Creativity Challenge 2019 - Week 4

Blog 4

With the current cold weather in the Ottawa region, it is easy to focus on inside activities. Unfortunately, sometimes even these activities are affected by winter weather: I had to postpone last Sunday’s painting party by a week as it would not have been safe for the participants to come out for the fun. Even though I was disappointed at first because everything was already set up for the event, I have something to look forward to for this upcoming Sunday.

Have you started some new projects or continued projects that you started ages ago and want to finish this year? I am sure that most of us have some unfinished projects that are waiting to be picked up and either discarded because we lost interest in them, recycled in a new project, or finally finished. I worked on one of mine as you can see in the following day to day list of the past week’s projects:

Day 18: After a busy week, I did not have any energy to sit down to draw, paint, or even felt. This does not mean, however, that I sat on the sofa without doing anything. I picked up last year’s temperature shawl and started knitting. During the second half of last year, there were a couple of weeks when I fell behind with knitting two rows per day. Please see the photo for day 22 and 23.

Day 19: After attending a professional development day from work, I enjoyed an evening with my family watching TV. As I am really eager to finish my temperature shawl soon, I knitted for a couple of hours. Right now, I have finally caught up until the beginning of December.

Day 20: Instead of painting a winter sunset during the above mentioned painting party, I spent a couple of hours drawing a self portrait with coloured pencils. When I had been looking for ideas for my mixed media projects, I came across the excellent book “Van Gogh and the Post-Impressionists for Kids” by Carol Sabbeth. One of the suggested activities is related to van Gogh’s painting “Portrait of Père Tanguy”. The background is covered with little paintings inside of the painting that frame Tanguy’s portrait. The suggested activity was to create a portrait that would be glued onto a background covered in images from magazines. At first, I just wanted to create a simple demo image with coloured pencils but once I got started with the portrait, I forgot all about the initial intent. At the end, I took a photo that I printed and glued it on the background of magazine cut-outs because I liked the self-portrait too much to glue it on the picture collage.

Day 21: For my “Cartooning & Comics” classes I created a sketch of Spiderman. I always ask my student for input so that we draw characters that appeal to them and keep them engaged. This was one of the very few times that the students of both courses had asked for the same character.

Day 22: Tuesdays are my busy days as I teach a couple of German and art classes plus participate as a student in a French conversation group. Therefore, my creative energy was limited again to the step by step drawing of Spiderman that I created on the whiteboard during the art class.

Day 23: Even though I cancelled my drawing class due to the winter storm, I was busy with personal issues. When I finally sat down in the evening, I was tired. Nevertheless, I cannot sit down without keeping my hands busy. I had enough energy left for knitting. My temperature shawl is almost done. I am at December 15.

For every 5 degree change in temperature I pick a different colour. 

Day 24: I spent almost 6 hours finishing the August Macke inspired work of myself reading. The face was a major challenge. The 20” x 16” acrylic painting experienced quite a lot of changes in colours. This is more my colour palette, and I am happy with the result.

Are you looking for inspiration for new paintings? Maybe, you would like to try some new techniques. On February 13, 2019, we will be studying Gustav Klimt’s painting “The Kiss” to use simple forms and organic floral shapes to create a playful image of love. What could be a better workshop for the month of love! No experience is necessary. All materials are included in the registration fee. To register and for more information please go to my newly redesigned website www.KerstinPeters.ca.