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