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Friday 29 June 2018

Creativity Challenge - Week 26



Blog 26

The past week was dedicated to spending time with my extended family who visited us for my daughter’s graduation events. Nevertheless, I managed to squeeze in some creative time.




On June 22, I went to a Glass Fusion Workshop at Da Artisti Studio & Gallery that was organized by Arteast for its members. It was a lot of fun to learn something new and to work with a new material. Wendy Canci, the gallery owner and a very talented glass artist, guided us through the process of creating a dish and a pendant by layering glass. I can hardly wait to see the finished products after they have been heated in a kiln to fuse the glass pieces together.





As my family already knows that I have a hard time sitting still without giving my hands something to do, they already expect me to pick up my latest project. As my two year old niece came for her first visit, I had moved all my felting equipment away. As it is easy for an adult to prick themselves with the felting needle in a moment of inattentiveness, I did not want to take any chances with my niece. Instead, I worked on catching up with my temperature shawl that I had neglected for weeks. I am still 2.5 weeks behind, but you can finally see more of the spring/summer colours. It is hard to believe that I am almost halfway done with my shawl. If you look carefully, you will see that I had to improvise again with some of the colours where my original ball of wool was not sufficient, which is okay because you can find a lot of colour variations in nature. 




On the day of my daughter’s garden party and prom, I managed some sketches at the hairdresser’s and during a visit to a restaurant. The one of my father-in-law was especially challenging as my father-in-law wears glasses and moved a lot. I worked on this sketch again at home. I also spent a couple of minutes sketching a couple of small Begonias from a flower bed in front of the movie theatres while waiting for my friend. The sketch was just a little exercise to fill the waiting time. However, every little sketch helps to sharpen your observational skills.



 Finally, I found some time to finish my 9” x 12” acrylic painting “Three Poppies” from my plein air outing two weeks ago. I added some extra paint on the petals of the flowers to make them stand out.




I also spent some time writing my latest newsletter. If you like my blogs and would like to receive some more information about upcoming workshops and exhibitions as well as news about my activities, I invite you to subscribe to my monthly newsletter that is published on the last Wednesday of the month. You can subscribe on the bottom of every page on my website www.KerstinPeters.ca.

Next week, you will finally be able to read the blog about my discussion with fiber artist Anne Warburton about “Creating Art with Groups”. The blog is accompanied by a couple of video clips.

For now, I wish all of you a Happy Canada Day! Enjoy the wonderful summer weather and spend some Me-time, either exploring some of the many activities that are offered or relaxing in your favourite spot.

Friday 22 June 2018

Creativity Challenge - Week 25

Blog 25



With company at our house and working part-time, it was more difficult to set aside time to be creative. While I was watching some of the World Cup soccer games with my family, I was able to continue knitting my temperature shawl and felting flowers on my table runner. I also felted a butterfly for my Creativity & Me: Felting Butterflies & Flowers workshop on Friday, July 27 at 1pm - 3pm.

Nevertheless, I spent last Friday morning with my friend Janis painting poppies in her yard. It was my first plein air painting time since our trip to Kamouraska in September of last year. It felt so great to be outside in the warm sun, and to be able to fully concentrate on painting without distractions.


Three Poppies, acrylic, unfinished

Anne Warburton and I also continued writing and editing our blogs about “Creating Art with Groups”. We complement each other very well. It is exciting to see everything come together. The blogs will be published together with the video clips on July 6 and 13, 2018.

On June 21, I went to the Humanics Institute Sanctuary and Sculpture Park with a couple of members of the Ottawa Plein Air Adventures Group. I knew many of the members already from Arteast as well as the Urban sketchers. While most participants stayed until the afternoon, I only had time to stay until noon to create one watercolour pencil sketch of the sculpture called “Friends”, one of my favourite sculptures of the park.

If you would like to try something new, I am holding one painting and one felting workshop in July:

July 20: The Energy of Vincent van Gogh

July 27: Felting Butterflies and Flowers

Here is also the link to the Painting Party in the Humanics Institute Sculpture Park on July 15, 2018: https://www.facebook.com/events/390719461442763/ .

For more information, please click on the links or go to my website www.KerstinPeters.ca.



In addition, I am offering a new promotion for you: if you register for 5 events at the regular rate and pay only half the price then when you register for your 6th event. There is no expiration date for this promotion. This promotion starts with my July events and is valid for both painting parties and workshops. Once you have registered for 5 events, I will send you the promotion code for the 6th event.

If you have any suggestions for materials or techniques you would like to have covered during my July projects that I will post from Monday to Friday on my business page https://www.facebook.com/KerstinPetersPaintings/ on Facebook, please send me an email to kpeters@domingoinformatics.ca.

Friday 15 June 2018

Creativity Challenge - Week 24

Blog 24

My creative week started off on the right foot with our visit to the Ottawa Little Theatre on Friday, where we saw the immensely funny British farce “Move Over Mrs. Markham” about love, infidelity, trust, and revenge. During the play I managed to sketch a little bit despite the challenge of the fast moving actions of the actors and the many bursts of laughter.









I also drew a couple of characters from “The Loud House” for one of my “Cartooning and Drawing” courses. “The Loud House” is an American animated television series about the chaotic life of Lincoln Loud. He is the middle child and only boy in a large family of 11 children. 




This was also the last week of my “Cartooning and Comic” classes. Two groups had picked “Toothless” from “How to Train a Dragon” for their last class, while the third group chose the “Loud House Characters” I already mentioned.




After weeks of neglect, I finally continued my temperature shawl. It is exciting to see how the design unfolds now that we have reached warmer temperatures and a different colour scheme. I will post a photo next week.




On Sunday, I visited Ottawa’s Ornamental Gardens with my family. The Ornamental Gardens are situated at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, Ontario. At the moment, the peonies and irises are in full bloom. There are also some amazing trees. I wish I had been able to spent the day painting, but I am happy that I did have a change to take some pictures of the breathtaking beauty. I have to go back with my painting buddies. 




While I still did not manage to paint outside, I was able to continue the tree painting that I started during my knife painting workshop a couple of weeks ago. I showed the participants the use of different kind of painting knives to bring texture and energy to a painting. As I use student grade paint during the workshop I added a layer of professional grade paint when I reworked the trees and roots. Hopefully, I will be able to show you the finished work next week.




Inspired by some beautiful pansies at an ice cream shop, I also finished a yellow one and created a pink one on my table runner.

As life’s pace is usually slower in summer, I would like to invite you to bring more creativity into your life. From Monday to Friday during the month of July, I will post 15 minute art projects on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KerstinPetersPaintings/ that will hopefully inspire you to follow along or to practice whatever inspires you. Is there a technique or a medium that you always wanted to try out? If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment or send me an email to kpeters@domingoinformatics.ca.






Friday 8 June 2018

Creativity Challenge - Week 23

Blog 23

Climax, acrylic, 10" x 10"

Last weekend, I finally made it back into my studio to paint. I finished the tulip painting that I had started at the beginning of April. It felt so good to be painting. I had hoped to paint a second time this week, as my friends and I had plans to paint at the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum, but these plans fell through due to the days of rain.



Instead I met with one of my friends for a craft morning. She was knitting and I felted a blue lupin. Later, I also continued to work on the poppies that I had started last week.



During the “Cartooning and Comics” classes, I demonstrated scenes 3 and 4 for all three groups. All but my 5 - 7 year old students were able to finish their comics this week.


At the beginning of the week, I met with my artist friend Anne Warburton to collaborate on a blog post. We were both very excited about working together and had a lovely chat. However, it was quite out of our comfort zone to record the session, but we did it anyway. It is not perfect, but it shows us in an authentic way. I am sure we will get better with time. You will be able to see the video and read the blog in a couple of weeks.


If you would like try something new, I would like to inform you about my first outdoor painting party in the beautiful environment of the Humanics Sanctuary and Sculpture Park in the idyllic Cumberland Village.The painting party is open to everyone who enjoys the peacefulness and beauty of nature to get inspired to create their own artwork; it will be a lasting memory that will bring continuous joy to their home. This is an event to connect with others, relax and have fun. I will guide the participants in creating a beautiful lotus painting. No experience is necessary. All the materials are provided for you.

The fee of $ 42.50 includes all materials and the admission to the sculpture park for the day. Parking is free. If you would like more information please contact me by email to kpeters@domingoinformatics.ca. To reserve your spot please send an e-transfer to kpeters@domingoinformatics.ca. Don't forget to send a separate email with the security answer.


Friday 1 June 2018

Creativity Challenge - Week 22

Blog 22




With my “Cartooning and Comics” spring session nearing its end, we started our big project: the creation of our very own comics. I showed the students some Calvin and Hobbes comics, and the students of each course voted for their own favourite. Over the last couple of days, I used the comics as references to create three different comics with characters from our sessions in the poses shown in the original comics.


My students can either follow what I demonstrate in class or pick their own characters in the poses I draw. Most students were happy with my choices and followed my demonstration. While I only draw the characters, the students have to create the story by adding the setting and speech bubbles. It was wonderful to see with how much excitement they went to work. Our comics consists of four images. While I already drew the whole sequence, the students finished the first two images this week. It will be interesting to see how their stories unfold next week.




Despite my intention to go painting with some of my friends, our schedules were just not compatible this week, but I managed to felt some more flowers onto my table runner. First, I added some white and red poppies. Then, I started to felt some lilac blooms. It was not easy to create the small petals. I am not quite happy with the result. I will keep working on all three flowers.


Today is the last day to register for my Flower Felting Workshop at the beautiful Da Artisti Studio & Gallery in Cumberland Village on June 3, from 10am to 12pm. In this 2 hour course, I will be showing you how to create your own flowers with wool by felting it on a 5" x 7" felt base. The final product can be framed and displayed anywhere in your home. No prior experience is necessary, and all materials are included! Registration is limited to 8 participants, and is priced at $50+tax.
To register please go to: https://daartisti.com/lessons/