Settling in

I have new space... it's just for arting. It's small, but filled with windows, surrounded by huge cedars and ancient rhodo bushes and it's mine. MIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNEEEEEE! Muahahah!

An in-progress shot.

Making art in there is wonderful, though I get the occasional furry lap-leech interruption. The kitties looooove all the windows and so I have to keep most of the sills clear or I'll just end up picking stuff off the floor all the time. My grandfather's desk fits in perfectly. My new house is vintage (and dinged up) 1947, so it matches all the 40's and 50's (also dinged up!)  furniture I have which I inherited along the way from my grandparents and their friends. 

In between all the work on the new place I've managed to get in to my new studio and make some shit.

The latest carved stamp: Urchin

I went hiking on the Barde Knockie again, went further than before and found The Milky Way which had an odd pumping station with fabulous graffiti.

Fabulous graffiti in the middle of nowhere.

And this is a phone photo from downtown. I love the cat-like pattern of this concrete wall and have since I was a kid.

Hoping that with things calming down I can get back to some regular blog posting. Paint-stained fingers crossed. :)

Carving, waterfalls and apple blossoms

Carved lily inspired by Barb's photo

Chocolate Lily - flower & photo courtesy of Barb

Clearing out photos from my camera

... and a bit of art.

Yesterday's hike was a wet one, though I'd been lulled into a false optimism by early morning sunshine. I didn't want to risk the Nikon, and I hadn't properly charged the phone, so this is all I got:

Witty's Lagoon Oct 22 2011

I take a lot more urban photos with my phone and I like how some of them turn out.

Early morning Douglas St

One way... like most streets in the downtown core

Pioneer Square

I've been working in my art journals a lot. Finished a couple and bought a new one to celebrate. Here's the front cover and inside front:

Front cover - extremely mixed media

Inside front - one of my carved stamps and a sketch.

September Sunday

I've been trying to cut back on the amount of photos I take on my hikes. East Sooke Park really tests my resolve... and then breaks it into tiny pieces and scatters it to the winds. I think I took over 200 shots and I still have no photo editing software. Brilliant planning on my part! Good thing I live with graphics geeks.

New carved stamp of some generic carp-like fish... in white ink on canvas book cover.

Part of another book cover that's too big for the scanner.

Phew!

My blog attendance over August has been abysmal, but I see from my blog roll that I'm in good company. We finally saw some summer-esque weather around here in the past few weeks and I've been wringing all the sunshine out of it that I could. This Friday's hike showed signs of fall, even if Saturday's kayaking burned my poor shoulders to buffalo wings. I wish I had photos of the kayak trip, but neither of my cameras nor my phone are waterproof in any way.

Maple leaves on Jocelyn Hill

Here's my sign of impending autumn, though.

I'm still without Photoshop cd... I believe it eloped with my blue sock and my last working fine line black marker. If you see any of them, please let me know.

Until I break down and start looking for a cheap alternative I have to steal moments here and there on Axel's machine so I haven't too many art shots. Nature photos are a lot quicker to edit, for some reason.

Carved rubber stamps - wild rose and fir cone

I have been arting a fair bit and having huge fun carving my own stamps still. The two pictured were inspired by some of Patti's amazing botanical photography.

I do have more shots, but Blogger is burping on these two as it is. I'll hopefully get some more up later in the week. Probably not, though. ;-)

Carving rubber in the sunshine

I was out hiking at Matheson Lake early this morning with Bean and a friend, and then out to Patti's for an afternoon sitting outside by her pond and carving stamps in the studio. A pretty good Canada Day, really.
Here are a couple of pages from my small Strathmore journal showing two of the new stamps I made: the messy, messy pattern, and a long cloud. I put them over top of an existing background and then played with pen and pencil crayon.

And here are some shots from the Matheson Lake hike.

A little red

A carved stamp I did up tonight. It's pretty large... if I'd really thought about it, I probably would have made it smaller, but I do tend to work big if I don't plan ahead.

I got quite a lot of sun today, so the octopus isn't the only thing that's red. Who could resist being outdoors on a day like today, though?
Some photos from my hike in East Sooke park this morning.

I love vacation days

My most recent carved stamp is showing up with alarming frequency in all of my journals now. This is my favourite of today's batch. I love it in the crimson ink.

This morning I do believe Bean and I had the best view for our elevensies of anybody around. I had my coffee and muffin looking out over this.

I can't say it was exactly easy to get to, holding onto my cup of Timmy's without spilling any (or falling off the mountain entirely).

Bean helped, though.

I've been having such a great week off, full of arting and wandering about.

New stamp

I am really enjoying carving stamps, and this one especially. It makes me giggle. I like the slight 3d effect I got from stamping it twice with different colours.

My two-headed queen was an interesting experiment that taught me a few tricks with the lino cutter.

Oh and some more photos from hiking with Bean and Co. - not mine, this time.