June 29th 2010

Firstly, I'd like to thank the generous donor that helped support a wonderful cause in the Gulf Fundraiser and bought my painting. There are still some incredible pieces of artwork available through the ML4U online shop, so please visit! The shop is up for another six days!

Today, I've been varnishing the first of a series of oil paintings I've been working on, and the fumes caused me to open my windows wide. It's so beautiful out today! I should be out there! But there's no time for frolicking today. Only time for fumes.

The photos above are of the varnish on the painting drying. I've set it leaning with the painting side in so that the dust doesn't get at it.

I'm finally beginning to really get in to painting with oils again. I'll admit, I've been working at them for months and wasn't sure how I felt about them, but working steadily on my third painting; I feel like they're looking the way I really want them to. I'm actually quite happy with them! I wish I could post my progress, but I'm going to save that for the end of August when the show goes up.

I've been documenting the process of one particular painting by taking a photo of it every day that I work on it. The reason I decided to do this was that the paintings consist of one finished painting being covered up almost entirely with a new layer of painting. This will make sense later when I post them, and I'll try to include a video of the progress happening.

I hope everyone's enjoying a beautiful day out there!

June 28th 2010

The Gulf fundraiser is under way today!

Please visit the ML4U Big Cartel Shop starting this afternoon for your chance to donate, (and purchase some beautiful original artwork), for a great cause! Poppytalk made a mention on their blog earlier today as well.

***

Also, Anabela made a full post about the duvet cover she made using some of my Kittybuds fabric, (which I mentioned briefly in my post yesterday). It turned out beautifully! I love the pinwheel pattern!

June 27th 2010

177/365
Originally uploaded by fieldguided

It is exactly one month until my birthday today!


This photo felt like an early birthday present from Anabela! She just bought some of my Kittybuds fabric the other day and has made a pretty, (and soooo cozy looking), duvet cover! I can't wait to see more! It looks really great.


Tomorrow, I'll post a link to the new Big Cartel shop being opened to showcase the work for the Gulf Restoration fundraiser!

June 22nd 2010

{ Heinz Edelmann / Ke$ha }

From about the age of 7 to 14, I probably watched the Beatles 1968 movie, Yellow Submarine, once a week or more. My sister and I loved it. Since, I've been a big fan of the work of Heinz Edelmann. His work was so original and new for the time.

And that's why I was so upset when I (begrudgingly) watched the newest Ke$ha video for Your Love Is My Drug. I'm sure it was supposed to be an homage to the classic animation, but I thought it was a terrible rip-off.

I feel like it's just reinforcing the trend nowadays to copy everything from the past, because there is nothing original and "it's all already been done before".

I just found out recently that there is a website, (and I'm sure there are many more), dedicated to catching artists plagiarizing other people's artwork, called You Thought We Wouldn't Notice.... I'm glad there are tools out there to cast light on issues like this, but I wish there was no need for it.

June 21st 2010

Happy first day of summer!

I've been busy working away on paintings the last few days, so I haven't had many updates to pass along. But I will be posting in the next day or two regarding the curated fundraiser I mentioned last week, being organized to raise money for the Healthy Gulf organization. Meighan has been super busy coordinating the details for the show, and will be blogging all about it. As soon as it's online, I'll update with details.

I hope everyone's having a beautiful, sunny day!

June 18th 2010

Yesterday, I took the afternoon off to go visit the Rainbow City installation by Friends With You in Queen's Park. It's being put on by the Miami artist duo, partnered up with Magic Pony Gallery, during the Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity here in Toronto.

The artists created a wonderland full of inflatable characters for people to interact with, (including bouncy castle mushrooms, and giant floating tetherballs!). It's really pretty remarkable to see. If you're in Toronto this weekend, you should make a point of going out to Queen's Park to meet Friends With You!

There is also an exhibition of their artwork, including a collection of their beautiful oil and watercolour paintings, at Narwhal Art Projects, up until July 4th.

For more of my photos that I took at the event yesterday, please visit my Flickr photostream.

June 14th 2010

I've created an original painting as part of the fundraiser being put together by My Love For You Is a Stampede of Horses' Meighan O'Toole. The fundraiser is being used to raise money for the Gulf Restoration Network, for Gulf Oil Spill relief. She will be blogging about the fundraiser shortly, and I'll post a link to her post and Big Cartel shop where the work can be found. All proceeds will go toward the GRN.

I'd like to thank Meighan for bringing everyone together for such a great cause. It's been hard to look at the all of the photos in the news lately, and I've been wanting to use what skills I have to help out in some way.

{ Pelican Roost }

June 10th 2010

I love Feist. I think her music is so lovely. I listen to her a lot while I work, and while I go for walks to run errands.

Last night I found this little gem...

It makes me so happy!

Also, tonight is the opening of the FriendsWithYou exhibition at Narwhal Art Projects. It is in conjunction with the Luminato Festival here in Toronto. I've been really excited to see this show in person. The work is really amazing. (I wasn't familiar with their traditional paintings before this show was introduced to me). The opening runs from 7 - 10pm tonight! I hope you can all make it!

* I'll be working at the FWY Pop-Up Shops in Queens Park next week, so please come and visit!

June 8th 2010

I was out this morning for breakfast, and on the way home stopped to pick up a flower for our table at home. I bought a single peony from the shop down the street, got home, and put it in an old CROWN mason jar. I decided to take a couple of photos of it while it was fresh and beautiful. I placed it on the floor, and a very curious Dre came to check things out. He has a habit of drinking out of any container he can reach if it has water in it. He tried to fit his giant head into the mouth of this small mason jar, (with no luck).

Yesterday, Celine posted some photos and a link to the photo shoot she did with Nikole Herriott, (of her wonderful apartment), for Design*Sponge! Congratulations, Celine and Nikole! They're beautiful!

June 4th 2010

Ages ago, when Anthropologie opened in Toronto, I fell in love with a set of plates. They were knobbly, and naïvely painted, and pictured sweet animals, mushrooms and the Eiffel Tower; they were beautiful.

They're designed by a french painter named Nathalie Lété. I just found out that she was doing a live painting of Anthropologie's Fifth Ave. window, and they posted a video of it on Facebook. (She also did a series of hand-painted dresses, if you can believe it! They featured the dresses on Design*Sponge back in April).

I thought I was pretty familiar with her work, but the more I looked, the more amazing new projects I found! I think my favorite may be the window she painted for Usagi Pour Toi in Tokyo. Her painting is GORGEOUS. To watch her work is sort of hypnotic, because she's so confident with her brush strokes. Her colours mix effortlessly, into perfectly streaked hues. I included a video above of her working on the Tokyo window display; (and you can probably find the New York on Anthropologie's Facebook page).

June 3rd 2010

I stumbled upon an interesting project while looking up a video of Snoop Dogg baking brownies with Martha Sterwart this morning. (Yes, you read that correctly).

The work is by artist Catherine McEver. She embroiders on Wonder Bread. They look so pretty! I seem to gravitate toward "toast" artwork; (for example Robin Nishio's toast portrait of Anne Koyama, and Tibi Tibi Neuspiel's Assassination Portraits on Toast). Hmm, I'm beginning to see an odd pattern forming...

June 2nd 2010

I have some exciting news!

I've created some eCard designs for pingg.com and they're online today! To view the designs and create your own eCards and invites using some of my images, click on this link or the button along the side of this post!

June 1st 2010

It's June!

And it's still wonderful out. I feel so lucky.

Things have started to feel a tiny bit hectic, doing illustrations, and paintings for the upcoming show at Narwhal in July. I wish I could paint outside and not get dust in my oil paints. Oh well. I hear it's supposed to be cool and rainy this weekend, which will make it so much easier to stay inside.

A friend pointed out last night that Canadians are known for talking about the weather. A lot. I'd never heard that, but here I am, posting about the weather...

I'll post about some more art-related things soon. Like the new print design I'm working on! I should have something to show in the next couple of days, so stay posted!