I can't believe that I have missed the whole month of July. Where did it  go? I am falling behind in many things and am feeling the pressure of not completing what I love to do, which is paint!

However on a very good note I have joined the Airdrie Regional Art Society, and have really enjoyed the group so far. A great bunch of people. I have had the opportunity to show two of my paintings over at the Bert Church Theater . They will be showing there until September 30th. It is a wonderful feeling to have ones work being hung on a Wall of a very important part of Airdrie's Art Community.

The members were awesome and they got together and made everything look so good. I was very proud to be in the midst of such wonderful Artists.

My next showing will be in Airdrie's City Hall. I will have two paintings hanging in one of the board rooms. What a great thrill this is as well.

Then in September I will rent a booth at Bert Church Theater and hopefully be able to sell some paintings. I am thrilled to be able to do this. Life is good!

Tomorrow is my 61st birthday! My only regret in life is that I hadn't started down this path many years ago. But life is what it is and I shall keep on for as long as I possibly can. :)

So, I am getting a painting ready to put into a show. The theme is Black and White. I have been so busy that I haven't done much of anything. I quickly grab a canvas and started in.

I had an image in my mind. Sometimes I don't. I started to paint and using my pouring medium I started to squirt some black and white onto the canvas. I expected it to blend like it usually does. Well - that did not happen this time. It kind of sat there, and sat there, and sat there.

I went upstairs and let the painting fairies do their thing overnight. LOL . I went down in the morning and low and behold nothing had changed ! Soo what  do I do now? I am not particularly fond of it but it is what it is. The painting obviously wants to stay this way! Who am I to try to control what this abstract wants to be? I feel like a Three year old could have done this. But, in the end, this piece is going into the show as is. It looks cool, as the sides are black. It stands out and wants to be known. The only thing left is to name it? Another dilemma! :)

So, I have a very good friend that has enjoyed looking at my work. In fact she has one of my most memorable pieces. My friend has been talking to me constantly about using a watermark for my art work. Of course I was procrastinating and kept making excuses!

She finally got through to me and I started searching for a site that I could work with. It was like I was supposed to find this web site as it was the first one I saw. It gave me a few free days to play around with it and I discovered a whole new way to protect my paintings.

I love it! I do have to work on my transparency as some of my try's are a bit too dark. It is very important to protect our work as much as we can from scammers who will take your paintings and use them for prints. That is our hard work that they can steal and use for anything they want.

Please , to all of you, who read this, get your stuff watermarked. Yes it did cost me a bit for the use of the software but it wasn't much. It is totally worth it. 

Goodbye winter! I can't be more happy to see it go! it was long, cold, and miserable! It was time to think about color, spring time, sunshine!

So down in the studio I go. I brought out purple, red, orange, some white. I have a blank canvas staring at me. Sometimes very daunting. What to do? Where to start? Start at the beginning, squirt some paint on that canvas and get going.

Using just my paints, my rollers, water and a blow dryer I go to town. After all is said and done a new abstract has evolved! Something colorful, something warm, and definitely resembles nothing of winter!

I have named this abstract " Sundog". I was checking some photos of Sundogs and they are so cool.

So if you are sick of winter like I am this painting is for sale on this website. Something to remind us that summer is here! :) 

This Abstract is called the Year of the Horse. How it became that way is still a mystery to me as I was using some very different colors and manipulation in where I wanted my blending to begin.

But what fun when , after it was dry and I went to have a look, there was this incredible horses face! As this is the "Year of the Horse" on the Chinese calendar I decided to give it this name.
It is such fun to be able to see things in my abstracts that I don't really know at  are going to be there! It is like they insist they must come forward and make themselves be known. many of my pieces, people say they see things, or animals, or people in them. It is truly in the eye of the beholder as to how individuals see an abstract. What I may think is great, someone else may think it is terrible or vise versa. As an artist , once we put our art out " there" we become vulnerable to all sorts of comments. I believe these comments can give us a strength of sorts to just go with the flow. Don't feel insulted, just carry on, and do what you do best! There will be one day when that same person will absolutely love something you have painted. As my " Sista" says, Paint On! :)

The year 2014! Who would have thought that little ole me would have sold over 45 paintings already! How exciting is this!

I have many new plans this year for showing my art. I am joining some new groups, having a spring gallery showing, ( hopefully) , I plan on doing some new art works and using some new techniques and mediums. This is going to be exciting.

I showed my art work to one of my favorite co-workers yesterday and he made me feel so good about what I am doing. It keeps me going , when other people see my work and tell me how good they think it is. He was so generous in his comments and made me feel like I was doing something worth while. He even asked me if I was famous! I told him I wished I was. LOL But still my work looked that good to him that he thought I was. He is a very kind soul and I enjoy working with him. I am so fortunate in my life to meet such good people and am able to call them friends.

When I started abstract in 2010, this painting you see before you was my very first attempt. We were to pick three colors and just start! I was very nervous as I am a very detailed painter. This is what transpired.
It was so much fun, grant you not as bold as what I do now however fun still the same. I decided to name this tequila sunrise. I actually was given the name from one of my son's friends. I like it immediately .
Now, my dilemma, do I keep it or do I change it Does it want new life breathed into it? Does it want to stay the same? I walk by it several times a week, stop and look at it, stare for awhile, and walk on by.
I am just so undecided as to what to do. I want to change it, but it is my very first one! It shows me how far I have come, it shows me how different my work is now, it shows me how much fun I had with it for the first time. So, for now, it stays the way it is. Maybe hoping someone will take it home with them and love it like I do. :)

When I started my abstract art, I had been taking classes for well over two years. My instructor has painted a series of painting and one just caught my eye! I asked her if I could buy it? She said she would be honoured. So I did.
Well my husband couldn't figure why I would want to buy someone else's art work when I paint myself and have so many of my own?
 Art is a very personal choice and I feel if you really like someone else's work it is important to have their work around you for your own enjoyment and also for the inspiration it will give you each and every day.
I have just purchased a painting from an artist I have been following for at least three years! He has inspired me to do my work. Although our techniques are very. very different , his work still inspires me!
He has had a December sale and I saw a painting that I just had to have! It isn't huge but it is beautiful!
Even if you are an artist yourself, I believe it is important to have other art work around you from artists you really enjoy. Their energy is in their work and it will help you become inspired!  :)
This picture you see here is just a picture I picked off of the internet and I have no idea where is came from. I believe it may be just a photo but I thought the look of it was very cool.

This picture beside here, it is called the spinning of life. That is exactly how my day was today! I started out for a swim this morning at 9;00 and swam for at least an hour. Left the pool and rushed home, got cleaned up and my friend came to pick me up to go into the City. I had a specialists apt at the dentist and has asked her to please come with me.
She was asked to drive as my grandson needed to go to hockey and my husband took him with our truck. So we leave early enough and decided to go have lunch, left there and shopped around the Mall for a bit and then took off to go to another Mall to be close to the apt I had. 5 minutes before my apt time, I got this big jolt that I wasn't even at the right place! I had made a mistake or call it 'old-timers"  but there we were running out of time and still had to find the place. I called my husband quickly, he gave instructions and Thank goodness we were like maybe 10 min away!
What the hell was I thinking! All of a sudden at the very last minute, I realize I am not at the correct place! All I can do is chalk it up to being too busy, too much on my mind , or like I said before " old-timers!"
This picture "The spinning of life is just the way some days go! I painted it and when it was done, I said to myself, this is totally how I feel some days!
Sometimes a painting just come to life with it's character and title. Sometimes a painting just says it all! Today, this painting surely lived up to it's name, or I guess I truly lived up to it's name. :)
Tomorrow is another day!