bodner015

Manuela and I, as part of the Riverbend Artists of Grand Valley Mural Committee, were part of the work crew (at present with Donna) drawing and painting the mural on a local school's library alcove wall.  Donna did the concept work used as the template as you will see and we three made a presentation to the school's parent/teacher committee after input from teachers, students and parents.

Mannie and I enjoyed the experience of the grand idea -a Community Information Centre, Museum and Gallery.  As this was a 150th Canada Birthday project for the town of Grand Valley funding ran out in December and was not renewed.  The Economic Development Committee will look at it further in relationship to its Tourism and Business potential. Hopefully Mannie and I along with our Riverbend Artists' group will be part of any new endeavour.

Merry Christmas everyone.  🎅 As usual,   I can't help myself -I like this fun Christmas card based on a classic golden oldie's version of "White Christmas." I also like the animation from Joshua Held of the UK.

In the small town where the Riverbend Artists work and show their art, the town council, the Historical Society and the artists collaborated to create a Community Information Centre, Museum and Gallery as a place for residents to meet and see the arts and the history of the town.  Residents of the town brought in their memorabilia, the artists displayed their art work, and the town provided a place to pick up information about events in the community.  Art work changed throughout the time period and residents brought in and then took out their memorabilia as themes changed.  The artists created and put up a display system used by all.  Volunteers managed the Centre.  Since July 1st, 2017 in excess of 1500 visitors from all over the province of Ontario, other Canadian Provinces, Europe, USA,  came for a visit. the Riverbend Artists held a show and sale July 1st and 400 visitors came into the Centre -without advertising.  The Artists just finished  ...

As members of the Riverbend Artists Mannie and I are involved in: And the rose buttons I have made are now present at the Yuletide Show and Sale in Grand Valley, Ontario.  Some of the buttons have already been sold and I am not sure which ones until I see what I have left at the Show, Apparently the pinks are all gone. A friend from the art groups we belong to sold the buttons $18 Cn to members of a button club. I have found doing theses 1" buttons a challenge for the burning and for the dynamic look for such a small item.

I had been out yesterday doing some consignment shop hunting  -found some unique items. But, today, I had to get back to doing something creative -just get'er done. However, I was in the mood to have a laugh.  And so I created a cartoon (marshtoon) that I want to add to the collection for a cottage country calendar. I have seen the pictures of the fisherman in the river or rapids who has caught that prize winning fish and holds it up to display the prize.  I have also seen the pictures of bears fishing at rapids and in rivers.  I thought it might be amusing to meld the two. Step one:  Draw preliminary cartoon characters and then the rough and final drawing Step two:  Use the Tracer light table to draw an ink drawing of the cartoon. Step three:  Scan the inked picture into the computer and use Seashore to colour in the drawing. Step four:  Bring the Seashore cartoon into the Comic 3 program to add dialogue, frame and heading. At sometime I will nee...

Up at our northern cottage lake residents have moved snow and created skating rinks. What if...    My granddaughter was helping me put out bird food.  At one point she was standing on the deck with a handful of seeds.  i asked her how long was she going to wait for the birds.  "Til' they come," she said. Even the birds found time to make a snowman.

Yet another northern cottage country cartoon.  Construction is an ongoing activity throughout cottage country.  Contracted or DYI construction makes for a noise well recognized throughout the countryside.  However, for a few times throughout the year construction ceases and thus the cartoon. Again, after preliminary sketches, I use the Light Tracer table to ink the cartoon with my Noodler Ahab flex fountain pen.  Values are added in Seashore, my free drawing application.  Once the value work has been done I put it into a Comic Life box and add the dialogue bubbles. I am in the process of making a series of these cartoons that can be used in a calendar.   I may need to go back and redo each Seashore cartoon in colour.  But first I want to get a cache of cartoons together so there are a number of choices that can be made into a full calendar. Although I like the Manga cartooning (http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Manga) I have a hard time adjusting to the styl...

After preliminary drawing I use my Light Tracer to ink the cartoon (marshtoon). Some irregularities showed up and were to be dealt with in "Seashore", my free drawing program. In Seashore I filled and drew and brushed in the values I wanted. Then I loaded the photo into Comic Life 2 or 3, once I had opened a blank and added a box.  Once the image had been arranged within the Comic Life box I added the dialogue bubbles and the name of the comic.  The image was named, saved and exported to iPhoto to be emailed or kept. Up at the cottage there is quite the snowmobiling life.  The trail goes by our cottage when the lake is completely frozen over.  There have been some years with little snow.  Apparently, so far, this has not been one of those years.

I have just had to make and send off some cartoons (marshtoons) to the Lake Cecebe newsletter for its winter edition. (https://www.cecebewaterways.ca/index.htm ) Apparently the Marina has put up a webcam to take pictures of the bay for the internet. (A webcam picture is on the homepage of the CWA website.)  The deer roam about everywhere, and so the cartoon. My granddaughter thought the idea of the deer having a Facebook page very funny.😁😉 I have tried out my new Noodler's Ahab flex fountain pen on these drawings and was delighted with the ease of use and the lines made.  Wonder Pens has quite a selection, reasonably priced. Noodler's Ahab Flex Fountain Pen - Copernican Pearl Our Price:  $29.50 CN https://www.wonderpens.ca/Noodler_s_Flex_Pens_s/1880.htm?searching=Y&sort=7&cat=1880&show=15&page=1

The deadline is fast approaching for the next cottage cartoon for the Lake Cecebe Waterways Association newsletter.  https://www.cecebewaterways.ca   And so to work I went.  Ideas are my biggest issue and so I go through the cottage magazines about the house and websites about cottages.  Something often catches my curiosity and the idea is allowed to percolate awhile. Not too long -I have a deadline. In the studio, and once I have an idea, I make some rough sketches of the main character.  I use the reference books I have to determine the shape of the animal and then work to create a cartoon character from the sketches.  I will do a number of these. Then I add another character if necessary to complement the first and reinforce some attitude or look that I want.  Once the drawing is on its way  I use a table light to trace the drawing.  I check the line flow and spacing, keeping in mind the dialogue bubble that comes later.My lines must all c...

I had picked up an old headboard and footboard at a garage sale for $3.  Maybe I could use it at the cottage; maybe something else.  I had seen beds into  benches on Pinterst and had made plans to do the same  -some time in the future! I had taken the old bed home, stored it in my workshop and didn't notice it until I was doing a major cleaning recently.  The need to do something with these random project pieces reared its head.  Sometimes it doesn't pay to clean up because, as in my case, I found those project pieces I had intended do and now am doing -all in one time span it seems. Here is what it looks like on the work table.  Notice I have not cleaned it as I have a lot of sanding to do.  I put wood filler everywhere as I like things without gaps and in cutting the footboard in half I had left gaps that could not thoroughly be sanded out at the time. The 3/4 inch oak plywood seat was cut from a piece I had around the workshop.  I cut it a...

I took my wife's idea to teak oil the pew-like bench I had made from an old solid wood door. I painted the teak oil all over the bench -even the painted wood parts.  All the nicks and scrapes were covered and seemed to disappear.  The freshly cut areas still remain lighter but I'll work it out. Now, after letting the teak oil stay on the bench for 12 hours (6-8 recommended) I found that where the teak oil lay on the painted part of the bench it had not penetrated and had become sticky  -not nice.  So, I took a cloth and mineral spirits (varsol) and wiped the bench down with the varsol and then used a clean cloth to wipe away the varsol.  (Need to deal with the varsol smell -help me if you know how.)  Nevertheless, the bench looks pretty good. The bench sits in the garage by the back door.  Our boots fit underneath and make a great place to put the them on.   If you look closely you can see a hinge area and the place where the door knob had been.

I had some time -not enough to start a piece of art.  I had to clean up the workshop as I have a mess and a number of projects on the go. While cleaning up I came across an old door I had picked up at the side of the road.  It was a solid door with those lovely panels. I then found a site, http://lovegrowswild.com/2016/01/old-door-new-bench/,  that made a bench out of such a door. The site shows how she cut the door and her steps to get a pew like bench. Now I have a pocket hole tool and have used it often.  On the site she also used pocket holes.  So off to work I went. The cutting of the door was a little different but I worked it out.  To start, I cut the door in half -across the width.  Then I cut the two halves in half down the lengths.  Later I made further cuts to adjust to fit. When joining my seat to the sides I cut into the side panels to create a groove to take the seat panel.   All parts to be connected were glued and then pocket ...

We had the fireplace in the studio replaced.  In doing so I tore the fireplace surround apart leaving the understructure.  After a committee of two debate Mannie had me buy and install the stone facing to the fireplace one the new fireplace was installed.  Needless to say, the DIY project interfered with art work getting done, but, it needed to be done. I looked chic covered with a plastic bag as I cut the stone on the tile wheel that threw water at me with every cut. But, I could do the work outside as the March day was sunny and warm. Later I put the pics into my comic life program and have a short moment of the event. I'm not so sure I want early sunny and warm days as then the projects will begin to add up.

Up at the cottage the weather has been as "weird" as it has been at Heron's Way.  Here we have had days of 13  degrees celsius and then -17.  Rain and then snow.  Sunshine then dark days.  3 days in a row I have had to snow blow the driveway to get out.  3 days before I dealt with the rain runoff. Up at the cottage someone had been water skiing -in a Santa costume; other kayaked wearing elf hats.  I spoke to a man that wore a tee shirt and shorts to bbq on Christmas day. This winter, so far, has been "weird." I hope I have captured that sense of weird.  My marshtoons are the type that make you go hmmmm!

Minnie and I have been busy putting our work into Art Show and Sales all over the county.Here we are at the Orangeville Art Group Annual Art Show and Sale held at the Best Western Plus in Orangeville.  The show had diversity of media and techniques that has improved over the years. Mannie submitted a series of French dyed silk mandalas. I submitted my Ridge Rabbit and Gazebo Bunny Series which my granddaughters and I will make into a book. The day went well but artists continue to ask what has happened to the sales.  (Sales were made at this show but not in the numbers one had hoped for.)

The landscaper (more about that later) took away a multitude of crumbling railroad ties.  But, some were still along the driveway.  The paving crew could not take the rest of the railroad ties away and so I was left with this pile of solid, heavy railroad ties. I could not get rid of them and so I sawed them in half and carried them up to the barn area and arranged them as the composter bin bases to the contour of the southwest garden beside the barn.  Mannie and I had taken all the pickets and caps off the balcony walkway at the front (more later) and so I used them to build up the walls of the composter bins.  I used 4 x 4 posts from the deck we took off the front of the house and fence boards left over from another project.  I did have to buy some more fence boards and 1 x 1 inch pieces for slat guides and slat separation. As seen from the side of the barn.  1 x1 s were cut into 3" pieces and nailed to the fence boards (slats) to create separation for ae...

The "Life Puzzle Series: Stages of Man" has come home from its debut at the Headwaters Arts Festival Art Show.  I had used my traditional  pyrographic lines and fluid acrylic paint to create what I had hoped were bold statements in the show.  The Judge at the juried show had indicated that they had a Magritte quality about them.  Hmmm!? Chasing Choices Hunger for Acceptance  Loves Labours Lost or Won Preparation for Battle Awaiting Godot Coins for Charon The series almost has to be sold as a series and who's going to do that? It's getting hard to know what the public will buy.  This has become a concern for many of the artists.  No one seems to have an answer as to why art sales are down.