Connemara Berries

My day job has been killing me lately. Research proposals, weekend workshops, meetings upon meetings upon meetings, plus the regular stuff. Stress x social anxiety = nutcase me.
Relaxing activities, as minimal as they've been lately, did inspire some painting. The weekend workshop was in Banff and our afternoons were free, so I had oodles of time for exploring and picture taking. Which, of course, didn't happen but I at least got a couple pictures when I wasn't networking. Ugh. I hate networking.

My one reprieve was Sunday night. An evening out with like-minded friends to see Joshua Radin with Laura Jansen and Cary Brothers. Such fantastic singer/songwriters! As my friend Jen said, it was the best $25 I've ever spent. It was the perfect wrap to a busy weekend.

Happily, painting just seemed to flow from there. This is another one of Chris & Kelly's from Connemara, Ireland.

Connemara Berries (9x12)

A few weeks ago, I noticed the list of J names on my iPod is quite a bit longer than any other. And they're all fantastic! Does anyone else have this? Maybe it's because my tastes run one direction and that's what they all sing? Anyway, the discovery just screamed for a playlist for painting.

1. Jack Johnson - Dreams Be Dreams
2. James Blunt - Into the Dark
3. Joshua Radin - Sundrenched World
4. Josh Kelley - Opposite of Me
5. Joss Stone - Free Me
6. Jose Vanders - Blue Notes
7. Jim Bryson - Freeways In the Frontyard
8. Joel Willoughby - Museums and Churches
9. Jeremy Fisher - Goodbye Blue Monday
10 Jamie Cullum - London Skies
11. James Morrison - Broken Strings
12. Jon McLaughlin - Beautiful Disaster
13. Jim Cuddy - Pull Me Through
14. Jason Mraz - Conversation With Myself
15. John Mayer - Perfectly Lonely

A Piece of The Puzzle

This has nothing to do with painting or music (though Cara loves both) but it's important to share.

My friend Cara and her husband are in the process of adopting a baby from the Democratic Republic of Congo and after months and months of working and waiting, they just found out they're #2 on the waitlist. Yay!!!

It's unbelievably expensive to adopt a baby from the DRC so they've set up a few fundraisers to help bring their baby home.

Right now, they're selling puzzle pieces of this 1000 piece puzzle and they plan to hang the completed puzzle in their baby's room. Makes me all weepy thinking about it.

Please take a minute to check out their site, A Piece of The Puzzle, and donate if you can.

Adele

Adele's new album 21 was released today! My favorite songs at the moment are Someone Like You & Turning Tables (but I've only listened to the whole thing twice so far). I foresee lots of listening to the entire album on repeat in my immediate future. So good!!

Family Trees

These two paintings were done from small (4x4) prints I found at Michael's.  When my brother and sister-in-law first moved to Calgary, we had lots of fun decorating, talking about paintings, what color to paint the walls.  They had to do lots of finishing work on the house - tile the fireplace and create a mantle, landscape, build a deck, a fence, etc.  It ended up looking fantastic.  I painted these for them to go on either side of the mantle.  They had to be done twice, due to a fiasco with varnish and cracking.

Note to self: ALWAYS USE SPRAY VARNISH!!!

They moved to the US a year and a half ago and I still miss being able to pop up to their house for a visit.  I can't wait until they move back to Canada!  I'm going to paint them something new, just to have the delivery as an excuse to visit more.

Family Trees (16x20)

Family Trees (16x20)

Mumford and Sons

I already loved Mumford and Sons but watching them perform on The Grammy's last night gave me chills. The amazing kind of chills you only get when you hear something full of emotion and heart and beautiful harmonies.

LynnieC you have my endless gratitude for introducing me to them.
Next step: visit you in London and see them live.

Chinook Days

I had all these wonderful plans to paint this weekend. Shows what I know.

The picture of The Dog (it's a surprise and on the <1% chance she'll check out the blog, no names until it's done) didn't have enough definition for me to make him (her?) look like he's supposed to look.

Plan B was to keep working on Fall Leaves. I had blocked in the background greens right after Baby Clothes was done so I figured I could keep getting those colors blended. Except they're not blending the right way and it's leaving weird brush strokes. I decided to be a grown-up and just set it aside instead of throwing my brushes somewhere. Throwing something would have been MUCH more satisfying.

Since it's an absolutely beautiful day outside, I went for a muddy, slushy walk and felt much better. When I got back, I opened my patio door and some windows and this is what happened. Not my best, but I did the whole thing in less than an hour. I feel better now.

Happy Chinook everyone!

Mountain Peace (8x10)

Baby Clothes: Part Deux

I absolutely love this painting. It's a baby (or first birthday) gift for my cousin, her (almost) husband, and (obviously) their baby. More parentheses anyone?

I mostly love it because these are the baby's actual onesies and blankets hanging on their line. Since I've had the pleasure of visiting them, it's almost as if I'm sitting on the deck enjoying a sunny morning in Broome. I say morning because I'm pretty sure I'd die in the afternoon heat during the wet. During the dry too. I'm a wimp.

To my dear Carla:
It's taken a while for you to find your happy place and I'm so glad you've discovered it in a beautiful country with a wonderful guy and an adorable kid. Oodles of love and hugs to all three of you!

Let's place bets on how long it takes to ship to Oz!



Baby Clothes (9x12)

 

I recently heard the new album from Plain White T's and remembered how much I loved them. So, as a way to reinforce my obsessive tendencies, I made a playlist of all Plain White T's songs from their last three albums. Kind of fitting, don't you think, for them to sing me through a painting of clothes?

Albums
1. Every Second Counts (2007)
2. Big Bad World (2008)
3. Wonders of the Younger (2010)

I happily sang along to each and every song while painting. I'm so easily entertained.