Painting panels.

Building lots of painting panels. Working on a new series of mixed media art - Realm of Dreams - [inspired by Game of Thrones] which will be unveiled anon. This is the first time I am working on paintings that will not be revealed until the series is complete. It's quite exciting! There may be the odd "teaser" painting that finds its way into a show or onto the studio wall...

At the same time, I am painting pieces for upcoming juried and unjuried exhibits, the Fantasy in the Forest show, the Women's Art Festival, the MAG Studio Tour and possible Ottawa Art Expo. Hence the building of the panels. Lots of panels. Also, lots of painting, sketching and researching. I do love a creative challenge!

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Shed Med[ieval].

Earlier in the week, I spent an afternoon in the studio prepping gallery canvases - painting the edges black. My newest works are created on watercolour paper or illustration board [since my workshop with Karen Rosasco -  but that's another blog] and they will be mounted on these canvases.

prepped canvases in the studio.

After painting the edges, the canvases were stowed in Shed Med [our "Medieval" shed], ready to grab as I finish a new piece. As you can see, I have a LARGE supply of 14"x18" canvases, and a fair number of 10"x10" and 6"x6".

shed med[ieval].

a peek inside reveals stacks of canvases.

It feels good to be using the materials I have on hand. The best part, though, is that I am building a body of work! Look for new pieces featured here on my blog, on Facebook and on my website. Two new paintings make their debut this week.

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Grabbing the Gauntlet

Another opportunity to participate in a juried show came in yesterday. I love these deadlines. They are just what I need to create new work. To quote Douglas Adams, "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." A comforting thought :)

I went over the list of requirements for this exhibition, "Everyday Patterns", and saw that large pieces were encouraged. Great! Keeping in mind that I drive a MINI Cooper, I started to figure out how large a piece I could make with the canvases I have on hand. Hmmm... two were too big and the others were too small. Well, there is always a solution if you think creatively. I have a plethora of 14" x 18" canvases and if a few were screwed together... yes, that's it!

power tools are wonderful

coming along nicely

bird's eye view

solid as a rock

It turned out that two across and three deep would make a suitable size (28" x 54") to work with AND to fit in the MINI. O.K... placed on an angle on top of the headrests - but that works. Out came the cordless and the corded drill, the clamps and the screws. A short time later, I had two rock solid supports. I'm going to fill in the spaces on the front and the sides with a random application of Heavy Gel Medium, paper, canvas, whatever comes to mind. Since I work with texture and collage, what could be more appropriate?


Of course, the resulting pieces of art may or may not be juried into the show, but I have grabbed the gauntlet. Thank goodness for deadlines. I might even work on those really large canvases while I'm at it...

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