Studio Tour this weekend!

You are invited! If you live within driving distance of my home, I hope you are free this weekend. Once again it is studio tour time here in rural Ottawa west. Several artists shall be opening their studio doors. Visitors can have a peek at where we work, how we work, see work on exhibit as well as work for sale. The tour includes potters, a weaver, photographer, clothing designer, as well as people who work with glass, wood and pewter, people who make jewelry and paper crafts, as well as several fine artists. Something for everyone's interests! For details, please visit www.redtrilliumst.com.

I have some new, fresh off the drafting board mini-studies ready for viewing. I will also have some work from my personal collection on exhibition (i.e. I love these pieces so much they are not for sale) and I shall of course have work available for purchase.

For those of you that are unable to make it, here are some pictures of my studio set up during the last tour. At the moment, the room doesn't look like this yet - my grid walls are not even up! It shall be a busy day today!!!!

It's water in the wine goblet below just in case you were wondering! :-) I shall be sober, I promise. I only drink wine when I am drawing and colouring, not when I am trying to talk about my work to strangers!!!!!

My studio wears many faces, sometimes it is a gallery, sometimes it is a teaching space and sometimes it is a very messy work place. For fun, I have included my studio at its very worst moment ever - lest you think I always work in a pristine, zen like environment! LOL 

The chaos did have a purpose. Two years ago I hauled stuff out of storage closets, added shelves, painted the walls and floor inside one closet and I was also in the middle of some goofy mixed media experiments. My filing cabinet was out in the middle of the room, closet stuff was tossed everywhere and the tables were covered in project stuff. Now I must confess, I am a bit of a neat freak so my studio is normally pretty presentable but still, every now and again it gets to looking a bit like it did on this day... :-) 

my studio at its very messiest

 

And yes, it has been months since my last post - life has been very busy! I am back blogging now so check back over the next few weeks for lots of updates on what has been going on in the studio and on the farm. And to all of my wonderful American readers, Happy Thanksgiving!

 



peony petals finished

peony petals, copyright Teresa Mallen, coloured pencil on Stonehenge paper, 8" x 8"

I haven't thought up a name for this one yet but here is my latest peony petals piece, pretty much finished. I will no doubt tweak it here and there before signing my name and scanning it for posting to my website. The contrast isn't as good as it should be in the photo above but once I started fiddling with that then the colours went crazy - you know how it goes, suffice to say it looks brighter in person.

The eleventh day into a new year...I am a gal who loves a fresh start and a new year seems to be the perfect time to wipe the slate clean. Our journals and day planners are bare and I relish the opportunity to embrace a new beginning. 

I must confess that 2011 was a bumpier ride than I would have liked. There were unexpected challenges and loss. Quite honestly I am very ready to see the back end of that year and to welcome a new one.

I have been thinking much in past months about goals and such and the other night I curled up in front of a fire, with my journal and a glass of wine and I got myself sorted. I planned, prioritized, dreamed and dared to visualize a very bright future. As I type, 2012 offers 355 new days, neatly parceled into weeks, months and seasons. Such a delicious chunk of time, of life filled with lush possibilities and gifts I can't even imagine. I am ready. Very ready.

I am not sure what my next new piece shall be but I have some ideas. I hope to get some time later today to sift through my reference photos. In the meantime, I have some volunteer work to attend to. I am on the executive of a group that puts together a twice a year Studio Tour. Today we shall go over last years finances, plan the next tour, jury in new artists, etc. It is always enjoyable to get together with fellow artists and I am looking forward to brainstorming ways to leverage this tour to new heights of success.

Have you planned out your new year yet? Remember to dream big!

Studio Tour is underway!

I hope those of you in the Ottawa area will be able to get out today to visit the homes on the Red Trillium Studio Tour. The quality of the work is truly outstanding.

We would love to welcome you here at studio stop number five - not only will you be able to see my work and my studio but you will also get to view the work of my two fabulous guest artists!

Here are some pictures of my studio as it looks as a gallery...

Here is the work of Kathryn Looby, a talented copper artist. Kathryn's work has a Celtic flavour, created by hand, in the traditional technique of repousse.

Displaying her work along side Kathryn in my living room is the passionate work of Cristina Del Sol. Cristina is an experimental visual artist creating mainly abstract and non-objective work.

Do check out Kathryn and Cristina's websites and for further tour information, please visit the tour website. Yesterday we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day and lots of visitors and I am sure today will be more of the same.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by on Saturday and I look forward to meeting those of you who can make it out today!