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I HOPE YOU ENJOY OUR CREATIONS
AND FIND THE ARTIST IN YOU
AND IN YOUR KIDS RELEASED TO CREATE AND HAVE FUN.

Sunday 5 July 2015

GONE FISHING . . .


I've been busy with my grandsons
at the sea shore, rivers, lakes and ponds. 
We have sketched and painted many of 
our "fishing" adventures.




My youngest grandson and myself
simply cannot pass by
 a lost fishing bobber.
Both of us have a large collection
 showing a small sample here. 



A mosaic made from chicken egg shells,
lobster,crab and muscle shells, barnacles,
starfish skeleton and sea urchin spines.
The bubbles are limpets.



We spent an afternoon at the 
beach making a rough sketch
in preparation for a watercolour
suitable for framing.



My grandsons were very pleased
with their efforts.





Sunday 5 April 2015

Wednesday 1 April 2015

CLAY STARFISH


Clay from the riverbank, tree root from the brook
and beautiful rocks from the Vedder River. 


I am using acrylic paint on the starfish, while leaving
some of them natural.
I coat my rocks with baby oil to give 
them a wet look and bring out the features
that caused me to pack and carry them home.



Using my oven on the cleaning cycle
  makes a substitute kiln.


More rocks and starfish to come. . . 




Tuesday 3 March 2015

CLAY EARTHENWARE Modern and 500 years old


These are clay pieces that I made from raw clay
harvested from the banks of local lakes. These 
pieces have been dried, fired and lightly sanded


Red and grey clay
 found on the banks of local lakes.


FORMED INTO A MOIST BALL
READY FOR SCULPTING


SEASTAR 
ready to dry


AIR DRIED FOR THREE WEEKS


The dried pieces are placed in the centre of the
fire pit.


Making a "ring" of fire will allow the pieces to 
heat up gradually.


Gradually build the fire closer to the centre.


Gradually completely cover the clay pieces.
We kept our fire hot for 5 hours sustaining
ourselves with hot dogs and marshmallows! 


Bank your fire overnight. We covered ours 
with wet needles and leaves followed by
damp dirt from the garden. Our embers
actually took over 26 hours to cool down enough 
to remove our fired pieces.


Removing the dirt 24 hours later we 
still noted glowing embers.


My little oil lamp actually works.




These are clay tiles left by the Basque Whalers
over 500 years ago along the West coast of
Newfoundland. I found numerous tiles  along a 
remote stretch of beach tucking several 
of these treasures away in my backpack. In the
same area I uncovered a beautiful ancient whalebone.


TILE WITH WHALEBONE


CLOSE-UP POROUS WHALEBONE

Thursday 29 January 2015

WINTER PEARS . . . . . . . watercolour Poem: My Mother's Pears


My Mother's Pears
By Stanley Kunitz
1905-2006
Worcester, Massachusetts

Plump, green-gold, Worcester's pride,
transported through autumn skies
in a box marked HANDLE WITH CARE

sleep eighteen Bartlett pears,
hand-picked and polished and packed
for deposit at my door,

each in its crinkled nest
with a stub of stem attached
and a single bright leaf like a flag.

A smaller than usual crop,
but still enough to share with me,
as always at harvest time.

These strangers are my friends
whose kindness blesses the house
my mother built at the edge of town

beyond the last trolley-stop
when the century was young, and she
proposed, for her children's sake,

to marry again, not knowing how soon
the windows would grow dark
and the velvet drapes come down.

Rubble accumulates in the yard,
workmen are hammering on the roof,
I am standing knee-deep in dirt

with a shovel in my hand.
Mother has wrapped a kerchief round her head,
her glasses glint in the sun.

When my sisters appear on the scene,
gangly and softly tittering,
she waves them back into the house

to fetch us pails of water,
and they slip out of our sight
in their matching middy blouses.

I summon up all my strength
to set the pear tree in the ground,
unwinding its burlap shroud.

It is taller than I.  "Make room
for the roots!" my mother cries,
"Dig the hole deeper."




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