living in a space between

I’m getting close to finishing my Art House Co-op sketchbook project, which is a good thing considering it has to be postmarked by the 31st. I have already shared a few of the finished pieces with you and am excited to continue sharing my progress over the next few weeks. The new piece I’m posting today was inspired by the existing spread, pictured below, from my 2011 sketchbook project that got lost in the mail.When I had originally created that image, I’d been living back and forth for almost 15 years between my family’s residences in BC and Alberta; so in a way, that piece was like a landscape portrait of my home. Since I’ve been in 100 Mile House for over a year, I had to figure out what landscapes I was now “living between” in order to inspire the imagery for the next couple pages my 2012 sketchbook.  100 Mile House is just north of Kamloops, so it’s fairly centered in BC between borders; I chose an image of the water in the west coast of BC, and one from the other edge of this gorgeous province, of the Rocky Mountains. I really enjoy how I cropped the landscapes to have the tree line continue through both images and have the water line and reflections of the left image connect with the patterns of the wildflowers in the field from the image on the right. The quote from last year’s book was written out with my typewriter in black ink onto a silver dot patterned paper. A metallic orange scrap book paper was chosen to make a frame for the new composite landscape. I love both of these sketchbook spreads! I just wish they were real landscapes where I could build gorgeous log cabins to spend endless days drinking white tea on the veranda while drawing and watching wildlife…

the anthology: a collaboration with Carney

I have been working on an on-going collaboration with my friend, mentor, sister from another mister, Carney Oudendag for several months now. You may remember the project in it’s beginning stages from this previous blog post. The collaborative we’re doing has been very relaxed… somewhat of a mail art item that we have been sending back and forth a few times. Just last week she found this pile of goodies in her mail box which contained many collected vintage book pages/magazines /sewing patterns & some interesting textured papers for her collage work along with our collaborative project. It’s an accordion book with about half a dozen pages on each side; there have been no guidelines about media, theme, etc. we were to just add to it as we pleased and when we feel we have altered it enough, we’d send it back to each other. This was my second time adding to the book and I was happily surprised to see that it has slowly developed into a natural-themed volume that centers around birds!!! I am super pleased with how well our styles are blending. It’s even hard to tell at some points who added what! I need to, of course, share a few detail shots so that you can truly appreciate all of the texture, layers and media that now make this book a piece of art. Carney and I both feel that the book is nearing it’s completion; we don’t want to over work it. She says she’s going to be adding just a few more details and then will send it back to me so I can also have a “conclusion” with it. Little does she know, she may never see the book again if she does that, because my bookshelf has been yearning to add this beauty to it’s collection.

an afternoon walk

I’m making some serious progress with my Art House Co-op Sketchbook Project 2012, and am excited to share the first spread. As mentioned in previous posts about this project here and here, I am paying homage to my 2011 sketchbook project which got lost in the postal system. For my latest piece I drew inspiration from this existing spread:I needed to find an interesting paper or texture for the background, draw and paint the skeleton of another strong Canadian mega-fauna, and find a book page with words that related to the image. Here are my results…Big horned sheep instantly make me think of my second home, Invermere. They are everywhere and visitors are ALWAYS impressed to see them in these large groups grazing near the highways. No matter what season it is they always seem to enjoy their leisurely afternoon walk searching for food. Anatomy and animals have been my main focus of my practice for many years now; this, and other skeleton animals I draw, always have a special hold on me, I can’t help but love them. The textures of the folded and scrunched paper turned out lovely, and remind me somewhat of burlap or an old piece of parchment. The crisp graphite lines of the skeleton are soften by the white gouache which fills in the bones. The burnt edges of the book title add to the nostalgic feeling while also creating a context for the piece. I am thrilled with how well “An Afternoon Walk” mirrors the feeling and composition of “Home, Home on the Range,” what do you think?