Creatures of the Forest

 Another page from the Altered Board Book.

Beware the wild creatures of the deep dark forest. The noble stags arrived from Scotland on a paper napkin from a Rabbie Burns dinner, and the Swedish Dala Horse was lurking on a sheet of Japanese tissue paper.

And now they are living together in a forest of Canadian maple leaves printed on Chinese rice paper. Quite international.

Blowin' in the Wind

The view from my window.  This is definitely a very noisy way to tidy up the leaves, but it doesn't take long with two people at it.  The leaves are all gone now, taken away in a big truck, and deposited in a giant compost pile.  There are still a few hangers-on on the trees, hopefully enough to provide some winter homes for insects and small animals.

Going, Going, Gone!

 

This little maple tree is going to sleep for a while.  Stay cosy through the winter months, little tree.  See you in the spring with a fresh coat of pale green. 

Finished?

I haven't painted anything for ages.... pandemic pause. This was a 16"x20" canvas with a failed rubbish painting from 4 or 5 years ago, so a couple of coats of gesso covered the horrible mess, and I started painting, no actual intention in mind.

I think it's finished. Possibly. I don't know. Is it?   .....   Update: I changed the sky colour to a shade of purple, made a few adjustments, and I sold it.

I need some Colour!

It seems that it's been grey and dull and gloomy for the whole of 2021, yes, I know we are only at Day 17, but it's a lockdown too, and I need to brighten up my life with some COLOUR!

I spent an afternoon playing with the gelli pad and some paint, making prints of leaves that I gathered last fall. Some of them can be made into cards.... others might end up in a scrapbook. Lots more leaves left so I'll be making more prints/

And when cleaning out one of the basement closets, I unearthed this tapestry work that I started at least 17 or 18 years ago.  All the tapestry yarns were purchased in a huge bag from the local Thrift Shop for around $8, someone's unfinished project. I had done just two of the flowers before I ran out of ambition.... so I thought lockdown was the perfect time to continue. Looking pretty good so far, although not quite sure what it's final use will be.

A pretty good lockdown time waster, and I love working with colours!

Spring at last!

A few pictures just to prove that Spring is here in my corner of Canada.
And it's been a cool, damp, windy Spring this year. But I'm not complaining, it's been the kind of Spring that suits me very well.

I've eaten my first strawberry of the season and seen my first hummingbird at the feeder.

Window

Looking out through the window of the McKay Art Gallery. Autumn has arrived.

 
Such a beautiful time of the year.

The Leaf Project

The Leaf Project was devised to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday in 2017, and also to create an art project that the people of the town could contribute to. It started out small, then grew and grew, and was finally assembled last week. It's currently hanging in a corner of the Gallery, but will eventually make it's way to one of the public buildings. I contributed some leaves, so did my grandchildren.
Leaves were made of paper, then laminated, but there were also leaves made of pottery, stone, glass, and metal.