Getting Ready for 2015.

Detail from 'Trendy Birches' 

12x36 acrylic on canvas

$750.

Avaiable at Arts on Queen

All is well here in the studio although I haven't had a chance to get to my easel and paint for awhile now. We got back this past Wednesday from a short break. A long weekend in Las Vegas. It was a much needed break and now that I'm back I'm refreshed and inspired. The desert always does that for me. The wide open space, the big sky and the colors. Oh those colors!

I am now in planning mode. Not only planning festivities with friends and family for the coming two weeks, but also planning for the new year. Setting goals both art related and personal. I like this time of year. New beginnings. A fresh start. How about you? Do you start the new year with resolutions or a goals list?

A New Year. A New Beginning.

Fearlessness

Photo credit: rolereboot.org

Time. Time is on my mind on this 2nd day of 2014. I really enjoy this time. It's as if the world outside my studio window is in limbo. It's much quieter out there than it usually is. Many are still off from work and the school across the street is closed. But things are not in limbo on this side of the window. There is a whirlwind of activity as I'm in major planning mode and mapping out the new year.

Organizing supplies (yes again) A little obsessive compulsive maybe? No, I just like to organize my paints by color and canvases by size. An artist's life. Always thinking. Soaking up every bit of inspiration that I seem to find everywhere these days. Sleepless nights. Mind abuzz. Imagining, planning what it will look like once it spills from my minds eye onto the canvas.

Change. Changes are happening. Looking forward. New experiences. New friends. New paintings. New venues. New website and blog. New clients. I love the beginning of a new year (for that matter the beginning of every new day). I do not have a 'word' for 2014, and made no resolutions either. I'm jumping into this year with positivity, optimism, fearlessness and big dreams. Care to join me?

Winter's Song

Winter's Song

Altered Book, part of Inner Works 

Mixed Media 2009

Things are getting back to normal here today. I need my studio space back. I need to start painting. As I pack away the decorations and wrapping and take down the tiny tree, I anticipate the year ahead. The next few days will be spent cleaning out the studio, getting supplies ready, making plans and setting goals. 

Do you make resolutions for the year ahead? 

Hello 2012!!

The world is your oyster.

Now go and find your pearl.

A New Day.

On January 1st this was the view outside our bedroom window. It was a cold and gray morning and all was quiet and very still. It was SO quiet. I assumed that the whole city was still asleep after the celebrations of the night before. The balloons were an explosion of color happily swaying in the cold breeze. I knew right away that this was a sign. A good omen promising that the coming year will be a positive one.

This week has been all about organizing and preparing. Updating my blog and website, writing posts in advance, scheduling meetings and making many to do lists. The studio has gotten a complete make over, is cleaned up and ready to go. The art supplies that Santa brought are laid out all shiny and new, waiting to do their thing.

I could list all my resolutions and goals for the coming year but I won't bore you with personal details. I will share with you what inspires me and little bits of 'happy' along the way. I'd like to celebrate the positive in the coming year (and beyond.) How about you? What's inspiring you these days? Are you making time to do the things that make you happy and fuel your passion? What will you do to make this year a positive one?

See You in January 2011.

It's been fun preparing for our first Christmas in our new downtown loft. Decorating the condo has been kept to a minimum with a large bowl from Ikea filled with assorted Christmas balls. A smaller dish is filled with a homemade potpourri of anise stars, cloves and cinnamon sticks, and this year instead of a traditional tree, I've opted for a few decorated Dogwood branches displayed in an old champagne bucket. There's also a small tree with twinkly lights on our balcony.

There is just so much to be done now that this will be my last post of the year. I'm preparing for a major show that starts in January. Remember this post? Well I'm finishing up the new paintings that will be part of this 3 month solo show. I've also started a major clean up of my studio in preparation for some mixed media painting that I plan to do over the holidays. Yay!! some painting time just for me is always a treat.

The holidays will be spent close to home this year with immediate family. It's all very laid back and we even get to sleep in on Christmas morning, much different than when we had a little guy running around the house.

December 31st is a very special day as our "little guy" turns 19 this year. So it will be dinner out at his favorite restaurant and then a quiet night in for us after he's off to celebrate the night with his friends.

The week after Christmas and before New Years Eve has become a favorite time of year for me. All the craziness of shopping and preparing is done, Christmas celebrations are over and after the clean up there is time. Time to reflect on the year that's past and to anticipate all the possibilities for the new year ahead. Out with the old and in with the new. So I finish this last post of 2010 with a big

THANK YOU

Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays

Happy New Year

See you all in January.

2011

Blossoming

Blossoming 40x40 Acrylic on Canvas
$2300.
Email me to purchase.

And so we've passed into a new year and a new decade. The winter solstice has come and gone and the daylight hours are getting longer instead of shorter. The promise of spring is near, although it's hard to believe on this incredibly frigid morning. I woke up today with my heart full of gratitude and a renewed spirit.

Last night we watched Julie and Julia, the Meryl Streep, Amy Adams flick about the French Chef Julia Child's start in the cooking industry and the turning 30 Julie Powell who cooks and blogs her way through Child's cookbook. I found it to be not only a delightful story, but quite an inspiring one as well. Find and follow your passion, don't let criticism and negativity slow you down, keep a positive attitude, and finish what you start, these are all the messages I got out of this story.

And so I began this morning with a coffee in hand and a brand new journal. I've started (and stopped) journalling a few times throughout my life and have never really given it the time and energy I could have. It wasn't what I needed or wanted at the time. Today, after a few chats about the process with a friend (Thanks Sherry!!) and a few weeks of thinking about what I will do with this year, I believe it's something that will be a useful tool for me. A new year, a new day, a new tool to help me on my journey of self discovery. After all, today is the first day of the rest of my life, right??

Happy Birthday Erik, Happy New Year!

Many years ago I gave birth to this dude. Today he turns 18. It can't be, but it is. Happy Birthday to the best son ever!!!

And Happy New Years to you. I wish you all the best for the coming year-and always. xoxo

A New Year

January 1st in Montreal Canada

And so here we are. It's 2009. Was it not just yesterday that we ushered in a new millennium? Seems so. I have a very optimistic feeling about this year. I guess I'd rather see that glass half full as opposed to half empty. How about you? I started my blog exactly one year ago and I reached 100 posts in that one year. It's coming along quite nicely I think, and is slowly growing in the direction that I've mapped out. I've also met some wonderful blogging friends along this journey. While taking some time off I came up with this little blog manifesto.
1. I started my blog for shameless self promotion. It is to be a vehicle to get my art and my name "out there". To inform my readers, collectors and clients about upcoming events and gallery shows that I'm participating in.
2. This blog works together with my website, other blog(s) and Etsy shop to promote my artwork and (hopefully) increase sales.
3. I will openly and honestly share my creative process as a way to inspire and ignite a creative spark in others.
4. I will share as best I can the positive and negative aspects of what it's like (for me) to be living a creative life as a proffessional working artist.
5. I will share aspects of my personal life and "what's going on in my world" but I will not share all the details of my personal life.