Painting Progress?

Well, we have put many more layers onto our canvases (see the last post).  Friday's lesson was to incorporate black and white into the paintings.  Then to go over some of the areas with translucent, but colourful paint.  I did the black and white today, and will tackle the translucent part tomorrow.

I am fairly pleased with this one so far.  I was definitely channelling our
 teacher, Flora Bowley with the branches and leaves.

This one is my lease favourite, I am really hoping the translucent
washes will help it out. 

This one is my favourite - perhaps because all the elements
came from "me".

I decided to do this one without any red or orange, but that
may change when I do the washes.

Stay tuned for the next painting instalment.

I can't go on the torch just now because I had surgery on my face to remove a basal cell carcinoma - and I don't think the heat from the torch would do my skin any favours right now.  I'm really glad I signed up for this 5 week painting course.

I'm Taking a Painting Class!

Over the last few months I have become interested in learning how to paint - no not houses, but canvases.   I think it all started when Melanie Moertel blogged about a book she had purchased by Flora Bowley, a painter from the US NorthWest.  I googled the book and subsequently purchased it myself, and have signed up for her "Bloom True: the e-course" painting class.  It is 5 weeks long, and covers many things besides how to paint.  Here is an excerpt from the web site.
 ‘Bloom true: the e-course’ presents a groundbreaking and transformational approach to painting (and living) that celebrates intuition, connects body, mind and spirit and allows unique and expressive paintings to emerge naturally and authentically.

I'm really enjoying this course, with it's credo of  "there are no mistakes".  Randomly splashing paint all over a blank canvas is quite exhilarating, especially when done with the accompaniment of very loud music!
We get 2 painting days a week, and the other days we are given other types of exercises - Sundays off.  So far we have only done 2 layers of paint, and I understand there will be many more layers, with the final painting looking nothing like what we started out with.

This is what I have so far with a first layer of warm colours, followed by a second layer of cool colours.

One of the things I really like is that there are no pre-requisites, and rank beginners like myself can participate and have fun.  The class participants communicate with each other via Facebook, which I found a bit intimidating at first, but am beginning to get the hang of.  There are well over 200 participants - WOW!

I highly recommend this course to everyone interested in painting.

Folk Art Chickens

I have a set of folk art chickens in my Etsy shop.

Side one

Side two

These are so much fun to make!  If you are a lampworker, you could purchase my tutorial from my Etsy shop and make them yourself!

Silver tarnishing?

A friend of mine recently showed me a great way to help slow down the tarnishing on sterling silver jewellery pieces.  Since exposure to the air is what really makes our lovely silver pieces go all black, all we need to do is eliminate air - yeah, sure, right!!  Actually it is quite easy.
I purchased this sealing "thingy" at Home Hardware.  I am not sure where you could get it outside of Canada, but if you googled the brand name, I am sure it would show up somewhere.

Several bags and the pump come in this box.

The pump and one of the small bags.

 I put my silver jewellery pieces in the bag, closed it up, and then attached the pump and pumped out all the air.  The pieces seem to be tarnish free so far.
Extra bags in various sizes are available too.
Anyway, if it doesn't work for silver, you can always store freezable foods in it - lol!

OMG - look what I bought!

Ever since I can remember I have wanted a little motorbike. I even remember wanting one with a side car for my daughter to ride in when she was young. I was always scared to get one and held back because my Dad (who was a surgeon) would always tell me awful tales of the number of people he had tried to sew back together after being in motorcycle accidents.

Well I am nearly 63 and figure it is about time! So now that my parents are both gone, and with my Dad's dire warnings in mind I have made a compromise and I have purchased an E-bike/scooter. It is basically a glorified electric bicycle with bits around it to make it look like a motorbike. It can only go a maximum speed of about 30k/h and has a range of about 30 - 40 kilometres depending on the terrain, weather, driver weight, etc. before it needs recharging. It also doesn't require a motorcycle license or even a drivers license, and best of all - no gas!!

My sister has purchased one too, and we both got burgundy coloured ones. I really wanted yellow or blue, but they were out of those - I think they are selling off the 2012 models, because the 2013 are coming in soon.

Our new electric scooters.

I am a little disappointed  with the lack of power for going up even the slightest incline, which is going to make going to the post office in the village a bit difficult - which is what I purchase it for.  Oh well, it will be good practise for when I get a gas powered one - maybe - lol.  I must say that even though it only goes 30 km/h, even at 20 km/h it seems like you are going waaaaaay tooooo fast!

So far we have only fallen off once each - and thankfully on grass.

Hope you all had a great long weekend.