And the Winner Is......

'Autumn Overlook'
Watercolour by Eileen Gidman
Winner was LM from Creston, BC

Thank you to everyone who commented on my blog, newsletter or Facebook page. Your comments encouraged me to keep painting on location everyday during my art residency in the Crowsnest Pass, AB. I looked forward to my down time on the internet to see who was commenting.

Ready for the draw

The winner is number 44: LM from Creston, BC

Here is where I sat to paint that last painting,

right beside an animal's den. See the bone out front! Luckily no one was home.

 

Displaying the watercolours on the wall in the Art Residency Cottage

Our paintings were transferred to the Gushul Studio for the Open House

Off to a new home! Thanks for the purchase. You may not be able to tell but the wind really got blowing there, where it comes over the Livingstone Range. Those clouds had to be captured quickly as they were really blowing around. This area was one of my favorite places to paint but the weather here was definitely the most challenging. One day two other artists and myself huddled on the leeward side of a snow fence to paint.

Off to a new home! Thanks for the purchase. The day was so perfect, warm but not hot as Fall can be. I enjoyed painting this watercolour so much. Those old signs are so captivating. Someone at the show mentioned I had captured the roughness of the old buildings. I took that as quite a compliment.

In another post I am working on, I will tell you what the other artist and myself gleaned from the Art Residency. Hopefully you will be inspired to set some time aside to follow your own passion.

Gushul Art Residency: Open House

 To Win a Watercolour Sketch painted in the Rocky Mountain Foothills: comment on my blog or Facebook posts during Sept 2015.  I will make the draw the first week in October. Good luck!

Gushul Studio Open House, Blairmore, AB
 Sat, Sept 26 from 4-6 pm
Karen Arrowsmith, myself (Eileen Gidman), and Kristen Lyttle warmly invite you to attend and view their art:
watercolour paintings, painted textiles and Maori weaving

I'm in the third week of my art residency and I continue to paint plein air everyday rain or shine. This week it seemed to be about cows.

The DU ranch has a preserved log homestead on their land. After painting for the morning, it was a delight to walk down the hill to the log cabin for a close up viewing. Can you see the cows far in the distance?

Yesterday, in order to get the cows this big in my painting, I had to sit on the edge of a secondary highway. Amazingly when you are painting, it is easy to ignore the distractions of the zooming vehicles. Someone from Washington stopped to ask for directions and I am happy to say I was able to help them. I'm getting to know this Crowsnest Pass. They didn't even ask to see my painting. Hmmm..... 

This is what I painted today. I thought I would switch the colours up and I chose a split complement: purple with yellow-green and orange-yellow. What do you think?

After a three hour painting stint, look who decided to show up!

Lilacs in Textile

    

'Lilacs in Textile'

One of my textile cards available at the Fernie Art Station, in Fernie, BC. Myself and two other artists are just back from our Art Show opening. It was a lovely time in Fernie.

We have just finished hanging this wall. Lots of work selecting just the right painting for each space.

I am standing in front of two of my hand dye painted paintings and my textile cards.

 

Laura Leeder and Win Dinn the other two artists in the show posing in front of the Fernie Art Station

Food all ready for the opening

 

More yummy food.

 

A couple of hours of delightful looking and interacting at the 'On the Wall-Off the Wall' art show opening.

 Of course we visited other artist's galleries while in Fernie. Louise Hilliard was manning the shop at 'Everything Angela' http://everythingangela.com/  Louise is a seamstress who sews fabric with Angela Morgan's images on it into incising items. Lots goes into the work of an artisan and it was fun discussing the design of a new hand bag with Louise. Click  here to find more information about this talented seamstress.

We also went to visit the Eye of the Needle and Fernie Forge Studio and Gallery.



Flo Barrett, award winning costume designer and seamstress here at the Eye of the Needle Studio and Store is holding up a twig fronted corset that will be part of a series for a photo shoot.

We had a lot of fun visiting this studio and enjoyed looking at the work of many talented artisans.  I can highly recommend a visit to Fernie, BC.