From Yardwork to Artwork: The Photinia Story Part One

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Photinia I 23.05.16

Today’s post is all about learning to find beauty and inspiration in the mundane chore of yard work on a holiday Monday.

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Yesterday was Victoria Day here in Canada, the perfect time to prune the photinia and clean all of its dried leaves from the studio roof and gutter.

With the concrete cleaned and swept the afternoon was free for painting and photography in the studio with a rescued photinia branch making for the perfect subject…

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and a few of the trimmed branches new tools for drawing with.

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Now all I had to do was put the two together. What could be better than an ink drawing of the photinia created with one of its own branches?

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Well, perhaps some additional watercolor to complete the picture…

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and we’re almost there…

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So ended a very satisfying day turning the hard work of yard work into art work.

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to be continued…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Jubilant

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“Rejoice! It’s the end of the week” says Michelle “and time for a celebratory photo challenge.”

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What could be more celebratory than all the colour and joy of the festivities in Cusco’s Plaza de Armas leading up to Inti Raymi, the Inca festival of the winter solstice, which we had the good fortune of experiencing during our memorable visit to Peru, and of course Machu Picchu, in 2013.

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Perhaps also a moment to be personally jubilant as it is exactly three years ago when I started blogging just before we embarked on our Peruvian adventure. It’s been a great ride and long may it continue 🙂

Face-off

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faceoff iii

Face-off – the photo.

The title of today’s post will soon become evident. Since this week’s Photo Challenge is all about faces it seemed appropriate to begin with this photo of my pencil box with the iconic portrait of Mono Lisa on its lid. It caught my eye as I was in the process of cleaning my white porcelain palette, still with its copse and rubbers image from a few days ago.

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Seeing Mona Lisa looking at me in with those eyes that seem to follow you wherever you are, and clearly with this week’s Photo Challenge still in my mind, suddenly it seemed like a good idea to paint her onto the half cleaned tile.

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Face-off – the painting

Mission accomplished, time for her to go.

Face-off – the movie

fairest of them all

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sunset 15.5.16

Mirror, mirror on the bay
Who’s the fairest this eve of May?

No contest last night with this glorious sunset over Vancouver’s English Bay.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Face

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Paul Schofield in The Captain of Köpenick (1971)

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Laurence Olivier in The Dance of Death (1967)

Drawing the faces of these two giants of the English stage revealed to me the power that they could generate with either a distant glance or thunderous frown. Both of their performances live on in my memory as unforgettable evenings in the theatre from many years ago.

copse and rubbers

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Thanks to Tina whose wonderful photo of Muddy Waters on her always inspiring blog Travels and Trifles was the starting point for this copse painting that began with loose washes of watercolor and ended with a fair amount of rubbing to create the finished piece, hence the title of today’s post.

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At the same time, using the same palette of watercolors on my wet white porcelain tile a somewhat more abstract copse began to appear, as the drying paint was scraped and rubbed.

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Thanks Tina and also Debi whose Creative Zone for Making Art inspires me every day.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Earth 2

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Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty

William Wordsworth  1802

These opening lines from Wordsworth’s poem Composed on Westminster Bridge could easily have been written for this early morning view last weekend of Little Shuswap Lake here in Beautiful British Columbia, Canada.