"Paint What You Love" juried Art Show

Hello my friends!  There has been a lot going on lately. Here is something else I have been up to.  Ajax Creative Arts, , is currently showing a juried art show in the Kent Farndale Gallery in Port Perry, On.  So I have another video tour for you!  As I mentioned in my last post, I am no expert when it comes to videos, a total newbie!  But, I did a little editing with this one and added some captions.  Baby steps.  Well, I hope you enjoy it.  This is just a quick look at our show and certainly doesn't do it justice.  There is a lot of wonderful art and we are quite proud of our exhibit.
Kim Robertson won "Best in Show" and there were four awards of excellence that were won by Bonnie Lusty, Margaret Brackley, Wayne Prisque and Dale Cameron.  We were pleasantly surprised to be joined by Kent Farndale, herself, at our reception and honoured to have her present Kim with the "Best in Show" award.
Our reception was buzzing with people and a great success.  Here are a few photos as well.  I hope you enjoy our video tour
Many thanks go out to the members that made this show happen.  Spearheaded by Margaret Brackley along with Rola and Chas Burke.  Many months of hard work.  And thanks to our juroist, Mirek Bialy, hoping he is feeling better!

These were my two paintings in the show

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I hope you enjoyed my video, as amateur as it is, lol.

 I am hoping to try some tutorial videos, so stay tuned!

Have an awesome and creative day!

Another fun Alcohol Ink Class with Margaret!

Hello All!  I thought I would share the photos from our latest Alcohol Ink Class with Margaret Brackley.  It's always a fun and popular class.  This time, as well as doing pendants and ceramic tiles, we also did glass Christmas ball ornaments.  Everyone did a wonderful job with this vibrant medium.  Grab a tea (or whatever your preference!)  and sit back and enjoy  pursuing the photos of this fun class and  some wonderful creations.

Thanks so much for visiting.  I hoe you enjoyed today's post, we definitely enjoyed the class!  Thanks again, Margaret!
Have an awesome day, everyone!

Here is a quick tour of our Art Show at Art Square, Toronto.

Hello my friends!  I thought I would share a quick little tour I recorded of our Art Show at Art Square in DT Toronto.  This is the artwork of Ajax Creative Arts and the show is in  collaboration with Artists Network.
It was a great reception, with a lot of people and I was happy to be a part of it.  Once the crowd died down, I thought I would take the opportunity to do a little video.  I am very armature, and this was impulsive,  so please forgive the shaky video!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and letting me share our artwork with you!

"Inner Workings" A new Mixed Media painting

Hello !  Today I bring to you my latest creation, a mixed media painting I have titled

 "Inner Workings"

This painting will be heading to Art Square tomorrow, a downtown Toronto venue close to the AGO, along with several other paintings done by the talented artists in another group I belong to, Ajax Creative Arts.  It's difficult to see all the details and texture of this painting in a photo, so I have taken a few close-ups.  I really enjoyed creating this piece.  I had an idea what I wanted to do, but at the same time this painting was largely intuitive and very personal.  I knew what colour inks I wanted to use, I knew I wanted to use gears and I had a vision of the basic composition.  I knew I wanted a lot of texture.  I didn't know how it was going to come together and the words occurred to me after I had already started..  I like the idea that they are part of the painting, but not the focal point.  They will be discovered as someone examines the painting..  I am very happy how this painting turned out and for some reason, I feel a real connection to it.  I hope you enjoy the close ups and at the end I have shared a little of my process as well, if you are interested.

I was already into the painting when I thought that I should document the process for my blog.  I had already added a lot of texture with modelling paste, beads and crystals. and established my composition.  Once that was dry, I painted over everything with acrylic paint.  Then I decided I wanted to incorporate some words into the background and did some stenciling with some white pearl modelling paste.

I created the gears using aluminum tape and I die cut them to shape.  Once my background was complete, I tempoarily added them to the background to give me an idea how I wanted to position them

Then I removed them, sealed them and aged them before adhering them to my painting

Now I was ready for the acrylic ink.  I added the ink in layers and moved it around with some water.  You can never predict exactly what result you will get when it dries.  While there was definitely a method to  my madness as I laid down the colours,  the ink does such wonderful things as it dries into the textured background that you cannot know as you lay it down.  I was excited when I awoke the next day to see how it had turned out.  I loved it!  As I move around the ink with water, there is a spray that occurs, which I like but It can be a little bit busy. So for my final touches, I muted some of the spray and recreated some quiet space.  I hope you like the end result

Thank you so much for letting me share my work, my process and my thoughts with you today.