My Weekend In Banff

Hello again Everyone!

I hope all of you had a great weekend :) I actually got to get away to Banff for a bit so I thought I'd post some pics for you to see. I feel fortunate to live so close to a place so beautiful!

My highlight of this trip was trying to conquer my fear of heights, I didn't really succeed but it was fun trying! We took the gondola up Sulpher mountain to check out the views and go for a little hike.

Hope you enjoy!

Going up the mountain

Banff Springs Hotel

Same view but little farther up (did I mention I don't like heights? Lol)

Lots of friendly little critters - if you can spot 'em!

Found an Inukshuk along the way :)

View from the other side of the mountain

Here is just a little doodle I did in my sketchbook while waiting to go for some dinner Sunday night, thought I'd share that too :)

Black and white version in Photoshop

This was done with water colour and black india ink. I prefer the colour quality of my acrylic inks but I like how water colours blend... it felt good to do something creative!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Off to do the weekend laundry!

This Week, "Sea Green"!

Hi Everyone!

It feels like its been forever once again although it's only been a week! This week was a ridiculously busy one for me and I didn't think I was going to have the time to paint but sure enough, where there's a will there's a way!

This weeks Creative Colour Challenge was "sea green" with the option of using two other colours of your choice. The theme of "to the sea" was assigned as well. I had no idea what to paint really so I just mixed up my colours and let my mind and brushes wander, kinda like therapy at the end of my hectic week! Lol :)

Here's what I came up with:

Acrylic on canvas board

6"x 8"

I don't feel as though this piece is quite finished and every time I look at it, I see areas that I want to revisit and fix! We'll see what happens with it in the near future but for now, it is enough. ;)

Now to do some much overdue blog surfing and see what the rest of you have been up to! :)
Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

(posted from my iPhone, not as easy as I would have liked! Forgive the little glitches here and there! Lol)

New Blog Look

As you can tell, I'm trying to revamp the look of my blog while incorporating my new White Violet mandala. I want to go for a more "fresh" look, not so dark but I'm not sure if it's too much of a contrast from the old look. I am so not a tech person either so you'll have to bare with me, lol! Wish me luck! (Trust me, I'll need it! LOL) Any input/feedback is always appreciated! :)

The Old Blog look...

I will get the hang of this soon enough! ;)  Time to get back to some relaxing painting... :)

Creative Colour Challenge Week #3!

This weeks challenge was turquoise with silver and gold, I loved this colour combination, especially with the gold! I will definitely work with these colours again in the near future.  They work beautifully together!

This one ended up being another late night painting, why I'm doing that lately is beyond me but it's turning out alright (despite my serious need for coffee right now ;)). 

Below are a couple of pics that I've posted in the flickr group for the Creative Colour Challenge (pop over and have a look if you have time, lots of inspiring stuff from great artists!)

If you would like to see more pics of this painting including some process pics, check out the album on my Facebook page :)

That's it for now, have a great weekend!

My "White Violet" Mandala - Finished! :)

Finished at last!

In an earlier post, I had given a sneak peak of the progress of a mandala intended for my new logo/branding idea.  I'm not done playing around with it yet (fitting it into headers, etc.) but I thought I'd give you a look at the finished painting!  I hope you like it as much as I do! :)

 Acrylic Ink on Illustration Board

10"x10"

This weeks Creative Colour Challenge is "Turquoise" with a "metallic influence" - gold, silver, etc.  It sounds great and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Creative Colour Challenge Week 2

These last two weeks have been just crazy busy! This is going to be the first weekend in 2 weeks where I will finally have time to paint and catch up with my creative world.  It feels like it's been eons.

Last night after a late dinner, I stayed up till 3am watching movies and painting my new piece for the Creative Colour Challenge.  This weeks colour was "raspberry red" - one of my all time favourite colours to work with! This turned out to be kind of ironic however as I had a lot of trouble with this one.  I'm not sure if it was just the last minute timing of it all or just anxiety in general after a long work filled two weeks.  I felt totally blocked creatively and had no idea what to do with it! I am glad that it is over with and I'm happy to get back to my normal schedule. 

I hope my frustration with this piece isn't too obvious, it turned out better than I thought it would ;)

Here's one of the pics I have posted to the group on flickr:

Acrylic ink, rhinestones on canvas

4" x 4"

So that is that for this week and for my baby canvases. Wish me better luck with next weeks colour, I'll find out what it is tomorrow! Good luck to the rest of you who are also taking part in the challenge! I am definitely finding it "challenging"! :)

Blues Fest 2010

As some of you know I had the opportunity to work Blues Fest this year. I wasn't really a "blues" fan in particular but I love live music of any kind so I decided to partake! :) I was not disappointed by any means, a lot of great bands were showcased.  Among some of my favs were The Mason Rack Band, Little Feat and The Chigaco Blues Reunion just to name a few.  I'm glad I didn't miss out! Some of the perks: back stage passes, free cd's, meeting some of the band members and enjoying some ice cold beer (that I didn't have nearly enough time to have enough of, lol)

 

The grounds early on in the day on Saturday, Aug 7 - not too busy yet!

The Mason Rack Band was one of my favourites of the festival. In the pic below, the lead singer brings out the floor drum to the front of the stage while the drummer is still playing it and places it beside a couple of empty kegs.  The other 2 band members then join the drummer in a collaborative drum solo and start tossing their drum sticks back and forth to eachother without missing a beat! Really cool to see in a small environment if you ever get the chance! 

The Mason Rack Band

The bands were not the only colourful characters there either, this guy was awesome, such a sweetheart and definitely enjoying Blues Fest! Everyone was asking him if they could take a pic of him and of course he would allow you to for a price: a hug! :) LOL

I had a tonne of fun this year with this event and am thinking about volunteering for it next year as well (hopefully I won't have so much on my plate already like I did this year!)

Delicious Big Rock Grasshopper :)

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)

Week One of the Creative Colour Challenge

For week one of Louise Gale's Creative Colour Challenge, she has chosen the colour "sunflower yellow".  Not wanting to paint the obvious sunflower, I went for the abstract! Shocking I didn't create any kind of mandala I know! ;)

Here's a couple of pics if you would like to have a peek! :)

Acrylic ink on canvas

4"x4"

With painted sides - 2 yellow and 2 black

Cropped detail

It was interesting being restricted to only one colour plus black and white.  I don't think that I would have done something like this on my own, I absolutely LOVE using colours of all sorts. I think it turned out ok though, a good experiment I would say.  I am using up the last of my 4"x4" canvases, hence the small size in case you were wondering.  (Only one more left)  I figured these would be good projects to use them up on.

Well, that's it for the first week of the Creative Colour Challenge.  I will post every week as the projects get completed.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

White Violet Mandala Sneak Peek :)

Just thought I'd post a sneak peek at some work I'm doing on a new logo idea I'm considering.  I'm hoping to make it part of my new look for my blog by making it part of my header.  We'll see how it goes.  The image in the header I am using right now is from the first mandala I had ever created. Using this image was fitting at first as I had chosen to name my creative biz based on the meaning of the flower "white violet" which is to "take a chance on happiness".  For me, it took a lot of guts to start putting my work out there for everyone to see, that mandala was the first step! Plus, I couldn't think of a better name for a fledgling creative biz! ;)

However, I thought it may be more suitable to let go of the sentimental first mandala and go with something more fitting of the name "White Violet Art".  It isn't finished yet, there is more detail to be added in the purple circle around the outside etc.
Feel free to let me know what you think :) I really hope you like it so far!