Bet you can't...

...guess what I've been up to this week (well, apart from purging/cleaning/downsizing, that is):

I spent a great morning with Laura Leeder 

and Eileen Gidman

and we painted!  Given the upcoming Spook Day, we opted for pumpkins (thanks, Eileen for providing them),

 and spent an inaugural morning in Eileen's new studio.

Can you tell we had a blast?  The morning went so quickly that this is about all I got done.  I'm not sure whether it was the photo-taking or the blabber-mouthing that had me slowed down, but I was IMMENSELY impressed with how much Eileen and Laura accomplished!

As I took breaks from my work at home, I added to the piece until it resembled a manic picture of my current life, with labyrinthian pathways, stops and starts, mad dashes and wild colour.  What could be more appropriate for this time of the year? I've got five more days until the big day, and I suspect this will get additions, because why stop at psychedelic when outright gaudy is a possibility?

I'm wishing you a Happy Halloween - may you enjoy the costumes and colour, with no tricks at all!  

With chaos...

...all around me as I clean and purge (we're planning on a spring down-sizing), I've been doing much too little in the studio.  That does not mean, however, that I can't appreciate the out-of-control colour around me as we head towards the end of fall.

Here's what I mean:

The front lawn is carpeted with maple leaves.

The shrubbery in the backyard fairly shouts with riotous colour against the clear blue of the sky.

The mountain ash down the street is laden with berries.

There's glistening gold everywhere I look.

Even the fallen colour carries that POW factor.

Strawflowers are gorgeous at this time of the year.

Sunflowers are at their best as they wave goodbye to summer.

Of course, there's colour on the web when I need a break from all that sorting/organizing/cleaning, etc.  Here are a few of the luscious goodies I found over the past week or so.

Wendy Mamattah

Anita Bloch Ceramics

Debbie Colby

We live in a magical world, don't we?  Everywhere we look there's a feast for the eyes.

I've been flitting...

about from town to town this past month, and have found little time to play in the studio.  Isn't life just like that sometimes>

When all else fails, though, I revert to a Gelli plate session just to keep the juices flowing and retain my creative sanity.  I knew that time would be short to do any leaf printing (how the heck did it get so close to winter so quickly?!!!), so I tore into it with great enthusiasm.  John was about to compost the flower boxes, so I stole some dusty miller before it disappeared, added some fern, Japanese maple and other goodies, and had a blast.

There was a huge range as I worked back and forth from first to ghost prints (and even a few haunts).

And while I know it's fall, I couldn't help but put some sunny spring and summer prints through their paces as well.

 Each print was so delicious, it was hard to stop.

Were it not for the fact that the family likes to be fed occasionally, I'd likely still be there.

Of course, being Canadian means that we were in the midst of Thanksgiving colour this past weekend, so that certainly added fuel to the colour schemes.

I can't get enough of green and orange lately, and there were quite a few of them in the pile!

I used all the brayer-cleaning sheets up before I finished, and the geometric lines through some of them pique my interest.

These will all make marvellous backgrounds or additions to journals,

and I suspect they'll grace a few cards and tags as well.

I'd LOVE it know what you do creatively when your time is short and your need is tall.  Please tell me in the comments below so I can add your expertise to my arsenal; post a link if you like!  

When this group plays...

...they play hard, and with spectacular results!  The TAPS workshop ended last week, and there were some crazily creative quilted collages completed (say that ten times fast).

Just take a look at these works of art!

Don't these pears pack a punch?

This apple was clearly grafted!

Such a serene landscape.

Hard at work!

Applicious!

These pears look fabulous floating over the Himalayas.

Pears POW!

Now there's a dream landscape!

Is that a pink worm?  I think so!  :D

Apple haven.

I'll take a bite out of that!

Check out that dragon!!!

I was amazed at the variety of colour and vivacity in these pieces - no two alike, and some amazing takes on our valley!  What a wonderful group of people here - they were a delight to play with each week, and I was so impressed at the engagement of the participants.  Helping each other, chatting, exchanging news and ideas, and generally keeping a sense of community is often challenging for seniors living on their own, but this program does it all.  Kudos to the organizers for ensuring there is a space in which seniors can remain so engrossed and absorbed in daily life.