Sometimes life gets in the way of the things you want to do… like blogging!

I have been away a long time (sorry) but only from the blog. I have been traveling around the coast of BC a bit and working a lot and fixing up my house and …enough excuses! Just regular life stuff. I am finding blogging is like most things,  it will become a habit if I make the effort. So my mid-July resolution is to be a better blogger, fingers crossed that good intentions will keep me going.

In the past month I had a chance to take a workshop with Jason Pollen, an amazing artist and inspiring teacher. We worked on lots of small samples and explored words and ideas with Jason’s guidance, a perfect 2 days.

One of my favorite activities was to create chaos, which is not usually a problem for me, but this time it was chaos in a small space rather than my usual all over the place approach.

From chaos the task was to find the opposite- whatever the opposite meant to each of us.

..and this is where I ended up for one sample,  there are more ideas, samples and drawings tucked away waiting for me when time permits.

Of course it wouldn’t be”summer” in Vancouver without a few cool damp days just to remind us of where we live. This little fellow dropped by one day in the pouring rain. Normally I have the bird feeder down and put away in the summer but he looked so sad I got it out and filled it up.

Quite gorgeous isn’t he? best I can figure he’s a Northern Flicker. He did stay awhile and pose for me, maybe a thank you for lunch?

One of the best things about traveling around the coast of BC is the amazing scenery. I took this image from the ferry on my way back home.. and just had to share it. It doesn’t look quite real.

It’s also been a sad month for me. Those of you who have read the blog previously will have met Bart, my faithful companion and studio side kick. Bart lost his battle with melanoma last month and is very missed.

Catherine

 

 

 

Even the weather got into the spirit of things this weekend! drop by drop opened on Saturday and it was pouring rain on the Sunshine  Coast which didn’t live up to its name at all. Maybe we should be pleased the weather got into the spirit of things and “helped” celebrate a show inspired by water.

We were able to have the doors and windows open all day even in the rain! it was exciting to see our installation set up in the center of the yurt. Those 7 meter banners that seemed soooo very long in my studio, were just right in the gallery.

The building isn’t tipping over,  it’s just the image, sorry about that!

Here’s a few images from around the gallery….

Elizabeth’s beautiful river inspired Raku looked perfectly at home with my quilt “where the river meets the sea” .

here’s a close up of the quilting …I really enjoyed the quilting on this one, well all of them actually but this one especially.

This piece called “rain” was tricky to shoot, it’s made up of 2 layers of sheer with a batik scroll design all over. The sheer lets the light flow right through which is quite lovely in person but not so much when taking images. The piece hung quite low over the pedestal covered with Elizabeth’s porcelain rain drop reliquaries.

I must have been leaning to one side when taking these images! here’s another one that isn’t really crooked. And one last image …

We had a wonderful time at the opening, with many thanks to Reg and Yvonne at FibreWorks for making it such a great experience. If you are going to be on the Sunshine Coast before the 6th of August do stop in and see the show.

Bye for now, Catherine

This post is all about water.. it seems to be everywhere in my life right now.

Thanks so much to everyone who offered their opinions on the paint colour for my house I appreciate your thoughts!  I chose the top one in the samples, the not so yellow yellow and the painter has started work.

He managed to get one coat on the studio building before the heavens opened .. it has rained for 8 days straight since then! Not a record for Vancouver rainfall or even close to a record  but so annoying when you are part way through painting the outside of the house. And so we wait for better weather….

And while we are waiting for the sun to shine Elizabeth  and I are putting the finishing touches to “drop by drop” our exhibition opening at FibreWorks gallery on the 16th of June.

The studio is full to bursting with well, everything! including dogs. Elizabeth’s ceramics and paintings for this show are stunning, there will be quilts ( of course!), some surface design and an installation, that’s part of it in the image above. It’s really inspiring to be exhibiting with an artist who works in different media. We have a number of collaborative pieces for this show, it amazing how well ceramics, paint and textile all work together towards the theme! who would have thought.

Here’s Elizabeth hard at work painting part of what will be part of the exhibition …wonderful isn’t’ it? It’s hard to see just how long these fabric panels are in the image, but they are nearly 7 meters each. Even though the panels will be viewed from a distance someone wanted to get a really close look.

Here’s all the info about the exhibition and the workshops as well.

If you would like more information or directions check out www.fibreworksgallery.com  drop by (sorry about the pun) if you’re in the neighborhood we would love to see you!

Bye for now, Catherine

You might remember I was renovating the kitchen areas of my house over the fall and winter? Now that the warmer weather is almost here it’s time to give my new old house a bit of a face life and paint the outside.  And that’s where the decisions come in – what colour to paint.

I narrowed down the choices  (and boy, are there ever lots of them)  and had some samples made. It’s a wonderful service the paint companies do to make up these little tins of paint you can use to sample your colour. So little paint can in hand, I walked round the house and studio and painted some patches of colour.

Part of the house is stucco and the rest is wood siding but I want to paint the whole thing the same colour. Some of my samples are on stucco while others are on the siding…

There are 3 colours in each of these images.  They only look a little bit different from one to the other at the sample size and the colours appear to change from one side of the house to the other. I painted a larger swatch ( 3 boards for each of the 3 colours) beside the studio door in the hopes I’ll be seeing more of it there!

As soon as it stops raining the painting begins, as long as I can decide on a colour. All opinions gratefully received!

A few of the members of  the Western Canada region of  SAQA came by this week, we got together to organize a group mailing to send our submissions for “Meet the Best of the West” show and for coffee and a catch-up as well . The 12 inch by 12 inch pieces are off to Alberta to begin their tour and will make their way back home to B.C. to be shown here as well . I’ll keep you posted as to where it’s heading.

Here’s Karen , Mardell, Linda and Jill showing off their hard work and mine as well, and a better image of my small piece. It was a challenge to work this small-scale but I enjoyed it! I did struggle deciding what to do but since the show is called “Meet the Best in the West” and the west is home to me, this is what I came up with.

Hope you like it.

Bye for now, Catherine

 

I’ve been away teaching on the Sunshine Coast just north of Vancouver and for once the Sunshine Coast did not live up to its name. I am amazed that almost all the time ,when you get off the ferry at Langdale, the sun comes out. There can be teaming rain in Vancouver and it will be sunny  45 minutes away on the Sunshine Coast. But not this time, unless you count liquid sunshine!

I was visiting the Sunshine Coast Quilters Guild and their hospitality more than made up for the weather. I had the pleasure of leading a 2 day workshop and really enjoyed watching the students work appear before my eyes!

After an introduction to a few techniques the students developed their own projects…

I had a great time in the workshop and once inside we didn’t even notice the weather. Apparently it was sunny for about 4 hours in the middle of one of the days and we missed it!

One of the best things about traveling around the province are the amazing sights you see! I had to stop and double back to get images of this , but it was just too good to pass up -notice the rain on the windshield!

..amazing isn’t it? and even better close up

Oh the things you see….

Bye for now, Catherine

 

And another busy week goes sailing past.  This week was the opening of the Cherry Blossom exhibition  at the Silk Purse Gallery and we did have fun. Many thanks to the committee for putting on a wonderful evening, we shared sushi, cherry tea all the way from Japan and stories about our work with the visitors and other artists.

It was packed!

We got another chance to celebrate this weekend at the gallery. The exhibition committee arranged for demo’s in the afternoon and Jennifer and I pulled the Sunday shift.

Jennifer demonstrated the Pojagi technique and I did a bit of drawing on fabric but we didn’t get a lot of work done, there were so many visitors full of interesting questions, we had a great time.

It seemed a natural to draw cherries at the cherry blossom festival.  Here is  Hanami finished and hanging…the light in the gallery is wonderful I am going to go back and get some images of the quilt on its own.

Work in the garden continues, thanks to Steve and Nick… they dug out the back garden this Saturday…wow, what a change . It’s not pretty right now but it is a clean slate. Some of the plants from the back garden came into the new bed at the front under the magnolia tree.

So it’s not quite as bare under the tree as it looks in the picture above, but there’s more to come. Progress on all things is slow but steady.

Bye for now, Catherine

 

 

It’s amazing how life picks up speed at certain times of the year, there is so much going on, its tough to keep ahead or even keep up! apologies for the long stretch of nothing between blogs.

My cherry blossom inspired quilt “Hanami” is finished and on its way to the Cherry Blossom show..

I’ll be at the opening and hope you can drop by and see the wonderful collection of work if you’re in the neighborhood.

Spring had finally happened here and it arrived with a thump! one day it was winter and the next day it was spring. I have been waiting for the weather to warm up a bit to get started on some work in the front garden and the digging is under way. There’s nothing pretty to show yet but there will be… maybe not soon, but there will be.

This beautiful tree is the center point of the new front garden design, it’s such a beautiful thing. As the day warms up the large cup like flowers open and then close again in the evening. It’s a stunning tree and huge (OK, only about 20 feet tall) but  the front deck is nestled right into the branches, it feels like being in a tree house.  I’m not quite sure what the tree is called  ..tulip tree has been mentioned but!?

The shape if the flower certainly suits it being called a tulip tree!

I love this time of year, all sorts of new shoots coming out in the garden and the forest and best of all it’s light in the mornings and evenings. There have been a few stunning sunsets but this image was taken very early in the morning ( very, very)  of the moon over the city. I know the electric wires probably aren’t a feature to most people but I love the bold lines dividing the city.

Almost getting up so early for ( almost!)

Bye for now, Catherine

There’s been progress all round this last little while…

Progress finishing the very last little details of my renovation, the last 3 light fixtures are up in the kitchen and my amazing sink is installed! It sits on the counter in a hallway between the kitchen and eating area  so I get to see it all the time on my way back and forth through the house.

Beautiful isn’t it? Elizabeth Harris made it for me and has done a brilliant job of it! There  are quotations circling the drain, all sorts of quotes and thoughts on the good, bad and humorous aspects of drinking. It was good fun scouring the Bartlett’s and Oxford dictionaries for suitable quotations and a hard task to narrow it down to the ones in the sink.

Back to progress… I’ve been working on my cherry blossom quilt and it’s coming along well, the drawing is almost done, just a little bit more to go. It even has a name now, the quilt is called “Hanami”. Hanami literally translated ( or so I have been told) means “flower viewing” I thought it sounded just right for this piece.

Here’s a little detail so you can see what’s happening…

Just for a change of pace I headed up to Whistler on Friday to attend the opening of The White Dog Studio Gallery a number artists I know and admire are exhibiting there.

The gallery is beautiful with lots of light and open space. There is second floor opening out onto the main floor, the whole space is very inspiring.

and it was a great evening for a beautiful drive…

there’s even progress on the weather front around here. It’s been a very spring like weekend, here’s hoping it lasts.

Have a great week,

Bye for now, Catherine

 

What a wonderful weekend I’ve had, well wonderful in every way except the weather!

I spent this past weekend leading a workshop on Salt Spring Island, an absolutely beautiful place tucked between Vancouver Island and the mainland of BC. I traveled over on Friday afternoon, an easy journey compared to the trip home! Friday night was a trunk show and presentation of my work, Saturday and Sunday were spent with the students.

We had a wonderful well-lit room, with loads of space to spread out and get to work.

I had a great time working with the students and getting them started on their own designs. There was some amazing work created over the 2 days! Many, many thanks to Karen, Susan, Wendy, Rachel, Bobbie and all the gang at Stitches on Salt Spring for all their help, hospitality and organization.

Salt Spring Island is a beautiful place though I didn’t get to see it at it’s best. It was a cool and rainy weekend, perfect for a workshop but not so good for taking images of all that natural beauty. There were few picture-taking opportunities, but I can never resist stepping into the forest in search of interesting trees and moss,  you can see just how dark it was.

One of the best parts of spring is skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus  for those who understand the Latin names of plants) and since Salt Spring Island has an “earlier” spring than we do on the mainland, the skunk cabbage are just coming out.  They are truly one of my favorite things!

A few more days and a bit of sunshine will nudge these beauties into full bloom.

The weather really didn’t cooperate for me traveling back home to Vancouver , there was a major windstorm and many ferry sailings were canceled making my trip away a bit longer than expected.  Don’t let the calm water in these images fool you… this is the calm after the storm.

We were packed in like sardines once the ferry started running again, there were lots of weary travelers …me included.

Sometimes there really is no place like home!

Bye for now,Catherine

 

 

I know I know, I’ve been a bad blogger.

No excuses except this one….I have had a touch of the flu the past 10 days and haven’t had much energy for anything but the absolutely necessary. I know you don’t want to see pictures of that!

A group of wonderful  women have been spending their Wednesdays at my studio for a few weeks now, they are taking my Textile Illustration course and creating great work. I really enjoy seeing the way each of them  use the techniques we have sampled and explored.

Dorothy is working on a piece inspired by some “city eagles”, she has altered the original image with exciting results.

Monica is creating a design inspired by a tree near her home.

and Cheryl is building a most amazing forest!

Everyone has been working really hard…. well almost everyone!

I have made a bit of progress on my cherry blossom quilt, all the bits and pieces have been appliqued in place and I have started on the second coat of paint.

The 3 blossoms on the left have had their second coat of paint and ready for the next step… the 3 on the right will get done this week, that’s my plan anyways.

Bye for now, Catherine