"@cindyknightartist "Colourful painted stories transforming your sketchbook into a painted diary...your joy is evident in your artwork." cindyknightartist😍🎨😍 Love your colourful pictures, small but big on life!👏👏❤️❤️👏👏❤️❤️👏👏" 
Sharing my work on Instagram and receiving comments from great artists, family, current and new friends warmed my heart but was mainly posted to stay accountable. The final Day 100 was on May 10 but due to travelling and no internet, I was tardy in posting.
 ​Below: Day 84: A random design that turned into a face, Day 85: A made up scene while visiting with Dody"s Art For All group. Day 86: Making the bed platforms for our van. Day 87: The first cherry blossoms. Day 88: Walking with friends on the Rail Trail and commenting on how low the water is. Day 89, my first paddle board/sketching excursion.

Below: Day 90 Another paddle board excursion while the lake is low and rocks are showing. Day 91 (speed) sketching while on a zoom call. Day 92 On the road again, sketching (in one continuous line without lifting the pen up) trucks on our road trip (hubby driving). Day 93 Trip down memory lane, our first rental in Butte Montana (bottom left) Day 94 Downtown Butte. Day 95 Derrick for miners to go down into the shaft with the Montana Tech "M" high on the hill (hubby at top while I hiked down for the photo). 

Below: Day 96 A compilation in mixed media of Butte  Day 97 hiking in Zion National Park, Utah  Day 98 some wild flowers growing in the cracks at Zion National Park. Day 99 a view of our van that we temporarily retrofitted for this trip. And finally #100 which is a view of Bryce Canyon on our hiking/camping/visiting  road trip. #100 was a little larger - 5"x5" instead of the 3 1/2"x3 1/2". There was no way I could fit what I was seeing in that small area. I am so proud of my progress and how much this challenge had me looking to capture just the right moment in the day. I am continuing on with the small sketches, just not daily. You will probably see more that I use my stand up paddle board to find a spot to sit on the shore and sketch and paint the beauty before me. 

​I started this page with a comment from this wonderful artist, so will end with another encouraging comment from her..."@cindyknightartist You have an amazing ability to transform your daily activities into stories of colourful art. The energy is evident and abundant". Thank you Cindy and all those people that followed, commented and cheered me on, it really did keep me inspired!!

Well I must say I am pleased with my progress, I really did not think I would get this far!! Drawing out and painting with mainly water colour has been hugely enjoyable and has me looking through out the day for something I saw or did that I want to capture. #72 was of how low the lake is and our dock is completely grounded. Day #73 is what our kitchen looked like with the water pressure tank in the lake failing and just about every dish is dirty! #74, 75 The next two found me sitting on the grass to get a low view of the flowers. The daffodil was completely filled with bees! #76 A walk by our friends, their homemade colourful chairs against the gravel sparked my interest. 

Below: #78 A wildflower inches up from the grass. 79. Finally fixing our lake water pump. #80 My art group enjoying lunch together. #81 A view of the lake as the light was fading (gouache). #82 Helping the hanging committee at the Courtyard Gallery in Enderby, B.C. #83 A collection of wild weeds on my walk.

As we do not live near our grandson Jack, our daughter will send us "Daily Pics" or short movies to fill our grandparent heart. I painted this one of Jack exploring his environment on a cool winter day on the beach. At 18 months, when this photo was taken, he was and is an explorer of the truest sense. 

"Exploring"
water colour in a mixed media sketchbook    10" x 7"

So happy to be a part of this wonderful group of artist celebrating the Courtyard Gallery's 10th anniversary tomorrow in Enderby, B.C. A new show has been hung, shelves dusted, hand made art pieces have been added and rearranged. There are 4 Sicamous artists in this gallery: Alice Duck, Linda Flavel, Mike Sykes and myself, Come in for the festivities, talk "art speak" and enjoy the beautiful pieces. I have paintings and cards for sale (and hand made book "ARTmarks" to give out).Your invitation is below.

Well my travelling did not end. Our daughter and grandson were over for a night the day after we arrived in Calgary. I flew the following day with them to Campbell River. As you can see, the views of my day have drastically changed. The first one was our grandson in the bathtub, splishing and splashing enough for five 20 month olds! A visit to Hopalooza nd Jack working with Daddy in the shop, measuring, what fun to watch and experience.

I flew (teary eyed) back to Calgary. We packed up the car and headed out to Sicamous. While my husband drove, I sketched the trucks ahead of us as I knew they would not zoom away. The first was done with a pencil but I found it was dull and just slipped across the page so changed to a brown Micron 0.5 pen. Each truck was drawn in one continuous line. We stopped in Golden for a coffee and while I was waiting noticed there were tourists maps of the city and area. With my map and hot coffee, we headed off. When I got home, I glued down ripped its of the map, didn't like the lake of contrast so I added blue acrylic paint. You can still see the map image underneath and I feel like the trucks stand out now.

I painted this in my new mixed media sketchbook while sitting in an alley in Mexico. I hadn't really used this new sketchbook and found it interesting and frustrating as I tried to capture this beautiful plant. The paper did not help me with mixing on the page which I was looking for with my small travel palette. I was happy with the final painting but walking home while the open page dried peaked a few people's interest.

Soooooooo excited! I have absolutely loved being part of this artist run gallery and the wonderfully inclusive and varied artists. You know it is a great group when many of the artists are celebrating 10 years membership personally. You are cordially invited to come in, enjoy a refreshment, talk with an artist and just enjoy the feast for the eyes. Of course pottery, paintings, wood and stone carvings, fiber art, sculptures, glass works, weaving, art cards and other beautiful handmade objects will be for sale. A whole new array and display of art will be up just prior to this celebratory event. Hope to see you there!!   
​ @courtyardgalleryenderby  #courtyardgalleryenderby   www.courtyardgallery.ca

"Paint Your Heart And Soul 2023" is an online class with a different instructor doing a demo each week. It is similar to the "Let's Face It 2022" online class that I did last year and won the class for 2023. As I do not have access to my studio and supplies, I only have basics that I could travel with. The painting below was done in my 7" x 5" homemade water colour sketchbook. Joan Martin used pencil, acrylic inks, numerous felt pens, coloured pencils and ink pens in her work. I only used a pencil and water colour so my rendition is certainly different than hers. I really enjoyed the process and thinking of what would work with what supplies I had. I plan on doing the demos that appeal to me and I have time for in the moment and I can keep the course so can go back after the year is up. What a great way to be inspired to keep painting and trying different ideas out.

While travelling with few art supplies, I am trying the ones that I could make work with what I have or have found. This is my rendition of Supermama Des Vosges demo. It was fun to look around and fine my "inspiration", hoping that my art and love of creating will "Inspire" myself and others to continue creating.

It is interesting to me how this project began and has morphed into a snippet of my day, something I want to remember. This visual diary where I do not needs words to describe or set the scene and I am the only person that truly knows the narrative. I started doing #opusdailypractice again for the month of February. I used the prompts given and found things in my world that related to the day's prompt and drew them in my travel sketchbook in a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" square format because 2 fit on a page.

Once the @opusartsupply challenge was over I decided to continue with the #100dayproject (already had 28 completed) and continued with the daily sketch or mixed media square of something in my world, particularly something I want to remember.

Had to paint this before I cut it up. It was delicious to paint and eat and was a great way to be out of the heat of the day. Trying to get a full painting in each week is more difficult than I thought, to much fun to be had with friends and family. That is where the sketchbook works well. 

"La Pina"
11" x 8" acrylic on canvas paper  #20001423

Sadly this is the last plein air outing with this wonderful and varied group for the winter. Amy and Gail set it up last year as an inclusive group to join at different locations around town. No RSVP, skill or teaching, just bring whatever supplies you have and draw/paint/sketch amongst other artists, regardless of level. I have had an amazing time filled with art speak, laughter and friendship. I will truly miss these heART friends and our time together. Happily I have paintings and a couple of sketchbooks filled with memories. You can scroll down in my blog to see the other outing paintings and sketches.

The groups' unfinished treasures above. It is always so interesting to see the different views and artist's interests when we are all at the same place.

This outing was at the Sunnyside Luxury Apartments 5th floor palapa area. There were urban views, the ocean and lagoon to choose from. My friends Sue and Ross are staying there and asked the owners if our group could come and we were welcomed. Seven of us painted and sketched today. I found the views to busy to focus on something to oil paint but managed to do an urban sketch of the area below. Another lesson I learned is to test out any new ink pens to make sure they don't "bleed or run" when water was added to it (hence the murky sky and dark trees). The group's unfinished "slap down" (sound of sketchbooks and canvases hitting the tiles for photo) is below.

Happily continuing on with the project that started with the February art challenge #opusdailypractice, I am now a little more than half way through it. I am drawing mainly small, square sketches 3 3/4"x 3 3/4" (2 fit on a sketchbook page) of something that I see or do in my daily world. Right now I am in Mexico so the views are very different than Canada.

I have very limited art supplies with me so most of the sketches are water colour and ink, gouache or acrylic.

The bottom middle sketch was drawn with an ink pen that completely smudged when in contact with water so I used a wet brush and moved the ink around, certainly a fun and easy way to sketch with only a pen and water brush!

I have been painting with a wonderful and varied artists every Saturday morning. We have painted at a different location each week, including the town square, restaurants, roof top palapas, street, ocean and lagoon scenes to name a few. CENAC asked us to put together a show of our work for the month of March. I framed 6 oil paintings and put them in the show. It is hard to believe that our time is almost up and there is only a little more of the week for my art in this show. If you are in Melaque, check out the colourful local scenes in oil paint, water colour and ink and acrylic. The address is Cabanas 15, open Tuesday through Sunday 9am - 5pm.

Today's meet up was at Ancora, a very unique afternoon/evening outdoor bar just past the trailers at Del Tule. It is a haven for driftwood sculptures and unique seating areas. This narrow strip of land has a view of the ocean on one side and the lagoon on the other. I chose the lagoon side as I had spotted the boat on a previous visit and there was shade under a palapa. Looking out for coconuts and sun are two dangers for plein air here! Our "slapdown" photo (at the bottom) of work in progress shows the variety of views and interests of the artists here today.

"Tucked Away"
10" x 8" plein air oil on canvas pad,    #20018323

I have had the good fortune to speak to Elias while he was working about our mutual love of painting.  He is a local Melaque Mexico resident and after working at his family's restaurant 6 days a week, he has taught himself to paint in the summers. Elia invited Ross, Sue and I to come to his parents' house to see his paintings. Well we were treated to freshly cut coconut, with the juice and meat with lime, salt and hot sauce and local tiny bananas that tasted like candy. This certainly felt like an event for us. Elias has a very good command of English so we were free to ask lots of questions about his art, family, food and life. What a wonderful time spent ON HIS ONLY DAY OFF!      @eliasangel1977

I did not realize that the photo above captured more of the street reflections than his painting until I got home, my apologies. All Elias paintings are of what he seas and loves, the ocean, surrounding land and water life. Thank you for your hospitality and sharing of your beautiful artwork Elias, we had a wonderful and memorable time!!!

A group of artists gets together to paint every Saturday at a spot chosen the previous week in a group discussion. This week was in the main civic plaza or jardin. The freshly painted town sign, church and native trees caught my eye, hand and pen in my mixed media 5.5" x 8.5" sketchbook. It was so much fun to see all the artists busy sketching, painting and drawing. There were about 16 artists sprinkled around the plaza. Some had left before we remembered to take a "slap down" photo of the works in progress. 

I successfully completed and posted a daily sketch in February as part of Opus Art Supply #opusdailypractice art challenge. I have read about another challenge about making art for 100 days in a row, self designed and in any medium. Deciding to continue with having 28 days completed already (is that cheating??), the rest seemed do-able. Most of these sketches are small, 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" squares, easy size to fill with something in my world on that day. Posting these sketches daily seem to be a bigger challenge.                #100dayproject

This week we met at Las Hamacas restaurant for our plein air fun. 7 of us enjoyed the peaceful venue (beachside restaurant, not opened for lunch yet), working with oil paints, water colour and coloured pencils, what fun! A great variety and interesting views were being created. I did not heed Ed's advice when I set up and had to keep moving my easel to stay out of the hot sun! The "slap down" photo of the unfinished paintings are below, just look at the variety!! I had a lot of fun with colour on the Isla as seen in the bottom photo. 

"Isla Toriz"
Plein air oil on canvas pad, 8" x 11"    #20011323

The Saturday plein air group decided to meet at the hidden Bistro Escondito. Some of the members could not find this spot or it was to far to walk with supplies, but 3 of us managed to find our way here and a spot in the shade. I had watched Amy paint this scene and wanted to give it a try. Decided to use that "artistic license" in my back pocket and change around some of the scene in front of me. It certainly makes thinking about the travelling in the painting and composition harder. I was happy with the whole experience.

El Camino Menos Transitado (The Road Less Travelled)
Plein air oil on canvas pad, 8" x 11"    #20009323A

I had so much fun that I decided to return the next day and try again with a different composition. To my delight, the Bistro Escondito was open for brunch with a wonderful guitarist and Mexican lady singing. I was right behind them in the shade of the house across the street and thoroughly enjoyed it all! I feel every part of the morning is imbued in this painting. 

This was a lovely morning. The Saturday plein air group met at Bistro Escondido before the restaurant was open for lunch. A few painters couldn't find this tucked away gem so painted elsewhere. Four of us were welcomed to enjoy the beautiful gardens in and out. Before anyone left we did a "slap down" photo of the works in progress (below).

I have thoroughly enjoyed this month long #opusdailypractice challenge by Opus Art Supplies. It was fun to paint or sketch to the prompt word but was not necessary; the idea was to do some art daily. I kept most of my sketches small in my travel Canson XL mixed media sketchbook 5.5" x 8.5". This took the pressure off from doing a full painting. Using the daily prompt made for a creative way to look at the world around me. Thank you @opusartsupplies !!

Daily word prompts from top to right - Mosaic, Togetherness, Future, Motivation, Abstract, Colour (photo reference by Roger Mirka)  Below from top left to right: Nature, Champion, Growth and Imagination (bottom left - using colours randomly from my acrylic palette lid for "Imagination")

This outing location was trickier to find and harder for those walking. With some people headed home, our group was only 4 this morning plus 1 painter painting in oil closer to home. We found a lovely shaded spot right next to the lagoon on a very quiet road. It is always wonderful to see what catches an artist's eye while painting in the same place! This painting ended up quite smudged from carrying it in the basket my bike. . Using a bike to get home with a wet oil painting adds to the plein air experience!

"Mexican Colours"
8" x 11 1/2" plein air, oil on canvas pad   #20022223

This is the second year that I have participated in the February Opus Art Supply's 28 days of creating with the hashtag #opusdailychallenge. There are prompts for each day that you can follow...or not, just create and post if you can. The first one on the bottom group (Fantastical) is made with my 19 month old grandson Jack on my lap, a labour of love!    #opusdailychallenge   @opusartsupply

Daily word prompts from top right to left: Wonder, Adventure, Safari, Space, Contrast, Balance, Emotion, Infinity, Loyalty      Below: Fantastical, Unity, Grit, Passion, Amour, Action, Curves, Climb, Innovation

#opusdailychallenge is a month long art challenge for any artists of any medium to create daily and if possible to post on Instagram. So far I am 14/14 on this challenge. As I am not in my studio, my supplies are limited, but not ideas. There is a prompt for each day for an idea, but not necessary to follow. So far, I have been able to come up with an idea with the prompt. I am making 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch sketches in my sketchbook daily. Today's prompt aptly is "Amour". This small sketch is of designs that people use as symbols of their passion or love. I had penciled them in and then painted around the ones I wanted to keep.