Monday, April 11, 2011

April update... Our first rainstorm and snow melting!

Hi everyone - been a while but have been painting and creating like a crazy woman... Here is one called "The Conversation" which is an abstract acrylic on 20"x20" canvas and I love this one - my favourite course in University was 19th Century English Literature - so this one just painted itself - all I can say is "not much has changed" since our grandmothers were young girls... (and my grandmother agrees - it is all the same dearie, you just express it differently than we were allowed to...)

and my Meadow Flowers painting was something I wanted to do while the snow was still on the ground and we were all wishing for our flowers and Spring Summer colours - acrylic on canvas - really a fun piece
    


 and then of course, I overdid it working on those and would have to rest for a day or two (sigh) but while I am resting I am still creating. I am a creative person so of course there is always something that I NEED to be doing - have just finished another pair of socks (man socks for hubby so they are the extra mile in knitting time) for his birthday and they fit perfectly! Just under the wire as I was Kitchener stitching the toes last night - done in dark browns and black/indigo with Stephanie's (Yarn Harlot for those of you who do not knit, she is the knitting queen) vanilla pattern. I should take a picture... he is wearing them right now. Also have finished numerous shawls in many different yarns and colours, so even while resting I am leaving a mark of COLOUR on the world and have gifts to give and something homemade produced. I gave this one as a gift to my Best Knitting Buddy who lives in California. It is a light lace shawl made with Malabrigo lace yarn - the "Haruni" pattern with beads - it took me months to make this - and is an heirloom piece, I think it is one of the best ones I have ever made.


It is starting to feel like Spring here and we had our first big thunderstorm (the whole house was shaking - my poor dog was shaking too) last night which will green things up and make those flowers appear... I do miss my flowers and the garden and used to look forward to the Lilies of the Valley at the side of the house of the spring bulb flowers appearing through the snow... ahhhh well - I can paint them instead
which is what I am doing....
I have been working on a series of paintings in acrylic on various canvas sizes in beautiful colours with any flower I feel like painting and it is my "Meadow Flower" series which is coming along nicely
I love this Poppies one... very happy and abstract - some are dark (I just finished a Delphiniums) and some have been difficult and take many many hours and days and totally exhaust me (it is like they drain my energy and I am so completely done after a bit of painting ... but while I am painting to the music I do not feel any pain and I am free - then I collapse )  and some are spontaneous and paint themselves - these are without photos as reference... they are done from my imagination and abstract and I am very pleased as I now have some beautiful flowers on canvas to offer everyone.
Some of this work is in the Saatchi Gallery in the UK (online gallery) and all of these are available as originals, prints (framed or unframed) and cards - also some are on gift items - I have just joined the Muskoka Arts Group and the Huronia Foundation for the Arts and am now part of Artists in Canada - have ordered prints of my fractal art (which is what I do on the computer when I cannot physically manage the easel work) so I can offer you those as prints and they are gorgeous! This is a closeup of one of the fractals where I added an embroidery technique... it looks like it was embroidered !! (which I also used to do...)

Wonderful contemporary art created by me, using the computer as a tool (the computer does NOT do the work - we artists do the work) and it takes hours and hours to make ONE single artwork but it is a great way to explore creativity and use new techniques and I have been making fractals since the 1990s but gave up for a while and now back with the new programs - they are really addictive but honestly it takes forever to do one piece and then to render it (make it so you can have a good print) takes hours on my computer so I leave it overnight and come back to it. This is the full view of the fractal (the embroidered one - called "Reach for the Moon" ) which is offered as a print or card on my websites.

It has been really windy today and the power was out last night with the storm, but I went for a little walk with the doggie and we found some bark pieces and some driftwood that I want to work on and see what I can make... Looking forward to the warmer weather and the heat - it was a beautiful winter here but am missing the warmth and the colours - Hope all of you have been doing great  - looking forward to Spring and happy to be still on this planet and able to follow my dream - are you following yours? Back soon...
(Thank you everyone for believing in me and buying my art - everything is available on my websites - I am a self representing artist on EBSQ where you can find all of my links )
My EBSQ website

All art displayed on my blog or websites is Copyright Claire Bull  - thank you for your support