Long time no craft...

It's been a while since we met as a group, but we managed it for the first time this year (even if only for a short night).  Stephanie is working on a great project (check back for details later, but see sneak peeks below).  We took some lessons from her on the art of wood burning.

I also worked on a personal project recently: spruced up my old hand-made purse with colourful silk ties (it will be interesting to see how long the silk will last, with the rubbing and the wear and tear of a purse in daily use):

Abstract Paintings - Update!!

So, a couple of months ago, the craft group was commissioned to paint a series of abstract paintings for a doctor's office. They are finally up and the patients have been raving about them.

It inspired some of the nurses to try their hand at abstract painting as well.

Autumn Endeavours

I have an excess of apples (that I don't want to eat fresh) this year, and Chantal kindly agreed to help me bake something fun and creative with them:  apple roses! 

We even made them gluten-free, and the crust turned out nice and crispy and delicious!  They tasted very nice with a dollop of sheep-milk yogurt too.

We only semi-followed recipes/instructions, and had to make things up as we went (partly because of the nature of the gluten-free dough, which doesn't quite behave like phyllo pastry dough, and partly because I didn't slice the apples finely enough and they didn't curve/bend like they should have).

And on a slightly different topic, Stephanie carved the lab pumpkin this year.  Check out her awesome design of fireflies out of a jar:

Impressions of Impressionism - Michelle's Poppies

Our task on this painting project was to pick a famous (or not so famous) impressionistic painting, and try to recreate it.  I chose Monet's "Poppies at Argenteuil" (I love the red poppies, and the sweeping fields, the line of trees in the background).  I worked from a printed sheet, originally a digital copy I found on the web, and I think my painted colours were off a bit because of the way the print turned out (darker than the original).

I like to show work-in-progress:

 

I originally started with the intention to copy the original as faithfully as possible, but half way through the painting decided to remove the  figures of the lady and child in the foreground.  Later on, however, I realized that they were an important part of the composition, and added them back in.

The finished piece:

Colouring and Jewelry-Making

We had a pleasant get-together this past week.  Angela's sister Sarah joined us (on a visit from far away Toronto).  Some of us worked on making jewelry, and on a weird coincidence, both Angela and Jessica brought colouring books to work on - the same book (Animal Kingdom, by Millie Marotta)!

Stephanie has a nice collection of beads and jewelry-making supplies.  I didn't get a close-up of the necklace she worked on last week, but here's a link to her Etsy site (check out the necklace she made out of the leg of woodpecker:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/243652463/woodpecker-foot-quartz-necklace?ref=related-2)

Abstract Paintings

Four of us worked on abstract paintings in our last get-together a few days ago (commissioned by Ellen's mom, who is going to hang the 4 paintings in the doctor's office she works at).  Abstract painting isn't everyone's cup of tea (though it very much is MINE!!), so the night started off with some trepidation (note Ellen's face in the photo below...).

Things seemed to go a bit more smoothly once I brought out some spatulas to smear the paint around with, and some other tricks of the abstract-painting trade (such as using tiny bubble wrap dipped in paint for an interesting honey-comb effect).

So, Ellen was happy in the end...

And so were the rest of us:

Welcome back Angela, by the way!

So, the paintings, close-up, and all together at the end:

 

Out of the Box

Lately I've been trying to branch out and try out some new surfaces for paintings. In my last post, I included some trivets I had been working on. In this post, there are some boxes I painted at about the same time and I am finally getting around to posting them.

Both boxes are painted with acrylic paints. I also seal them with a clear, spray varnish.

This box was painted as a Christmas gift for a cardinal lover. Birds have always been a favourite of mine to paint. The textures and colour gradients in their feathers are always a fun challenge.

This box is inspired by a painting by Leonid Afremov (my new favourite artist). He usually uses oil paints, but I will always be an acrylic girl. I like to layer my colours and it takes way too long with oil paints. Patience is apparently not one of my virtues :)