yummy art books

Some delightful finds...

The other day my husband and I cleared our schedules and had a date afternoon. We headed off to the town of Carleton Place, just outside of Ottawa. Our destination was Wool Growers, a fabulous livestock supply store. Okay, so we had an errand we wanted to run but the date part was two other stops - Ballygiblins for a very late lunch (highly recommended if you live in the Ottawa area and can make it there) and The Book Gallery. The book store is located in a very old Victorian brick house and the attached renovated storage buildings and it houses over 100,000 titles of used books.

Of course I spent my time in the art section and I came away with some books that reflect my artistic passions - illustration, botanicals, nature art and books on art that flat out makes me swoon. My loot consists of: Janet Marsh's Nature Diary, Glen Loates A Brush With Life, Arthur Rackman A Life With Illustration by James Hamilton, The Art of Andrew Wyeth, and The Complete Writings of Emily Carr. If you are not familiar with the illustration of Arthur Rackman, the art of the Wyeths (a very talented family) nor the art of Emily Carr (one of my personal inspirations with regards to her life journey as well as her art) then I encourage you to check these folks out. (all highlighted text in the post has hyperlinks to other sites).

I don't know how independent book sellers stay in business. Who would want to have to compete with Amazon and other discount sellers? It felt very good to support a local business and to give some lovely art books a new home. I am looking forward to my next visit as I didn't have time to look through the gardening and cooking books.

When we returned home at around 5:30, the goats were all up on their play structure staring out into the field. The fox was back! The chickens were blissfully ignorant, eating all over the property in front of the house. Mark scared the fox away again...it ran off rather reluctantly as it was hunting mice. It continued to be a feral evening. Our dog managed to catch a meadow vole while out on his evening walk and he chomped it down, we sat out in the meadow with the goats until dark and two deer came out into the field and watched us, the resident owl started hooting at dusk and later coyotes howled. Wildlife abounds here and we love it.

Now for a few pics I took the other evening whilst heading out to the barn for evening chores. My new hobbies, cloud watching and now cloud photography...Did you know there was a Cloud Appreciation Society? I didn't but thanks to fellow blogger Ann Nemcosky, I know now. Thank you Ann. Their website has inspired me to start a new photo file of cloud photography.

Yesterday the clouds were so beautiful I found it hard to stay focused on my work! :-)  Perhaps I need to explain that for two decades I lived in houses that were surrounded by forest. Lovely, most definitely yes, but it sure was difficult to grow veggies without much sun and I never saw the sky. Ah, but now that we have moved here, I see sky and I am very smitten - storm clouds, snow clouds, big fat summer clouds, it is all so beautiful. Why not add some beauty to your life and make time for a bit of cloud watching?

The fox was back yesterday afternoon. He/she was once again hunting mice in the field, was stared down by goats and ran away when it heard my voice. The chickens were once again oblivious. Right now a cull of the flock doesn't seem such a bad thing - two hens have started laying eggs in an outdoor manger (which has a lid, the goats eat from between slats on the side) and somebody is pooping in the nesting boxes. My husband has re-engineered the manger to thwart the chickens and there is much annoyed clucking going on. Of course, Mr./Ms. Fox would no doubt not get these offenders but probably eat our well behaved best layers... :-)

more pen/ink/cp pieces

pen/ink/coloured pencil on Stonehenge paper, 4" x 6"
copyright Teresa Mallen

I have finished off seven more of my 4 inch x 6 inch pen/ink/cp drawings. Of course they will look much better when they are presented with a mat so the ragged paper edges don't show. They are enjoyable to do and I like that I can have a finished work quite quickly. Sometimes my larger pieces can seem to drag on a bit... :-)

Harvest season is upon us as veggies ripen in the garden. We are also storing up food for winter of a different sort - hay for the goats. A year's worth of hay was delivered Saturday morning.

 Looks like a lot but it is only 200 bales.

I grew up on a dairy farm and the conveyor is actually a smaller one that we used on that farm. I am delighted to inform you that I shifted that entire stack of hay myself last Saturday! My husband was stacking the hay in the mow.

Two hundred bales by real farming standards is nothing, just two wagon loads. If there is one thing I learned on the farm while growing up, it was how to handle hay. During my teen years, my mother and I unloaded tens of thousands of bales (from a wagon, not spread all over a lawn - took a lot of walking on Saturday). I had no brothers and there was no hired help. So, yup, this wee pile was a piece of cake and I loved every minute of it.

To this farm girl, the smell of hay is divine and it is very satisfying to know that your animals are set for the winter, no matter how deep the snow nor how severe the cold may get. Did I mention that it was 29 degrees (84F) with 100% humidity the day we put up the hay? And that these bales weigh between 50 - 60 pounds each? I have no idea the amount of water I lost in sweat and my face was the colour of a very ripe tomato but I got the last bale sent up to the loft about 10 minutes before a rain storm blew in. Wet hay is ruined hay.

As a added bonus, I find all of these farming activities provide great therapy for wrists that suffer from too much typing on the computer. A session of planting garden seedlings or pulling weeds, mucking out stalls or shifting bales seems to exercise my hands in a very thorough way. We truly weren't meant to be sedentary creatures and our bodies often remind us!  So yeah for farm work. :-)

a mystery

Well it had to be done. Sorting pencils and finding ones that need replacing is a 'yawn' task if there ever was one, for me anyway. 

I did have two surprises though and one of them is a mystery. First of all, I was quite surprised at the number of pencils I have to purchase! It has been a very long time since I replenished my stash but I hadn't realized just how long.

The second surprise occurred when I checked my bin of neutrals. I discovered short pencils in colours I don't use!!! Honestly, cool grey 70%, 20%, 10%, french grey 30%, 50%, 20%, warm grey 10%  etc. (Prismacolor's Premier line has oodles of greys if you didn't know).I am puzzled! I don't like using grey pencils - I prefer to make my own greys/neutrals by using layers of other colours, like painters do. And just what art have I done in the last year that would have included greyish areas anyway? Humm...none... Soooo, what's up? A colouring intruder? A ghost with a penchant for grey? Weird goings on around here, I say...

Here is a peek at the humpback hosta piece...

work in progress, cps on Colourfix paper, 6.5" x 23"
copyright Teresa Mallen

There is much tweaking to be done, some dark areas to lighten and some modelling to do but it is getting there. In my pencil sort out, I discovered a pencil I didn't know I had. I thought I needed to purchase it in order to work further on the background. So with my new found pencil in hand, I settled in to work on the upper background. The photo is a tad dark and doesn't show the subtle colour changes between the upper and lower areas nor does it show well all of the colours that are in the background. Trust me they are there. :-) I really enjoy using several colours in my backgrounds as I think it gives the work a vibrancy and an energetic quality that increases the closer you move towards the piece.

I like the change of pace backgrounds give. No fussy detail work, just flat out colouring. While one might think a 23" wide piece would require quite a bit of time to lay down several layers of colour, it doesn't. Over the years, hours of practice has earned me the ability to lay down colour in quick even strokes. If you work in cps, you might recall how in the early days you had to concentrate to get a consistent even stroke. As I used to tell my students, it will become automatic one day, just wait and see! Anyway, I dashed this off while listening to Donizetti's opera Maria Stuarda on 'Saturday Afternoon at the Opera' on CBC radio and I was done long before poor Queen Mary of Scotland met her doomed fate with her executioner. Goodness, as the confrontations between the two cousins, Queen Elizabeth I of England and Queen Mary heated up and insults were exchanged (in Italian of course) and as the drama of passion, betrayal, love and death unfolded, my pencils were flying with the excitement. Isn't it funny how we can get all caught up in a story, even when we know the plot and the outcome?

For drama of a quieter sort, I have been taking reference photos for some landscape pieces that I might do some day. So many ideas, but only so many hours...

I live on the Carp Ridge in rural Ottawa (Canada) and just a few minutes from my home there is a huge tract of land (hundreds of acres) that is publicly owned and protected from development. It is a wild rocky place filled with deep ponds, some the size of lakes. Here is a small study I did a couple of years ago, inspired by a fall outing.





And here are a few pictures taken while on a recent hike.

Carp Ridge Cuties, two of them but you can't see my husband... :-)

studio update

hosta leaves work in progress, coloured pencil on Colourfix paper, 6.5" x 23"
copyright Teresa Mallen

Here is the Humpback Hosta Leaves piece as it looks now. There is much to be done but I am pleased so far. I am letting it sit with me for awhile so my subconscious can work out where I want it to go next. Also, I am unable to continue with the background as I am out of the pencils that I want to use. I haven't been to the art supply store in ages so I guess this is to be expected. Time to draw up a shopping list!

While allowing time for the above piece to percolate in my noggin, I moved on to a different project, one of my first art loves actually, pen and ink. I love to draw and I love working in ink. I get lost in a happy place when I am crosshatching shapes and values! :-) I am working on a series of simple little illustrations, done in pen and ink, coloured with cps of course which shall be offered up for sale as matted originals. (sorry for the dark picture, I fiddled with it but this is as good as it is getting)

Pen/ink/coloured pencil originals, copyright Teresa Mallen

They are conveniently sized in a 4 x 6 inch format and with a mat will fit nicely into a store bought 8 x 10 inch frame (the customer buys the frame of their choice).Very affordable and would make a great Christmas gift! Yes, I am preparing for a pre-Christmas open studio sale and a November studio tour. I am even thinking of images for holiday cards. I don't mind thinking of Christmas while in July. I really like winter and I have not let big business ruin my experience of the Christmas season. Might even put on some Christmas music while I work on them - I can hear your groans! LOL

Well it is early afternoon and a perfect summer day so I am leaving the studio. I am going to scoot the vacuum round the place and after that I intend to head to the meadow to pick some daisies, brown eyed Susans and Queen Anne's lace to arrange in vases. After that I am going to weed my huge front flower bed. Somewhere in there I shall squeeze in time to brush the goats (they love being brushed) and time to sit on the veranda with a glass of wine while cloud watching. I love watching clouds...

Have a great weekend everyone!

Jonah Day

Jonah on the front lawn



yesterday was Jonah Day


Jonah eating a lily stalk

Jonah is our one year old Saanen wether (wether in goat lingo means he is a castrated fellow). He won't be fully mature for another year or two and right now he is like a young teenager, rather gangly with his long legs, has a good appetite and sometimes he seems to be bored. I had been watching Jonah for a few days as he has seemed a little down. Perhaps it was the extreme heat getting to him or perhaps he was ill in some way. I wondered. Perhaps Jonah was feeling neglected. Up until this spring, Jonah has been the baby of the herd. But now there are kids getting lots of attention and I think this was bothering Jonah a bit. So yesterday morning as I scratched Jonah's forehead, I declared the day Jonah Day.

We had a lot of fun pampering and spoiling Joe-Joe (his nickname). He seemed bemused at first, especially when he got let out of the field for a walk around the lawn. He got to graze some forbidden goodies and he got to explore places he has only gazed at from afar. As the hours went by, he got lots of extra hugs, cuddles, scratches and treats. By the end of the day he was certain he was King of the herd! Of course our herd Queen was quick to dissuade him of that notion. Poor Joe lives with bossy dominant females!

two Alpines and Jonah's mom

momma Rainah (herd Queen), her family, Jonah's little brother (can just see his legs) and Jonah

All the goats were spoiled yesterday...well they are everyday. Here they are enjoying some Virginia Creeper that my husband cut and draped on their fence.

 

It was quite a bit of fun lavishing all of this abundance upon Jonah. Watching his reaction, it was if his self esteem took a great boost. Such a simple thing to do really, all that was needed was that we pay him extra attention.

This day got me thinking, what if we started a Jonah Day type of movement? What if everyone looked around them to see someone (human or animal) that could use a bit of special treatment? Maybe a parent, a neighbour, a spouse...why not? Pick someone and then treat them like the blessing that they are in your life. Bake a favourite snack, watch a movie together, go for a walk, have a heart to heart conversation, laugh, dance, give flowers, share a coffee or a glass of wine, go overboard - for an entire day! Wouldn't our relationships flourish? Isn't savouring our loved ones what life is all about? Everyone deserves to have their own day. Don't wait for a birthday.

So go ahead, pick someone and declare it 'their day'. And don't forget to give yourself a special day too. There is an art exhibit at the National Gallery that I want to see in August and you can bet it is soon going to be Teresa Day! :-) 

reminded me of something

Stuck in a rut, predictable? I like to think of it as style - my fondness for the horizontal format. This is what I am working on now, the paper is Colourfix (sanded pastel paper), and the image is 6 1/2" high and 23" long. I think of this piece as a cousin to Neptune's Leaves (NL can be seen in my right sidebar and a segment of it is in my header). The main similarity is that the background is going to be a gradation combo of aquamarine and teal-ish colours. Also, the subject matter is based on leaves which shall be funked up according to my imagination.

The inspiration comes from pictures I took of one of my hosta plants. The shape of the leaves and the graceful curving lines were what got me. As I looked at my small preliminary sketch of these two leaf shapes, I kept having the thought that the lines in the leaves reminded me of something. Once I worked my drawing up to the 23 inch long version, I saw it - the lines remind me of the curved ridges on the throat of a humpback whale! Humpback Hostas, how is that for an obtuse title? :-) 

As you probably can tell, I am letting the tooth of the paper show so that I can benefit from the glow of the red paper. By the time I have all my layers on, the tooth shall be more covered more but the red shall still be influencing the look of the piece. No burnishing here. My favourite medium of art work to look at is pastel so when working on sanded papers, I like my work to have a sense of pastel about them.

Summer is whizzing by, it shall be August in a few days. I was sorting some garden pics last night. When I saw the lilac pictures, I was struck by how having all the lilac bushes in bloom seemed such a long time ago...I would like to hit some sort of summer pause button!

remembering mellow

Two mornings ago, quite unexpectedly, I found myself transported to a deep mellow mood. It happened while I was in the barn. I was sitting next to Rainah, milking her, when the music on the radio was interrupted by the morning news. The UN was declaring a famine in Somalia. Words poured forth - drought, civil strife, tens of thousands dying, mostly children, an estimated 10 million people on the move seeking water, food and shelter. In the peaceful moments of sitting in the breeze coming in the open barn doors, stroking the side of my sweet goat my mind struggled to grasp the concept of millions of people wandering a drought parched land seeking sustenance. I sat, humbled by the fresh milk in the pail, humbled by the knowledge that just feet from the barn there were freshly laid eggs to gather from the hen house, a vast vegetable garden was thriving with enough vegetables to feed us for a year, a cold frame of salad greens was overflowing, ready to be eaten. Oh the abundance of it all. Who were we to be so blessed?

Immediately, in that moment, a deep awareness of how petty my days concerns were consumed me. How could anything I face that day possibly compare to not having enough water or food? Have you ever stood in front of a full pantry or refrigerator and looked at all that food, whining that you didn't know what you felt like eating and perhaps being too lazy to cook something? I have.

I spent the rest of my time in the barn in a sort of haze. Everywhere I looked I saw abundance, blessing, stored hay and grain to feed our animals, a lush summer landscape in the yard and fields, no drought here. Back in the house this mellow mood of deep peace and gratitude stayed with me. Time seemed to have slowed. Beethoven's Symphony #6  (the Pastoral, one of my favourites) came on the radio. Just how much bliss could one take? I stopped what I was doing and listened. Yoga seemed the best accompaniment and a few poses later, that crick in my neck that I had awakened with was gone.

The day continued like that and it was profound.

Two days later, I am stilll haunted by that news cast. I am also haunted by our abundance. I am a gal that practices staying in the present moment and counting my blessings isn't a new revelation but the depth of my recent awarement is something I wish to hang onto.

Simple things like a loaf of freshly baked bread and a pile of just harvested rhubarb waiting to be made into a cake takes on new meaning when you try to comprehend starvation. How casually we voice phrases like, "I'm dying of thirst." Yet, somewhere in the world, literally thousands are.

So, I seek to remember this mellow mood and to maintain that peace. Life has thown a few curve balls in the past two days and I could use a strong awareness of peace and contentment. My studio time has been eaten up by a real estate deal that has unraveled, something beyond my control. (Some of you may recall my ongoing challenges with settling my parents' estate.) There are more issues here than I wish to recount but suffice to say that it takes a great deal of my time, requires me to be out of town and in general uses up a significant amount of energy.

Consciously seeking balance is a life line to sanity. My tag line (in the header) of adding beauty to life isn't some trite little phrase. It is how I survive the rough bits. Something as simple as trolling the roadside ditches to gather daisies, chickory and Queen Anne's Lace and filling my home with their beauty keeps me grounded in the wonders of this journey.

Enjoying the hollyhocks outside my kitchen window helps too! Whatever you are facing today, I wish you peace. If necessary, go snip some ditch weeds, it helps. Most importantly though, lets remember that it isn't all about us. If you can give to an aid organization to help the victims of this famine, I encourage you to do so. We simply have so much...