Migrants returning

Despite wintery snowstorms this past few days, several summer migrants have returned. Here are the species I’ve seen plus the date when I first saw them:

March 25: redwing blackbirds; first Vs of Canada geese overhead.
April 1: on Black River: 5 hooded mergansers; ~ 1 dozen buffleheads, 3 turkey vultures, 1 red-tailed hawk, male and female northern harriers
April 8: first keening call of killdeer
April 9: Eastern meadowlark, two tree swallows
April 10: Eastern bluebird
April 11, 13: American kestrels
April 14: 3 phoebes

Learning detachment: first sale!

Snowstorm approaching, watercolour

I took a five-day introduction to watercolour class at The Haliburton School of the Arts, with teacher Marta Scythes. A fabulous five-day oasis of being able to create and learn, with a fantastically gifted instructor.

I learned many techniques including how to render washes of colour, and use of “magic dust” aka salt.

This is the first painting I have sold – and it taught me “detachment” because I love this work! I exhibited it at Raymond Sander Regier’s Art Brûlant and Impressions gallery during his 2012 Christmas Stocking Stuffer show.

It conjures images of happy days spent at our family cottage, on the Black River watershed in the Pontiac region of the Outaouais (West Quebec).

Pen-and-ink drawing

Trooper, pen-and-ink drawing

I took a fascinating class with Pontiac artist Jelly Massee, who taught a workshop on pen-and-ink drawing techniques at Pontiac School of the Arts, autumn 2012.

Here is the second drawing I created that day.

I worked from a photograph I took of Trooper, Eric’s Friesen-Standardbred gelding. I used many pen-and-ink techniques including stippling and cross-hatching.

Pen and Ink: colouring techniques

First pen-and-ink drawing
Orchids

Orchid pen-and-ink with watercolour pencil, created at Jelly Massee’s Pontiac School of the Arts workshop.

Yes… I can create subjects other than horses!

Appreciating Picasso: Memories of Guernica

1/8 V/E b&w print:
Spirit Horse Cry of Freedom

I carved and printed this black and white woodblock print Spirit Horse Cry of Freedom during Robert Hinchley’s class at Pontiac School of the Arts, summer 2012.

As a teenager, I visited the Picasso and Man show at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario) in 1964. I was impressed by the power of Picasso’s spare line – and how emotionally evocative simplicity of form can be.

I saw Guernica there. Its raw depiction of terror, death, and spirited acts of defence inspired awe in me.

In Spirit Horse Cry of Freedom, I acknowledge spirituality and raw life force. I printed this block as a Variable Edition (VE) eight times, using different colours, some of which I printed on handmade paper I created in Narrawong, Victoria, Australia in 2010.

Shawville Fair tipi project

 

 

Katharine painting
on tipi, Shawville Fair 2012

Here I am painting a horse on a tipi. It was my first ever public art project – intimidating as anything, because people were crowded about, watching every brush stroke! Good practice… particularly when it rained…

This was a joint ARAS and Pontiac Artists’ Association (PAA)  project at the 2012 Shawville Fair. Several PAA artists painted panels on the tipi, including Dawn Abercrombie, Jennifer Dale Judd, Kate Aley, and Tina Michaud.

Rooster

Wet on wet watercolour practice teaches how paint will stay within wet zone.

Here I’ve drawn head of rooster, created a mother wash of crimson, and painted wet on wet.

Final touch? Add magic dust… salt.

At The Haliburton School of the Arts with my teacher Marta Scythes. Her class, Watercolour Basics and Beyond, is fantastic.