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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Back in the Groove.... Game on!


It’s taken a while.  I am not sure why.  I wonder if it is because I doubt myself in terms of my ability to draw.  Or maybe I just got a look at what other folks can do and felt small and insignificant?  Or maybe I just got busy being a mom, and working full time, and organizing events for the Arts Council, and trying to come up with activities to keep 13&14 year old girl guides interested for 2 hours every Thursday night?  Or maybe I was just tired.  Really Tired. You know the kind of tired that creeps up on you when your nose is a bit stuffed, and your sinuses ache, and your throat is scratchy, but you aren’t really sick enough to justify taking a day off work.   Tired.

Whatever it was I lost my groove.  I lost my inspiration, I lost the desire, it trickled out  and every time I looked at a blank sheet of paper… it was just that… BLANK! Empty! Daunting… even my scratch pad next to my phone at work sat sterile,  a few quick names, numbers jotted down in short clipped script.  Not one embellishment, not one doodle.  Empty. 

But I’m BACK! I’m ready, I’m excited again. And as mysteriously as my inspiration died it has come crashing back!  It might have been the Creative Jam – where I got to meet the lovely Ms. Redhead who can get seriously excited about painting!  And taught us all how she pours her paint.  (see image below).  Or it might just be that the pressure of organizing the Creative Jam has ebbed.. and with that stress out of my life I can bloom again.  Or it could be the upcoming Arts and Culture week in April where we are hosting a PostCard Art show on the theme of “Hello Neighbour!”  Or maybe it was finding a whole new line of Children’s Books – Barefoot Books and some spending some time looking at the wonderful illustrations that grace their covers. (http://www.barefootbooks.ca/)  What ever it is it feels great!

Sentinel Spirits
poured watercolour from workshop by Leslie Redhead
Watercolour
© RiverWalker Art

So the first bit of inspiration was that my spice collection needs a new item.  Cioppino – a versatile fish stew that is a classic of the West Coast and related to various regional fish soups and stews of Italian cuisine.  Traditionally it is made from the catch of the day, which can look like a combination of Dungeness crab, clams, shrimp, scallops, mussels and fish in a tomato based broth.  My painting – a small 5x7 watercolour!  Now to add the text, do a little digital magic and get the envelopes printed! (oh yeah and place an order to my favourite spice dealer!)  What fun!




Cioppino
Watercolour
© RiverWalker Art


Perhaps even more exciting than Fish Stew with a fancy name (although who doesn’t like a good fish stew) is that Wyken, Blynken and Nod are back on the Easel!  I’ve got one more painting almost finished – one ready to apply paint, and 2 more full-sized sketches that just need some fleshing out before I will be ready to transfer them onto the cotton watercolour paper and add paint. 


Wynken Blyken & Nod
Watercolour
© RiverWalker Art