My last blog entry was posted an embarrassingly long time ago, so I had better get caught up! Last year was crazy busy with teaching a grade 5/6 split class for the first time, and I am now gearing up to teach a straight grade 6 class. I figure I should update my website now before school starts! Recently I decided to make some "quick" art to spruce up the walls in our new place. I took a gamble and spent about $100 at the dollar store and got three large canvases to play with, knowing full well that they may warp or have strange gesso on them. (Safest bet is to go to your local craft store such as our amazing Creative Zone, which I usually do!!) Turns out the canvases haven't warped after being saturated with water and paint, and I kind of like the gesso! I have had pre-primed canvases before that have almost a waxy finish so you REALLY have to apply the paint on thick in order for it to stay, but this gesso had a tendency to absorb water a little bit so it felt more like I was painting on watercolour paper. I had lots of fun with this. Here are small sections of two in progress works: The one on the left is a sort of abstract landscape, and the one on the right is a sky full of flower-topped clouds. Still working on choosing the background colour with this one and adding detail to the flowers and clouds. For my cousin's daughter's first birthday (is that a first cousin once removed??) I painted a small burlap canvas with an owl and added an ornate frame to it. I believe I picked up the supplies at Michaels in Victoria. Here is cutie Clara with her gift and a bunch of furry friends!
Through working at schools in the district I have had the opportunity to help out with various school musical productions. I know the immensity of time and effort that go into these productions so it feels good to be able to help out where I can. In the past I have designed, helped to build (my dad and my boyfriend did that part), and painted set pieces for a few high school musicals such as Beauty and the Beast, Grease, and Carousel put on by the highly talented Robin MacLeod and Geoff Parr. Another dedicated and passionate teacher, Robin Hollett put on the show Oliver with her students at our elementary school this year. With her guidance I designed a backdrop and organized volunteer parents and staff to paint the biggest canvas I have ever seen. I may have almost fainted when I saw it laid out for the first time, but really, it could have eaten all of us whole if it wanted to. At 36 feet wide and 16 feet tall it was the most immense blank sheet of whiteness I had ever tackled. Thankfully I didn't have to do it alone! My sister came to visit so, naturally, she got put to work! Here she is working on the clouds in the school gym. And here it is hanging at the REM Lee Theatre all ready to go! Speaking of Robin Hollett, she and her wonderful family saved Werner, Mary and me from a record breaking snowpocalypse weekend of epic proportions in February when we were staying out at the cabin. So, (MONTHS LATER) I made her a little thank you painting inspired by the lake and its glassy reflections, along with this wintery card that sums up how Werner and I felt after three days of digging ourselves out of a kilometer long road in the woods with no power. (Big eyes emoji.) Well, I still have more to catch up on so I will be working on another post right away. I am doing lots of art right now since the countdown to the school year starting is not very long! I post works in progress and art related things on my instagram account as well, if you are interested in following that. My username is amywarnerart. Thank you for reading, and HAPPY FRIDAY!
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Well, its finished! I am finally posting some pics of the orchid I painted for Jessie's salon called Twisted Orchid Studio. Here's a close up in-progress shot that I Instagrammed on my art account. The filters in Instagram help bring out the colour and contrast that my phone camera diminishes. When applied with a small paint brush, the latex paint can be very thin and require many coats to cover an area. It also gets tacky fast, and therefore is hard to blend well to create gradual tonal changes. Next time I think I will lay down a midtone layer or two over all the petals before going in with the shadows and highlights. I tried to do it all at once, but the surface was too large, even for each individual petal sometimes, and it required two coats of paint for each section. Here's the whole thing. Hopefully you can see the scale by comparing with the chair, stool, and outlets in the wall. It's taller than I am! I learned a lot about how to put the colour down because I was using interior latex paint rather than acrylic, which I am more used to working with.
We decided not to add leaves at the bottom because some shelving was going there anyways. In the end I added a fresh light green to the tips of the petals to brighten and saturate the image. It was lots of fun! This weekend I got to help a friend do some silkscreening for a project she is working on for her friend's birthday present. Silkscreening was new to her so as always it was fun to teach someone the process one on one. I think she learned it could be easy and fun, though not without some troubleshooting strategies and a major spillage of screen filler fluid thanks to moi! We printed on two gorgeous colours of jersey fabric which she will later sew up one seam to create two infinity scarves. Looking forward to seeing these sewn up into finished scarves!
Thanks to some deadlines, determination, and a great group of artists and organizers, I will finally be exhibiting some newly completed paintings at the Terrace Art Gallery for the month of June. Once again, Matthew Daratha has organized a fantastic group art show with many of Terrace's talented artists. Come out Friday May 31st at 7pm for an opening night with music, food, and artists on site. The set up is looking really good already and there are paintings, sculptures, drawings, poetry and more. Check out the show poster at the Exhibition Record page. I will write more about my ideas behind these two paintings later, but I had fun incorporating gold acrylic paint and gold spray paint into each of these works. An old lace shirt was sacrificed for the making of these paintings, but I have a feeling it will be used again as I really like the effect it creates when used as a spray stencil.
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AuthorPassionate for creating, I record my artistic projects and ideas for the joy of sharing with you and challenging myself to continually grow as an artist. Categories
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