Thursday, October 16, 2014

Sidney Fine Arts Show...2014

A quick update...am packing to go off to the U.S. of A. to a storytelling festival in the morning but wanted to touch base with you all before I left.

Just got back from the Sidney Fine Arts Show... oh wow... fabulous art...fantastic artists... wonderful show! There are a little over 400 pieces of art accepted out of the 1100 that were submitted for adjudication.  If you live in our area, take it in...it's a great way to spend a couple hours putting some colour in your life on what the weatherlady is saying is going to be a rather dull and rainy weekend.

As promised awhile back on Facebook when I let you know that my pieces got into the show, below are the photos of my two pieces.  Both of the pieces got fabulous placement and here's crossing my fingers that they go to a nice home with people who love them as much as I loved making them...

My mixed media piece - Just my Type 2 - Thanks to a couple of art buddies for their spare letters that I put to good use!  The top background is a page from an old Eaton's catalogue from 1902, some letter blocks I made a number of years ago for another project, an old typewriter ribbon tin that I made and an antique pencil sharpener.  The bottom background paper is some that I made and then printed with the sage old typewriter practice piece... The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog... a sentence that has every letter of the alphabet in it.  The ruler on the right is a very lifelike digital copy mounted on heavy bookboard of a ruler that I have but am not quite ready to part with yet!!It's a bit hard to see but the middle piece is on the front of the canvas while the rest is recessed.  Was a fun piece to make... but likely one of the last mixed media pieces I will be creating for some time as I move more and more towards sculpture.


My little, handsculpted polymer clay people

Meet... Mabel & Jake - Two lovely seniors who recently met in a seniors retirement home who have decided that, "Takin' a Chance at Love Again" suits them just fine!



And yes, I actually made the bench all by myself... no help from hubby... just figured it out.

These little guys aren't very big... they look much bigger in the photos than they actually are... they are about 10 inches high standing up... half that sitting down.  They were definitely a labour of love from "manufacturing from scratch" original slopers to design and make their clothes to creating their accessories (i.e. Jakes Birkenstocks, Mabel's purse and matching shoes) and making sure they had some age spots on their faces and hands.  The little box on the bench has four tiny cupcakes (for afternoon tea of course).

When our granddaughter saw them for the first time, she squealed with delight "Oh Gramma, Mabel has pearl earrings and she even has nail polish on her fingers!"  Granddaughter approved sculpture!

Just before the show, I added a small hankie to Mabel's hand that isn't in the photo. I kept on feeling that there was something missing and then it occurred to me... Mabel needed a hankie!! All in all, the entire project took close to 80 hours to complete and I loved every minute of it!

Gotta run for now and finish packing...

Have an artsy week,
Sharon  



Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Introducing the Whimsy Pumpkin Gals...

What a great summer we had in Victoria! The weather was spectacular and I got to spend a fair amount of time in one of my favourite places... the beach.

Hubby and I also had a lovely week up in the Okanogan (Canada's wine country in the interior of British Columbia) sampling all the wines and having a very delicious experience in the five star restaurants attached to the wineries.

In September, we ducked down south of the border to Portland for a stay at the Kennedy School hotel for few days and then over the Oregon shore visiting Cannon Beach, Seaside and Fort Stevens.  How lovely it is at Fort Stevens with its miles and miles of white sand. The drive back up through Washington state is one that I always enjoy. Yep it was a good summer all around.

I was anxious to get home... I missed messing around in my art room and I had a big box of goodies from Blick that I brought back with me that I could hardly wait to get into.  Nothing like a couple of weeks away from creating (and a trip to the art store) to get my juices going again.  And.. with Halloween around the corner, the idea for the Pumpkin Gals popped into my head one morning while I was at the pool (I do my version of water aerobics every morning for an hour or so at the crack of dawn).  What fun it has been coming up with these two beauties!





I chuckle every time I look at them... and now that they are finished I am a bit sad... the juice, the fun is always in the getting ready to create phase and in the creating itself!!

Now I just know you are going to ask...what are they made of?  It's polymer clay sculpted over very large glass Christmas bulbs.  The bat and the cat are also made of polymer clay. The bat is attached to a pipe cleaner so that it moves when you touch it.  The cat just lounges around and looks smugly cool!  They are free standing but can also be hung on a Halloween tree or in a window.  I just chuckle every time I look at those false eyelashes!

Halloween is just around the corner... what are you going to create???

Till next time, have an artsy week,
Sharon