday, January 7, 2009

It's a New Year, Kick it off with a Model Session!

Happy New Year to one and all! I hope that everyone had a great Holiday Season. I certainly did. My husband, for the first time, had two weeks off work. So, we took the time to reconnect as a family.
I was tremendously busy. I had 5 birthdays this past month, and as if I didn't have enough to do I decided to make most of my Christmas presents this year. One of my favorite story tellers of all time has got to be Stuart McLean (writer and radio personality behind the Vinyl Cafe), and my favorite Christmas story has to be his "Dave Cooks the Christmas Turkey". No matter how many times I hear it or read it it always sends me roaring with laughter. It also reminds me that it is not just my Christmas that is hectic, chaotic, and often at times puts my normal life on hold. Every year I say it and never do it, well lets not break the tradition - "I really need to start making Christmas presents in the summer!". That is my explanation for not posting anything in December. Who had time to read any new posts anyways? December is always a right off for me.

Though I was working hard in Santa's workshop, I did find time to work on my painting. I could not even say at this point how many hours I have put into this painting. Really, I don't even want to count. I am enjoying it no matter how long it is taking me. I am learning a great amount from the experience. It is the painting that I had posted in it's unfinished state quite a while ago. It is of a necklace. It has very broad range of colorful beads. As a necklace it is on the verge of being tacky, I am sure that in a few years it will be. In the previous post it has a yellow background which is actually the under painting. I am close to finishing it. It needs about two more sessions for its completion.

I invite artists on Thursday January 15th at 7:00pm - 10:00pm to an open model session that I am hosting in Stony Plain. It is open to all artists. I do ask that you RSVP before the 12th so that I can reserve you a space and to make sure there are enough artists to make it a go. You can contact me by email [email protected] .
Also, I ask that artist not bring or use loose pigments. I have recently had a wicked experience trying to clean up loose ground charcoal and powdered green pigment from the studio floor. Well, it took me a week to rid the studio of that pesky substance. It seemed to transfer itself to all different kinds of materials. Which reminds me to add to the list, heat drying oil paint. That stuff just never dries. I tested the stuff out once. It took me a month to get rid of some ultramarine blue that kept on popping up out of the blue. It was like some weird alien goop that left a trail like a slug but I could never find where it was actually coming from. I would catch it adhering to my clothes, the bottom of my slippers, on books, and on light switches. Finally I found the culprit; a tiny spot on a large painting that didn't dry quite enough. I almost threw the whole damn painting out!
That said, I hope we can make it a go.

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