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.

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.

Life has been busy and art work has taken a back seat.  I need to re-evaluate this.  But I did get a small pyrographic/fluid acrylic painting done in the last week.  There are these rock formations in the Canadian shield that are most unique. Lines are burnt into the wood panel and then painted with fluid acrylic paints.

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.

One day, during daylight hours, a wolf ran beside my van on the road by my house.  Abruptly he stopped and smugly smiled with a twinkle in his blue eyes.  He was no starving fellow and the bulk looked good on him. I'm still not sure why he ran beside the van but the knowing smile and blue eyes have stayed with me. At dusk you can hear the wolves howling across the river, and sometimes it is as though they were in my yard near the pond.

I have moving between oil pastel work and my usual pyrographic/fluid acrylic works. The rock, water and trees of the north create unique images.  Here I reduced it all down to a lone tree and the landscape about it.  The tree seems like a weathered, aged beacon in the landscape -alone fighting the elements.  The battle is in the tortured lines made more prominent by the pyrographic burn lines.  The lines are no longer around every colour/value separation but to emphasize. 9" x 12"

Another angle of the train pilons in the Grand River.  Here the ice has flowed beyond the pilots and piled up on the island creating a jagged landscape. Interesting to see the pastels online.  I get to see whether or not the painting works from a different view point.

I am using the oil pastels to get my ideas down quickly.  Mannie and I had gone to river by the house.  The river had opened and was somewhat high.  During our ventures to the Grand River in our area the water either roiled or just rolled along.  The juggernauts that had once been the pilons for the railroad tracks stood sturdily in the river thwarting the ravages of the ice that had crashed into them and piled up on the island just in front. Prior to the crush up on the island the island ice and snow was receding. The underpainting for both oil pastels was done with a variety of oil pastels that are a little harder than the Sennelier oil pastels that I used for final colour.  I am enjoying the pictures done with this medium.  Depending upon how I see this picture in the next week I will or will not add burnt lines. For now, I am leaving the Noodle Pen ink lines you see.  Presently, I don't mind the little flakes of oil pastel that are on the surface o...

I broke away from the other art work to try my hand at small wooden buttons.  I burnt the buttons and then painted.  Not sure about the results.  Comments? This is about the actual size of the buttons.  The burning, despite the thinness of the burning blade, still looked a tad heavy.

I am working on a series of 4 animals that have been around our house but not on the house property. I am waiting for them to come to the pond for the frogs and water. I am using the burnt lines and then the fluid paints. This is the base coats -there is still some work to do. But, I want to see them on line to denote composition and colour. I am working outside my comfort zone in putting together the base colours.

I have done a series of small boxes of dogs using burnt lines and fluid acrylic paints. A fierce fellow-sold at the Yuletide Art Show and Sale at Maggiolly's

I completed two more dog boxes using pyrography and fluid acrylic paints. Not much to say.  the lines are burnt and fluid acrylic paint is used to paint between the lines.  I am amazed that some lines and paint can create an image with expression.

Using pyrography and fluid acrylic paints, I created a series of cat boxes and then some dog boxes. The lines burnt were looser than previous works and so the paint took centre stage.  I had worked this year on getting well and thus worked on cat and dog boxes when I could. They are all in the Maggiolly show. 5" x 7" box 5" x 7" box Hopefully others will see the soulfulness in the dogs.

Our Riverbend Artists group are having a sale at a retail art supplies store, Maggiolly in Orangeville, Ontario for the month of December.  So we have all been busy. We have  a fabric artist, a painter of rock, 3 jewelry participants, a traditional quilter, two metal sculptures, an oil painter, and my pyro/acrylic works. This year I worked on the pyro/cat boxes which are in the show and a new pyro/dog series. Our miniature schnauzer, Sharky, became a pensive fellow in our household a number of years ago.

Finally, I have finished a series of pyro cat boxes.  I have put them onto my Pinterest board (Peter C. Marshall's Art Work). I was looking at them and noted each has an attitude. Do  these lips denote an attitude?

I'm narrowing in on the last of the 8 cat boxes I have been able to get together in the studio. And, when I find time I have looked at one other blogs to see cat paintings like http://pamelagatens.blogspot.ca   and a ton of cat paintings on Pinterest. My burnt lines are a little freer than in the past yet still add to the overall look of the work. A bewildering moment.

I am still working on my wooden cat boxes.  It seems that when I finish one thing I have to go back over another.My hands had paint on them and I put them on the sides of the boxes and now I have had to sand and paint and ultimately revarnish.... A wee orange tabby. I had been on Fine Art America  http://fineartamerica.com/art/paintings/cat and Easy https://www.etsy.com/market/cat_art to look at cat paintings.  Good grief there are enough artists doing cats.  I'll need to figure out where I fit in.  Pricing always seems to be an issue with me.

And the pyro cat boxes go on.  Burnt lines (pyrography) and fluid acrylic paints between the lines are  my work.  Now the big issue is the photographing of the work -I need to do better.Nevertheless, the boxes are looking good.

I had another day to work in the studio.  I had to allow time to complete some work for an art meeting with the Riverbend Artists of Grand Valley. For my pyro cat art boxes: I chose a colour scheme for the cats -blues and greys and white. Then I mix a dark and medium of the blue/grey and put in the medium and dark areas as areas. For the light areas I used unbleached titanium white. Then I went over each area with a lighter colour of the area and used "fur strokes." As I neared the finish painted the light areas white and used white "fur strokes" to tie things together. The eyes were painted last (in some cases first) and the back ground painted. Then finishing touches were added where I felt it necessary. I like my paintings to have a relatively bold look, good composition, and an attitude. Just a little smirky.

It's nice to get down to work in the studio.  I have this set of Pyro Cat boxes I am working on presently.  I need to work some things out before tackling larger pieces -it's been a while since I last worked at my paintings.  The boxes are a nice interlude. And so another cat box bites the dust. I'm enjoying giving them this attitude.