Virtual Vacation

Didn't get to take a real vacation this summer ... so I took a virtual vacation of New Orleans. Going through photos, postcards and maps, I painted some watercolours while remembering a trip there some time ago.

Oriental Tags

Shipping tags from office supply store with: Japanese papers and postage stamps; rubber stamps.

Paint-Out #3: Kelley's Garden

Pen and ink with watercolour. Kelley has terrific Southwestern art (his own works) in his house and some cool cacti in his garden, too.

Paint-Out #1: Experimental Farm

It's officially Summer -- last week we went on our first Monday Evening Paint-Out of the season. Location was the gardens off Prince of Wales Drive at the Experimental Farm. I painted a dianthus in pen and ink with watercolour (4"x6" Aquabee Super Deluxe Sketchbook).

Decluttering Success!

My home office, which I use for both work and hobbies, was getting out of control, so about 10 days ago I decided to completely re-arrange the furniture and de-clutter.

My plan was to: (1st) re-arrange the furniture; (2nd) immediately make 1/2 of the room look super neat (as inspiration to see how great the whole room could look) and stash my stuff in the other 1/2 of the room while I sorted it; (3rd) work my around the room making the super-neat zone larger and the stuff/stash/junk zone smaller. It seems to be working!!

Here's a picture I took last night. I wish I had taken a "before" picture, too ... think I was too scared to :)

Now my stuff/stash/junk zone is down to about 2 ft x 2 ft x 2 ft ... not visible in the photo ... I don't mind it, though, because it's localised and, so far, getting smaller every day.

The entire room is 12 x 15 ... considerably larger than it looks in the photo (I took it from the doorway, but it's distorted because of the close range ... there's actually about 5 feet between the two pieces of furniture in the foreground.)

I think the key was to make one half look really great right away ... it really motivated me to sort through the stuff I'd piled on the other side ... I was surprised how quickly it went. I am so pumped ... also so relaxed because now my home office looks/feels so pleasant to be in!

Algerian Fruit

These paintings, done in pen and ink with watercolour, are based on Algerian postage stamps from 1950. I'm a stamp collector and I've always liked this set of stamps. There's a third stamp, which pictures dates, in this Algerian fruit set and I think I'll do a painting based on it soon.

Still Life 2010-2

Moroccan Embassy, Ottawa, Canada

Currently the Moroccan Embassy, this house was built by Fred Booth, designed by Charles Saxe, in 1922. It's located on Goulbourn Street in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood of Ottawa, just down the block from my old apartment. I love its really cool gables, mysterious windows and tower.

Still Life 2010-1

Watercolour and coloured pencil, while listening to John Coltrane, "A Love Supreme."