A beautiful Sunday morning in Toronto

My Josie on a pillow - wanting to go home!

The Last Nude

I am almost at the end of my classes. Two to go but I will leave after the class next Friday. Time to get home! It has been a very good experience - at the beginning I couldn't paint a model on 16 x 12" canvas in less than 5 hours. I can do that now even though they may leave a lot to be desired. I also spent a lot of time at the Art Gallery which is always a wonderful learning experience. Change is good for the soul.

Don't know where this one is going - I cleaned my palette on the background. The teacher helped me draw this model. She was on the floor and I could not "see" her at all.

Murray is Finished.

I spent this afternoon alone painting on these paintings in an empty studio at my school - just me and my wee dog who was as good as gold which
means she can come with me tomorrow too. I think Danny on Green is finished - still a fair amount of work to be done on Murray. Both are 16 x 12" - did I mention that before? Knox Martin said my faces were "pure poetry" - I hope these faces have some poetry in them.

Josie and I went down to the waterfront today. She whined and I sketched. She is such a good little dog most of the time but too many smells and too many people confuse her in her old age. A gorgeous day in Toronto.

Hey - it is getting easier! This is Danny and I am still working on him but feel it will be a decent painting once finished. I don't know why his forehead looks so white because it isn't that white. It may be this old laptop that I am using?

This is Murray - the very thin Murray. He seems to have been born with one arm almost twice as long as the other but my teacher says its okay - so there! Should I title it "Born that Way?" Anyway, I am still working on him too.

I just started this one this morning and I am very pleased with it so far. We shall see what happens with it next week which is the last sitting for this model. Only 2,

 maybe 3 more weeks in Toronto depending on the weather. I don't want to leave leaving until the last minute when we could have a snow storm. I am not a very confident winter driver.

One took 2 1/2 hours and the other less than 20 minutes. After the class I went to the Art Gallery and enjoyed a feast of paint on canvas etc.

Finally! - I got a half decent painting in my painting class. I thought I would never be able to get the model on the canvas in the 2 3hour classes [less model breaks]. Now that I have managed it once I am confident I will be able to do it again. Oil on Canvas Board 12" x 16".

It really wasn't a dark morning in Toronto. Josie and I walked for over an hour - me wearing sandals and socks and her in her bare feet. It was lovely! Last night I went to a workshop at the Apple Store - they are free and excellent! I learned a lot about how to use Social Media. Does that mean I will start posting every day as I should? I doubt it!

 

Josie wants to go home! She is sad.

I am babysitting this plant and other plants for the condo owner whose condo I am living in while he is in Mexico. He told me to water this one once a week which is way too much water. I watered it after 17 days and it was doing beautifully - new leaves appearing every day. Then last week it started to droop as you can see. I stuck my finger down into the soil and it felt damp to me. Every day it drooped more and I thought it was going to die from I didn't know what and google couldn't help me - decided I may as well give it a drink of water on its deathbed. Hey! it perked right up - then I realized I hadn't watered it for a good 20 days! So much for my green thumb or soil testing finger or whatever.

Playing in Procreate while watching television. I spent a couple of hours doing these - I am sure I use the same brain cells I would use to actually paint them on a canvas. However, I have no mess to clean up, no smells to give me a headache and I don't have to add them to my huge collection of canvas that I don't know what to do with. Actually, when I get home I am going to attempt to turn those Sows Ears into Silk Purses!

Life Drawing February 26/12

I finally got a decent start to a painting in my Life Painting class! In life drawing class last Sunday I watched an artist sitting more or less in front of me work on painting the model. He first covered his canvas with more or less the same colours I have covered mine with - then, instead of drawing into it he used paper towel and rubbed out the shape of the model more or less the way I have here. I find it much easier to work this way and think I will adopt his method. I will only have approximately 2.5 hours with this model next week - hope I can get a decent painting out of it - more or less!

Toronto has grown up! Grown up well even if it is kind of scary. So much construction. So many 40 floor high condo buildings I wonder there isn't a glut. The people are different too. Lots of smiles, lots of direct eye contact, lots of reaching out. Its lovely. Many many works of art downtown. This one is on our dog walk route and I haven't seen a plaque on it yet. Will look for one next time we go that way.

This one is around the corner on John Street - as I post it the photo doesn't look as great as the piece itself. Maybe if you click on it it will look better?

I want to paint this next - I love pictures with lots of people most likely because I love painting what I am incapable of painting!

Pen sketches of a couple of the boys. I actually find it easier to sketch with a pen than with a pencil. With a pencil I keep going back trying to correct the "mistakes" - not possible with a pen.

This is where Josie and I walk - very nice because they city doesn't put down salt which is hard on her little feet - not that it would be needed this winter anyway. Is this actually winter?

The less said about either of these works the better! I have a lot of nerve to post them - I guess we can say that.

I haven't been able to get back to repainting and hopefully repairing my thin man model because my painting equipment is in my locker at school. However, I imported him into my Procreate app [which BTW only works in an ipad and I suspect bettter in an ipad 2 than in my ipad 1] and had a bit of fun with him! When you click to enlarge strange things may or may not happen.

Josie says "I want to go home Mom!!" After our walks she does a complete HALT before we come in the door of the apartment. She waits for me to acknowledge her objection with an "I know Jos" and then she more or less happily trots in. This is one of her favourite toys - she likes toys with eyes because then she can speak directly to them!

 Bought me a new purse on Tuesday. $325.00 marked down to $194.68 - reduced by 40% - less my 15% Seniors discount = $112.00 tax included. What a fun purse.

Josie catching some Toronto sun this morning.

Just fooling around with Procreate - not sure how it will look in the site. Lots to learn about the app - like how to I frame this? It is a plant that I am "babysitting".

Life Drawing this afternoon. This drawing was very difficult as I was using a new [to me] ipad app. The app is Procreate and costs $4.99. I have many things to learn about it! This was almost 3 hours of very hard work. The nice thing about these apps is you have no brushes to wash, no mess on your clothes - no mess anywhere!
My Friday painting of Danny is too awful to post which is pretty awful as I am capable of making all kinds of excuses for myself! It is awful because I am trying to follow the tried and true rules of painting but it is impossible for me. I simply don't see that way, can't see that way, never will see that way! I think it actually spoils the soul of some paintings. An artist friend once said "that is a very good painting Betty" followed by "wait a minute, where was the light coming from?" at which point it was no longer even a good painting in his eyes. To me a good painting makes my heart beat faster and my knees feel weak - thats about it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Pad drawing using the Procreate app - Self Portrait in my nightgown at almost 3PM last Saturday. Fun and fast!

Life Drawing on Sunday

The Thin Man's head - a little problem with the shoulders!

My great ganddaughters self portrait with her brothers and sisters - how I wish she didn't live thousands of miles away but how glad I am for our now connected world. Isn't her work delightful! Isn't she delightful!

I went to class early and got a little bit down on my long thin man - I like his face - he is not deformed, one shoulder is not really higher than the other! I may be able to fix that and I may not! Time will tell.

Our model did not show up this morning. Our instructor when out and rounded up Danny. I did a pencil sketch of him [forgot to take a picture of it] and then sketched him on my 20" x 16" canvas. Looking good so far. I am learning things but avoid learning too much!

Unfinished & just awful painting of a very thin model. I thought I would have 3 sessions to "make something of him" but it was only two sessions so my timing was way wrong. He is hiding and drying in my locker at the school. When he dries I will bring him home and try to give him a Second Life!

My sweet dogs gift to my eyes this morning!

The model this week - better than last week! I had to leave early because the person next to me was using additives that made me sneeze and gave me a headache.

I HATE this one!

My Dog has Talent!!

 For the last 3 days Josie has been "Placing" her food at night - I get up in the morning and this is what I saw on Day I - 4 bites placed  2 on either side of her bowl.

the next day it was one on each side of the bowl - those are my toes at the edge of the photo

This is what I found this morning - Can't wait to see what she does tonight. I can't believe it! 

First class of 12 at Toronto School of Art

I am working under Tom Campbell. I took a class with him many years ago at TSA. An excellent teacher. Murray the model is fantastic. So thin you can see every rib which is wonderful for painting. I sketched him first [forgot to take a picture and left my sketch book in my locker] and then outlined him with yellow ochre then put a thin background of raw umber in. We will have Murray for the first 3 classes. There are 12 classes in total. On a 16 x 12" canvas.

Life Drawing Jan 8/12

This is a 3 hour pose at the Toronto School of Art - not a good photo. I have things to learn about taking pictures with my iphone camera and uploading data - is it costing me money?