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.

Mannie and I embarked on creating studio buttons for button collectors.  A friend of ours had asked us to do some samples to take to a button collector' meeting where they were well received and even sold.  So in our time Mannie and I created sets of studio buttons.  Me, I created a series around roses -wild, tea, bud, red, white, pink and yellow.  Mannie embellished material with beading, etc to produce her fabric art studio buttons. Base button is metal snap together with shank. These are 1" wooden buttons with added shank and signature. The images are first burnt onto the button then painted with fluid acrylic paints.

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.

Out the front door you can hear the coyote's yip and carry on.  They chase the wild turkeys in the farm field next to our property.  As happens, they stop to survey me as I stop to watch them. A nod of understanding by both and we carry on with the day. The burnt lines are becoming more and more absorbed int the painting with this series -as had begun to happen with the pyro/cat boxes from before.  Nevertheless, the lines are still used to define areas of the painting and contain the paint.

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"

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.

Always that lean and angry look of the wolf.  Me, I see that self assured look of the wolf -almost smug in its confidence.  The burnt, pyrographic lines are becoming less and less noticeable and the structure of the paint is becoming more prevalent.  I will let this sit for a bit before I determine the final finish.

This fox has that furtive look that foxes have whenever they are out and about.  The one that had come onto our property must have been looking for the rabbits that abound under the gazebo, deck and in the fields beyond the cedar ridge that surrounds us. Again, this picture has its base coat and I am thinking about how to finish. Seeing the picture on the blogsite will give me a different perspective.  Strong colours seem to be part of my work -but maybe the paintings do not appear "painterly."  I am wrestling with that.

Life often gets in the way of getting down to doing my art work -but I do try.  I have embarked on a small series on square panels -challenging composition.  Drawing, burning and painting.  So far I have the base coats down and have left them alone in order to come back with a fresh eye. In our area we have the deer, wolves, coyotes, foxes etc roaming the property or the properties adjacent to ours.  These are the ones I have chosen to paint. Just some reminisces regarding our interactions.  I had been driving along the highway by our house when this large dog ran long side.  I then realized it was a wolf. Coyotes yip of a summer evening across the river.  The red fox has come onto our lot to catch the rabbits that have homes everywhere.  Deer, what can you say.  Lovely to look at until they run into the side of your vehicle and total it out -not withstanding the loss of the deer. These and other animals forage in our fields and occasionally ...

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.

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.