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.