Me & the Big Blueberry

Richard and I made a blueberry pie and froze it, to bring to his sister's annual Thanksgiving dinner next weekend. Made me think of big blueberries, like this one taken in Oxford, Nova Scotia a few years ago. I think it's number 11 in my "Big Things" collection.

Out of Your Gourd?

It's that time of year again. My butternut squashes are almost ready to be picked, waiting for the kiss of the first frost. The gourd above was drawn with coloured pencil on a purple background, making it quite royal, I think.

Smoky and Shadow

I spend a lot of time talking about my cats and drawing cats but on occasion I draw dogs. I drew my sister's two adorable poodles but instead of putting them in a backyard, I put them in a big corn field in winter. Makes them look more rugged or something. Cute dogs.

Hot September, Eh?

Hard to believe it's autumn. I know it's only the first days of fall but the temperature here in Eastern Ontario sure felt like mid-July yesterday. Even my garden is confused. My lupins are starting to bloom again and they're supposed to be spring flowers. Nice to see them because I know pretty soon the frost will be on the pumpkin (and the snow not far behind that). So I'm enjoying the heat while it's here. Anyone up for a swim?

Garoni Coffee ATCs

I found the most fabulous coffee at Winners. Thank goodness it tasted as good as it looked. I went back twice and bought everything I could find because the images on the packaging were so fantastic and vintage. The front had the 2 little ones with an ancient car. The back had "mama" and the babes under a parasol. How could I resist?
I'm trading these ATCs at this weekend's trading session in Dunvegan.

Koolaid Cats

I worked on more tiles this weekend and came up with, what I call Koolaid Coloured Cats. I'm really enjoying doing them. Hope everyone else likes them as much as I do.

Campbell's Soup Artists ATCs

This is perhaps my favourite set of ATCs. And I didn't use PhotoShop. Instead, I bought lots of canned soup, tore off the label and cut out the actual soup part in the bowl. I replaced the soup with bits of art. Or I put bits of art into the soup. It depended on what worked best. Cream of famous artists soup! All those years of art history classes finally paid off.
And check out Cream of Oppenheim. It's a play on her Fur-Lined Tea Cup, considered one of the archetypal works of the Surrealist movement. In this case, it is the Fur-Lined Soup Bowl (and I used a tiny piece of real fur).

This Week's Tiles

I fired a batch of tiles in the oven yesterday. Thankfully, the weather has been warm so all the windows were wide open. Man, does that stuff ever stink! Even painting it is kind of gross. But with the warm weather and open windows, I have been in high production mode. I've completed 31 tiles! I'm about halfway there.

Roasted Root Vegetables

Richard came over for one of the last barbecues of summer; it was 27C and gorgeous. I decided to root around (get it?) in the garden and see what I could find. I pulled out fingerling potatoes and purple carrots (they actually have orange interiors). I also found 4 of last year's red potato crop (these were the ones I had neglected to pull out last year, so they grew again this year). There was an errant parsnip from last year too that got thrown into the mix. And a volunteer sweet potato squash grew from my compost. (The onions and garlic were the only things that were purchased.) I baked it over an hour at 400F with some olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Yum!

Nutmeg Catches a Mouse

Around 1:30 a.m., I was sound asleep and I heard the strangest noise coming from Nutmeg. She was sitting beside the bed and kind of peeping. Sort of urgently peeping. The noise woke me up and I said, "Get on the bed, Nut." When she didn't and her peeping became louder, I turned on the light and there she was, proud as a peacock. Beside her sat a dead mouse. I petted the cat on the head and flushed the mouse down the toilet. Yuck.
The other cats were asleep in the patio and Domino (now 17 and mostly deaf, is retired from the whole mouse catching thing) was sound asleep in her bed.
Nutmeg always takes second (or third) fiddle to the other killers in the house. This was a first and she was tickled. (So was I.)
The illustration above is from a colour journal round robin I was involved in last year.

Pink Cat Tile

Lately, most of my tiles have been of flowers. I took a break and did a big, pink cat which is modelled after Andy Warhol's cats. I got a calendar at the AGO last year which is filled with Andy's drawings of cats. They are all pink, blue and green. Why not?

Birch Bark Nature Notes ATCs

I did these artist trading cards out of birch bark I had taken off a fallen tree. It was a large tree which had been chopped down. The crown had snapped; a victim of the ice storm a few year previous. I took a knife, dug out sheets of thick birch bark and rolled them off the log. These ATCs didn't need to be mounted because the bark I made them out of was as thick as a hefty cardstock.

Nutmeg

It's been a while since I've posted any cat photos. Here's one of Nutmeg I took a few moments ago. Of all the cats, she's the one who hangs out with me all day in the office. And she sleeps right on top of me all night...all 17 lbs. of her. It's no wonder my back is a little sore most mornings.

Tile, Tiles and More Tiles

I've been working like mad trying to get more tiles painted and fired and have been inspired by the fall flowers in bloom around my house. Cold and rainy today...I have a feeling there are more tiles in my future.

Coffee & Tea Journal

The round robin art journal this month is Coffee and Tea. I used coffee photos I have been taking for the past 3 years (I love coffee) and made it like an old fashioned photo album. No pictures of tea cups so I had to work around that!

Coneflower Tile

My coneflowers are blooming and I thought they'd be the perfect thing to paint onto a tile. I like the feeling of this tile. Think I'll do a few more.

Back to School

I started my class on Appreciating Antiques and Collectibles last night. The teacher has given this class at Algonquin College in Ottawa for 7 years. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take this class held at the local hall, only 5 minutes from my home.

Why Did the Chicken...

These tiles are the first set I've done for my Christmas Show in December. Last year I did 4 chicken tiles and they sold before I made it to the show. Only 54 tiles to go.

The Owl & the Pussycat ATCs

The ATC Quarterly website is finally updated! Check out the centerspread to see the fantastic artist trading cards that people entered. (If you want to see it even larger, when you get onto the site, click on the link above the image to download the spread as a pdf.)

Tile Time

For the past few years, a couple of friends and I have had an annual Christmas art show and sale. Yesterday I booked our local hall for our 2007 show which will be held on December 1st.
Last year I painted 6" x 6" tiles and I decided to do them again this year. They were pretty popular and sold well (the ones I had leftover were great gifts). Last night I painted 4 (and will fire them this weekend). Only 60 or so to go. (I feel like Carmi who has a "to do" list on the side of her blog...only I don't have to complete 5,000 pieces!)

It's Still Summer, Right?

It's September and still summer. The expected high today is 30C. I'm about to hang my clean sheets on the clothesline. Ah, summer. But Autumn is peeking around the corner at us. I did this drawing of trees in the Muskokas a few years back. A reminder of things to come.

Puffballs

Yesterday evening I went for a walk and it looked like a dinosaur had left an egg on my lawn. Not an egg. A mushroom!
Puffballs are always a sure sign of fall around here. And this is a small one. (They can be as large as a soccer ball at times.) This one will be great cooked up in a spaghetti sauce. Or I might peel it, slice it and fry it up! Anyone want to come over for a piece of puffball?

Jarring my Preserves ATCs

It's that time of year again. The garden's bounty is overwhelming and in a few months we'll be back to shopping for veggies at the grocery store. So far, I've pickled my golden and striped beets and also my purple carrots (oddly enough, the carrots were more purple than the beets). I love eating my own veggies in the middle of a freezing, cold day in winter. It's like opening a jar of sunshine.
These ATCs inspire me to get into the kitchen and can some more of summer's bounty.

A Plum Job

Richard and I made this rustic plum cake from a recipe we found in Cook's Illustrated magazine. It was delicious!

Make 'Em Laugh

Peter and I have been doing an art journal for the past few years now. We alternate who chooses a theme and mail our books back and forth. My turn to choose a theme: Circus.