29 Faces in February - #1

Ayala  at "I Love to Paint" has a new challenge for February - 29 Faces. 

I have been wanting to sketch more faces and have procrastinated dreadfully and haven't made much progress so far.   :(   So this is a great challenge for me! I am starting by trying to sketch from photos in magazines...

Do you recognize him?

29 Faces - a great idea and hopefully an achievable goal. Posting every day in February? Not so sure - mine may be intermittent posts with multiple faces.

Looking forward to seeing your interesting faces!

Paint Party Friday - Week 46 - Travelling Sketchbook for December

I finished December's Travelling Sketchbook this week! Yay! It was a fun one to do as December is a very full and eventful month. This book belongs to Brandy. I started with a nutcracker, as December always starts with nutcrackers for me. They start their exodus out of storage on December 1st and slowly emerge until the tree is up when the rest burst from their confines, onto the Christmas scene. 

Brandy has pink hair, so in her honour my nutcracker asked for his hair to be painted pink.

Spread with words about my Decembers

 

My other spread... wordless at this stage...

Snowman Spread with words/poem

Snowflakes

(to the tune of "twinkle, twinkle little star")

Snowflakes, snowflakes falling down,

On the trees and on the ground.

I will build a man of snow,

Tall black hat and eyes of coal,

If the sun comes out today,

I will watch you melt away!

Brandy also gave us butterflies to paint and use as sign in cards - this is mine - green is the rear view and red, the front view - and in her book it has my contact information written all over it. (They are small, only about 2 inches in size, if that.)

This book is a bit out of order and is now on its way to Carmen in the UK! I'm still awaiting the September, November and January sketchbooks. Until they arrive, I hope to get some painting done on canvases. And gasp  - maybe finish one? Maybe my nutcracker painting?

What are you planning to do this week?

Hope everyone has a great Paint Party Friday!!

Paint Party Friday - Week 45 - Travelling Sketchbook for October

The travelling sketchbooks are moving again! Yay! Many seemed to have stopped travelling for one reason or another last year and I haven't had one since doing my August spread. This week I received 2 books! My October and December.

The October book belongs to Andrea of Falling Ladies, and while I didn't do a falling lady, I did paint a dancing one!

The quote is from one of my favourite songs - Moondance by Van Morrison. (Double clicking increases the size of the image above.) The words read:

"Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance

With the stars up above in your eyes

A fantabulous night to make romance

'Neath the cover of October skies

And all the leaves on the trees are falling

To the sound of the breezes that blow

And I'm trying to please to the calling

Of your heart-strings that play soft and low

And all the night's magic seems to whisper and hush

And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush."

-  Van Morrison

My page took inspiration from the song/quote (Hey! I think this means my pages also fit in with the theme of "Poem or Quote" this week for the Butterfly Effect!) and includes some of my October favourites such as pumpkins and squash, fallen leaves and a friendly witch! Some Octobers, my friend Ann holds a "Witches" party and invites all her female friends to attend - witches garb preferred but not required. It is always wonderful fun! While we haven't had any moondancing yet.... it may be an idea for next time!

Andrea also wanted us to create tags for out input and this is mine:

This book will be heading is now in the mail to Nicola in Australia very soon!

Hope everyone has a great Paint Party Friday!  I missed last week - just couldn't get my act together to paint or visit. Looking forward to seeing everyone's efforts this week!

(P.S. I have started a new little blog about local Micro-Adventuring - Want to join me?)

CONNECTing to my City

When I decided on CONNECT for my Word of the Year (or it decided on me), many ways to connect began to jump into my mind. Two of the countless things I wanted to connect with were to my sense of adventure and to the city I live in (Ottawa).

So I have created a new little blog "Microadventure in Canada's Capital" where every week, I will write about (and hopefully show in photos) a micro adventure I have taken that week, somewhere close to home.

Two things prompted this idea. First was last year's (failed) attempt to take "Artist Dates" a la Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way. I loved the idea but seemed rarely able to follow through. Partly I think it was because she said they should be alone/by yourself and partly because they seemed to be mostly about art - which I love  - but didn't bring forth many ideas for things to do. The other idea that propelled me was reading about one of National Geographic's Adventurers of the Year - Alistair Humphreys who took microadventures around Great Britain in 2011. I loved this idea. 

Now, I am on a different end of the spectrum from Alistair's extreme adventuring. An adventure to me is getting out of the house and doing something different. Something physical or something intellectual, something alone or something with other people. Something I haven't done for years or something I have never done. For these adventures, anything goes and company is welcome! And if  (likely) you can't join me in person, maybe you can have an adventure in your city and tell me all about it! Blogging about it weekly aims to help keep me on track and putting myself out there.

First Adventure - Canada's Museum of Nature!

Sweet Saturdays - Not food but these are sweet to me!

Christmas is over and the General said "Prepare to retreat!"

And they did...

Now all my nutcrackers (well almost all - a few are acting as models for unfinished paintings) are in their boxes and tucked away in their furnace room storage. When the  nutcrackers are out, they are very sweet to look at - so I am linking to Diana's Sweet Saturdays.

Are you undecorated yet?

Paint Party Friday - Week 43 - Octopus Connections

Another busy week with little time to create. I'm still thinking of my Word of the Year - "CONNECT" and started to doodle...

This silly little Octopus is VERY eager to CONNECT with you all this year!

Have a great Paint Party Friday! I will visit you when I can (it may take a few days though....), I'm very excited to see what you've painted so far in 2012!

Paint Party Friday - Week 42 - Word of the Year for 2012 = CONNECT

I have been thinking about the New Year, 2012, arriving imminently. I usually like to take time between Christmas and New Years to think and plan - though this year I am WAY behind! 

A few years ago I discovered the idea of the "Word of the Year" through a post by Christine Kane and the idea resonated with me. Instead of resolutions, the idea  is to choose a word to guide your year.

My first try was FLOURISH. Not sure that that one worked well. My second try was CREATE in 2010 and Wow! I created more that year than I ever have in my life. I joined Creative Every Day and I did create every day - filling 4+ blank books with drawing and paintings. 

2011 was PROPEL and I did take actions that helped to propel me, and in some cases other people, forward. In many ways, it was business related but not in all ways. Paint Party Friday arose partly because of this word. We hoped it would propel us forward in our painting efforts and it sure has helped me (and I hope others, too)!

For 2012 I have chosen CONNECT. I want to connect with people, my city*, my work, my passions and myself. As with last year, I wanted to paint an image that in some way reflected my WotY (Word of the Year). This was one of the ideas that came to mind...

CONNECT 2012

It makes me think of how all the circles in my life connect to me and to each other... 

I didn't expect to have anything painted for PPF this week but now I do! 

I will try and visit everyone over the weekend but it is still busy so maybe I will see you "Next Year"! Have a great New Year's celebration and all the best to you in 2012!

* more about this project later...