Diana Beresford-Kroeger

The first time I ever saw a perennial foxglove was in the garden of Diana Beresford-Kroeger in Merrickville, Ontario, not far from where I live. Irish-born, Diana is a botanist, medical and agricultural researcher, lecturer and self defined "renegade scientist." Her books "A Garden for Life" and "Arboretum America: A Philosophy of the Forest" are inspirations.
Each year, when my foxglove blooms, I pull one of Diana's books off the shelf and read a bit more of it, inspiring me to connect with the earth. Time spent in her garden (or with one of her books) is truly an inspiration. To read more, click here.

Black and White Kittens

I saw these kittens at my local feedstore the other day. Cuties, eh?
A great weekend all round here. Yesterday's ATC trade day was fantastic with about 15-20 eager traders in attendance and wonderful cards to boot. Sunday turned sunny and Richard and I attended the "What's it Worth Day" at the Dunvegan Museum where an appraiser told me that my oyster plates are relatively new (1960s or newer), Japanese-made and of very little value. Oh well.
At the silent auction I picked up a small piece of Inuit art for $15. A friend who is also an appraiser, said it is likely worth $175.
Win some, lose some.

Little Mugs for Little Girls

I did these mugs for a friend of mine whose four granddaughters, ages 3 1/2 to 6 1/2, are coming to visit her this summer. On the outside of each little girl's mug, there are flowers painted in her favourite colour (pink, blue, purple, rainbow) right beside her name. As well, each mug has a flower on the bottom of it, so when she finishes drinking, the flower appears.

The Wilds of Alberta ATCs

I was inspired to do this set of ATCs after returning from a recent trip to Alberta. Everywhere we turned there were loons, bears and wild critters of all sorts. I came home with tons of maps of Banff National Park, Canmore and Calgary. What better way to use them?

Art Journal: Trees

Arriving in the mail this month was the round-robin art journal called 'Trees.' There's something pleasing about painting snow-bound trees on a hot summer day.

Canisters

The tall canisters in this set are nearly 12" tall and were perfect to paint lupins on.

And I just love this feather and nest canister. I think it came out really well.

Happy Birthday Caesar

Apparently someone's nose was out of joint...his birthday came and went and no one had a bone-shaped cake for him. And let's not even mention the fact that his picture didn't make it onto the Hotel Penn website. Happy 4th birthday Caesar!

A Star is Born

New York's Hotel Pennsylvania is pet friendly. (Don't you love it?) When updating their website, they needed a photo of a beautiful pussycat. Cinnamon fit the bill purrrfectly. (The doggy is my brother's sweetie named Tosca.)
To read more click to their website: www.Hotel Pennsylvania

Cover Girl

I was thrilled when Eileen Korponay, the publisher and editor of the Watercolour Gazette, asked me if she could do a feature on my ATCs in her newsmagazine. And she even put one of my ATCs on the cover!! Click to enlarge

Happy Summer!

Summer is finally here! Yippee!! I took this quintessential summer snapshot today in front of the fantastic china warehouse outlet called Rob McIntosh in Lancaster, Ontario. It was unbelievable how much gorgeous white china they had on display. Large soup tureens, cake stands, tall pitchers. Wowza!

What Are These Hands Doing?

I met with the talented Kate Strickland who runs creativity workshops at Art Vein Studio in Hudson, Quebec. She shared one of her wonderful techniques for the fall issue of ATC Quarterly. You'll have to wait till September, when issue #12 is printed, to see exactly what she's created!
While talking, Kate mentioned blogging and she decided to start her own. To see her blog, click here: Art Vein Vessel. Welcome to the blog community, Kate!

Separated at Birth?

My friend Peter has a fantastic sense of humour and does some crazy stuff with Photoshop. Here's a sample of his brain at work.

Glengarry Lane

Another one of my colour pencil drawings...This is pretty much what most driveways look like around here. Tall trees running alongside long lanes which lead way up to a homestead, many times only visible in winter when the trees have lost their leaves.

Happy Birthday Uncle Reuben

Uncle Reuben and I share a birthday. I made him this card for him from a series of old photos I found in my parents' album. I scanned the pictures, cut them out with wiggly scissors (to look like old photographs) and attached them to black cardstock with photo corners. He loved it!
Click on pic to enlarge.

Lupins Galore!

I seem to be surrounded by lupins. Pink ones in front and yellow ones at my back door.

Purple and blue ones are mid-field and another patch take up almost an entire garden. How could I not be inspired to paint them on a couple of 8" serving bowls?

They also seemed perfect to put on this tall water jug. A great way to have little bit of spring year round, I think.

Since most of the weekend was spent sitting amongst the lupins painting (me), doing crossword puzzles (Richard), and feeding the chippies (both of us), check out Richard's blog to see a great pic of one of the chippies.

Two Blue Vases

I found two of these Romanian-made pottery vases and wasn't sure what I'd paint on them. Flowers from the garden seemed a natural...

...but then again so did a series of mischievous cats, like my own, who try to knock down a vase full of flowers.

Inspirations

Now that my garden is flourishing, each week brings a new inspiration. Two sides of a vase were inspired by my small yellow and purple flags blooming in the garden; the other two sides from the magnificent bearded irises pictured in a brochure I received the day I was painting. Nutmeg's presence is always an inspiration...

Poppy Power

I bought these poppies from a discard table at the end-of-season a few years back and wasn't sure what colour they were or how they'd grow.

The salmon-coloured blooms at my front door look like crepe paper flowers. They are huge (about the size of my hand) and look great with a backdrop of pink lupins growing from seeds my dad brought me from Nova Scotia many moons ago.

Bawk-Bawk

Don't you just love this set of chicken soup bowls? Totally silly.

And wouldn't these be fun with a matzo ball floating above them?

Chocolate Birthday Cake

My friend Lis baked me a fabulous chocolate cake for my birthday. The neatest thing was that she spelled Happy Birthday Ronna out of toasted slivered almonds. The other great thing? It was absolutely delicious!

Happy Birthday to Me

I've always loved June 10th! I've had some fun e-mails, great birthday cards, and singing phone calls. Tonight Richard and I are heading into Ottawa for a bite to eat and to see Sex and the City, a flick I really want to see.

Oyster Plates

On Saturday, Richard and I went to the fantastic town-wide yard sale down the road from us in Vankleek Hill called Trash and Treasure. There certainly were tons of both. In all our meandering, I found these two oyster plates. The coloured one has an old marking on the back (not sure what it is). The white one has no marks. (And no, I'm NOT going to paint the white one--yet). I did some poking around on the internet and there is actually an Oyster Plate Collectors Society out there. Who'd have thunk it?
I've sent pictures of both these plates to them to see if they know the age or value of either. I just like them. Oysters anyone?

A Little Piece of Oregon

I bought the seeds for these enourmous lupins on my first trip to Oregon about 6 years ago. They plants are just magnificent. I have another large patch in the middle of my field and several other plants scattered around the garden. They remind me of my connection to Oregon and my good friends who live out there and the great times we've shared.

Fish Dish

My friend John in Oregon suggested I paint some fish. I found this lovely shaped platter and thought it was perfect for a rainbow trout. What do you think, John?

My Busy Workshop

I feel like one of Santa's elves. The painted ceramics I showed at Art Fayre produced several commissions! Here's a baby bowl for 1 year old Maya.

Her sister, six-year-old Abby is getting this flowery plate. I hope they enjoy them.

Checker Cab Plates

I got a few of these plates from a friend who was getting rid of them. Could I use a few white plates that had a couple of small black squares around them? That was the challenge! Here's what the plate looked like before I got to it...and after.

And here's a close up of the finished plate. What fun.

Bright, Sunny Days

Yesterday was sunny and bright. A cool breeze was blowing, the scent of balsam poplar and lilacs in the air. And lily of the valley too. Always reminds me of my grandmother who wore 'muguet des bois' perfume.

Ceramic Updates

The ceramics were flying yesterday. I was volunteering at Art Fayre at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum in Dunvegan and almost all my stuff on display is sold (only the big dipping platter remains). I also got an order for another asparagus platter; someone took my name to make a special order and to come see what stuff I have; two gals were both interested in buying flower teapots, much like the sold one on display; and I sold 3 tiles in the Museum gift shop. Today I am painting more tiles, especially the Scotch thistle. It's a popular motif and might just become the Museum's bestseller!
The plate and mug above were done as a special order for a birthday gal who loves cats. Hope she loves this set.

Busy Weekend Stuff

It rained all day Saturday and looks like rain again today. The Art Fayre was a success with tons of people choosing to be indoors. There was a "doodle table," where folks could sit and doodle on a huge piece of white newsprint. And there were real, live artists there, demonstrating their craft (watercolour painters, people building pop-ups, etc.). I'm back there today as a volunteer for a couple of hours, in case anyone has questions about any of the artwork.
The artichoke server above was one I wanted to put in the show, but I kind of missed the deadline to add it to my stuff.