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Friday 28 December 2018

Farewell to 2018

Blog 52

Another year has almost passed. I hope I was able to provide interesting and inspiring posts for you during the 52 weeks. I will start the new year with another Creativity Challenge and hope that some of you will join me in my quest to bring more creativity into our lives. I also have some new ideas for my blog posts: interviews with fellow artists and art book reviews.

I hope you enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends. Hopefully you had some time for yourself to relax and to indulge in your hobbies. I spent some quality time with my family. It was wonderful to have meals together, to play games, and to watch some funny movies. Usually, everyone is so busy with their own life.

Here are still the last three days of my Advent Calendar. Even though, Christmas has already passed, I hope that the images bring you joy.



Day 22:

"Abundance of Pansies", a 9" x 12" acrylic painting that I started in the summer with a group of friends who had picked my photo of beautiful pansies for our yearly "Painting in the Park" event. While the image seemed easy at first glace, it was not. I spent quite a number of hours working on my painting until I was happy with my flowers.



Day 23:
“Horseshoe of Rocks” is another 8” x 10” painting from the “Havre du Quai” in St-Roch-des-Aulnaies from September 10, 2018.



Day 24:
“Wild Pink Roses” is a 7” x 5” acrylic painting that I created right in the garden of our rented house. Over the last couple of years, it has become a tradition for me to create at least one wildflower painting.

At the end of this year, I would like to thank you for your support and wish you a fantastic year 2019. May it be filled with lots of creativity, fun, and happiness.


Are you ready for a great 2019? The start of the new year is the perfect time to create your vision for a great 2019. A vision board will provide you with a visual reminder of your vision and where you want to focus your energy. I offer a Vision Board Workshop on Saturday, January 5, 2019 from 2:30pm to 4:30pm. As vision boards are very personal, I posted a board with the topics that are important to me. During the workshop, we will use images of magazines, markers, and stickers to create a very personalized vision board. Perhaps you would like to take some time during the holidays to think and write about your goals for 2019. If you come across images that speak to you, collect them and bring them to the workshop. Registration deadline is January 2, 2019. All materials are included. You are welcome to bring additional magazines. You can either pay by cash, by cheque or by e-transfer to kpeters@domingoinformatics.ca.

Friday 21 December 2018

Advent Calendar - Days 15 - 21

Blog 51

This week was the first week of my holiday vacation. I finally had time to paint. I needed this creative time to ground myself. The last couple of weeks, I had a heavy workload that left hardly any time for leisure. Hopefully, you also take some time for yourself as the pre-Christmas activities and preparations can easily get stressful.

Here is the next part of Advent Calendar days. I hope the images will resonate with you. May they brighten up your day and inspire you to put some creativity into your life, especially in stressful times.



Day 15:
While I was at the cottage in July, I painted the 10” x 10” acrylic painting “Daring to be Different”, a white peony that had a couple of pink petals while all the other blossoms of the plant were just white.


Day 16:
“St André Lighthouse” is a 14” x 11” acrylic painting of the lighthouse at the “Parc de l’Ancien-Quai” in St André, Quebec.


Day 17:
I started the 9” x 12” acrylic painting “Three Poppies” outdoors with Golden Open Acrylics. In the studio, I enlarged the poppies and added some more body with my regular Heavy Body acrylic paint.


Day 18:
“Calm Blue Water” is a 3.5” x 7” painting on an old wood board that once was a plate for a big marzipan pig. It was another oil painting that I created at the “Havre du Quai” in St-Roch-des-Aulnaies on September 10, 2018.


Day 19:
During the summer, I also felted this butterfly. I love to watch the butterflies dance around the flowers. Such beautiful creatures!


Day 20:
The 8” x16” acrylic painting “An Afternoon in Kamouraska” shows the view from the bank of the St. Lawrence River towards the quay in Kamouraska.


Day 21:
I finished a felted elephant in time for the reunion with my friend who loves elephants. It was wonderful to see the happiness this little animal brought to her. Hopefully, he will also bring her lots of good luck.

At the end of this blog, I would like to take the opportunity to wish all of you a Merry Christmas with family and friends. Enjoy the festive time, relax, have fun, share lots of yummy food, talk a walk through the winter landscape, and create new memories.

Friday 14 December 2018

Advent Calendar - Days 8 - 14

Blog 50

Here is the second part of my Advent Calendar. Only 10 days left until Christmas. Are you ready for the holidays? I finished all my courses this week and plan to paint every day next week. I hope you have scheduled some time to relax and have fun into your busy days. Maybe, my artworks will take you onto memory lane, or will inspire you to put another item onto your bucket list of places to visit or skills to learn.


Day 8:
I started the bunny as a demo piece for a workshop, but it turned out to be too complicated and time-consuming. As a reference photo, I used the bunny that I painted many years ago. For the workshop, I ended up creating an easier version of a bunny.



Day 9:
The 14” x 11” “Sacred Places” shows the “Église Saint-Louis de Kamouraska” and some of the houses that are the owners’ safe haven. I am happy that I finally also finished this 2011 oil painting that I had brought to Kamouraska a couple of times to finish it on a rainy day.


Day 10:
“Beautiful Weeds” is a 7” x 5” oil painting that I created on the bank of the St. Lawrence River in L'Islet-sur-Mer. I was fascinated by the beauty of the flowers that seemed to consist of tiny little pearls. The funny thing is that I had never seen these weeds before our trip but found them growing not far from our house on a walk just after my return from Kamouraska.

Day 11:
I created this little watercolour painting during my trip to Germany sitting in my parents' garden. Watercolours are great for traveling because you do not need a lot of equipment.



Day 12:
I created "Sunny Kamouraska" on the last day of our Kamouraska painting trip. Marje and I decided to stay in Kamouraska, and went to the “Chemin Pelletier” and painted the view towards the church. As it was already quite warm in the sun at 10am, we made sure that we set up in the shade. However, due to the wind, I felt cold quickly and put my socks, boots, and winter coat back on. However, as soon as the sun reached us, I had to set up an umbrella to keep cool as temperatures kept climbing until they reached 30 degrees by 4pm.


Day 13:
The 14” x 13” x 6” felted water lily took me a lot of time and is not for sale. However, I can show you how to make your own. If you are interested in felting workshops, please contact me at kpeters@domingoinformatics.ca.


Day 14:
The 8" x 10" oil painting "Rocky Shores, St-Roch-des-Aulnaies" was created at the “Havre du Quai” in St-Roch-des-Aulnaies on September 10, 2018. It was one of the few days when we hardly had any wind, which is very uncharacteristically for the region.

If you are still looking for the perfect Christmas gift, all paintings that are listed above are still for sale. I also offer gift cards for workshops and painting parties. For more information please contact me at kpeters@domingoinformatics.ca.



Until Saturday, December 15, 2018 at 6pm, I am also offering five of my paintings that I created during the painting parties I held in a silent auction. They are all originals and all differ slightly from party to party but they are not any of my unique artworks that I usually offer on my website. Nevertheless, they make beautiful gifts for yourself or others that will bring joy for years. Plus, you will feel good about the money that you are donating to a worthy cause. 75% of the final bidding amount will be donated. Bidding starts at $40. If you are interested please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KerstinPetersPaintings and look for my five posts of December 8, 2018 at 5:30pm.

Friday 7 December 2018

Advent Calendar - Days 1 to 7

Blog 49

As I had already announced last week, the blogs of the final weeks of 2018 will contain an Advent Calendar of my 2018 artworks.

This blog contains the images of the first seven days. If you do not wish to wait for the weekly count-down to Christmas, you can go to my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/KerstinPetersPaintings/, where a new image is revealed every morning at 9am.  As not everyone sees the images automatically on their timeline due to the Facebook algorithms, I decided to bundle them weekly in my blog.



Day 1 of my Advent Calendar:
This is the first year in which I did not create anything related to winter. Things in my personal life were too busy, but I was very active during the summer. My first image is a drawing of the sculpture "Friends" that I created at the Humanics Institute Sanctuary and Sculpture Park. This is one of my favourite sculptures of the park because family and friends are such an essential part of my life. I created this watercolour pencil sketch on site when I went to the park with a couple of members of the Ottawa Plein Air Adventures Group. In some areas of the drawing I added water to create the watercolour effect. I love my watercolour pencils, as I do not have to carry a lot of materials with me, and I can decide to leave the drawing as a coloured pencil artwork or turn it into a watercolour painting.




Day 2:
I finished the “8 x 10” acrylic painting “The Old Shed” during a July morning at the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum where I painted an old shed that nature is slowly taking over.




Day 3:
"Flower", the little skunk, was a gift for a friend of mine. Isn't she cute? If you would like to learn how to create felted little creatures, please do not hesitate to contact me.



Day 4:
This 10” x 10” acrylic painting “Climax” is a painting of greenhouse tulips that I purchased in February when I just needed a reminder that spring was coming. The tulips were at their prime when I painted them. Months after I had finished and signed the painting, I looked at it while sitting in front of my easel and working on another painting. Suddenly, I felt the need to make some slight changes to the bottom shape of the vase to and felt much happier when I was done.



Day 5:
“Grounded” is the very first painting that I created during my painting trip to Kamouraska, Quebec. We set up our equipment right in front of the rented house at Ave LeBlanc in Kamouraska, Quebec.




Day 6:
“Baby Bateau” is 8” x 10” oil painting that I started in 2011 and finally finished on the only rainy day during our painting trip to Kamouraska in September. This boat has been anchored across from the house for all of these years that we have come to Kamouraska. We have only seen it being driven once.




Day 7:
“ Pink St. Lawrence River” is a 5” x 7” oil painting that I created on the bank of the St. Lawrence River in L'Islet-sur-Mer. I did not feel inspired by the scene but the rest of  my painting buddies had agreed upon the spot. At home, I changed the colour of the water to a stronger pink to bring more liveliness into the image.


I hope you are enjoying the review of my artworks and the stories behind them. Next week, I will post the next seven artworks.