Relentless Rain

It's been raining what seems like forever in Vancouver - 10 days, 12 days? I don't know anymore.

It's been very dark, wet and depressing and I'm trying really hard not to let this weather bring me down so recently I began imagining what it would be like if the rain was rainbow coloured!

Here is an illustration I created today showing multicoloured raindrops - so much fun :) Not sure if I'm finished with this yet, I might add more drops or a background hue. What colour would the clouds be? What would the windows look like? Would the drains be filled with rainbow water? I used water-soluble pencils for the blurry, watery effect.

What would our world be without imagination and art? I hope this picture inspires you to walk down the street with your brolly (umbrella) and see what I see - glorious colours.

Enjoy!
Maja

Tree again!

Today I'm stretching and priming a 30x30" piece of canvas... not sure what I'll paint on it yet but I feel like getting my hands dirty and I wanted to use some materials I have left over from Costa Rica.

So, while I wait for the first coat to dry I thought I'd share another tree I drew a couple of weeks ago. This one is an actual tree that is on the corner of my street. I used shellac based black ink on some left over printmaking paper - probably not the best surface to use inks on as it is quite thick and sucked up all my ink instantly so was a little hard to have a nice flow.

Anyway, here it is. I'm really enjoying looking at and sketching trees (when it stops raining in Vancouver) so I think I'm going to continue and start a little tree collection.

Back to priming!

In my sketchbook

Hey its Friday and I'm stretching canvas in my studio, getting a bit distracted...

Lately I've been sketching all sorts of things in my sketchbook, so I'd thought I'd share some of them here.

I'm still fascinated by trees and their bare branches... here is one sketch i did recently. Instead of solid colour I used crosshatching lines to fill it in. I did this randomly but I think next time I will try to follow the texture of the tree.

I've seen a lot of bird illustrations around, I think they're really cute so I had to have a go at one myself. It took me a number of versions to get to this simplified form of an Australian Blue bird (that's me missing the constant chirp of birds and parrots that is prominent all over Australia.) After a few sketches I created a final colour version with my shellac based inks and brush on paper (this time just plain white drawing paper).

I'm also working on creating some Christmas illustrations. Instead of buying cards I thought I'd make them myself this year for family and friends, and that way I will build up a portfolio of images for this season, to submit to greeting card publishers for next year. This one is inspired by my boyfriend Marc-Andre who is an elf this Christmas!

Gotta go and get back into it now - enjoy!

Rave review..."Particularly stunning"

I recently discovered that my name and artwork had been reviewed by Opus Framing, supplier of fine artists materials.

Read this article by Eleanor Hannan http://www.opusframing.com/community-news/drift-2009 which is discussing the Drift Festvial. The article was written on October 1st - just a few days prior to the Drift.

I was so excited to stumble upon this I jumped up and down - its a tiny mention but a really positive one! Ahh the Scraps Collection - maybe I should do another round again? It's inspiring to know that someone took the time to look through my website and found something worth mentioning :)

My prints have a new home!

Following the Drift festival, my gorgeous lino prints from Costa Rica were in search of a new home - I didn't want them to just collect dust in my house while I hunt down potential buyers.

Cambie Village Massage Clinic (Suite 203 - 3256 Cambie Street Vancouver) was looking for some new artwork for their premises, and when I sent them a photo of the prints, they immediately contacted me!

I'm really excited to see them hanging proudly again, gaining exposure to the public, and a clientele who is apparently appreciative of art. I think they suit the surroundings quite well - bringing out that peaceful vibe. I have three hanging in the main foyer hallway and three in one of the massage rooms.

Thank-you to Stephanie, Coleen, Nimira and Isaac for supporting local art and artists. I might have to return the favour and book in for a massage...

My butterfly collection and a couple of other paintings that were exhibited during the Drift are still on display at Balance Acupuncture & Massage Clinic at 4338 Main Street - two places at once!