Cowichan Valley Fine Arts Show 2011

Fairest Of Them All

acrylic on canvas

(c) 2011 Amie Roman

I've put the above piece in this year's CVAC Fine Arts Show.

All are invited to Cowichan Valley Arts Council's 41st annual arts show. It is the largest non-juried art show in the Cowichan Valley, featuring recent artworks by artists living and working in the Cowichan Valley.

Gala Opening! Wednesday, April 6 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Everyone welcome. Meet the artists and share in the fun.

Thursday, April 7 Open 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Friday, April 8 Open 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 9 Open 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 10 Open 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Quw'utsun' Conference & Cultural Centre, 200 Cowichan Way in Duncan.

Admission is $5 for adults and free admission for children.

Your support of the arts and artists is greatly appreciated.

Each day different CVAC members, artists and representatives of arts groups will host the show, giving demonstrations and talking about the art work.

Daily Program
Thursday, April 7, 10 am – 12 noon : Handbuilding in clay, Jane Wolters
1 - 4 pm : Rug hooking, Colleen Wike

Friday, April 8, 1- 4pm : Artists Trading Cards with Beverlee McLeod

Saturday, April 9, 1 – 4 pm : Silk painting, Clare Carver
10 - 12 and 1 - 3 pm : Face Painting

Sunday, April 10, 1 – 4 pm - Weaving of all sorts by Alison Irwin
11 - 3pm : Face Painting

Weather Worries

Last Monday I had a demo to do at the Port Moody Art Association, and we were being threatened with snow. While not a huge deal, if the Lower Mainland gets snow, then where we are (up on a hill in Burnaby) and where I was headed to, I would go through a few spots where snow would definitely be accumulating. The rest of Canada always scoffs at the West Coast for our complete lack of ability to drive in the white stuff, and while they aren't wrong, a significant factor they tend to ignore is that we don't have the snow removal budget or man-power that they do. Plus, we have LOTS of significant hills, something at least not an issue in the Prairies.

Anyhow, there was little snow, but TONS of rain. There were a dedicated group of about 30 people who showed up for the demo (thanks everyone who braved the weather!), and I think the demo went well. Of course, I'm still having issues with Speedball inks drying on the Plexi, but until I find something I can use as an alternative, I just have to keep cleaning & re-brayering. So here are some photos from the demo, and one of the prints that I did as part of the demo (rainbow roll & reduction all in one!)

Discussing carving tools & carving the block

Preparing the rainbow roll

Burnishing the paper to transfer the ink

Reduction & rainbow roll techniques combined

Our Black, White & Red, Revisited exhibition for the Printmakers Only Group was kind of a flop, but it looked so good! We all arrived on Friday to set up, and discussions about the weather forecast were uppermost in our conversations. We were due to have at least 15cm of snow fall but more like 20-40cm. We got the latter, if not more, over the entire weekend. We had a few bodies arrive and even purchase work early on the Saturday, but by lunch-time, the snow was flying fast and furious. So here are some photos from the thwarted exhibition (we had to wait until Monday to pick up our work, as no one was traveling on the Sunday, and few people could even get out onto the roads, which were not especially clear).

From our "theme" room

Beverlee McLeod's "Fish Farm" monoprint
body printed from plastic stencil wrapped in masking tape,
gelatin prints for the little fishes,
woven thread "net" containing the little fishes within the body, mounted on black paper

Patrick Hill Ladybug stone lithograph

Some of the POG crew at the show in the "secondary" room
guest Marilyn Dyer, POGers Susan Law, Bev Koski-Cooper & Mary Oscar

guest Marilyn Dyer & me with a couple of my block prints

So getting home from the show was a bit of a nightmare. A trip that should have taken a little over half an hour was a two and a half hour ordeal. You can see why:


And this was our truck after about 14" of snow over less than 24 hours:

As I sat here drafting this post, our power crashed. So it's been two solid days without power, which means, here at my Mom's, no flushing toilets, no running water, to go with the no lights, no computer, no TV. We finally had power restored this morning. Following the heavy snowfall, we had a "pineapple express" roar through, with I don't know how much rain, but a heck of a lot. Of course, on top of all of that snow, which resulted in this:

View of Cowichan Bay flooding courtesy of Beverlee McLeod

Group Exhibitions "Firsts"

I cordially invite you to attend any one of three group shows that I am in for the first time.

The first, hosted by the Printmakers Only Group, will be at the Chemainus Festival Inn (Chemainus is between Victoria & Nanaimo on Vancouver Island), on Saturday, December 1 and Sunday, December 2, from 10 am to 5 pm each day. There will be a number of framed and unframed prints available, and we'll have one gallery that showcases our theme for this year. There will be members demonstrating their techniques during the show.

Fraser Foreshore Morning

The second, held at the Federation of Canadian Artists gallery, on Granville Island, is the Spilsbury Medal Show (this link will also update to display the Spilsbury once the current exhibit, which I'm also in, changes), which is open only to signature status members of the Federation. As I became an Associate member as of this spring, this is the first time I have qualified to enter, and I am very honoured to have been juried to participate, because there are not many AFCA members represented at this particular show. The opening is on Thursday, December 6, from 4-6 pm. The show runs until December 23.

Crossroads

The third, held at the Malaspina Printmakers Society gallery, also on Granville Island, opens on Thursday, December 6, from 7-9 pm. The show probably runs until December 23. As I just became a member of Malaspina this year, this is my first member show that I've been able to participate in.

Northwestern

Young's Ford

In Memorium

"Xmas Goose" multi-block relief print

Poor Goosey is no longer with us. After a valiant battle with a mink a few nights ago, while Goosey didn't appear to be physically damaged, we think that he was just stressed too far with the chase. Goosey, a great guard goose famed across Cobble Hill for his presence, will be missed dearly by all of us, as well as his field buddy, Lady the horse, who'll probably miss him the most of all.

Here is a small tribute in art of the various expressions of Goosey that I've done so far over the years. I'm planning on doing another one this year, probably for my Christmas cards, as a reminder of our favourite goose.

"Gramma's Goose" mixed watermedia monotype

"Goosey" watercolour

"Marilyn" (Goosey after Warhol) watercolour monotype

Added November 4, 2007 - Mom also has a recent painting of Goosey & Lady from a photo of them in the snow last year that she wishes to add to our memorial. This is a watercolour painting called Friends.

On a Roll

It seems that I've got the outdoor watercolour sketching bug! Yesterday was POURING with rain, but today it cleared up and was beautiful and sunny. One drawback though: the heat evaporated the moisture on the plants & ground, and made the atmosphere quite muggy, so the watercolours took a wee bit longer to dry.

I'm still captivated by the beautiful merging/blending colours of ripening fruit, so here are some more sketches done along that theme.

Feral apple tree by side of the road. The passing traffic caused the leaves to be in constant dancing motion, and the branches to sway.


Some of the later-ripening crabapples (another tree has almost completely ripe clusters all over). This one is more in the shade and in competition with other shrubs & bushes, though.


While the fruit is definitely the most flavourful of those we have growing feral, the cut-leaved variety of blackberries are the most vicious, with back-curving thorns that dig deep and bite hard.


Here's a very late blackberry flower (it was just about the last one on this plant):


The clouds gathered around lunch time, so I headed back inside. Later in the afternoon, the sun shone forth once more, so I decided to head into the veggie patch (a.k.a. "deer Fort Knox"). I experimented with a new pen, but it's not water-proof, so it kind of smudged ink into the painting of the sunflower. I let the sketchbook face-plant in the moist dirt by accident, so there is some serious interaction with nature on this sketching page! I also had the delightful opportunity to do some sketches of a native bee working very hard at collecting pollen.


Another native bee of the same species came by and totally laid into the first one, who got knocked to the ground and lay stunned. I coaxed her gently onto my finger and got a great sketching opportunity while she rested. Here's the close-up:

Country Life

Autumn Asters

Dave & I are on visiting my mother in the Cowichan Valley, a rural/suburban/urban area of southern Vancouver Island. Mom lives in Cobble Hill, which is mostly rural, but with a bedroom community aspect; many people who live here commute each workday 45 minutes (on good days!) south to Victoria. Mom is semi-retired, and moved over Dave & I are huge fans of bees & insects that pretend to be bees, so I'm always on the lookout for any of our native bees or bee-mimics. This hoverfly looked quite a bit like a bee, until you look a little closer.


As I was sketching the cluster of asters, Dave told me he was returning the ladders borrowed for our staining job to Pat, our friend of many talents, including farming (and printmaking, house painting, orchard pruning, etc.). What a perfect opportunity for me to grab my sketchbook and get some good stuff. So here are the fruits of my quick-sketch labours (you can click on any of them to view larger in a separate window):

Pat's Chooks

Black Australorpe Rooster

I am especially pleased with the effect I achieved in this image:

Chooks

These chickens were in constant motion, and all clustered around the fence in front of me, hoping for a handout. Even though they soon figured out I didn't have any food on offer, they were still curious and watched me watching them. But of course, a chicken's attention span is short, so they soon started doing other chicken activities, and it was a blur of chicken-ness.

Pat raises chickens for eggs & meat; these were his egg chickens. Pat's also got a number of rabbits. This image was a bit of a trick to obtain, because the bunnies kept spooking. Even though I wasn't really that close, and I hardly moved a muscle, I think it was because I was watching them intently, which is certified predator behaviour, that upset them. So the colours are maybe not quite where they should be, but I'm pleased with the result.

White Bunny

The job of raising food for their own table falls mostly to Yasmeen, Pat's wife. She has a beautiful rampant veggie garden, with all sorts of lovely goodies. They've got a simple wood-and-poly hothouse which is exploding with ripening tomatoes (bunny poo is the world's best fertilizer!).

Yas' Roma Tomatoes

The greens & reds of the ripening tomatoes were a delight to try to capture in watercolour. I'm a watercolourist under duress; I don't do it very well, and haven't the patience to master it, but enjoy adding colour to field sketches and it's the best way to do so.

After I sketched for a bit, I gave their wee pony, Molly, a bit of a curry combing and hoof cleaning. She almost purred.

We headed home, and I decided (surprisingly for me!) that I'd not yet had enough sketching, so I worked on the prune plums in Mom's back yard:


I love the way the greens and purples merge together on the ripening plums. The colours are so beautiful. The knobby twigs are also very intriguing. This sketch was done in a semi-blind contour manner, which means that I spent some time looking at the sketch pad to orient my pen, but mostly looked only at the subject.

I noticed an abundance of large black slugs cruising through the un-managed field, so I thought I'd sketch a few:


I am pleased with the almost calligraphic quality of the lines on the mantle of the slugs. I watched the one on the dandelion inexorably charging towards the flower from a patch of apparently uninteresting grass. It was obviously zeroed in to the flower, as it spent a good amount of time chomping all the tasty bits out, leaving the green salad behind. Sound familiar?