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| Daring to be Different, acrylic, 10" x 10", CAN 275 |
Blog 24
Despite the heatwave we had here in Ottawa in July, I was very productive. I finished a couple of paintings and started a series of 15-minute art projects I posted on my Facebook page. I continued my Creativity Challenge. However, for the first two weeks of July (July 6 and 13, 2018), my blog posts reflected the discussion I had with my artist friend Anne Warburton on “Creating Art with a Group”. We taped the talks, and each of us wrote two blogs summarizing our answers to the same questions. While I posted Anne’s responses, she posted my answers to the same questions in her blog at https://annewarburton.blogspot.com/. All four blogs contained links to the five video clips.
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| The Old Shed, acrylic, 8" x 10", CAN $250 |
As I was not working, I spent more time with my friends Janis Fulton and Hélène Martin. Together, we went to the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum, where I painted an old shed that nature slowly took over. The building was covered in vines and surrounded by tall grass. We also went out to the Beechwood Cemetery. There, I painted the pond with the water lilies. At the Humanics Institute Sculpture Park in Cumberland, we spent a morning drawing the sculpture “Motherly Love” of a hippopotamus holding her baby in her arms.
At the end of July, Christine and I went to Germany for my mother’s 80th birthday. It was extremely close to my heart as my mother had lost her only sibling less than six months before. Plus, it felt like a replay of her 50th birthday when her mother was in the final stage of cancer. My mother celebrated near her mother’s house so we could be together one more time. Due to my godmother’s illness, my mother had picked a birthday venue close to her sister’s home. Only this time, the seat stayed empty. When we later went to the cemetery, it hit me hard to see my beloved aunt’s name on the stone. It made her death inescapable.
While we were in Germany, the country reached temperatures in the high 30s - not even considering the humidex. It was more or less impossible to be outside after 10 am. Even at night, the temperatures hardly dropped. Traditionally, most buildings don’t have air-conditioning, except for the grocery stores and maybe new and big hotels. Some of the grocery stores lost their air-conditioning and could only offer non-perishable foods. It was also disheartening to see the brown landscape as many trees did not survive. We even saw little fires in the median strip of the highway at one point.
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| Yellow Flower, watercolour, 7" x 5", NFS |
During my vacation, I used periods of waiting to create my pencil or watercolour pencil sketches. I painted three watercolour paintings in my parents’ garden, where the continuously blooming flowers provided never-ending inspiration. Back at home, I met my clients-turned-friends for our yearly painting event at a local park. The group had picked a picture of pansies that was more challenging than expected.
From August 11, 2018, I was part of the next exhibition at Da Artisti Studio & Gallery in Cumberland. This time, I showed some of my acrylic paintings. As I was absent for the vernissage, I did a painting demonstration on September 1, 2018.
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| St Andre Lighthouse, 14" x 11", acrylic, CAN $375 |
At the beginning of September, Janis, Helene and I drove together to Kamouraska for our yearly painting trip. The week was fantastic in every aspect. If you would like to read my travelogue, please go to the blogs that start on September 21, 2018.
After my trip, two new Cartooning and Comics courses started at François Dupuis Recreation Centre; I have one group of 7-12-year-olds and another of 5-7-year-olds. I also continued teaching workshops in my studio space.
Less than a week after my return from Kamouraska, my family looked forward to my birthday weekend at the cottage. My son and I wanted to leave Friday afternoon to get an early start to the weekend. However, when we heard about a tornado warning for our region, we decided to wait for the system to pass. Our houses nor the cottage were affected. However, we might have hit the system on its way to Dunrobin. The wind and rain were scary. Trees were down everywhere. When I picked up my son in the morning, his neighbourhood was among the ones still without power. Later in the day, we saw images of the areas destroyed by the tornado. It was devastating! Many people lost everything in a couple of seconds. One of the buildings was a little gift shop that my husband and I had just visited four days earlier for the first time.
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| At the Market II, acrylic, 16" x 20", SOLD |
At the beginning of October, I sold my painting “At the Market II” to one of my very supportive clients. He had fallen in love with the painting years earlier and finally decided to buy it. I am excited if one of my paintings touches others so that it brings them joy. That is one of the best compliments.
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| Exhibition at Lunasole, photo by Gwen Cowan |
On October 16, I hung my new solo exhibition at Lunasole Resto Bar in Orléans. In the follow-up exhibition, all the artists from the past year showed some new works.
During November, I also invested in my business. At the beginning of the month, I went to Lisa Larter’s Money Mindset Marketing conference. She gave the participants lots of information to help them serve their clients better. I also attended a Mastermind workshop to get together with other entrepreneurs to brainstorm about new solutions for our businesses. Finally, to give my website a much-needed facelift, I hired a website creator and a photographer for an updated headshot.
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| Water lily, enamel on glass, 5" x 10.75", NFS |
At the beginning of November, I took part in a two-part enamel on glass workshop at Da Artisti Studio & Gallery. I created a water lily painting. After the initial drawing, the challenging part was to decide what parts of the image to paint on each of the six sides of the three glass panels to create a three-dimensional effect.
At the end of November, I started teaching several groups of Government employees in Ottawa twice a week. Not having to cross the bridge to Gatineau and a later start in the morning made the commute a lot more pleasant. However, parking was a problem. I needed to park at the National Gallery, which added another 40 minutes a day of walking to my commute. On the plus side, I had the opportunity of going to the museum right after work.
As in previous years, I hosted another Open House and Customer Appreciation Day on the first weekend of December. I also had a silent auction on Facebook to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society. It was my part to support the fight against cancer, an illness that has taken some beloved people and pets from me.
At the same time, we also took our house off the market. After months with hardly any showings, we wanted to spend the Christmas season without the stress of living in a show house. Even though we were disappointed about the lack of interest, the positive side effect of the experience was a lot less clutter. You only realize how much stuff you have when you have to pack it. Plus, I was relieved that I would not lose my beloved studio. I had many new ideas for artworks and workshops and was full of excitement for the year ahead.
As I take a vacation away from my computer to spend time with family and friends next week, I will post the next chapter of my story in two weeks. I can hardly believe that there are only three more posts until I have reached the summary of my 25 years in Canada. Thank you for following my blog.
