Society6 is offering 5$ off + free shipping on my prints, until tomorrow (Sunday, Nov 9, ’14) through this link.
WIP – Crows, Rock, Driftwood
Studio visitors
These visitors to the feeders that hang outside the studio window make a working weekend much more enjoyable.
WIP – Crows, Rock, Driftwood + painting birds
After a very, very long time (years?) since I’ve done any oil painting, I started a new canvas recently, based on a monotype I did last month. The idea is to work as fast as possible and just finish it (I have dozens of unfinished paintings lying around), but it’s been a bit slow-going since painting is limited to what time I can find on weekends. These are details of Crows, Rock, Driftwood. Or maybe Driftwood, Rock, Crows…not sure yet.
travel sketchbook – Oswald West State Park, Oregon
I’m just back from a great “camping” trip down on the Oregon Coast (not exactly camping, if it’s in a trailer, right?).
I spent a day down at Short Sand Beach, in Oswald West State Park, taking photos and painting little watercolour studies. After spending way too long on a larger, fussy painting the day before, I realised that if I just did littler versions, and focused on getting the general feeling of the place down, I might be able to loosen up a bit. The studies are 4 7/8″ x 3 3/8″.
so many bees, just one sting
This is a tiny portion of the thousands of bees in my friend’s hives:
Because I had my eye pressed up against a viewfinder attachment on the camera, my veil was pushed up against my face. One of the bees crawled up on the outside of my veil, got a bit wedged between the camera and my face, and gave me a [small] sting on the nose. It only smarted for a couple of minutes, and it didn’t leave a stinger behind. But it did make me even more careful to make sure I didn’t wedge a bee between the eyepiece and the veil, because they do crawl all over the hood and I find I don’t really notice anything other than what I happen to be focused on filming – including the bees ricocheting off the back of my head.
monotype – Driftwood, Rock, Crows | Cape Roger Curtis
Driftwood, Rock, Crows | Cape Roger Curtis
Oil monotype on rag paper
8 1/2 ″ x 11 1/2″ image area
This monotype is referenced from a bunch of photographs I took on my last visit with friends to Cape Roger Curtis on Bowen Island and includes some of my favourite subjects – birds and driftwood. I like the twisting shapes of driftwood, and the contrast of bleached bone-white against dark, wet rocks. I like how huge logs perched on the tops of mounded rocky shores, or crammed together in twisted masses are reminders of the wild energy of the waves that put them there. Continue reading
Instagram. I am. on it
Like the title says, I now have an Instagram account.
I’m posting mistakes, messes, process photos, and other art related things. Mainly it’s just to give me some sort of reason to keep hacking away at this art-making thing. I’ve done client-driven artwork for so long that it’s mighty scary and weirdly hard to just do something for myself. Plus, I’m one of those people who needs reasons for doing things; this might just be enough to trick me into thinking there is some purpose to playing with paint.
WIP – monotypes
I’ve been playing with monotypes recently, in an attempt to find some pleasure in doing artwork again.
film – Osmia [mason bees hatching]
A few years ago I bought a tube of blue orchard mason bees and what started as 10 bees quickly grew into 100, and now 250 over a couple of years. This year they quickly filled an entire stacking nest block.
sketchbook – Bowen Island
I’ve just had a little mini vacation to Bowen Island – my favourite local getaway. When I’m there I’m virtually unreachable, and have no internet access, so it’s a proper rest from the usual everything-bombardment.
I spend the time working in the my grandma’s garden, or having long art-related conversations with her over lots of cups of tea, and I also take myself off to one of my many favourite painting locations and practice watercolours.
prints – new & free shipping from INPRNT
INPRNT.com is offering free shipping until this Sunday (August 3rd, 2014), so I’ve added a new print to the store.
The Garden is now available in black and white, and colour:
Kirsti Wakelin 