Art Show This Weekend

The Images Art Show & Sale is happening in Creston, BC this Saturday and Sunday. If you are able to attend, it would be great to see you there.

You are invited to the Creston Images Art Show and Sale.

I am so pleased to be showing with the other artists.

I will be exhibiting 19 watercolour paintings. See a few of them below.

Plein Air Paintings

'Fallow'

This started as a plein air painting one day when Ute Bachinski and I were painting at Brunhams' Greenhouse. After painting the beautiful flowers in front of the greenhouse in another painting, I turned 180 degrees and painted these plant stalks.  They were adding such structure to the landscape, I couldn't resist them.

Landscapes in Pattern 

Using stencils was so creatively invigorating that I will be looking for opportunities to try more stencilling. I started this painting on location in Lister and finished it one day when I was painting at my friend's studio.

Clothesline Series

'Miner's House' 

Clothesline Series which I began in order to draw attention to energy conservation.

'Life with My Human' Watercolour Series

The following paintings are three of a series that I am highlighting at this Art Show. The series started in 2018 and aims to capture the uniqueness of the relationship between each pet and their owner.  A portion of the profit from the sale of commissioned paintings in this series will be donated to a local animal charity or agreed-upon animal charity of the purchaser’s choice.

'Behind the House, Across the Street'

This painting is looking down the Devon Street trail, that the Rotary Club developed last year. Three different home owner's planted flowers to enhance the trail. Thank you to all developers and maintainers of the trail. And a special thank you Barb, my neighbour and her dog for posing. 

'Running Partner'

This beautiful dog and his 'Mom' share a love of going for a run and/or walk together. Living where they do, they visit some pretty spectacular scenery.

'Waiting for a Breeze'

Bruce has many adventures with his owner and this year learning to ride on a sailboat was one of the them. Sailing on Kootenay lake, what could be better?

Textile Cards

At the show, there will be some of my Christmas and winter themed textile cards. I was in the dye pots last week and tried painting cardinals for the first time. The process starts by painting with dyes onto fabric. Later in the process, I thread sketch some details. 

Cardinal's all in a row. They will be cut for individual card tops.

Here are six night skies painted with dyes. You can just see the 'plate' pallet with the dark blue dye on it. Note the lower left card in the photo below. Can you see which one got a rabbit thread sketched on it? Even though I often paint a few images at once, they are all created with variety.

Textile cards for the winter season. In the Creston Valley, people often skate on Duck Lake and that's where I draw my inspiration for the skater's from.

The textile cards make a gift and card in one as they fit perfectly in a 5 X 7" frame.

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. 

Fernie, BC Art Show

On the Wall - Off the Wall

 

The last days are always chaotic getting ready for a show. This week I've been thread sketching 30 textile cards to take to the show 'On the Wall-Off the Wall'. You may not know it but that is a lot. In Yoga last night I noticed my knee was sore probably from running the foot petal through those miles of thread! Who knew this could even happen?  

Here are my favorites. Do you have a favorite?

 

 

 

If you are near Fernie, BC, please come and check out the new show coming to Arts Station Gallery.

On the Wall - Off the Wall

works in Mixed Media, Textiles & Water Colours
by Win Dinn, Eileen Gidman & Laura Leeder

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 28 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Exhibit Continues Until: Tuesday, June 23

Win Dinn constantly experiment with techniques, following the 'What if's'. Her paintings are
colourful, rich with texture and layers, and range from the whimsical to the deep. She believes
that in mixed media, as in life, there are no mistakes; there are only opportunities to move in a
new direction. Find out more at http://windinnart.blogspot.ca/.

As a watercolour and textile artist who likes to paint from life, Eileen Gidman enjoys creating
vignettes that tell a story. She feels at peace in the natural environment and her art subjects
are often of that world, whether landscapes, botanicals or birds.
Her work is available on http://www.eileengidman.com/ or follow her
on http://eileengidman.blogspot.ca/.

Laura Leeder's paintings have become a way to celebrate the beauty of the Creston
Valley. By combining the local produce with vintage teacups, porcelain,
lace and local pottery she creates paintings that are both timeless and serene.
Her most recognizable paintings are of the teacup series. She painted many
of the pieces in this series for the Creston Museum annual fundraiser tea.
Find her work at: http://www.lauraleeder.blogspot.ca/
and http://www.lauraleeder.com/

As I am sure most of you won't be able to attend so I will try to remember my camera and I will try to remember to take some photos to post later. When I am in the spirit of a show opening, I find it hard to remember to do these things but I will try.