An Artist's Typical Week?

Although an artist's week often isn't predictable, here is one recent week's schedule. 

Sunday:

• Schedule art making for the week. 

Monday:

• Sew 2 'mugrugs' for an upcoming Bird Festival (donation). Not having sewn one for awhile, yes it took me most of the day. 

Tuesday:

• Package 'mugrugs' and contact Bird Festival committee member. 
• Sew 4 mini textile cards.
• Start sewing regular sized textile cards, then the power went out due to a wind storm. 

Wednesday:  

• Heard one of my textile cards was purchased as a gift going to England! An artist often doesn't know who purchases their art but it is delightful when they do. 
•  Sew 12 bird cards.
•  Post about bird art to social media. Bird art Post

Thursday: 

• Sew 2 more bird cards and 8 floral cards.
• Shoot a video of thread sketching.
• Assemble picture mat materials.
• Attend a lesson on mat cutting in the afternoon.
• Shop at the Second Hand Store for a steamer to set in a large pot for silk painting steam setting. Purchased 4 decorative gold wire plate holders to use for displaying textile cards for sale.

Friday: 

• Sew 11 landscape cards.
• Edit and post social media video of textile sketching. Reel of Thread Sketching
• Practice mat cutting on my own mat cutter. 

Saturday: 

• Sew one more landscape card to make 2 dozen competed this week.
• Clean studio table of sewing machine and textile cards.
• Frame 2 watercolour paintings. Unframe one of them twice, once for a fleck and once to re-center the mat. 
• Write out framing directions learnt on Thursday.
• Put away mat cutter, mat pieces, frame pieces and hardware.

        

An artist's life is so much more than creating art. 

Why I Love the Skimmerhorn Mountains

Watercolour by Eileen Gidman 
11x14"
Skimmerhorn Mountains #4

The Skimmerhorn Mountains have a commanding presence on one side of the valley where I reside. The clouds curl around their tops, the sunsets bathe them in colour and snow makes the crevice's show beautifully. In the fall, old timers will say, when the first snow stays on the top of them, there will be snow on the valley floor in three weeks. Ohhh... and a ridge walk on the top, in wildflower season, fulfills my soul.  

 Watercolour by Eileen Gidman
11x14'
Skimmerhorn Mountains # 2 

Due to the vertical nature of these mountains they can be quite a challenge to paint. Normally, I paint them on location but these last two weeks I have painted these watercolours from my photographs in the studio. 

Watercolour 'card size' by Eileen Gidman
Skimmerhorn Mountains #1

To warm up, I first painted this small watercolour. A few people have commented they liked this particular shade of blue with the red of the barn. If I recall correctly it is a combination of a Maimeri Blue, 'Bluegreen' colour and a Windsor Newton, 'Cobalt Blue' colour. 

Watercolour by Eileen Gidman
11x14"
Skimmerhorns #3

This farm is so dear, I decided to paint it again but larger and because an artist can move mountains, I did paint another part of the Skimmerhorn Range behind it. 
 

Dye Painted Fabric 'card size' by Eileen Gidman
Skimmerhorn Mountains

The two mediums I work in (watercolour and dyes) often contain similar images and here you see the Skimmerhorns again but on fabric.

Artist Video: Eileen Gidman

BACK TO LIFE DRAWING/PAINTING

Last week, it was great to get back to 'life drawing/painting' after many months of not being able to meet with others inside. Although I might be a little rusty, it was so comforting to feel the brush strokes flowing. 

20 Minute Life Drawing Sketch

'Models in a Row'

Just like any other skill, drawing and painting require ongoing practice. Rather than have a separate piece of paper for each sketch, it can be fun to group them together on one sheet of paper. My mentor once said, "Always use good paper". This is 90 lb hot press Arches watercolour paper and I find it perfect for these quick watercolour sketches. 

Only Time For One More Very Quick Sketch
(background sketch)

2021 ARTIST VIDEO: EILEEN GIDMAN 

Eileen Gidman: Watercolour and Textile Artist

Artist 7 min video

Hopefully people are getting some opportunities to get back to doing things they enjoy.  

Finishing Plein Air Paintings in the Studio

We are having cold weather for about a week and it seemed a good time to finish some paintings that were about 80 % completed on location. I have photos somewhere but decided to work from the paintings only and rely on my memory of the day. 

'The Three Clydesdales'

Watercolour by Eileen Gidman

Of course the Clydesdales captured my interest at Kootenay Meadows Dairy that day I was painting on location. But also the distant fall colours in contrast with the blue spruce trees were stunning. This was my second attempt to try and capture those colours. The other painting I've decided not to finish. Not all paintings turn out and that is to be expected. Purposefully, I left the Skimmerhorns less detailed even though their vertical height is impressive in itself.

'Pleach Plum in Bloom'

Watercolour by Eileen Gidman

This painting was done on a spring day at a paint out session with 3 other artists. My friend invited us to her yard to enjoy the almost wild, peach-plum tree in bloom. Where the figures are, there was another artist painting but I decided to change it to two figures walking their dog, heading right passed that stunning tree. Gosh we live in a beautiful valley.

Painting My House Plants

I finally finished this painting that started as a demo this winter for a group of dedicated watercolour students. Some watercolour paintings of the potted poinsettia were done in red and green and I know one of the backgrounds was a heavily salted beautifully vivid yellow. I had the turquoise leaves and a few of the petals in 'Naples Yellow' (Windsor Newton paints) and the gold background done the day of the demo. Now it is May and in deciding the colours to use to finish it, I pulled out Joen Wolfrom's 3-in1 Color Tool. A triad of Golden Yellow, Aqua Blue and Fuchsia were chosen. The dominant colour is the Golden Yellow so I used a variation of that on the pot and table. The fuchsia was used in smaller amounts directing the eye to the top petals. 

I have misting this house plant daily this winter and it set these lovely mini oranges. In the watercolour group we finished up doing botanical type watercolour paintings. So I've attempted to capture the essence of that orange bush in my own expressive style of painting.

For this one I set it out in a + compostion. I used a harmonious colour scheme with the orange, yellow and green. Then I slipped across the colour wheel to the complement of the orange to a warm blue and placed that behind the two 'center of interest oranges' and scattered more blue throughout.

The techniques I used were to start with a loose 'wet in wet' background. After it was dry I lightly drew in the leaves, stems and oranges. They were painted positively and some were painted around in a negative painting technique. A bit of blue glazing was used on top of two of the oranges near the center to push them farther back. 

The magnolia trees are blooming. Hmm... will I get out to paint them?

August is Great for Painting at the Lake

The only thing better than plein air painting in August, is painting in September when it is a bit cooler.

We are thankful to live so close to a big beautiful lake. It is so relaxing to go camping there which we did this month.

Aqua Chair from Winnipeg

Watercolour by Eileen Gidman

When I saw the sun shining on an aqua blue camp chair at about 10:00 one morning, I made sure I was set up ready to paint it the next day when the sun was highlighting it once again. 

Here I am sitting in the shade of our campsite, out of that hot sun, enjoying a couple of hours of painting that aqua chair. Just wow!

Family Time at the Lake

I was sitting in my camp chair with its little attached table, perfect for plein air painting. Note the watercolour above.

Plein air painting again this week near Creston, BC.

Brittany's Flower Farm

Watercolour Sketch

by Eileen Gidman

On Thursday, my friend Linda and I cycled over to partake in the opening of a flower shop.  Brittany's Flower Farm . Touring the colourful Flower Shop and garden was just delightful. Thank you Brittany for welcoming us.  You are truly talented. 

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.

Watercolour Painting for the 'Trails for Creston Valley Society'

Recently the Creston Trail Society was fund raising to purchase a riverside property for a park. In the initial stages of fund raising, when I offered my artistic services, the Society members asked me to create a painting that could be used as a poster to track the fund raising efforts. They had a few specific things they wanted which I incorporated. The right side was left quite bare to accommodate the fundraising numbers that were to be added. The painting was copied and laminated which worked very well for adding on slips of paper with amounts of the goal to be reached and the fund raising efforts to date. 

The painting was also used on the cover of the 'I love Creston' magazine!

The poster on the table of one of the fund raisers.

The painting continued to be used for additional posters even after the property was purchased. The graphic designer did a great job in adding the texted to the scanned painting.

Another great poster.

The painting was also used for 75 Thank You cards.

And the local bakery made a cake for a celebration at the purchased property. What a great project to be involved in. Look here for more information Trails for Creston Valley Society 

Adventurous Dogs

WATERCOLOUR SERIES: THE LIVES DOGS LEAD

Watercolour by Eileen Gidman - SOLD

'The Sheriff and the Bandit'

Painting on Location at Valley of the Swans

The Creston Valley has also been known as Valley of the Swans. Fortunately a friend alerted me that there were Trumpeter Swans feeding in the farmer's fields on the 'Creston Flats'. This was the first time I was able to see them so close. The first day I went to see them, it was sunny and the water sparkled and the geese appeared so very white.

Watercolour by Eileen Gidman 7 1/2" X 10"

The next day, I went back and set up for painting on location. It wasn't as bright but I wanted to capture what was still in my mind from the day before.

Watercolour: The Blooms of the Southwest Desert

 My newest completed watercolour paintings. Looking at them, I can almost feel the warmth of the sunny desert. The 'Argentine Giant' blooms are very fragrant, open at night and close during the day. In certain places in the southwest desert you can see the agave and the prickly pear growing naturally. That is a treat in itself but when they are blooming, well, that really is something very special.

Watercolour: 'Foothills Agave' - off to a new home

Watercolour: 'Argentine Giant' - off to a new home

  

Watercolour: 'Prickly Pear in Pink' - off to a new home

You may have noticed I haven't been posting as regularly. Below is a sample of what has been keeping me so very entertained. More info as things unfold.