finally....a vacation!

 Like so many of you, we've been looking forward to getting away from the same four walls and seeing something outside of our little community! While we're not quite ready to travel internationally, we did want to explore a new place so we chose to travel north on Vancouver Island and visit Port McNeil and nearby islands. 

One thing that drew us up there was a chance to visit the Passagemaker, a retired Royal Canadian Navy Diving Tender which my husband had driven many, many years ago when he was a Clearance Diving Officer in the RCN. Back then, it was known as YDT 9...trust the Navy to give it such a fancy name!

 DH welcomes me aboard!

We explored Alert Bay with a world class Cultural Centre http://www.umista.ca stopped by Telegraph Cove where I had visited over 50 years ago, now a nice tourist stop. We also drove to Port Alice and had a day trip to Malcolm Island and the community of Sointula - settled over 100 years ago by a Finnish immigrants hoping for a perfect, harmonious community. All in all, a lovely trip, even with  three days of almost non-stop rain!

So all this brings me to some photos to share of interesting shapes, angles, textures and then some new art work at the end!

so...onto the new work! As you have seen in previous posts, I've been making multi-coloured shibori fabrics and incorporating them into my art work. In the back of my mind I wanted to create a piece using those fabrics to give the illusion of water, shimmering and reflecting the surroundings....after a few trial runs, I think these two pieces are successful!

Stormy, Stormy Night - 12" x 16"

Stormy, Stormy Night - side view

When the Sun Dances - 12" x 16"

When the Sun Dances - side view

These pieces are now being shown in Surrounded by Water - an invitational exhibition at the Cowichan Valley Arts Council.

I admit that I was nervous working on a wood panel, but it turned out better than I thought and now I'm considering how I might use this same concept of the shibori fabrics put into larger works...stay tuned!

Small Shifts = Exciting Results

 As I have blogged before - my series, Our Salish Sea, has been a wonderful adventure, I have enjoyed exploring using paper and fabric in collage and the sales have been very good.

I have two concurrent shows happening at the end of the month...oh plus... the Studio Tour here on Pender, so I need to increase my inventory BIG time! But I didn't want to do "more of the same" however much I like the theme and the format.

And I have enjoyed using my shibori fabrics as "water" in my recent work so a little experimentation has led to three new pieces with a small shift = exciting results. 

These are 10" x 10" - mounted on wood cradle, I love the size! Message me if you are interested in purchasing, each is $95 CDN

Sometimes just tweaking what is successful provides an opportunity to explore and move in a slightly different direction....I wonder what might be around the corner?

Lookout at Razor Point

Towards Swanson Channel

Side View - Mounted on Wood Cradle