bodner015

In between mural work I have been busy making sets of flower buttons. The small size has its challenges.  I had done a set of cat and rose buttons for the button society.  For display and sale I have put them onto cards.

The 40+ foot mural at a local school will take some time to do.  The base was done in what seemed to have been done quickly.  Now the painting is going along at a rather slow pace.  The composition is constantly changing and so is the technical painting parts. I am there....I'm the one taking the pictures.

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.

Manuela drew the Sun, the Moon and the Stars for a punch needle image for the cottage -or wherever. It is interesting how you punch the threads in through the back of the canvas and the image is on the reverse side.  The orange and yellow threads went through a number of changes to get the correct combination of colours that make up the image.  As usual, Manuela added beads and crystals to the canvas. The silver treads of the moon pick up coloration from the other colours in the image.

Manuela has just finished this butterfly work in punch needle.  As usual she has added mother of pearl beads to the butterflies.

As Manuela and I get ready for the up coming art shows and sales, she is working on a set of smaller coil baskets.  Have a look.

Now Manuela had a plethora of Yo-Yos and began to look at how to use them in her work. As usual she used some of her hand dyed fabric, beading, embroidery, corked threads, found objects and now yo-yos to embellish some of her works. Book covers Purses and bags Now that she has this cache of yo-yos I am sure they will pop up in a variety of ways. I still have't figured out how she can make them so quickly -and watch tv.

And just when we have enough bird feeders I built two more with my grand children.  I had read in Bird Watch Canada that many children know many brand logos but can only name a few birds.  So, by having our grand children join in to make bird feeders they will keep a look out for those birds that come to their" feeders and thus learn the names.  When the grand children come to our place, Mannie and I work with them on projects and so leave our work behind.  This way we pass on the love and skills of our crafts/arts. Now I changed the way we were to assemble these bird feeders as the larger squirrels can hold on to the top struts of the previously built feeder and lean down to pick out the food.  These bird feeders will not allow that to happen.  The top bowl and tray were picked up at a church thrift shop and what with washers, stop/top and regular nuts, a 1/4 inch threaded rod and a wooden circle and wire we assembled the feeders. (Around $5 each -give or ...

This week has been a time of gathering up art work from one venue and putting work into others.  Co-ordinating the changes is interesting -but do it we must.  These are the activities of artists that no one sees.  Our work just appears somewhere and a price affixed.  (We do have to pay for gas to move our work around and to participate in receptions, etc -all busy-ness.) The works in the Grand Valley Public Library will be taken out and a new venue found.   The works and our names will thus keep circulating -and that is a good thing. Mannie has now set up this cabinet in the Grand Valley Public Library for the next two months. Just as we are doing this, we removed works from the Orangeville Mill St. Public Library.    Now we are off to put a display of our work into the Main St. window space in Grand Valley.  Busy-ness, Busy-ness, Busy-ness!

The clamps for the Quilting/Embroidery frame that I had first used kept falling off as Mannie moved the unit around to work on it.  And so the search began to find a way to secure the frame and leg together so that Mannie could work on it and move it about as she worked.  We used c clamps with not much better results.  What to do?  What to do?  Then I received a flyer from Busy Bee Tools and lo and behold I saw an Angle Clamp Bessey. I could drill a hole into the legs I had built, insert the clamp, add the frame and tighten down.  When we got them home Mannie wanted to use the bar part to go on top of her frame and work, and screw the tightener from below.  We tried that and it worked.  The clamps did not come off and Mannie could move her frame around at will.  Ahhh... Now, before these clamps went on, Mannie had tried velcro to attach the legs.  The velcro did not hold when Mannie moved the unit around.  But, we kept it on to decr...

Mannie went off to a workshop on quilted fabric "manhole covers"!?  Apparently the Japanese make something of a fine art of designing coverings for the holes in their streets and sidewalks, and each community takes great pride in its contribution to the genre.  Helen Fujiki led the workshop, sh has travelled to Japan.  Mannie extended her picture works to fit the manhole cover format.  And as usual she quilted,  appliquéd, painted with acrylic paint and Sharpies, printed, embroidered and beaded with Czech crystals.  We will wait to see its final, final form. Do you see the hidden sunfish? Remember there had been a post that showed Mannie's beginning of her manhole cover -things certainly have changed from the  Beginning a "Quilted Manhole Cover"  Here are google images of Japanese manhole covers As well, on line there are people who have done fabric replicas of manhole covers from various cities. ( https://www.etsy.com/listing/63338292/nyc-se...

Mannie has been working on a quilting/embroidery piece that is large.  She has been working on it as she watches TV and has been balancing it on her knees with a lot of difficulty.  So I took time from my painting to go down to the workshop and make her a pair of legs to attach to the quilting/embroidery frames.  As there are only the two legs they can be put on any frame. Note: Mannie can pull the work right to the couch where she works. We will try a series of clamps.  With all the movement Mannie does while working the clamps can come undone.  We may need to scre the legs to the frames.  We will see. One of two legs made.  Note I rounded off the leg ends so Mannie can tilt the structure anyway she wants.  As well, to save the rugs she put socks on the ends (we may find a better system). The extensions at the front and the back are the places for the clamps, although they can be put along the top part of the leg.

Purple crocuses awaken under the lilac trees when the Spring sun shines and warms the backyard.  (I am doing a work from last year's garden.)  I am amazed that they can push up through such covering and add colour to the snow.   In the original piece the background is softer, paler; the tree trunks less black (especially when I used no black anywhere). The starkness of the terrain was a challenge to portray.  I put some colour into the white snow -but the white snow appears so white that it becomes hard to depict with the pastels.  The Sennelier oil pastels are so thick and rich that they impart an actual thickness to the strokes and the picture which I hope will be picked up in the final picture and especially when viewing behind the glass. Speaking of glass -the photograph of the image behind glass is quite different from the image without the glass.  I am not sure how to resolve this.  As the images of the actual painting and the photograph can...

Six bird feeders and 4 suet holders adorn our trees over-hanging our back yard deck.  Today 26 gold finches joined the Juncos (13), Chick-a-dees (21), cardinals (3 pair), Blue Jays (6), Mourning Doves (10) woodpeckers (2), and a variety of sparrows (29). So why not put out another bird feeder.  I had a plastic bowl and a plastic dip/condiment container, a coat hanger and some wire and built a bird feeder that the birds could fly into and eat without the snow falling on top. Time went by and along with snow blowing and shovelling I did no art work for the day.  But soon the push will be on when Mannie and I sit down to look at the shows for the year. In the meantime the flocks of birds in our back yard continue to grow, especially with the temperature today being at -21 degrees Celsus (-6 F) at 7am.  They need the food to generate their heat. And thus, we go through a lot of bird seed in the winter. Now, another reason our back yard feeders are visited so much is the ...

the lines in my Oil Pastel work of late have strong burnt lines in the illustration board.  Those lines have their beginnings in my drawings. Spring will come to us and so I got out some works from my garden and the woods and began drawing. I put them up on the website because when I view the site I often see the drawing -and my finished pictures in a different light.  And, sometimes, I make further changes, if I can. The swirls are my directional lines that will not appear in the final painting. I am not pleased with the dark back ground for this beginning  Spring painting. 

Over one weekend Mannie and I were in a show and sale with about 20 other artisans.  The Pasmans have been holding this show and sale for a number of years now and it gets quite the traffic. I put in some of my character boxes. Mannie put in booklets... and more booklets... and scissor holders and more character boxes.

Mannie had been off to a workshop  on "Quilted Manhole Covers."  She trucked fabric, materials and her Brother sewing machine to the workshop to set up, receive instruction and sew. So far, so good.  But, she has not made a decision about how to finish it. the fish were stamped onto fabric and cut out to be applied.

Mannie has been creating fabric art objects everyday for the longest time in order to fulfil her obligations for the shows she has committed to this fall and winter (6, I think, September to December.) While I worked away at another oil pastel, Mannie catalogued, sorted by show, and made sales tags for each item. I happened to walk through the studio with a camera and voila, snapshots of Mannie at work.  And, photos of some of the work she has prepared to send out. Good grief!! Coil basquets filling one table. Books and boxes filling another table. Mannie at work in her work area. (Note the well organized shelves.)

Yesterday I completed a small 5" x 7"oil pastel of nearby canola fields.  These small landscapes are giving me fits as I try to paint with large tipped oil pastels.  And, I find it hard to determine the nature of the scene -what I am trying to say.  I need to work on that.