Do It Myself Project

Well, though we were disappointed that we got nowhere trying to buy the Fasade tiles from Home Depot as no one had any idea how to special order them and to purchase them from the manufacturer needing only 12 isn't possible, so we ended up coming up with a way cheaper idea for our bar face. A metallic or textured wallpaper will do.

I finally stopped procrastinating on painting with the colours and ideas I had for our condo when we first were in it. In stead of sitting and working on designing stuff in Photoshop for a little while, I decided I should start getting to the painting wall by wall. Once it is started, it is actually fun. I began with the kitchen. Got the electric blue I wanted and got that on. The terracotta colour with the combing effect is the next step and I am excited to atempt that. I hope it looks like what I see in my head as if not, oh well, it'll have to stay.

Looking at the small strip of bar back splash that runs behind the sink and 90 degrees to the counter top, I had an idea that will be another project. I want to do a mosaic tile area there. This type of thing is not something I am familiar with doing but I want to attempt it as I feel it would go so well and be so warm and fit right in to the south western or Mexican feel we both enjoy in our surround. Colour is so positive feeling and both of us enjoy some colour in our environment. Possibly because we are both artists.

Investigating, I discovered a fairly good how to page for mosaic tiling. Once ready, I'll need to make sure I know what the materials I need are. As well, we may need to figure out a mesh base as the tiles won't be sitting flat, but upright on a facing towards us surface and also the surface is a veneer surface in a man made material currently and I don't personally know its adhesion abilites. The other possibility is to do it on a flat piece of hard board and mount that to the surface after doing the tiles on that flat surface which would be pre-cut to fit. Figuring out the source of these broken tile pieces will take some innovation but should be fun. The second area I'd liek to do with some sort of mosaic design is the area behind the stove where there is boring white tiles presently. These projects may need to wait as they will take some time and some pre planning.

How to a Lay a Broken Tile Mosaic

Make a Mosaic from Broken Tiles

me up on counter edging wall

blue base coat done - ready for comb effect in terracotta

Spring 2014 Summer Orgasmic Sunsets

This year, there have been more glorious sunsets than I've seen in a long time. Amazing, dramatic, brilliant colour palettes, just stunning_all_round_difficult_for_words_must_be_seen skies!

We are lucky to be able to see them pretty unencumbered from our balcony.

Here is a medley of selected beauties over the last 2 months :-)

Warning, tons of images!

Doris McCarthy Trail

We decided to brave the Doris McCarthy Trail again despite the scary loose running big black dog I saw the first time lol! It most likely just belonged to one of the properties that back onto the forested incline that leads down to the path.

The trail is gorgeous, but be prepared to make the big climb back up it afterwards. We love it as it is a beautiful, very natural and wild path despite its Scarborough city location, and it is excellent exercise! Lots of avid runners passing us on the path, which would be quite challenging as it is not even, nor flat, and has lots of crevices and rocks on it. The view of the creek is stunning, the blossom trees gorgeous, there is an abundance of dragonflies and butterflies, as well as moths and pretty wild flowers. A Red Tailed Hawk was being chased by what appeared to be cow birds or black birds, above the bluffs as we watched for the rocks on the shore. We even saw a white tailed deer, eating, then she crossed right in front of us tentatively on the path and continued up the incline into the more dense wooded area.

We had heard there were fossils in all the big rocks at the bottom, at the shores of Lake Ontario, but we failed to find them the first time we were down there. We've been there twice since the dog incident and the 2nd time we feel we did find them. Ok, they aren't the exciting type one may imagine, complete shells in rock or something, and really, the rocks they are in are put there, not naturally occurring there. Most likely they are impressions from plants, vegetation, possibly one was from bone but I am not a fossil expert. Not the shell impression I had imagined and gotten all excited about in my mind lol! I have been up north and seen naturally occurring fossils in rocks and we have found a couple really neat ones in Bowmanville, in rocks we discovered on walks.

The Doris McCarthy Trail has fast become one of my favourite hikes and places of interest. We hope to go back a few times over the course of the next year, and beyond.

Figure Drawing Progress

It seems like there is lots of time till next March 2015 to complete this but that is probably an illusion lol! I try to get 2-3 hrs a weekend in on it but I suspect that may not be enough. It's difficult sitting cross legged on the couch, basically the only working spot I could come up with that allows me to see my reference and my drawing well enough. So, I get an extremely sore back and I put my foot to sleep to the point that I can't walk for about 5-10 mins when I go to get up.

However, we'll see. Over the winter I know I'll get longer hours in on it on weekends. This summer with lots of stuff happening, it's harder, not to mention one doesn't want to sit indoors all weekend.

This is the current stage. Lots more to go. The main figure, chest and torso and arms still have a long way to go. The face and head I'll leave for now. To change it up, I'll begin on the surrounding objects soon.

One thing I especially like is the title that came to my mind for this figure drawing. It has 2 meanings and it suits the subject himself and also what is happening in the portrait. It won't be revealed till the end, upon the submission of this piece into the juried exhibition I chose to work on it for.