Art Fair but the Weather isn't

September is a busy time here for outdoor Art Fairs.  Unfortunately the weather has not been as FAIR. Typically fall is gorgeous in Edmonton, with nice crisp blue sky days and gorgeous leaves changing colour.   Today it is trying really hard to snow. 

Last weekend was the Strathearn Art Walk which was huge, the second largest one in Edmonton.  My hubby and I enjoyed strolling around, checked out the Alair Homes tent, as a couple of my pieces were in there. We also purchased some awesome charcuterie boards made from old wine casks from For Wood Sake. 

Alair Homes tent

  I am participating in another art fair this weekend, the Art in Our Park event.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate! I have been helping get some Interactive Puzzle Boards prepped for group activities.  I am also putting my 'woodworking' skills to the test.  I had to make a stretcher board for an odd sized piece of canvas. YouTube kind of helped and I was fairly pleased with my finished product - usually mitred corners are my downfall.  Not Today!!

Full Marks

My graduation show for the 12 of us who completed our Fine Arts Certificate from the University is now showing until June 15th.  It is up in the back hallways of the U of A Faculty of Extension (the old Hudson's Bay Building downtown) near Room 2-640.  Check it out if you have some spare time.

I find that every year in spring, my painting output seriously slows down.  Work has been fairly busy, but I also have a ton of yard work and gardening to accomplish.  Most of my garden is now planted and the yard is almost complete so I hope to get more paintings started ASAP.  I need at least 25 good ones by August.  I will be taking part in 2, St. Albert Art Walks and the Art in Our Park Event in August and September.  I am also back to planning our community's Annual BBQ and Movie Night, which also occurs in September.  NO time to waste!!

The 4 paintings I chose to hang

Rick Bremness

Susan Diebel

What's up with that?

I often feel like I never get enough time to paint. I still prioritize other things like housework, community commitments, etc before art.  I think because art doesn't feel like work, I feel guilty working on it when there are 'other' things that need doing.  However every good practising artist I have met says you have to treat it like a job - 9 - 5:00 pm and paint if you want to actually get serious about it.  I am hoping to take that advice and get serious.

Since my last post, I have kept busy on lots of projects. As a board member of our community league I planned and helped carry out a Canada 150 celebration - 500 people showed up and it was almost a full time job in the week or two leading up to it.  I also created a couple of giant puzzles for Art in our Park and ran an interactive painting project for the crowds.  That was fun and went really well too.  Here are the puzzles, one was after Lemoine Fitzgerald's The Harvester and the other after Emily Carr's Haida Totems:

Fitzgerald - The Harvester

Emily Carr - Haida Totems

I am also taking a Figure Drawing night class.  Below is my attempt at a self portrait.  I can't post much else from this class as it is mostly nude figures we are sketching.  Figure drawing REALLY helps improve the ol' drawing skills.

self portrait - sketch on paper