The Cure for a Slow-starting Spring?

After a successful showing at the Craig Gallery in November and a long winter's nap on my spare bedroom's walls, the characters from Altered Egos have now come out of hibernation to appear in the exhibition space at the
Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design.

Once numbering 22 works, the exhibition is compiled of the remaining 16 works
( 6 works found new homes while they were on view at the Craig--thank you to all of you who made that possible!) and I am thrilled to be able to have the opportunity to show them to my hometown crowd!

If you want a bit of comic relief from this long drawn out winter or to take in some colourful characters as opposed to looking at the snow that just won't go, head down to the Gallery at 322 Charlotte Street. Gallery hours are 10am - 4pm  Monday thru Friday and Saturdays 12 - 4pm.

"Boundless" by Teena Marie Fancey
vintage ephemera,acrylic, paper and handpainted embellishment on board
 4" x 5"

Progress Report #1 -"Bread and Honey-how sweet it is!"

Alrighty! I thought it was high time I checked in with some photos to show the progress I’ve made thus far with Bread and Honey- how sweet it is!

I started with a nice wood support from Curry’s Art Supply. I like these supports. They are nicely made and have a really nice look if you decide to work on it as a shadowbox style support, which comes in handy if I happen to know that the found objects I will be using are better housed in a recess. In this case, the tin light reflectors I’m hoping to incorporate are fairly sharp and the cradled board will serve to protect any passers-by from a nasty scratch and allow the piece to be easier to pack and transport

After applying gesso and sanding and more gesso, I loosely painted in the composition in my chosen palette of spring pastel colours (photo #1). Then I applied the photo transfer I made of the portrait studio card. As you can see in photo #2 it leaves me with a ghostly image, which I love! It allows me to tint the photo any colour I chose as well as alter the image too. In this case, I have given Demeter a bit of a primavera green cast, well suited to the Earth Goddess I think, and then I accentuated the contrast and light. Happy with that, I have then sketched in the next part of my plan in chalk, and will work on the background a bit before I move on( photo #3).

I must add…that like most artists I know, I always work on several projects at once and will be giving you a sneak peak in my next post, at two pieces I have started simultaneously with Bread and Honey.

Stay tuned…