The Fruits of Summer Show in Nectar Desserts

Donna, Nancy, husband Ron & I hung The Fruits of Summer show at Nectar Desserts this morning. Nancy painted 2 series of works featuring apples & cherries and some watercolour flowers with her calligraphy. Donna examined cross sections of fruits in fibre...

and worked flowers in her signature tissue paper drawing technique. I made little confections inspired by my memories of hydrangeas in my Nana's Garden series. I think they look like Nectar Desserts' executive chef, Rebekah Pearse's, fruit tart creations. If you click on the title of this post to visit her website, you will see what inspired me.

Rebekah wasn't coming in until this afternoon to get ready for a class she is teaching tonight so when we finished the hanging she hadn't seen it yet. We made groupings of works in the same shapes as the collections of furniture in front of them. We hope she likes what we did to her place.

Leighton Artists Colony

Here is a view from our studio looking out towards the neighbouring one which is designed for an artist working with sound.

Here we are last March, all bundled up in our winter gear, heading to our studio for a mornings work.

Click on the title of this post to find out more information about this wonderful programme the Banff Centre offers artists. We will be doing an Independent Residency in The Gerin-Lajoie Studio which is a space specially designed for visual artists. The light coming into the studio is perfect.

At the same time we have many services and facilities available to us at the Banff Centre, including a large arts-focused library/archives, exhibition space and printing/media departments. All of our personal needs are taken care of with private, serviced, hotel-like rooms, meals in a spectacular eagle-nest type restaurant, full fitness centre and ozone drenched mountain air everywhere.

Imagine having all of your personal needs & physical requirements being taken care, being surrounded by mountains & trees, & being continually supported by colleagues who speak the same language - for a whole month!

With these conditions, I predict some amazing work is going to be produced by Articulation.

Banff Centre , Leighton Studios

Exciting news! Articulation, the fibre arts group I belong to, has been accepted into the Artist in Residence program in the Leighton Studios for the whole month of March next year, 2009.
Last March we spent 2 weeks in our studio in the trees carrying out research for our 'Women Rock' study. We are all now back in our studios across Canada developing our ideas, sampling & gathering materials. Come March we will return to our goup studio in the mountains to make the body of work. We already have bookings to exhibit our 'Women Rock' work which will complete the last phase of this large group project.

Nana's Garden Series

Here is fabric ready to be sewn into another work for my Nana's Garden series. I am fascinated by the way hydrangeas are like litmus paper and indicate the ph of the soil. It is like flamingos eating shrimp.
My Nana used to put special stuff under her hydrangea bushes to make different coloured blossoms and I can remember being impressed with her knowledge of gardening.

Red Deer College - Series

This summer I am working on the Visual Studies module of the Opus BA(Hons) programme I am enrolled in. It is highly recommened one takes a figure drawing class. My drawing skills are poorly developed, to say the least, so I attended a 5 day long open drawing studio session at Red Deer College's summer art programme, Series, in the hope that total immersion would produce some observational drawings I could use in my assignments.
What a time I had. With Ross Bradley's organisation and years of live drawing experience we had a different model every day from 9 in the morning until 10 at night, with breaks to consume food & drink coffee. It was quite a unique experience, in this day, to be able to totally focus on one activity for a sustained period.
Another bonus for me was the calibre of the other drawers in the studio. Studying their work was an education for me. And each one was such an interesting person and most pleasant company. I looked forward to joining them in the studio each morning.

While in Red Deer Collage, I stayed in residence. Over the week, as I walked to and from the studio, I enjoyed the drama of Canadian prairie skies.

This storm caused hail damage to crops and there was a tornado warning over the radio. I was too busy drawing to follow up on whether it touched down or not. That's how absorbing this whole drawing experience was.

Nana's Garden 1 - Finished

Here is Nana's Garden 1 finished & framed in a shadow box. I kept track of the hours it took to make - a total of 23 hours - so now I will be able to answer that question if anyone asks. It will be hung in Nectar Desserts for the month of August along with other flower & fruit themed work by Donna Clement & Nancy Dormer.

Progress On Nana's Garden 1

Here is Nana's Garden 1 after 14 hours. I am enjoying the stitching only I miss not being outside where I normally stitch when it is warm. Those summer breezes would play havoc with the tiny pieces of fabric I am working with.