EXHIBITIONS.......SHOWS......AND MORE TO COME

It's been a very fast few months.  I feel like I've been working non-stop since about March, but am now in the home stretch with only one more show/sale to go, that being Sundog.

In August/September, I had two solo exhibitions.  One was at the Meewasin Valley Centre - this venue sees a lot of traffic and the people at Meewasin are really great to work with, so any of you artists who wants a place to hang your work for a couple of months, keep it in mind.  I believe they're in the process of lining up next year's gallery, so contact them if you're interested.  Thank you Doug and Amanda for all your help with this.

Also in August I had a solo exhibition at the Handwave Gallery in Meecham.  For this exhibit I stitched up some more unusual pieces, such as:

Rooted
A very impressive tree with lichen and moss.

Bird's Eye View (or half of a dandelion)

Pffft!!! (Because nothing else seemed quite right!)

Rooted and Bird's Eye View are now sold.  I also had the following two at Handwave and these two are sold also.  I'm especially fond of them and might do up a copy for my own (bare) walls.

On The Last Day was the picture on the postcard announcing my exhibition.  I really love this piece as it's one of the first ones where I stitched in the whole sky.  People have asked me about the "last day" - the last day of what?  Well, it could be the last day of anything you want it to be-the last day of summer, the last day of your holiday - it means different things to different people.

This piece is A Painted Field.  The inspirational photo was taken on one of the side roads out near Pike Lake.  I loved the big bales and this one turned out reasonably well.

This past weekend was the Artisan Show and Sale and was held at the German Club.  As usual, it was a terrific show.  A few of the pieces I had exhibited at this show are:'

 Pouff.  Again, nothing else seemed quite right. I think there must be lots of dandelion lovers out there.  This piece is available.

This is Flaming Chokecherry.  This has a lot of depth and appears quite 3-dimensional.  This is also available.

This is Pike Lake Lilies and is 8x8 (size of artwork). After driving to Pike Lake a great many times this summer trying to get good photos of the water lilies, we were finally rewarded with hundreds of them. Available.

Late September is the title of this piece.  The inspirational photo for this one was taken out at Blackstrap a year or so ago.  It has been sold.

Finally, this is West of Meacham.  On a side road off the highway just west of the town was a field of canola and several old buildings.  It was very picturesque, so was definitely worth stitching. This one is 5x5 and is available.

It's been made clear to me that I really do need a website, so in the next couple of weeks, or at least right after Sundog, I'll be dusting off my notes and getting down to it.  I'll also be posting on this blog more frequently. 

I'd like to sincerely thank all of the people who purchased my work, both at my exhibitions and at Artisan.  I would also like to thank everyone who was so generous with their kind words and hugs at Artisan - a most unexpected and appreciated gesture.  I do this work because I love it and having you invest your hard earned dollars in it is very humbling. You make me want to get better and better.  Cheers.......Donna

.............. and remember..........................................................

Back...at last....

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy so I haven't been doing much of anything except stitching. I have an exhibition at the Handwave Gallery in Meacham until September 24th (thank you June!!), also I have pieces in the Meewasin Centre Gallery for the months of September and October, and I'm also participating again this year in Art at Solar Gardens on September 19th and 20th.  As well, I took pieces down for Join the Thread in Weyburn  and a couple of pieces for the Craft Council's 40th Anniversary show.  This all followed on after Dimensions, so I've basically been chained to my sewing machine!  Both the exhibition at Handwave Gallery and at the Meewasin Gallery consist of totally new work and each one is quite different from the other as far as content of work is concerned.

The above picture was taken by my husband Adrian in our front yard on August 23/15.  I had been staying up pretty late and working well into the night and when standing at a window in the house, I noticed - through the closed blind - what looked to be lightening. When I opened the blind this is what I saw.  I hadn't seen northern lights of this intensity for several years, so woke Adrian up and we stood out in the front of our house for at least an hour and watched the show. It seemed to go on forever and because Adrian had his camera already set up on the tripod, he took dozens and dozens of great shots. This photo incidentally hasn't been photoshopped at all and is exactly how it looked - lots of greens and pinks. The only thing missing was that crackling sound that you can sometimes hear if the lights are intense enough and the surroundings quiet enough. 

Anyway, what else is new......... I had a write-up in a British fibre magazine a few weeks ago.  It was six pages with around eight photos in what used to be called Workbox (now called Be Creative...with Workbox).  This isn't carried in Saskatoon any longer as far as I know, but it's a techniques-driven publication that's been around for a great many years. It was featured in their 150th Anniversary issue under the heading Prairie Portraits.  I have a pdf if anyone is interested in reading it - just email me and I'll send it to you - acdc@sasktel.net

Following are three of the pieces in the Handwave Gallery show.  For this exhibit, I created pieces that were a little different - not my usual landscapes or florals.  Two of these are below:

This is First Shoots of Spring - Manitoba Maple. The photo was taken by Adrian in the lovely church yard at Meacham. We just happened to be there at the right time. The shoots were very pink and the leaves very yellow-green.                    

This one is called Lichen Study on a Maple Tree. Original photo by Adrian.  The actual tree was out at Blackstrap and had so much lichen on it that you could barely see the tree trunk.  I did one other version of this for my first Artisan show and it attracted a lot of attention in the form of fingerprints!  The man who bought it also got to keep those! 

Finally, this is The Painted Field.  This one sold at the Opening of the exhibition.  I'd like to extend a great big Thank You to the lady who purchased this for her daughter's birthday.  

Also - thank you to all the people who came to the Opening and a big hug to June Jacobs for all the work involved. 

For the rest of 2015, which has zoomed past so quickly that I can hardly believe it's autumn already, I'll be attending the Artisan show and sale in November and Sundog in December.  

I'm sure I'm missing things, but if so, will include them next time. Until then, (sooner than this time I hope!!), I leave you with this little picture that I saw on the net - can't remember where, but I think I'll make it my personal motto! Cheers......donna

Another Orchid Blooming....

Last night I got up in the middle of the night and when I came downstairs, all I could smell was vanilla. I assumed that a bottle of vanilla had spilled somewhere, but no - it was this guy:

Meet Encyclia radiata.  One flower stalk filled the entire main floor level of our house with fragrance. I've had that happen with cattleyas, but never a small plant like this one. It was so strongly scented of vanilla, well, what an I say. I can't wait until the other flower stalk opens.

This is a close photo of the flower. 

 Reflections of Spring

This piece is now at Handwave Gallery with the ones from last week and a few others.  Adrian and I have been out a couple of times with our cameras and found some good locations quite close to the city. This is one of those.  The colors were so soft and lovely - difficult to reproduce, but I tried. The computer is showing the leaves to be more yellow than they actually are.  There were also so many different birds that it was hard to keep track.   I'm going to try and photograph this particular slough, along with a couple of others, throughout the seasons. 

Other than working like a crazy woman, I haven't done much in the past week. I have three pieces and two commissions to finish for various shows/sales and then I can continue the work for my two exhibits and the Solar Gardens show, all three of which happen at the same time. It goes without saying that holidays won't be happening any time soon - or any time later for that matter.  

So, that's it for this week.  I should have more to show you next week and will continue to try to get a blog post out at least once a week.  Incidentally, I still haven't figured out how the Flicker got into my house last week. Ah well......country living.........

First Spring Flowers

Adrian and I went to Cranberry Flats over the weekend to see what else had appeared since the very successful crocus photo shoot of the weekend before. We were surprised to find that a great many wildflowers had sprung up.

 To name a few, the first photo is Low Townsendia.  Neither of us had ever seen this one before.  We didn't see more than 5 or 6 - they look daisies, but smaller and you have to really hunt to find their leaves.

This one is Showy Locoweed.  There were quite a few of these and they're pretty easy to spot - VERY purple.

This is Yellow Bean.  Lots of these guys too.

These are, I think, Early Blue Violets. They're very easy to miss as they're quite tiny. 

I didn't realize that Kinnikinnick flowers were so sweet.  Large patches of the plant were just covered in flowers.

And finally,  this was one of the last crocuses we saw in flower. It was on a slightly shaded hill along with a few others that were in the last stages of flowering.

There were lots of others as well, and we saw plenty of evidence that within the next week or so the next batch of flowers would appear, so I guess I know where I'll be spending my spare time. 

I've been stitching up a few pieces for one of the galleries that shows my work.  The next couple of pieces will be at Handwave within a week or so, once framing is complete.  There will be more than these, but will show them in a later post.

This piece is called West from Borden and is a part of a flax field that I came across last summer. It was so incredible that I nearly went into the ditch as I turned my head to see what caused the flash of blue that had caught my eye.  I pulled over and must have taken at least 100 photos of this field. Hope it's there again this year!

And finally, this is Uncertainty. I had always wanted to stitch a field, empty except for one tree and a great sky.  This one looks much better "in person".  I've used a few techniques in this one that I haven't used in awhile. I was trying to convey the feeling of uncertainty that farmers feel living on the prairie.  The canola field represents a rich harvest, while the dead tree skeleton reminds us that it might not last for long. The model for the tree was my favourite little tree from Beaver Creek. 

That's it, except to tell you about a strange occurrence that happened last week. I had gone grocery shopping and when I arrived back home, I opened the door just in time to see movement in my dining room area. I had assumed that one of my parrots had escaped, but no, it wasn't a parrot. It was a large, adult Flicker. The poor thing was frightened and confused and desperately trying to escape by crashing first into my kitchen window, then zooming through to the living room. I caught him quite easily and let him go. But the problem is this - I immediately searched through my house for the means by which the bird had gotten in.  After looking everywhere, and I mean everywhere, I could find NO open window, door, loose screen, anything whatsoever that would admit a large bird. Had he flown in over my head when I was initially opening the door, I'm pretty sure I would have noticed.  So, now I'm kind of concerned. How did it get in??? When my husband came home, he did the same search and also could find nothing at all. There's also an unusually large number of these birds in our yard right now.  Normally, we don't see all that many Flickers. So, I'm just a tad creeped out. 

Ok - that's it for this time......donna

BUSY....BUSY....BUSY....

Life has been insanely busy lately and this isn't about to change until...I hate to say it.....until the snow falls.  So what have I been up to? Well to start with, I taught a large class in Davidson on April 15th.

A shot of the room we were in and several of the participants. The workshop was held in the church basement and there was lots and lots of space for everyone to spread out.

Two more stitchers having a lively discussion about technique.....or possibly that we're overdue for a break?!

...and speaking of which ........

I have to say the food was incredible.  And there was SO MUCH OF IT!  All in all though, it was a great day and it was terrific to meet such an enthusiastic crowd.  Every time I go to one of the towns in the province I'm reminded of how wonderful it really is to belong to such a community. These ladies, although I'm sure from time to time they have their differences, demonstrate all the good things about living in rural Saskatchewan. Most of all, they care for each other. What could be better than that!  Thanks to Kathy Palmer for setting up this workshop.

This was part of that incredible few weeks of northern lights that we experienced in April. This was taken by my husband in our front yard. It went on for hours and hours and the colors were remarkable.  Another of the great things about living where we do!!

This past week/weekend marked the opening of Dimensions, the SK Craft Council biennial, open and juried touring exhibition. Entries were dropped off in Saskatoon at Market Mall on April 28. On April 30 and May 1 these entries were reviewed by jurors June Jacobs of the Handwave Gallery in Meacham and Tom McFall, Executive Director of the Alberta Craft Council. On Saturday, May 2nd, the unveiling of the Dimensions Touring Exhibition was held and anyone who wished could attend the Jurors' Critique.  This was a real eye-opener for me. Both of the jurors are extremely well informed individuals who replied to questions from the audience on how they chose the finalists. Personally, my mind boggles at the task of judging around 200 entries from every area imaginable. 

Then on Saturday night, these same jurors held a special critique session at the Affinity Gallery. This wasn't actually connected to Dimensions, but was held as part of the SCC Gallery Representation Program. I managed to get into this as well, where each person in attendance sent, in advance, 5 or so photos of their work, as well as bringing along a piece of their work. We all had an individual critique session where we learned how to best present our work, approach galleries and a host of other things that I would have never learned otherwise.  I was quite impressed with the depth of knowledge of June and Tom and am very grateful for the opportunity to have attended this session. Thank you Vivian Orr and the SCC for sending out that email and putting on such a super event!!

...... Oh yes ...... one more thing ..... my big news is that one of my pieces did make the cut for Dimensions and has been included in the 2015 Dimensions Touring Exhibition. 

This is Blackstrap Revisited (ok - ok - when I was naming it, all I could think of was how many times I had taken photos of this hillside, so it seemed appropriate at the time.  Apologies to Evelyn Waugh).  This is a fairly large piece measuring, in it's frame, at roughly 24" x 20".  I had done a smaller version a couple of years previously but had always wanted to do a larger version, so last November I stitched up two fairly large pieces.  This is possibly my favourite piece of everything that I've ever done. At the time I took the photo, the hillside was lit with beautiful autumn colours under a striking blue sky.  Some of my best photos came from this photo shoot. 

Well that's it for this entry. Next time I'll have photos of new work. I expect that from now until August I'll be lucky to get away from my studio and hope to be churning out pieces regularly, so will post them as they roll off the sewing machine.......donna

Orchids! 

Another post-gardenscape post to show you a couple of photos of my latest "acquisitions".  Gardenscape this year was the site for the annual meeting of the Canadian Orchid Congress. As as result, there was a separate art show that was all about orchids, and several orchid vendors.  For sale was a huge number of orchids that we don't often see for sale here in Saskatoon - and the best part was that they were available in small pots for anywhere from around the $10.00 mark and up. So it was possible, if you're an orchid enthusiast, to pick up a few small plants to try without breaking the bank. It was quite overwhelming actually.  There were soooooo many kinds to choose from that making a choice was extremely difficult.  Now, as someone who doesn't spend heaps of cash on clothes and "stuff" like that, I managed to talk myself into giving several of these little pots a new home.  Seen below are three of these poor, homeless orphans that I had to take home.

This is (are you ready?) Brassolaeliocattleya Ports of Paradise-Green.  (The system of naming orchids is very confusing at times, but it all means that it is a cattleya relative, and most people know what a cattleya looks like). It's basically green and yellow and at night fills the whole level of our house with a delicious vanilla type scent. Yum!

This guy is an Epicattyla, again a cattleya "relative" and is called Kyoguchi Happy Field. A field full of these little guys would be happy indeed. It has a cinnamon-y fragrance and is quite tiny.

 Finally, this is Dendrobium Lucky Girl and right now, the main stalk is covered with blooms - maybe 20 to 30 in total. No scent though, unfortunately, but still gorgeous.

All in all, I picked up a great many of these small plants. A couple of others have flower spikes, so I'm really looking forward to them producing. One in particular is one of the "spider" orchids and should have, with luck, a long, curved spike of several flowers that look very much like exotic spiders.


This all must sound pretty extravagant, but like I said, you just can't find these small plants here very often, so when you do find them....well......what can I say......

The rest of April will find me teaching a large class at Davidson and preparing a dog portrait for a friend. Will post more about these when they've happened.

So - the snow's gone (hopefully for several months!!) and the weather is a bit warmer every day, so it's definitely time to get outside. I'm fortunate in having a screened-in porch and am planning on spending every available minute working out there this summer. CAN'T WAIT!!!! Talk again soon.................donna

Back to Work!!

First things first.  Thank you to those of you who purchased my work at Gardenscape.  I always appreciate the fact that you have c chosen one of my pieces, especially in an environment were so much really excellent artwork was exhibited.  I understand too that one of these pieces is headed for England.  I have a few pieces "living" over there now. 

And so now it's back to work.  The next few months will see me preparing for a large class in Davidson, getting pieces ready to submit to a couple of upcoming shows/exhibits, stitching enough work for two exhibits of my work, not to mention all of the usual shows/sales that I take part in on a yearly basis.  Getting ready for September will be the big challenge.   Both of my exhibits overlap and also, Art at Solar Gardens enter into the mix too.  My exhibits run from mid-August to September 24 at Handwave Gallery in Meacham and the other takes up the months of September and October.  As well, I have a commission to thread paint a friend's dog.  This is a very special dog who will be challenging to stitch, with a blonde wavy coat and lovely face. I'm looking forward to doing this piece very much.

My exhibit at Handwave Gallery is entitled "Leaf-Shoot-Tree-Root" and will concentrate on all things from the earth. If it grows, it's fair game!  I have lots of ideas for this exhibit and want to include a few materials that I haven't used in many years.  The name for the show, by the way, came from my pal Judy Wood and seemed perfect for what I had in mind to stitch.

I have a few pieces left from Gardenscape that are still for sale.  These are:

  Dotted Blazingstar. It's a SK Wildflower that          grows freely in many locations.

  This piece is 6x4 and is in a frame measuring   9x10.

This Lily is Salmon Star. It measures 7x5 and is framed.  The little knobs are done in French knots by hand. It is also framed.











  This Lily is an oriental that is also 7x5" and framed.











Anyone interested in purchasing any of these could contact me by email at acdc@sasktel.net or call me at 306-665-9182.  I can deliver in the Saskatoon and neighbouring communities.