Oh Snap it's Cold....

First of all Happy New Years to all of you!!!

 

I really cant believe its already January and Christmas is kind of behind us,

where did the time go?

 

But we had a good and calm Christmas here, and I hope all of you had very joyful

Christmas and holiday season.

So winter arrived early here and we have still a ton of snow {new storm on its way tomorrow sometime}, and so far we have been okay {touch wood!}

but for many this has been a very hard times.

We have family and friends in Toronto who were without power for over a week during the holidays, but thankfully they have it back now and it was not a day too soon.  It has been super cold here and a lot of stuff freeze, we have to keep our eyes on our water pipes just in case.

 

Picture above is from the other day when it kind of warmed up a bit,

the night before it had been -28c and with the wind it was -40c

I even had a hard time taking this picture as the screen door has frozen stuck, so that's why the picture is a bit of a blur.

 

So its been good days to stay in and draw and paint, but when you do venture out

and Mr B and I have, been out for nice long walks in the woods

{its all about layers of clothing and lots of it}

 

And a few times we went downtown and I tell you,

this cold sure makes some interesting things to see



 

And only here, do you see this!

This man or woman was driving on the high way with its parka hood up

Seriously!!! 

 

{didn't have my camera out on time, so drew it after}



 

Then sitting in a coffee shop looking at people standing outside waiting for buses, is nothing but very

interesting {I did once before but it was much warmer then}

Well, with temperatures like this, its like everyone are working undercover or something.

Every inch is covered and no one says much but just grunt through the crowds or try very hard to hold back a runny nose... And every once breaths are making the bus stop look all fogged in. 

 

 

 

Last picture here I took last night, its taken from the National archives parking lot {facing west}

and I just loved the colour of the sky and the city lights.

The funny looking building you see in the middle is the War museum.

 

Here's to winter and 2014, Happy New Years and I hope this new year will bring you and your dearest and nearest good health, joy and peace and ton of super creative times and moments. 

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Christmas snow and trees...

 

I'm sure I'm not the only one saying this

but its been pretty busy around here.

This the season for it.

 

Found little time today to paint something small

Something I saw while we were out driving and at the same time both Mr B and I said

Next year we'll get a real tree.

 

 

A few days ago my son and I went down town to do a little Christmas shopping,

in between running about we stopped for a treat, good old beaver tails.

 

 

We have had a few smaller snow storms go through here,

and there is nothing better than just head out and enjoy it all.

And my son, although 21 he still likes to shake a tree and get snow all over him...

So glad the kid within him still stays strong.

 

 

Love the woods this time of the year, so does Charlie.

 

I really wish all of you will have a wonderful Christmas season,

have a safe and happy holiday.

 

Merry Christmas & God Jul

 

 

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Santa Lucia, winter foxes & Christmas time...

water colours and ink

 ~ Happy Santa Lucia ~

Today in Sweden and all the other Scandinavian countries Santa Lucia is celebrated.

People gather together in churches, schools and homes, singing and lit candles and with that they eat sweet saffron Lussebullar {Lucia Buns} and other treats.

Its time to share light and joy of the season

{if you like you can see a beautiful Lucia choir in Sweden HERE}

I done a little bit of decorating and some art work {seen above and below} 

But today I woke up early before sun came up, Charlie and I went for a walk in the woods and even if it was dark still it was very cozy and we heard foxes somewhere near by.

After our walk we came home and I lit some candles, played some Swedish Christmas music and then I baked some saffron cupcakes {gluten free} so I can take to my daughter who's still in the hospital.

Sure miss having my little girl here, but she's getting so much help right now and thankfully hospital is close to home, so I can go there often to see her.  Yesterday we read How Grinch Stole Christmas together, always a great fun to read with her.  And today we're going to celebrate Lucia.

Here are a few small sketches & drawings I have done of Foxes

{used different media, ink, water colours, china marker and pencil on different kinds of paper}

Happy Santa Lucia and Happy Winter to all of you

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Winter frost & Hints of Red

"Winter House"

 Winter came early this year and it has arrived with a bang,

snow storm followed by really cold temperatures.

Brilliant days for nice walks in the woods and staying inside painting and creating. 

Did another small painting in water colours and ink

and then I have been making some new stamps

This year its all about the Fox

{you might remember this fox from my last post}

Today Mr B and I went for a nice long walk in the woods

{snowman was by a house next to the forest path}

I loved how the frost covered every little detail 

Happy First December & First Advent

{Första Advent}

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Piece of work for a show...

A little painting "Snow is Falling" I entered to a "Holiday Mix" art show

at the St Laurent Complex in Ottawa

Show is running from Now 26 to Jan 16

{Not the best picture as I had to take it with my mobile}

All pieces of art are all 12" x 12" or under

Mine is 9.5" w x 11.5" h {with frame}

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Colour inspirations

Beautiful brisk November day here today, and I'm itching to paint

But needed a bit of inspiration for colours, so I headed out in to the woods.

One thing that caught my eye was how Birch bark looked in the sunlight.

{Bark, Bark, Beautiful Bark}

On this Birch tree below had no pinks in it, but all lovely grays and greens

{And I love the shadows from the pine tree} 

Found some inspiration and now on to painting

I want to attempt to paint a winter scene which I haven't done much of before, so this will be 

interesting to see where it will end. 

What kind of colours do you find in the trees around you?

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Mid November Day

It's that time of the year again, all Christmas shows have started in full force and there is so many to chose from.  But my son and I picked one to check out and that was the German Christmas Market, and the location was out in the country and not far from our house but a nice drive in through the country sides.  What can get any better, good old European Christmas market, ride in the country, spending time with my son and we both were armed with cameras...  He has so taken up the passion of nature photography and I love to share that with him.

And today was a quiet day, mostly spent inside as it was raining pretty much all day.

But later Mr B and I went out to a local coffee shop, sat down with a nice cup of coffee

and while he read his book I did a little sketching {scratching} with some ideas I have for the house and the holidays...  Oh the ideas I have, now I just have to get started.

Cant believe we are already in mid November

All happening so fast, but what a beautiful time of the year it is.

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Rosehip painting

Almost finished a little "Rosehip" painting

Still tweaking with the background

Little detail shot of the Rosehip

{Acrylic on 6" x 6" gallery canvas}

And a picture just for fun...

I had to move my paints down to the basement again for winter. 

Although we had the re insulation work done in my studio, we don't have the heating system all done yet.

So one more year of moving things around and me taking over the guest bedroom and dining room table,

leaving me with the fact that the guest bedroom  has to be updated 

{it's like a bad 1980's time capsule down there and over a year later after we moved here,

 I think its time to make this ours, brighten things up and put some life in to it}

But while I moved my stuff down, I found my daughters huge glass diamond 

and I just had to look through it...  

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Two Days In Pictures

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301st post and Happy November sketching...

Went for a late fall walk down by the Ottawa Dominion Arboretum, absolutely lovely place to go for a stroll and discover different species of trees and shrubs {further up from the arboretum is the Experimental Farm that has also a great selection of flowers and other plants}.  

Such a relaxing place right in the middle of the city.

I bought my self a new sketch book and it has kind of brown paper look to it, and while walking and looking at all the leaves that have fallen down to the ground I started to sketch them as every single one of them have such a unique patterns and shapes to them, and even within the same species.

 Of course took a few pictures along the way

Rose Hip and Sunflower Seed Pods

Then last Sunday Mr B went to visit our daughter and I got a little time to my self

so I finished the painting for the auction I'm donating it too.  And after I got that done I started to work on two small once {below}.

I love flowers, but I hate to tell you seed pods and the stage plants and flowers get in too late fall is by far my favourite, I really enjoy the graphic look they take on as they dry up and change colours.

All that beautiful earthy tones, grays and browns.

They give me so many ideas for different fabric prints I {still} would like to get in too

and trying, I want to get in to putting my designs on fabric and then create something with that.

Time will come!

Any hoooo!!!  Cant believe how fast time has gone by, this is my 301 post and I have now been blogging for 4 years.  Where did the time go?  Sure have meet a ton of fantastic people that I would never otherwise have met, connected with absolute brilliant artists, crafters and others alike.

Found inspiration, support and ideas, shared fun thoughts and learned a lot.

A Huge thank you to all of you who have come by to see my crazy side of the planet, left comments and sent emails and letters, and please know I read everyone of them...  I'm just not good at writing back all the time.

But, Thank you, its been fun 4 years of blog land.

Happy November everyone!

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Paintings in My Studio...

I want to thank everyone who wrote to me after my last post.
My daughter is still in the hospital, but she really is getting a ton of great help and things are looking brighter and I cant wait to have our little girl back again.

One of the questions I got was about a painting that hangs on the wall behind the easel that holds my new painting that's being worked on right now.  It's an acrylic painting I did of the many lovely long sand beaches that we have gone too here in Ontario, and I tried to capture the look of the wet sand as the water drew back after each wave came through.  Needless to say the title of my painting ended with "Wet Sand" 

And then it comes to another painting (on the opposite side of the work space), I call it my gallery wall and the place I can store larger canvases, my inspiration board, I like to change things around all the time and this wall is perfect for that.

Any how, on that wall I have one smaller canvas, a landscape painting from a canoe trip we did in Algonquin Provincial Park.  I really hate being in stormy weather, and thunderstorms scare the living crap out of me.

A few years ago we were in one Mother of all storms and ever since then, you could say I have turned in to a big chicken...  But I still like to capture pictures of the heavy majestic clouds, paint them and look at them.

(Just don't ask me to sit through them when they go right over)

Okay, so here is my problem with this painting, I cant for the life of me remember if I did it in oils or acrylics.

Sure, I could always check and not sure why I haven't done it yet...  Maybe, just maybe I'm a bit worried to find out and then start fiddling about with it and screw it all up.  

I'm not sure how to fix the water, any ideas?

I leave you again with more pictures I took from my morning walk two days ago.

Lovely frost had settled above everything, all was covered in a sweet sugar dusting, dew drops frozen in to beads.  I just love this time of the year where even the smallest detail is dreamy.

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Still here!!...

I know it has been a while since I posted last, over a month now. But I'm here!!!!  I'm around and about and today has been my first time to start painting again in a long while.  And to tell you the truth it hasn't been easy going, some of you might know that my daughter has severe autism and since February 2012 she developed head aches and it has been going on ever since and it has only become worse.

Journal page I did one night after one very frustrating day

So it has been a huge struggle for us and mostly for her as she can only say few words, but cant articulate where or how it hurts.  We know her and we all know that she's in pain and not doing well, but how do you explain that to Dr's and others who don't know her.  So during this whole time we have been fighting with the medical system, hospitals and specialists and all we got was not much at all, and due to this nothing was done and she only got worse.  Because of her autism and not being able to communicate verbally, her behaviours got worse and worse...   Everything around here has been put on hold, I haven't been able to work or paint, life just took a place on top of the highest shelf possible and everything has been to care for her and trying to find help for her.  Then finally two weeks ago, we finally found that one person who would hear us out and agree something has to be done.  Finally my little girl is getting the help she needs.  Now she's under medical care, some tests have been done and now we're waiting to hear.  We're no longer beating our heads against walls, our pleads for help have been heard and now the path looks like its going in the direction for the light.

So between visiting our girl in the hospital, meetings with Dr's and others, medical tests, never ending phone calls and emails, we have finally been able to catch up to much needed sleep, recovered energy and even been able to get a few things done around here.  One of the things was my workroom and studio space, the insulation work got done so Mr B bought me furniture and few things for my space {thank you baby} and although it has taken me over a month to get everything back in, I at last moved in again and even started to paint again.  So here it is, my new space {mind you, its still messy and will take time to get all that stuff I pushed under things to get sorted through} so I snapped a few pictures...

Canvas on the easel is getting ready for a painting I'm doing for an auction I'm donating it too 

{More details coming soon}

So today I added more to my canvas {details} and I cant tell you how fantastic it felt to 

be right in here, paint, feel the brush and just for a while my mind was only about the moment.

I feel hope and I really think we're now doing what should get done.

I cant believe it has been over a month since I posted here, and fall came and its almost over

or at least the beautiful colours have almost all fallen and faded away.

I have been able to get out for a few walks and of course my camera had to come along too.  

Board walk down by the bog

fall harvest

Sweet Cotton Grass

Here's to hope, to my little girl

And to everyone with no voices to be able to be heard!

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Two days...

Two different days in pictures

First 6 pictures are from Prince Edward County wine tour Mr B and I did with dear friends

All beautiful water, skies and fields {my dream place}

And wineries & brewing companies

Tasting, savoring and enjoying

There's nothing like sitting outside enjoying great weather, company of good friends

Good wine and food and feasting your eyes on the beautiful and relaxing surroundings 

 Of course we cant forget all the brilliant old barns, farm lands and chickens

So wish I had my sketch book along on this trip

But I got to see art, amazing glass art and more at the

Huff Estate Winery

Below is from a lovely evening I spent with my son

He loves photography as much as me and we went out for a walk down by the river

to watch the sun set

"Happiness is not a

Destination

It is a way of Life"

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