Wynken has been resurrected

Wyken, Blynken and Nod took a little hiatus.  But all you die-hard fans (yes all 3 of you) will be thrilled to know that Wynken has be resurrected as the pace of life slows for me as I wait for the birth of my second child.

I have stopped working to rest and take this time to meditate on the upcoming meeting with this little one I’ve been growing inside me for the past nine months.  As I grow ever larger and heavier,  I find that I need the rest and the peace of reflecting inwards.  And in so doing I’ve found again that creative spark that sinks into dormancy when confronted by stress and tensions beyond my ability to control.   So with the excitement of summer camping adventures past, and the turning of the season I’m moving again into a mind space I can enjoy. 

Camping

©RiverWalker Arts

Camping

©RiverWalker Arts

Camping

©RiverWalker Arts

I've been spending my time with Chicken Little who has just turned two amid much singing and blowing out of candles (both activities he took to with relish!).  We play build the castle and knock it down, we drive trucks around the house, and dump water over a water wheel to watch it go round and round....  we also are learning one of life’s more important skills – to use the toilet.  All this time together has been precious.  One on One time before the next little one makes its entrance and forces me to divide up my time and my lap.

I’ve also spent time alone.  With the breeze flowing through my window I’ve put paint on paper again and watched the colours flow together and blend into whimsy. Resulting in the next page of my story book project – “ ‘Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be, and some folks thought ‘twas a dream they’d dreamed of sailing that beautiful sea –“ 

Watercolour

© RiverWalker Arts

“ ‘Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be, and some folks thought ‘twas a dream they’d dreamed of sailing that beautiful sea –“
~Eugene Field  (1889) 

my-first-ever-“real”-not-a-rag-quilt project

Life is what happens when you are busy doing something else… 

I was forcing my sewing machine to do all sorts of things.  I doubt it liked them - ertainly it has protested quite heavily about the layers and layers of jean, corduroy, batting, flannel, and mystery fabric I’ve jammed through it while making rag quilts out of recycled materials scavenged from the thrift shop.   I broke my fair share of needles too.  I learned to wear safety glasses while sewing before any of those needles hit me in the eye causing lasting damage.  It is a workhorse of a machine.  It was a hand me down from my grandmother, who replaced it 20 years ago with a fancier and newer model.  The original date of purchase for my beloved machine is totally beyond me.  My beloved sears Kenmore might be older than I am.

I wonder if the age of the machine could be said to be “vintage”?  (Vintage is what you call something that is old enough to be trendy and cool, as opposed to just old and heavy.)

Anyway the old girl finally had enough of the abuse I’d been throwing at it and it coughed sputtered and SNARLED.  Yes – sewing machines don’t seem to die they seem to SNARL.   The thread coming out of the bobbin looked like a first rate birds nest, and nothing I could do changed that fact.  It needed a Dr. plain and simple.

My quilt project -  my-first-ever-“real”-not-a-rag-quilt project sat stalled too.  Not that it hadn’t been over a year in the making, but I HAD actually been working on it when the sewing machine broke down.  A little boy’s bright coloured blanket.  Nothing so short lived as baby bottles, pacifiers and diaper pins…. But rather bright bold colours with trucks, owls, and numbers. 

So while the quilt languished, and my painting projects collected dust, I went camping.  Chicken little at almost two is a much nicer age to camp with than he was a year ago before he could walk and when he was still putting every rock into his mouth.  We camped locally, but then we took off on a two week adventure.

We loaded up the snail… and set off to drier turf and hot sunny places to sit at the lake and to swim. It was divine….  Some how in the process of all this camping and hot weather.  We traded our camper (for more than we paid for it) in for a small trailer.  The day we did that I was quite in shock.  I had not anticipated this turn of events. Although in the long run it was positively lovely to camp in. 

Chicken Little at the Beach

After two weeks of heat, of sun, of swimming, of ice-cream and sand we returned with our trailer, stopping en-route at my grandmothers house.  When I told her the sad story of the sick sewing machine she said to me – you can take my old machine.  (I thought I did have her OLD machine. – turns out there was a newer old machine) . Thus I became the happy owner of yet another sewing machine… this one only 20 years old and running like a top.

Thus I was able to finish the FIRST “real” quilt I’ve ever made.   Now the rules are – you are not allowed to look too close to the stitching, nor how well the corners line up.  You are simply required to say “LOVELY!” in a chirpy and pleasant voice.  The flaws are many and I am not asking for advice or for them to be pointed out.  I am simply proud of myself for having completed this quilt.  And just in time for my second child to be born!

Finished Quilt

Also an update on the sick sewing machine -  it has been taken to the Dr. and will return home in a few days apparently feeling much improved. 

Hazy Days of Summer

Summer is here. Or at least we have had some sun and that is something to take full advantage of as sometimes it only last for a few days before the forecast is nothing but rain. Although it isn't always called rain -  because either the weather people get bored with forecasting or they try to justify even bothering to make a forecast they will often vary how this is worded:

Monday: Rain, Heavy at times.

Tuesday: Rainy with cloudy periods.

Wednesday: Showers.

Thursday: Cloudy with rainy periods.

Friday: Rain.

You get the idea.

If we get two warm weekends in the year we are pretty happy about it all.  So imagine my delight when we decided to go camping and the weather actually cooperated. 

We packed up the Camper (aka Snail) and set out for the first trip of the season up a logging road to a lovely green hued lake surrounded by snow capped peaks and place I’d never yet been too. Chicken Little slept almost the whole drive up  and the dog sat panting with anticipation.

our campsite

The breeze blew in off the lake and kept the mosquitoes to a dull drone, and we noted we were the only people there.  With our pick of campsites we chose an out of the way little space at the end that afforded a great deal of privacy and gave us our own little slice of beach. The water was predictably cold, and yet beautiful.  Chicken Little played in the sand and I started reading a new book. 

My sewing machine is broken and needs to see a Doctor, not that I would have taken it camping with me, but it has stymied my attempts at creativity (not to mention basic hemming requirements), and camping has never really inspired me to paint.  So I read my book, I played with Chicken Little, I threw sticks for the dog, and I toasted my feet on the camp fire.  It was lovely, it was relaxing.

On Sunday morning we packed up in a frenzy as a dark cloud consisting almost entirely of mosquitoes had descended into camp.  Even the dog did not want to venture out of the snail. So while I have a few itchy bits as a reminder of the bugs, it was well worth it. 

Not once did I worry about laundry, or taxes, clean floors or an endless stack of work.  Nor did I think once about work and the beige cubicle I inhabit for the majority of my waking hours.

Would that all weekends be so relaxing.

fish in a bucket and an art battle

© Joan Mostad 

On the mist soaked Saturday morning this past weekend, kids and their families lined the streets to watch figures clad in clear plastic ponchos march in the parade for the annual summer community festival.  The local garbage truck was all scrubbed down, and after a preparatory cigarette hastily smoked while waiting for the parade to being the two riding in the dumpster took on the roles of Oscar the Grouch and a Blue Rat.   The local Indo-Canadian Sikh Association danced along in the brightest costumes, so very vibrant in contrast to the lingering and mournful wail of the much loved bag-pipes and the local hockey team kept the morning beer drinking moderately discrete.  

© Joan Mostad 

Kids laughed and clapped and got soaked before heading off to find some meat on a stick and other festival favourites. 

© Joan Mostad 

I sent my Chicken-Little home with DH and set up what turned out to be an enormously successful event.  The Fast and the Furious Paint-Off.   Set up on the sidewalk under the cover of a storefront awning, three contestants at a time faced off against each over in a mad competitive art battle.  The goal of which was to complete a painting in 20 minutes.  Paintings were displayed and the public voted on their favourites.  We ran the artists on the hour and on the half hour,  with an intense 10 minute scramble between painters.   The crowd swelled respectfully silent around the painters and in the end we had a collection of artists works to donate to the community.

© Shawn Thomas

It was crazy, and crowded and I was not as well organized as I could have been – but somewhere in the end it was perfect.  The rain let up and held off until the last set of painters, and I received almost nothing but complements for the event.  Now a deep breath in… and a deep breath out.. .another successful event for the Arts Council!

© K. Lyon 

© K. Lyon 

Sunday brought more mist into the harbour,  as we headed out for some fishing fun in the kids Bull-Head derby.  I felt honoured to teach three little ones as well as my own about the joys of catching “pile perch” off the end of the dock.  The excitement to be had in watching a small fish in a bucket is never to be underestimated!  Although it ended in a torrential downpour the smiles made it all worth while! 

© RiverWalker Arts 

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home

It has been more than a month since I checked in here.  Which in the world of the hourly facebook status update is positively dismal.  I could blame any number of factors all of which are just excuses because the reality is that the priorities always get done.  Somehow come rain, shine or power outage I still manage to get my teeth brushed everyday… and Chicken Little’s too. I always manage to send him to daycare clothed, (in more than just a diaper) and I haven’t forgotten him there once.  

But the Blog languishes.  Fortunately I don’t.  I’m catching on to the swing of things (work, kid,  and getting stuff accomplished.  I have another installment in my Wynken, Blynken and Nod series to share, and I am one step closer to finishing off my first “Real” Quilt.  Meaning – not a rag blanket.. but a REAL quilt.

But on a more exciting personal note… Art workshop. Oh yes  I joined the local artist guild in a full weekend workshop dedicated to the acrylic medium and learning new techniques.  Where I’m taking this I’m not sure – but I pulled out those acrylic brushes, and prayed my paints hadn't completely dried up… and I started on Friday night at 7:00 with a 16x20 canvas.  It isn't a masterpiece… but everyone has to start somewhere.

 

Acrylic on Canvas 

We painted all day Saturday and Sunday.  It rained outside and inside we dipped into colour and tried to learn a way in which to do things.  I learned a lot, and it was exhausting.  But I did enjoy it. The worst part was that the weekend was followed much too quickly by Monday and a return to work and the real world.  That in itself wouldn’t be much more than draining but what is truly disappointing is that I really have no idea when I might next be able to put paint on canvas, as life itself is catching up with me.  

Starlight Inspiration...

Wynken, Blynken and Nod is about a Journey.  The Poem written by Eugene Field and published in 1889 is about three little fishermen who sail off in a wooden shoe to fish among the stars in the night sky.  It is a dream, it is a lullaby, it is a gentle pull into the mysteries of bedtime stories.   However the Journey for me is the series I am painting.  I’m doing it for myself, I’m doing it for the children in my life, I’m doing it because I can.  But it is a journey.  With ups and downs and spurts and pauses. 

I have about 6 paintings done, more or less.  I’ve stuck with a 22 x 16” size for my paintings and they are all watercolour on Arches Cold Press Cotton Rag paper. I figure I have maybe 15 more to go in the series,  but what I’ve decided is that I can’t plan it all out.  I just have to keep painting, and eventually I’ll just know that I’ve reached the point where I’m through. 

" The little stars were the herring fish

That lived in that beautiful sea — "

~ Eugene Field

Watercolour

© RiverWalker Arts

I got hung up for a while and while I was hung up I started to read a few blogs. I’m not a Blog creeper by nature. But sometimes inspiration can be found in a myriad of places.  Actually I started googling illustrators,  specifically ones that work in Watercolour, and from there I found images that spoke to me, which lead me to reading blogs written by illustrators…   specifically I found  http://www.starlightjourney.blogspot.ca  an older blog from pre 2009 written by illustrator and watercolour artist Jackie Morris.   I read back through much of her blog.  She writes about the growing pains of the book Starlight Sailor,  the rejection of her designs and ideas, the fully finished paintings for the cover that were turned down by the publisher.  Until finally the whole thing came together and the package with the final book arrived in the mail.   It was inspirational.  It was at this point I realized… I just need to keep painting, and maybe all of my paintings won’t make it into my little series. But that is ok.  And because I’m not trying to please a publisher.. I’m only trying to please myself in my spare time that I’m really ahead of the game and that this is really just a love affair… between me and my paint and a poem that captured my heart…  and so I’m back to painting again with a smile.

By the way… I bought Jackie Morris’s book Sarlight Sailor (written by James Mayhew) &  Tell Me a Dragon

Wordless Wednesday

This is the next installment in my Wynken, Blynken and Nod series. 

"...they sailed on a river of crystal light, into a sea of dew...." ~ Eugene Field (from Wynken, Blynken and Nod)

16" x 22" Watercolor on Cotton Rag Paper.

© RiverWalker Arts