Our Old Haunt

We decided today that we wanted to visit our old area, the area we loved, the enjoyment and walks having been long missed since our move in October 2013 not to mention the pretty icy and cold winter we've had. Halls Rd. and Lynde Shores, we missed you :-)

 Having first arrived, we ran into a really nice guy we knew from a couple years back, a nice and knowledgeable guy who used to do guided Rouge walks, one of which we went along on back in 2011 or so. He mentioned he hadn't seen a lot around on his walk this morning. He did however give us some tips of where to walk, off the beaten path trails, in our new area, near the Bluffs in Scarborough. Lots of dragon fly species and butterfly species he says are often only seen on those specific trails, which we look forward to checking out now! At Halls Rd., there were cute Chickadees and some American Tree Sparrows, the Red squirrel was out and about too, but nothing to exciting at Halls. The lake was high up on shore, and we saw that the ice storm didn't spare Halls Rd. - lots of downed branches and trees.


We headed over to Lynde Shores. The ice patterns on the marsh were cool! We headed along the chickadee path and sure enough, there were the usual Wild Turkeys. There were lots of squirrels, lots of Nut Hatches, tons of Black Capped Chickadees, and we saw Red Cardinals and some sort of sparrow we couldn't quite identify.

There was a raptor of some sort, which flew across and into a mid dense tree area. We knew it was a raptor but we couldn't quite tell which exact one. It was a hawk of some sort.

As we neared the back area, as usual, there were suddenly a bunch of exciting bird visitors :-) The most exciting creature, who flew right near John and right at eye level, was the resident Red Bellied Woodpecker. We had heard her but hadn't spotted her yet. Right after that, I couldn't keep my camera still for then a male and female Downey Woodpecker couple joined us and right after that, a female Hairy Woodpecker. They were closer than usual. So adorable and looked very healthy!

Hope to get a few more pics up after these here. Loving using my zoom lens again having replaced  my broken camera!

New Camera!

With the coming of Spring, Summer, and my daughter's grad most importantly, I really needed to be able to use my camera and my zoom lens.

Originally, we were trying to save for the Nikon DF. Though that camera is ideal for the artist/photographer mix that I am I would be sacrificing other possible expenses, like a car break down, etc.,  too much to purchase an almost $3000 camera. We saw a used D90 at an amazing price so we grabbed it. It is an upgrade from my D70 which broke down finally after 7+ years and over 30000+ actuations of the shutter (I was lucky).

I am thrilled to have my camera replaced! I hope for it to last a year or 2 until we may be in a better position to buy a camera that should then pretty much be a long time lasting purchase as it is a camera that would be worth taking in to be repaired. Walks and photo taking were my leisure and enjoyment :-) They were a constant mini vacation :-) The joy we got from them was indescribable. Now we have that again :-)

A Contemporary Realist Show at Loch Gallery in Toronto

Beginning March 15th, there is a realist show featuring some of the represented artists' work, at Loch Gallery in Yorkville, Toronto, Ontario. My partner John has two pieces in it. I look forward to heading down with him Saturday, seeing some of his friends, and seeing the works in person (though I've seen his :-)

CONTEMPORARY REALISM GROUP SHOW MARCH 2014 TILL APRIL 2014

Detail of Large Pencil Portrait

Three weekends in a row I have gotten in about 6 or 7 hours all together so far on my large drawing. The drawing is 22x30. It is on illustration board. The old illustration board that was my very favourite back in the late 80s while at art college, Crescent Board, is long discontinued, much to many artists' chagrin as it was awesome. I found Strathmore illustration board 300lb a few years ago that I ended up liking a lot too. However, funny enough, I could only get it at Michael's of all places, no art stores sold it. The board I bought at Curry's is Peterboro though. It is fine for pencil, not an over crazy tooth, but for watercolour I would only use Strathmore as it holds up much better to scrubbing back pigment, a technique I loved in watercolour.

This is a detail of the whole drawing, the face and shoulder beginnings. This pic was shot with my cell phone so of course the resolution is Not ideal, it is quite compressed, more contrasty than the original drawing, and smooshy looking. I do not smudge when drawing, I layer and I scrub back a lot with a soft eraser. I have never liked the look of smudging, I find it has an unreal looking feel, and it always struck me as having that "amateurish looking beginner artist who draw glitzy plastic repros of stars from published photos" sense, especially when you see it inconsistently mixed with non smudge areas. I like visual texture too so maybe that is why smudging is too polished a finish look for my taste. I know my views are probably unfounded since I am sure a lot of accomplished draughts persons use smudging, I just don't care for it, nor the feel of doing it physically.

I have just under 1 year to complete this drawing, and it is daunting, especially the figure part, but I am confident I will finish.

To work, I sit cross legged on the couch, putting my one foot to sleep (not all artists have studios), with my drawing propped up against a large board, and my reference image on my screen, and me a few inches from both so I do not need my glasses. This is a good thing because I would need bifocals and I don't have them either. I will most likely pay for this when I am 70+ as my back and shoulders also kill after the couple hours I work like this but I just ignore it. Anything one has enough passion for, one is willing to take a little pain for lol!