Hey guys!
YUP! I am home from my vay-cay TODAY!
Now, for the last 3 years, I have been asked AGAIN AND AGAIN why I do not have prints of "Make Friends".....HERE is a blog from 2012 all about the painting......
So finally, after much coercing I give you my latest prints.....
HUZZAH!
So, if you have always LOVED this piece, NOW is your opportunity to own a limited edition giclèe!
Again.......a Giclèe is a super fancy inkjet method of printing on acid free watercolor paper. They are produced for me by a professional Giclèe Printer on an Epson printer with K3 pigment inks. They look amazing (if I do say so myself)!
They are available as 16" x 20" or 8" x 10", and will soon be available on ETSY!
Hey everyone!
This post is for my train nerds.......I KNOW you are out there!
I wanna recall 2 trips to TWO different museums......in the order I saw them.....
FIRST..... The New York Transit Museum
YOU MUST GO HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I loved it, it was informative, and honestly, we spent like 3 hours looking at stuff!
A very enjoyable museum!
(Great for kids too -- he says speaking as a childless adult! :-)
I dont't wanna ruin it for you......so here are a small selection of photos I took......
Yup....it is in an old Subway stop!
HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
There are lots of great artifacts to look at!
This one would look great in my house.....but didn't fit in my suitcase!
CAN YOU GO WRONG WITH MODELS??
CAN YOU???????
There was a whole wing devoted to HOW THE H**L DID THEY DO THAT.....
(burrowing under the city and laying tracks!)
It was a lot of information - but I LOVED it!
Look at how fun this is!
This super gay ticket agent/hand model was there!
THE BEST PART - GOING DOWN TO THE ACTUAL TRACK LEVEL!!
O
M
G!!!
On the platform (lower) level, two fully powered operational subway tracks contain many historic examples of New York City Subway and Elevated railway equipment as a permanent display. Preserved subway cars, most of which can still be run, date as far back as the predecessor companies that came before the New York City Transit Authority! (That means at least one is 100 years old!!!)
Look - leather straps!
STUNNING!
I took 100's of photos......of the art deco styled -1960's styled cars.....
I WANT TO SHOW YOU......but I won't!
YOU GOTTA GO!
COME ON!!!!!!
Many of the old subway cars have fans!!!!
Imagine how this would go wrong with today's subway travellers?
(because people are stupid.... ;-)
Beep beep! HEY! Toot toot!
Even the many examples of the turnstiles was VERY NEAT!
From a design point - there is a TONNE of stuff that is eye candy!
Here is how to get there:
GO THERE!!!!
If you can't make it to Brooklyn this year, maybe you can make it to The Halton County Radial Railway Museum - Yes......it is a mouthful......but it is also pretty cool!
The Halton County Radial Railway and the OERHA was formed in 1954 by a group of men who wanted to save Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) streetcar 1326 from being sent to the scrap yard. After the donation of this streetcar, the dream grew. Land that used to be a part of the Toronto Suburban Railway in Nassagaweya Township was acquired, and subsequently, a number of other street and radial cars were eventually rescued. The museum's grand opening to the public took place in 1972.
Since the beginning, the vision of the HCRR was to inform, educate and inspire the public about the electric railway history of Ontario and Canada. Today, the museum displays and operates a variety of historic streetcars, radial cars and work cars, and maintains a collection of photographs, memorabilia and archival materials. The oldest rail car in the collection dates from the late 1800s.
We took a trip there a month ago.
It was FUN!
Truthfully, it did NOT have the breadth of stuff that the MTA Transit Museum had.....
But, it is also NOT run by the city or the TTC.....so they survive on grants and admissions to grow!
So from there......I made some merch.......and blogged about the prints....
but even less of you read that blog post.......IT MUST BE SUMMER! My stats are always a bit down in the summertime......BUT you can read about it here:
(This one was a very well received -- so read that one too!)
Why read these old posts? Because I am gone RIGHT NOW....to WINNIPEG.......
YAAAAAAY VACATION!!!!!!!!!
...so yes, stay tuned for a photo report when I get back....
Okay, to I have been talking a LOT about Hamilton in the last few months.
You see.....I have done a couple shows there, and met some really great people.
Some artists, some foodies - and some swell business owners!
These people are trying to convince me that I need to MOVE and set up shop in the Hammer.
These are top quality people......people who love their city....and honestly, it is contagious!
I am honestly considering a move!
So...because I move in the direction that inspiration takes me, I give you this new painting!
I am gonna show you my progress on this piece with a series of photos -- my husband claims that when I do this, it makes the process look EASY!
DOES IT??????
IT AIN'T!
It all starts with inspiration.......in this case..... it was this photo....
The Art Deco Style of the Hamilton Centre GO Station
and this inspiration......
So then I did a series of drawings - that look AWFUL - so I won't show you those!
Then I start to paint:
First......blocking in the building.....and get my
Building up the colours - so it gets a more 'watercolour' effect....
Add in the people! I love how they look like they are marvelling at the building!
A bit more detail goes in, and a blue circle........
Adding in the GO train!
REPAINTING the circle border so that it is less distracting......
....but it is still not quite right......
AND THEN it occurred that there was something wrong....
I painted her arm wrong - OOOOOPS!
I also pumped up my colours.....and my shadow work......
I also put in a starburst to draw your eye back to the building...
.....and a bunch of washes of colours!
FINAL IMAGE!!!
YAY!
Well? What say you?
I think it is swell!!
(AND YES.......there will be merch - stay tuned for that!)
REMEMBER - I would love to see you TOMORROW at the Wychwood Barns:
That's Saturday (August 15th) from 9am-2pm at the Barns Art Market! GO HERE FOR MAP INFO....
I will be showing my latest limited edition giclèes and postcards and some small works!
COME OUT!!! It will be inside - and they will be having a Farmers Market as well!!!!!!
Fresh corn and ART! What more could you want??!!!
COME OUT!
Meanwhile......this happened LAST NIGHT.........
YUP.....a BLOCK PARTY.......
BLOCK PARTAY!!!!!!!!!
In the spirit of presenting the positives.........I give you the #Minto Westside Market
(a.k.a. the BUY A CONDO Market ;-)
I am duly impressed at first glance! Looks great! Very cool, right?!
Cindy Scaife and I were persuaded to do this show.......
Truthfully, quality time with a good friend is never wasted!
So we agreed to giv'er........the food truck list looked amazing - there was live music AND some PanAm athletes were coming!!!
We were gonna be in one of the (below) pop-up shipping containers again.......
This is from the #Minto West Side Instagram account........ LOOK AT ALL THE PEOPLE!
Just add food and music and some vendors to a dusty dilapidated parking lot.....and WHAM-O - BAM-O you got a PARTY!
A #Minto Party!
Unfortunately, in the end, we were not given the dust-free shipping container but were instead provided with a tent....in the food area.......
4:38pm! All set up......in the 8' tent for 2 artists! Snug as 2 bugs in an tiny rug!
You know me........never one to micro-manage or to over-prepare or be almost OCD about controlling situations - I let this change of venue just roll of my back..........and we decided to enjoy ourselves.....
5:45pm Zombie apocalypse or #Minto Block Party? YOU DECIDE!
SO.....we decided to do this............. ......ONE of us is a lady.........sipping her wine......... ;-)
There was live music.....it was quite enjoyable!!!!!
6:25pm NOW IT IS HOPPING!! #MINTO BLOCK PARRRRRRTAAAY! Poor Cindy was another casualty of the iPhone panorama face crushing disease..... ...for just pennies a day you can help Cindy live a normal life......
(CINDY IS GONNA HATE ME AFTER THIS POST!!! ;-)
What I loved, was the slight blue cast this FREE tent gave us.... Everyone assured me it was unnoticeable! What do you think?
Now it was around 6:45pm.....and we had the 'Sofie-est of Choices' to make.......
"Beaver Balls"
OR
"OCTOPUS Balls"
#BALLSBALLSBALLSS!!!!!!!
(insert drumroll) SOOOOOOO....... we decided on Churros....
Choco Churros threw in one for free - since it was still a titchy-bit SLOW!
YES.......the #Minto Block PART-Y was attracting the WHOSE WHO of the Toronto elite.
So there was good people watching as we scarfed down our DELICIOUS CHURROS!
This guy had a tricked out bike - it even had a plastic rat. Yup. There's that.
Ain't no party, like a #Minto part-tay....
7:15pm The athletes arrived with some more people - and some politicians - and the #Minto #executives.....
The FUZZ....showed up for crowd control....... ....oh no wait.......they were just trying the free samples of cured steak.
The entertainment continued.....with this interpretive dance!!! ..this poor guy was dancing and waving his hands to keep the wasps from eating his dinner.... at one point he took off his shoe and started swatting with it...then had to hop and wave his hands..... ....it was amazing!
8:00pm #standing #room #only at #Minto #BlockParty I think the evening is the BEST time to see art.......
8:25pm HONESTLY.....the work still looked great in our booth!! Art looks BETTER by sunset....right??
8:45pm...... Bless CHEESEWERKS I have talked about them before on my blog.....HERE.... But again....they were a TREAT!!!!!!!
CHEERS! To #success and the #Minto #Blockparty
9:00pm THANK GOODNESS the work STILL looked FABULOUS in our booth!
T.O.D. 9:25pm Look how well this noose holds up my 10 chins!!! "The Chin Sling" -- patent pending!
9:45pm On our way home. I am mad.......as I think that we should have stayed open..... I expected the crowds to really come out at 10pm for the scheduled closing!
Hope YOU were able to make it out able to make it out for the #Minto #Blockparty !
I may have missed you in the crowds!
Fun was had by all.....
BUT HEY - if you didn't - come see me TOMORROW at the Wychwood Barns!
