Richmond Hill Arts Award

I was honoured this evening to be the Richmond Hill Arts Award recipient for mid career/established Artist at the 2019 Cultural Summit. I received a cheque for $1000 and a beautiful engraved glass award. I would like to thank the city of Richmond Hill and in particular the cultural team for making Richmond Hill a wonderfully supportive community in which to live.

My nominator and model for several of my recent portraits, Garry Sugden, video' d me yesterday evening while I gave my acceptance speech and was presented with the Richmond Hill Arts Award by Mayor Dave Barrow. Thank you, Garry Sugden. It is a lovely way for my friends from around the world who were unable to be there, to be part of the evening. For those of you getting this blog post via e mail. Please click on this link https://emotiveexpressions.blogspot.com/2019/03/richmond-hill-arts-award.htmlto see the video.

Thank you to the city of Richmond Hill once again and especially to the cultural department for your support and encouragement.

Photo credit: The City of Richmond Hill Cultural Department

In the Windmills of Your Mind

I am always fascinated how creating art doesn't happen in isolation. Other things in our world spiral in, influence our thinking, our approaches, the way we work and what ultimately we create.

'Like the Circles that you find in the windmills of your mind'

Transparent Watercolour 17 by 22.5 inches painted using QoR Modern Watercolours

Earlier this year I was approached by Bryce Lampe, Brand Manager for QoR Watercolors and Golden Acrylics who asked if I would like to try a selection of their watercolours. So, I selected a key few colours that, to me, evoked a soft dreamy, far away feel an a couple more warmer tones to create balance and to help me create skin colours.

The QoR paints when used have all the subtlety, transparency and flow of watercolor, with colors that have strong vibrancy even after they dry. I am used to seeing the vibrant colour when you apply the paint wet but many brands, become less vibrant as they dry. This isn’t the case with the QoR colours. There is also much more pigment held within the mixture and the combination of these two properties make the colours simply glow on the paper even when dry.

 I am a curious soul and my mind was certainly spinning wondering why- so I did some research. The exceptional color strength of the QoR range of Watercolors is apparently achieved through the use of a unique binder called Aquazol®.

'Conservators have been using Aquazol since the early 1990's as an adhesive, consolidant, and inpainting medium. The properties that make it ideal for use in conservation also make it a great binder for watercolor paint. It is highly soluble in water and remains re-soluble over time. It remains stable after accelerated light aging tests with no significant change in color, and it is very safe to work with. But what is really exciting is that Aquazol can hold much greater amounts of pigment than the same amount of gum Arabic, while retaining a strong and flexible paint film.' 

(https://www.qorcolors.com/science) 

When working with people in other disciplines– it can sometimes seem like everyone is speaking a different language as our mind circles round and round trying to understand why or how. But collaboration between disciplines is crucial for coming up with new ideas. Our minds may circle round and round as we play with fresh ideas but by allowing this circular thought amazing new products are born. Thank you QoR for your circular thinking.

It was a lovely surprise to see my painting 'Just Ducking Out' featured in the latest 'Art of Watercolour'  Magazine. 

My little wood duck painting was created in response to people saying I should actually paint plein aire and not just sketch. I am such a slow painter that the baby wood ducks would fledge before I got a chance to finish the painting.

Honorable Mention Pennsylvania Watercolor Society 2019 Member's Exhibition

I was very pleased to receive the news today that my painting 'Bah Humbug' was selected  by Juror Yachiyo Back from over 200 paintings  as one of the 15 award winners in the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society 2019 Members exhibition. Congratulations to everyone in the exhibition. There are some beautiful paintings.

Click on this link to see the award winners  and the complete exhibition.

We took our Christmas lights down inside the house at the beginning of January but still have our lights up outside. It brightens up a cold snowy winter and is a welcoming sight when you come home of an evening. I had to laugh though. We have a switch on the floor just by the front door which got covered in snow a couple evenings ago during our last snow storm. When I took our dog out first thing the next morning I wondered why half the lights were not working. I checked the main power socket, the power adapter, the fuse lights and still couldn't work out why they were not working. I probably had a very similar expression to this until I suddenly realized my husband must have stood on a switch that was buried in the snow and accidentally turned it off the night before. Luckily it was an easy fix and our lights are now working again!