Where does the time go?

The past few weeks have drifted by. As often happens, I am left wondering where the time went. However an inventory of activities paints a very full picture of my life of an artist.

During the last two weekends in September (not to mention many of the weekdays before and after spent preparing and re-organizing), I was fully embroiled with the Langley Art Studio Tour. This four-day self-guided tour of art studios and related stops of interest around the Langley community is always a fall highlight for me. I enjoy welcoming visitors to my studio, showing them around and demonstrating some of my techniques. This year I gave coloured pencil demos each morning (pictured below) and silk painting in the afternoons.

 

Despite some horrendously wet weather on many of the tour days, a solid number of intrepid tour-goers came to visit and some of my art pieces found new homes, among them these two:

Omens of Change (Silk Painting)

Flicker (Coloured Pencil Drawing)

I have recently completed this commissioned coloured pencil portrait of a darling little cocker spaniel. A delightful subject, I was lucky to have the opportunity to meet him in person and he is every bit as adorable as he appears.

I got busy working on another large commission piece that's dominating my drawing table at the moment. It features two horses, a pony, a dog and, interestingly enough, a goldfinch!

I have been looking forward to working on this project all summer, ever since visiting the farm where all these animals reside. I had a chance to get to know each of them just a bit, observe and photograph them, and hear their stories as told by their dedicated owner. I'll write more about this piece at a later time.

I also squeezed in a drawing of this wee tropical copper-rumped hummingbird and have a couple of other small pieces on the go. I always enjoy making little drawings of little birds, and they're popular with the folks who collect my work.

I made a couple of trips into nearby Vancouver, once to drop off a piece at the Federation Gallery for the AIRS exhibition (Annual International Representational Show) and a second time to attend the opening of the show. My "Wild Muscovy" duck is in very good company at this prestigious exhibition!



And in between all this I've taught a few workshops and planned for a few more to come. I find that fall is a great time for people to learn or fine-tune some art-making skills. One of the recent workshops focused on creating this drawing of a spotted towhee.

As busy as this sounds, I have made time to get out for a few walks in my favourite park and take in the colourful fall foliage.

Vine maples in Campbell Valley Park.

Friends and dogs along the Pitt River

It's a great time to see birds, some still migrating south while others are doing their best to fatten themselves for the coming winter months. To aid the year-round residents, I've beefed up my bird-feeding station with a new rain-proof feeder that had the adverse effect of attracted an army of hungry squirrels. Subsequently, I also installed a squirrel baffle that seems to have foiled the little monkeys, for the time being at least. I have nothing against squirrels but it's the birds to whom I like to offer a helping hand.

And now I'd better get back to work. I have a trade show to prepare for, classes to organize, commissions to work on, and art pieces to complete. There's little rest for the weary artist, but that's just the way I like it!