Opening Night

The Celsius Youth Theatre opened its 2nd season last night with three one act plays: Fourteen, The Haunting of Hathaway House and the World Premier of An Unnatural Turn.

Zach and I helped during pre-production in creating a portrait that was used in one of the plays. Zach did the original drawing, and then I painted the portrait using his amazing sketch.

The actors, mostly teenagers, but ranging in age from 5-18, (with a token parent throw into the mix), did an outstanding job in the first of five performances. Take a look at Celsius Youth Theatre's website for more information on the remaining shows this weekend.

Painting again

Here's a painting I created for my friend entitled "Peace and Joy for Valli". It's smaller than many of the Wide Eyed Portraits at 8x10, but Valli likes little things (maybe it's because she's such a shorty!). I think this painting looks like a very warm summer day in Alberta. What do you think?

And now for something completely different for Show & Tell Friday

This may come under the category of What was I thinking?! but I thought I'd share this painting with you on Show & Tell Friday. First I will tell you that in my continued effort to reuse/recycle as much as possible in my artwork, I actually used a piece of cardboard to paint this one. Originally, it was going to be a straightforward Wide-eyed family portrait. Then, when I started painting and saw that the corrogated cardboard was showing through. Hmm .. should I continue with the painting or give it up? I decided to just let loose and try something a little different. And thus, we have this 24"x35.5" painting entitled Birds of a Feather. This is my family, left to right: David Robin, Dawn Canary, Greg Sparrow, Zach Bluebird.

Blogoversary winning portrait

Caren Mcnee was the very first person to leave a comment on my 3rd Blogoversary post and was the name pulled out of the pointy party hat draw ~ I'm sure that doesn't happen very often. Anyhoo, I finished her portrait yesterday and here it is. I'm not terribly happy with the colour reproduction of this photograph, (it's much richer in person) but you can get an idea of what the painting looks like. I've added a little photo of Caren with the portrait here, so you can check out the uncanny resemblance between Caren and her portrait. Hehee!

I'm hoping that when the portrait arrives at Caren's house, that she'll have her photo taken holding the portrait as I am trying to collect photos of people with their Wide-eyed Portraits for my files.

Kiwi Caren measures 12 inches x 16 inches. You may want to start looking for a frame, Caren. Let's hope the Canada Post's canoe paddles your painting to you quickly!

Finally, I can post this photo ...

When I was in Langley for my sister, Madeline's wedding, I had a chance to have a great visit with my niece Carla. We stayed up to the wee hours of the morning ~ let's put it to you this way ... when her little guy woke up in the middle of the night, she didn't have to wake up to tend to him ... she was already (or I should say STILL awake). Anyway, I was telling her about these quirky portraits that I was creating, and she said she'd love to have one. So as a "thank you" for her hospitality, I painted a Wide-eyed Portrait entitled "Carla's World of Colour" and sent it home with Madeline when she was out in Alberta recently. Carla finally received the painting tonight, so I can safely post it on my blog. This painting's a little different than the previous portraits because it is a night time scene. Ya, I know, have a little of the Faux Gogh going here.

Well, it's getting late for me, cuz I have to be up by 5 a.m., so I'll say ta-ta for now. But please come back tomorrow as I plan to post the portrait that I just finished of Caren, that she won in the Blogoversary draw.

And the winner is ...

As promised, it's time to announce the winner
of the Blogoversary draw...
Can you read the name? My son Zach helped me by pulling the name out of the hat. The winner is (drum roll is heard in the distance) ... Caren McNee of New Zealand. Caren, please email me the following information:
1. Your eye and hair colour
2. Favourite colours
3. Your favourite past times, interests etc.
4. Any other detail you think may assist me in creating your portrait.
5. Your mailing address
I'm looking forward to painting this portrait, Caren. And I am hoping too, that the mail system will deliver it to you safe and sound.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment, and be watching for the completed portrait to be posted on the blog at a later date.

Draw date approaching fast

To enter my Blogoversary draw (a one-of-a-kind portrait), make sure you leave a comment on my blog before March 22nd when all the entrants' names will be put into a pointy hat and a winner will be announced. If you win, you'll need to supply me with a few facts about yourself, so that the portrait will truly portray who you really are.
So you can think about them, here's my little list:
1. Your eye and hair colour
2. Favourite colours
3. Your favourite past times, interests etc.
4. Any other detail you think may assist me in creating your portrait.

eyes are the window to the soul ~ are they not?

The discovery

It all started when I made the discovery ~ a Donny Osmond, two album set at the ReUse Centre. With all the 40-something friends I have, I knew it would come in handy someday. Sure enough, the occasion has presented itself. Nicolette is celebrating her birthday this week! I decided to warp her a record album to hold her Sharpies.

Last night I met up with her for coffee at Starbuck's, and to give her her birthday gift. I painted a wide-eyed portrait for her. It features a psychedelic background and Nic in a teal dress, matching PHAP hat, black leather jacket (turned up collar) with an "I love Elvis" button on it. In her hand, she holds a couple of her trusty Sharpies and of course, a pair of blue suede shoes. The reuse frame was a dark brown, so I gussied it up with hot pink around the edge and orange polka-dots just for the fun of it.

Here's the birthday girl holding her portrait. Isn't the resemblance uncanny?

P.S. Oh, and if you were wondering what I did with the second record and LP cover... when Arlene heard I had a Donny Osmond LP, she casually suggested that she really would love to have the cover. I met her at Indigo yesterday and gave her the cover and one record. She snatched it up immediately and told her son they were gonna go and listen to it just as soon as they got home. She apparently has some creative plans for the album cover. I'm not sure what, but she was muttering something about a shrine above her piano as she clutched the album close to her heart and headed out the door with her 14 year old rolling his eyes behind her.

Happy Blogoversary to me!

Guess what? This weekend marks my 3rd year of blogging. If you look wayyyy back into my blog archives, you'll see it all started on March 15th 2005. A lot has happened in 3 years ~ some good, some bad ~ but mostly good stuff.

I've experimented in all sorts of ART, met a lot of awesome friends. I have a lot to be thankful for.

I should have been a little more prepared because I wanted to do a giveaway when my Blogoversary arrived this year. Hmm ... maybe I still can do something. Let's see ... how about if I create a portrait of the winner. If you leave a comment on this post, I will put your name in a hat (pointy birthday hat, of course) and you will have a chance to win a one of a kind Wide-eyed Portrait by moi.

So leave a comment already, people ~ and party on!

Photo: My great-niece Soraya celebrating her 3rd birthday.

Struggling through

Have you ever noticed that with some pieces of ART, you have to struggle to finish a project? For whatever reason, sometimes the work fights back and refuses to be done. This doesn't look right; that doesn't work, blah, blah, blah. "Day on the Farm" has been one of those pieces that has fought back with me, but I'm happy (and relieved) to say that I am done, done, done! As you'll remember this is the painting that became my Whistler's Mother. Here is what the final portrait looks like.

Whistler's Mother

"And here we have Whistler's Mother." Remember "Bean: The Movie"? If you recall the part of the movie where Mr. Bean has a problem with the painting above, you'll have an idea of what happened with Susan's painting ... Argh.

Every time I do a painting, I ask Greg to look at it and tell me what he thinks. He has a good "art eye" and I trust him to be honest with me and tell me what he thinks. He's given me excellent suggestions on every one of my paintings so far.

One thing that bothered me about "Day on the Farm" was that the old bumpy painting was showing through on Susan's face, and that was the exact thing that Greg felt needed changing. He suggested that I either build up the rest of the face or to sand it down. I didn't want to do either. Acrylics don't seem to "build up" too well, and sanding would just cause a big mess. Plus matching skin tones would be a hassle. On the other hand, I figured that if Greg was thinking what I was already thinking, then everyone else would simply zero in on the disturbing looking feature on the eye and face. I knew I should fix it somehow. So I asked Greg if he could try sanding it down. This is what the painting looked like when he returned the sanded down version to me. Yikes!

Once the sun comes up this morning, I'll take a photo of the completed painting ... again.

I love painting over paintings!

There really must be something wrong with me, but I just love painting over old paintings. I'm not talking about an Emily Carr or any of The Group of Seven's work or anything. I'm talking about the kind of paintings that end up at the second hand store or in a garage sale; no longer loved, no longer wanted. In the past while I've found quite a few at the ReUse Centre and instead of going out and buying canvases or even hard board, I've opted to cover the old paintings with a coat of white and start all over again. The first time, I felt a little bit guilty, thinking how the artist would take the news that their painting were being destroyed just so that I could experiment a little and paint these quirky Wide-Eyed portraits.

"Day on the Farm"
18"x24"

My latest painting is a portrait of Susan, a very special friend of ours who owns a horse farm, has 5 kitties and is supposed to be retired. The canvas shown at the top was very bumpy and a challenge to paint over, but that's okay. I did my green duty ~ hehee!

I haven't given Susan her her portrait yet, so I'm counting on her computer illiteracy, and that she won't look at my blog before I get a chance to give her the painting.

Wide-eyed Portraits

Every child is an artist.
It's a challenge to remain an artist when you grow up.

~ Pablo Picasso

Lately I've been having so much fun, just letting loose and creating these quirky wide-eyed portraits. I'm throwing caution to the wind, or maybe more precisely ~ throwing art rules to the wind. Just trying to regain some of the joy of making art. All the paintings are different sizes, and most of them are old paintings which I've painted over. I reuse and recycle, and am very happy when I can do that in my art too.

And who are these lovely ladies pictured here? On the top , "Bea in Blue" is of someone you'll find here. Middle: a friend of mine who is a framer (entitled "Glory Be!") and on the bottom, is someone related to me who got married this past weekend. This one's entitled "House of Love".