doreyme

Joy#32, Finding a Painting You Did Twenty Four Years Ago + Still Liking It, acrylic on paper .Feb1/09

Joy#31, A Baby in the House, 8x8, watercolour, Jan 31/09

Hallelujah! 365 joys! and in the other corner, Hallelujah.... And The Pursuit Of Happiness

Just to clarify things.  I started this "hallelujah, 365 joys" daily painting thingy theme on Jan 1/09.  I figured it would be a bit of a challenge.  Well, today I have been flooded with people who have been sending me a thing in the New York Times.  A fairly well known artist illustrator called Maira Kalman has started doing a thing called "And the Pursuit of Happiness" today -- all sorts of marvelous paintings on Hallelujah/happiness things, like, Obama's inauguration.   She will apparently be continuing her series once a week -- every Friday for the New York Times.   For the record, I started my "Hallelujah! 365 Joys"  on January 1st, oh did I say that already?  And I will be continuing my "Hallelujah! 365 Joys" for the rest of the year for free, right here on this blog.  No subscription necessary.  Three hundred and thirty to go. 

joy#30, Of the 2nd Live Drawing Class in a Week + For Many More Weeks To Really Improve That Live Drawing Nude Thing, 12x10, 2 watercolourJan30/09

joy#29, Obama's coming to Canada, Feb 19! 8x8, 2 watercolourJan29/09

Joy#28, Cleaning out, cleaning up, 8x8, 2 watercolourJan28/09

joy#27, Being a Taurus in the Year of the Ox (this one Swiss) 8x8, 2 watercolourJan27/09

joy# 26 Memories of Singing Sand Beaches, 18x20, oil on wood, Jan 26/09

joy#25 Of Not Eating Haggis, Happy Robby Burns Day, 8x8, watercolour Jan25/09

Joy#24 Of A Warm Coat in Siberian Cold, 8x8, watercolour Jan24/09

Sunday CBC 6 PM, no Heartland, instead...

check it out

Two of my talented friends, Hélène Bruderlein + Kathlyn Horibe are showing their photos at the...

Centre culturel de Verdun  from january 21 to March 13.  Super beautiful.

Joy#23 Of Live Model Sessions, Once Again,9x12, watercolour+charcoal, Jan 23/09

Joy#22 Of Walking in the Woods at Night with Black Angus,8x8, Jan 22/09

1.   

Joy# 21 Of A Stubborn Tree That Won't Shed Its Leaves, 8x8, Jan 21/09

Joy# 20, Joy to the World, a Very Very Momentuous Joy for All, 8x8, watercolour, Jan 20/09

joy# 19 MLK + what he did for us all, 8x8, watercolour, Jan 19/09

heartland, CBC, Sunday at 7

Joy# 18 Eating homemade tomato soup while watching Obama on CNN, 8x8, watercolour, Jan 18/09

joy#17 One hundred and fifty five joys and many heroes, 8x8, watercolour, January 17/09

Andrew Wyeth dies...

good NY Times piece about Wyeth

self portrait, Trodden Weeds, 1951...in egg tempera

Ground

Tempera must be applied to an absorbent ground that has a lower “oil” content than the tempera binder used^[5] (the traditional rule of thumb is “fat over lean", and never the other way around).^[6] Since the ground traditionally used is inflexible Italian gesso, it is preferable for the substrate to be rigid as well.^[7] Historically wood panels were used as the substrate, and more recently un-tempered masonite and modern composite boards have been employed. Heavy paper is also used.

[edit]Making tempera

1. Place a small amount of the pigment paste onto a palette, dish or bowl.
2. Add about an equal volume of the egg medium and mix well making sure there are no lumps of pigment. Some pigments require slightly more egg medium, some require less.
3. Add distilled water (usually less than a teaspoon per egg yolk), trial and error will dictate just how much water is required. more about tempera   

joy#16 Going to Ikea with the Whole Family, 8x8, watercolour, January 16/09

Joy# 15 Living in Canada, even with this frigid weather, 7x10, Italia acquerello, jan 14/09

a terrible photo, again, took it too late + frankly not a great watercolour but the sentiment is sincere

Patrick McGoohan dies...and with him a huge part of my childhood + youth

more about this wonderful actor who defined masculinity for a whole generation

"In the Real World" , new Montreal made teen's show starts February 4th on YTV, 7:00

check it out

joy# 14. A brand new Isabey brush, 8x8, Italia acquerello, jan 14/09

Joy# 13 Memories of PEI in the middle of a Montreal winter, acrylic on masonite, 8x10, jan 1309

The giant cat of Westmount...

...superbly captured by brother-in-law, J.

joy# 12 The Golden Globe Awards Show, tonight 8x8, Italia acquerello, jan 12/09

Always way better than the Academy Awards as the nominees get to drink. And they do.

Heartland, CBC, Sunday at 7

+ the other day a friend, American, asked me why I was always posting stuff about this Heartland show they never heard of on my blog.  Well, 2 reasons.  One, it's a good show,  not in the "Mean World Syndrome.  A phenomenon where the violence-related content of mass media convinces viewers that the world is more dangerous than it actually is, and prompts a desire for more protection than is warranted by any actual threat.^[1] Mean World Syndrome is one of the main conclusions of cultivation theory. The term "Mean World Syndrome" was coined by George Gerbner, a pioneer researcher on the effects of television on society, when he noted that people who watched a lot of TV tended to think of the world as an unforgiving and scary place. ^{[2]"read more about that here.   Two, my husband works on it and more people should watch it.  Hopefully it will play in the US at some point and then everyone can see this show about a young woman, a "horse whisperer" of sorts and her family + friends + foes in the heartland of beautiful Alberta, not so far from the amazing Rocky Mountains.} 

Joy# 11. Being on Mount Royal, early morning, on a beautiful day, 8x8, Italia acquerello, jan 11/09

Art Pizzazz Phooey

There's an article today in the Montreal Gazette, our local Anglo rag, about some enterprising dude who sells 40x40" paintings for 359$  They are, to my eye, horrible.  I went to his site but I'm not putting it here because he got enough free press today.  He doesn't paint them himself, some real people do in China he says.  Well, to each his own and if anyone wants to spend 359$ on a painting of Madonna or a Klimt or Van Gogh "interpretation", fine.  It's your money.   However, I am pissed at Maxine Mendelssohn  the reporter who "broke" this important story and the Montreal Gazette for wasting more than one half of a full page on this dude's business when they habitually spend so little energy promoting local or Canadian art or art at all.   Montreal is supposed to be some hot cultural city.  Spit, especially in this neighbourhood, and you'll hit an artist.   But you wouldn't know it if you read the Montreal Gazette.   If we're lucky we get one review of an exhibition in one week.   So humbug.

Joy# 10. Amaryllis in full bloom, 7x10, Italia acquerello, jan 10/09

Thank goodness for the power of beautiful flowers on a stress-y short fuse full moon kinda day. 

joy# 9 New red polka dot cup 7x10, Italia acquarello, Jan 9/09

It's serious winter now in Montreal.  After a big snowstorm, few cars on the road, people on the street.    It's wonderful to hunker inside and sip ginger lemon tea in new Swiss-y red polka dot cups.

It would have been Happy 74th

joy# 8 Receiving lovely wooden bowl made in Ecuador by lovely relative called Lisa 7x10, Italia acquerello, jan 8/09

Joy# 7 Being Part of A Painting Group 7x10, Italia acquerello, jan 7/09

Referring to the Daily Painters group.  We're all posting self portraits...so this will be on the site with all the other painters in the group, see above, to the right. or here I'm also joyous to be part of a fabulously talented  photography group that meets every 4 weeks but that's another post for another time, perhaps. 

My favourite little car, Montreal alley January 6/09

Joy# 6 Playing In the Snow with Angus 7x10, Italia acquerello, jan 6/09

Joy# 5. Selecting the Send Button and Sending off a Project You've Been Working on For Months,, 7x10, Italia acquerello, jan 5/09

And I know I got Address book where Attachment should be but this was too finicky for me by half...+ it's more about keeping a visual diary of the high points of each day which today was getting off something (a tv writing project) I've been working on for some time which is a very big joy indeed.  Natch there will be revisions but, still writing, eg. for tv, is a very long term esoteric endeavor, unlike painting.  You do a painting it's clear as day.  All the flaws for all the world to see, but still you kind of know when something is finished.  Writing for tv (+film) is a never ending black hole.  So much editing, finessing, you never really feel it's finished, even when it airs.   

new episode of Heartland, Sunday, 7 CBC

Ollie, Oilie's watercolour, red chair, yellow cushion and new snow

Joy# 4. Ordering Out, 7x10, Italia acquerello, jan 4/09

Joy# 3. Ollie on the radiator, 7x10, Italia acquerello, jan 3/09

Joy# 2. Christmas amaryllis is about to bloom, 7x10, Italia acquerello, jan 2/09

Montreal, St. Lawrence St. 01/01/2009 two thirtyish at -19 below, feels like -24