A Gathering of Stones

Grey is a favourite colour of mine these days.

Sometimes as I go through my scraps

one jumps out

asking to be used.

The markings on this scrap shouted out loud that they wanted to be used

despite it being the wrong colour!

This one makes me smile

Reminds me of my mother's old fashioned loaves of bread.

Hundreds of tiny French knots made with one strand of floss.

Really weird!

A moonless night pebble.

I nearly missed noticing this is heart shaped.

Perhaps my favourite this week.

This week I have to say my thoughts are with

all of those affected by Hurricane Harvey

rather than with insignificant gathering of pebbles.

May their recovery go quickly and smoothly.

A Sense of Place....Work by the Artist's Way Cooperative

Last Thursday we drove down to Yarmouth

and hung our second show at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Western Branch.

We called the show

A Sense of Place.

Each of us worked in our own way to that theme.

Grace Butland worked with fabrics dyed from foodstuffs in her kitchen.

For Nadine Belliveau it was scenes from her village that inspired.

Sherry Caldwell had been in France just before she

started working toward this show.

Diane Clapp found inspiration from her photos of sand cranes

and reflections in the lakes around here as well as lichens.

She also dyed three of her pieces naturally.

And this is a very yellow photo of my work

based on the rocks that form the foundation of the land around here.

We call ourselves the Artist's Way Cooperative.

Stone Pathways with only 4 1/2 Months to go

The delicate shading of this first stone is my favourite this week.

This year is flying by

only 100 more or less

stones to go until the end of the year.

I am by no means wishing away my life

but have needed to get organized and make sure

there are enough background squares to finish Stone Pathways!

So, that job is done

and now I can throw the leftovers into the dye pots!

One of the joys of Summer for me

is preparing my fabrics for Winter's stitchings.

A Plimsol line perhaps

Makes me think of circling the wagons.

Strange association, I know.

But there again perhaps I like this one too!

Crossing Pathways

Ah, but perhaps this one is my favourite!

Broken lines.

Have an inspiring week.

Marking Stone Pathways

This beautiful stone could perhaps

be mistaken for a soapstone carving

The marks on stones

are beginning to make me think

I should perhaps take them further

next year.

Perhaps I should isolate them

from their stone surroundings.....

.....remove them from their size restrictions.....

.....play around with them in sketchbooks.....

.....and explore their potential.....

 .....as stand alone marks.

Meanwhile the weather this August

has been exceptional.....

.....around our beautiful Annapolis Basin.

Have a great day

go to the beach!

Untamed Things Group of Canadian Landscape Artists

 

 Those of you in Ontario will have seen the Toronto Start article

On Canoe Lake, A Stroke Behind Tom Thomson 

by Murray Whyte

Mark and a bunch of his Canadian landscape friends

who are all fans of Tom Thomson

have formed the group

Untamed Things
(Words taken from the To Thomson Memorial Plaque)

They have made trips up into Algonquin Park

over the past year.

They are all producing great work
getting ready for their show at Arta Gallery
September 6-19

Mark Berens

Wapomeo Island

where they brought Tom Thomson after he drowned

Mark Berens

Canoe Lake

On the climb up to the Tom Thomson tribute plaque

where he often worked

Mark Berens

Canoe Lake with Wapomeo Island in the distance

Mark Berens
Kiosk Lake

The opening reception is Friday, September 8
6 - 9 pm
Go and join this nice bunch of artists if you can
and tell Mark his Mom sent you!

Wish I could be there

Good luck guys.

Running Late Along Stone Pathways

Stone Pathways was hanging in the studio

wrong side out

Caught my eye

Liked it

Decided I had to record it.

Just a few marks on a big heavy stone.

Knowing that the background squares

are roughly 5"x6"

you can judge the size of the stones.

A teeny weeny speck of a pebble.

Nature always does a better job at mark making than I.

This is a large heavy stone

and I like that a delicate sheer silk chiffon

is what I chose.

It will look fragile despite it's size

lying alongside it's companions.

A little bit of madder red.

(I am dyeing with madder this week)

 Small and simple.

My studio is my place of peace

My place for calm thought

My safe place to take the next exploratory steps

The place where I can look out at the woodland world that surrounds me

Have a creative studio day.

Inspiration Under My Feet

Just being at the beach is renewing

for the mind and the body.

But the worm pathways caught my eye on this trip.

I am really drawn to the chaos the worms have created

contrasted by

the regular diagonal lines created by waves and tides

and

the random diagonal line of tiny pebbles stretching towards

the top left hand corner.

I see couched chaos

atop a grid of simple diagonal running stitch

or perhaps stem stitch or back stitch.

I have gathered together in my baskets

so natural dyed threads that could be couched

onto a piece of linen or wool.

or perhaps

the basket of bright procion dyes would would be more fun.

But I am still thinking natural.

These guys are always inspiring companions

but....

....today it is the very straight line of footprints

going off into the distance.

Strange

Three of them

Just one line of footprints.

A walk in the woods

always provides some inspiration

Just walking along

looking at my feet

to avoid tripping over roots or stones.

Perhaps more couching

or 

wrapping

or some other

fabric manipulation.

Perhaps dots could be added

along a seam-line 

to add emphasis.

I like that thought

and

to remember those thoughts

I have to record them here

or they will go poof into the vacuum of space

never to materialize!