SMRK:Art

Completed the last Christmas Window Painting of 2024…… on our very own window 😍💚🎄
Just a fun little project over lunchtime today.

A couple more Christmas Windows - I hope all the folks who pass thru this section of the Dr. Walter Anderson Building at KGH, get a kick out of this happy elf, and the oodles of presents for all the different departments.

December is Definitely here - and the spirit of the season is showing up in my most recent pieces 💚🎄💚

A special someone in our Glenmore neighbourhood has a fun & festive new Christmas window painting today!
When choosing the design became too hard and overwhelming - I asked one simple question:
“Which one makes you smile?”
And so we have this adorable Reindeer & Santa pair with all kinds of finery surrounding them - I hope they make YOU smile too!
Happy Holidays and wishing you a joyful December.

Our favourite neighbourhood pizza place…..
Ready for the festive season!
Half Moon Pizzeria

AI-generated art ……. has me concerned for the preservation, and future of human-generated art.
But - Maybe it is our very humanity that will set us apart?
The mistakes, and imperfections.
Oh sure AI art includes some absolutely laughable errors like hands with too many fingers, or random objects instead of body parts in portraits, etc.
But the humanity of an artist’s mistake is often that the viewer sees it, and can relate to it, in a way that connects them to the human artist - kind of an “I could see myself making that mistake too!” camaraderie.

Well, here’s my collection of human-generated micro-paintings this morning - they are all the same, except that really, because they were made by hand, they absolutely are each completely different too (including their imperfections!)

Sundays window painting!
Plato’s Closet - Kelowna

2023 Holiday Window Paintings have begun!
So far we’ve got:
Hockey Face-off Snowmen
Swinging Santa
Elegant Birch trees, berries, and a snow-covered Pine
and, giant Christmas Balls and a retro looking Christmas Tree of green stripes.
🎄 💚❤️💚❤️ 🎄

A fun little doodle….. getting into the festive spirit

Yes - REMINDER TO SELF - Please Do!

Quote by Danny Gregory.

Cup Easel - made right here Canada, in Vancouver, BC
And they look amazing!
I’m putting this on my wish list for sure - I hope Santa Claus follows my art page too and sees this 😉

Superlite Water Kit Superlite Water Media Kit: Choose your favorite watercolor paint available designs. Watercolor is beloved for its soft, dreamy look. The way the colors fade seamlessly into each other can provide a sense of calm.

Feeling some Nostalgia for the Poppy art I’ve created in past years - here they are all together in one spot for the first time.
In honour of Remembrance Day - Never Forget the sacrifices made for our Freedom.

Some more free-wheeling Art - my own personal version of art-therapy I think.

🎃 HALLOWEEN SPIRIT 🎃

What are the odds that when we decide to have a little fun turning thrift shop art into some fun Halloween Decorations, that we’d both find a charming Norman Rockwell image to start with?
Lee is a pretty good sport to spend our Saturday evening arting together 🧡🧡🧡

Fun with my Noodler Ahab Flex Pen - the box it came in was a work of art on its own, and inspired me with a Sea Theme.

And now for something completely different - just a little doodling I’ve done, felt like a nice little homegrown stress-reliever, from the original random squiggles, to the patterns and colour choices ….. maybe it turned into an Abstract Tiger Lilly?
This Saskatchewan Girl likes that possibility.

It’s been such a whirlwind of sketching with our amazing Okanagan Urban Sketchers all summer, that I’ve posted very little here on my own art page.
I invite everyone to checkout our Urban Sketching Group for lots of fun inspiration - anyone and everyone can enjoy a little on-location sketching in their life, and everyone is welcome to join our page too!
But this morning I took a few minutes to do a little quick draw of a fishing reel that we display in our home - the reel is an interesting piece of “Art” all on its own I think.

So many ways to measure “success” in the Art World hahaha.

Maybe not EVERY tree is a Happy little tree
😂😂😂

The Central Peace Signal graciously took a few photos on my last day at the Mural Project last week - and I’m so happy to share these with everyone now…… the ones with me holding up the original paintings next to each individual mural do a great job of showing the comparative size of the mural, I think it gives you a sense of how huge these are!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=9475898209149899&id=100001894439100&mibextid=0cALme

I am so excited to share my news with all of you

One week from today, I will be in Spirit River, to paint the BIGGEST piece of Art that I’ve ever done……
A Mural - on the generously donated “canvas” that is the north wall of Home Hardware!!

In September of 2018, I had made a “note” to myself, of an idea I had - it had occurred to me that the big beautiful highway facing wall of the local hardware store would make the perfect spot for a mural…. I made the note to myself on my phone, and over the years I would look at it, but was never sure how to even go about pursuing the idea, until the Town of Spirit River posted a call for Artist Proposals, and the time was right for me to chase my dream 😊
The twists and turns of fate never cease to amaze me.

I can’t wait to put some colour on that wall, and fingers crossed that the weather cooperates!
For now, here are some tiny little snippets of the 3 separate sections / murals that are in the works - stay tuned for updates once the painting job gets started.

AND - if you’d like to come out and volunteer to help, and be involved in the painting project, please contact me (Facebook Messenger), or Steve at the Town office, or Tim at Home Hardware, or Vern at Chepe Sepi.

Big News coming soon ……. About an exciting new art project.
But for now I just wanted to post a little sketch I did last night at the most recent Sketching Meetup for this new group I’m establishing.
We are on Facebook - and you are welcome to check out our public page if you’d like to see what we’ve been up to - search for:
Okanagan Urban Sketchers - GROUP

This is a 6x8 sketch using just ink (black, and white), and a little bit of pencil crayon colour, on sketching paper that is tan colour.
Done on-site at the Kasugai Gardens in Kelowna.

From a photo I took on the way home from Banff - couldn’t resist that sunset on Mara Lake.
2hrs (but started on a pre-painted canvas in bright yellow)
- tried to limit my palette - but still ended up with black, white, and 5 more colours too:
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Cobalt Violet
Cadmium Orange
Cobalt Blue
Permanent Green Deep

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