Vancouver Island - Chemainus + Qualicum Beach

After we spent several hours at Butchart Gardens, we headed for Qualicum with a stop in Chemainus. Chemainus is a small seaside town that was going downhill with mills closing and not much happening. The very smart local govt. decided to do something about it. They decided to invite all artists to come and "decorate" many of the buildings in Chemainus with murals. Artists came from all over, and the murals are painted all over. Now they have tourists flocking to the place every spring, summer and fall to see the murals.

(The drive/view to Chemainus)

In Chemainus, you take a walk around with a written guide you pick up at the visitor's center, following the yellow footsteps painted on the sidewalks, reading the history of each mural. You can walk into the newer part of town or through a lovely park (where they were selling homegrown veggies, honey, crafts, etc., and a musician was performing on the stage) into the older part of the town.

We did a little of both but the older part was more interesting and had several artists studios - which we had to go into. I am so glad we did because we met Sheryl Sawchuk (http://www.sherylsawchuk.com) and got to view her gorgeous oils: large, macro flowers and plants and I fell in love with a painting and had to have a print of it (couldn't have gotten the painting in my luggage or paid the price of shipping so this was the easiest way). This painting makes me happy each time I see it. Sheryl called it an arbutus - we call it madrone. It is gorgeous!!! Check out her work and you'll be glad you did. Here's what I bought - matted and wrapped and ready to frame and hang.

And in the older part of town we also saw this little hobbit house - a B & B!! Wouldn't it be cute to walk inside and see what it looked like? It wasn't open, so we didn't knock, but I was tempted to see what type of person came to the door - a hobbit, a gnome, a fairy getting away from the forest? - I'll never know.

Then back to the car and on towards Qualicum Beach - our reason for going - to visit Susan M. And talk about a lovely setting and a warm and welcoming cottage! I loved it - the gardens are delicious, the house has cedar wood throughout and Susan was as lovely, welcoming, wonderful and friendly as I knew she would be. We both said it seemed we had known each other for years. We talked about Mohan, of course, and I learned more about their lives together - and met their 2 sons. And found out that Nigel is also a very good artist, doing work in pen and ink in a very distinctive way (more about that later).

So we spent several days at Willow Cottage, talking, eating, sight-seeing, and petting Teddy, Susan's big old teddy-bear of a chocolate lab. The first evening we drove down to see the sunset on "Mohan's Beach," and felt really welcomed and peaceful. I was so glad we came.


Susan and Jerry on Qualicum Beach at sunset.










Qualicum Beach, where Mohan would take his homemade pochade and paint his lovely watercolors.

And some of his paintings hanging on the walls of the house - many of those who were in online painting groups with Mohan will remember these.

More to come tomorrow, including Mohan's studio and the paintings there, downtown Qualicum Beach, and other interesting sights.

Vancouver Island Trip - Butchart Gardens

Butchart Gardens is a 55-acre setting full of more flowers, plants, trees, shrubs and ponds than you will see anywhere else in Victoria or on Vancouver Island (I think). Victoria is proud of its flowers and it seems everyone has a green thumb. Butchart is the culmination of their love of flowers.

They have formal rose gardens, Italian gardens, Japanese gardens, and ponds everywhere. They even have a small cove where seaplanes drop off visitors from other islands or tour groups - and where a lone sailboat can come for the day to dock and visit.





Datura in full bloom. When we visited New Orleans a few years back (1 year before Katrina), the teenagers were making a tea of this flower and being rushed to the hospital. They wanted to get high and, instead, got almost dead :(









Froggie pond

I was going to do this as a slide show but seems the "easy way" to do it no longer works and it wouldn't work for me with the instructions (I really am not that computer illiterate, it just wouldn't work after I did everything they told me to do!)




There were fuscia flowers in all colors and sizes all over in the Italian garden, along with a hedgerow and statuary.





























The entrance to the Japanese garden and a lovely pond with water lilies and a waterfall.








































A lone sailboat in the cove.




And a rhythmic fountain in a pool that also held an otter who splashed and swam around, finally coming out to the shore to sun himself.

























Someone has to plant the seedlings!

















And these are just a few of my photos - just imagine what images Jerry got!

Vancouver Island Trip - Day 3/Emily Carr

Emily Carr is one of Canada's beloved and well-known artists. She was a rebel in her time, being born a true Victorian lady who decided, early on, that she didn't fit that mold. She travelled into the northwest and onto islands inhabited by native tribes and painted even when no one, not even her sisters, wanted to look at her paintings. She was born and raised in this house in Victoria. Before seeing her home and a good selection of paintings from the Victoria Art Museum, I had read the book by Susan Vreeland (The Forest Lover), which introduced me to Emily. But she wrote many books herself and I purchased Klee Wyck (the name the native people gave her which means Laughing One).



















Emily's paintings changed when she went to France and returned. She had more color and was more bold. Some of her paintings in the museum reminded me of Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night for it's rendition of the movement of air. I can't show you the paintings I saw (we weren't allowed to take photos), but here are a few postcards I purchased - some of my favorites.

Blue Sky

Deep Woods

Big Eagle, Skidgate BC

One of the criticism's of Emily's art was that she didn't just "document" the native totems and artwork she saw but interpreted through her artist's eyes. Big Eagle is pretty well a documention but her work became much more colorful later in life and she would change colors in something that was grey, giving it a spark of green going to blue or purple - which wasn't "accurate" for historical purposes. She was an artist, not a photographer, and she painted what she saw. At the time, she was a rule-breaker and someone who didn't care for convention (afterall, what Victorian lady would travel the coastlines of British Columbia and make friends with native people?).

Here's the link to the Victoria Gallery: http://www.aggv.bc.ca/

And you can find more of Emily's work and her words by doing a search of her name.

Vancouver Island Trip - Days 1 and 2

When are we going to invent that machine that Captain Kirk and his crew used to beam them onto the surface of planets from the ship and back? It would be sooo much easier than travelling to Chicago from Cincinnati, to Seattle from Chicago and then from Seattle to Victoria, BC! And I would seriously pay twice as much to do that in 5 minutes than to sit cramped in those coach seats. Coach = crowded, outrageously priced, anger-inducing, cramped, hell-like holders for human bodies.

That said, we did arrive in Victoria, the largest city on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Our luggage arrived, too. So we were off to a good start.

Our first day after a good night's sleep in a fine hotel right across from the Parliament Buildings was a tour of Victoria. It's a big city that doesn't feel like a big city. Still many tourists walking and seeing the sights, though the kids are back in school, the cruise season has almost ended, and not as many people milling about. We had a chance to stop and smell the roses, and every other flower that could possibly be grown in this temperate climate (Victoria is the City of Gardens and flowers are everywhere blooming in sizes I've never seen). Along the Inner Harbour, they even had Welcome to Victoria spelled out in flowers.

It was amazing to me to see the seaplanes taking off and landing as frequently as busses on a busy city street, coming in and out of the harbour, bringing business-people and visitors from other islands.

The Empress, a very swank hotel with a harbour view, had vines growing over it so thickly it looked like the greenery was holding it up more than the stucco and paint. Inside, you could have a very pricey $78 full tea in the midafternoon here. We declined and spent our money on other things more interesting to us...

Like the Victoria Bug Zoo! ha ha Jerry took tons of photos there but he hasn't gotten them ready for sharing yet and I'm not sure you want to see katydids and grasshopper and praying mantises before breakfast...

So we'll continue tomorrow with more of Victoria, including the Emily Carr House and Butchart Gardens.

By the way, the clearness of the air and the brightness of the sun gave me a permanent squint while touring all of Vancouver Island, even with my sunglasses on. I've never been assaulted with such sunshine! I think my lungs cleared considerably from years of smoggy Cincinnati air!

Home Again!!!

Although we had a wonderful time, it's always good to get back home. Our experiences in Vancouver on the mainland of BC were not as wonderful as our week on Vancouver Island - more about that later. But it was great meeting Susan, seeing a lot of the sights around her home in Qualicum Beach, and have more photos than I'll ever be able to share. But I'll share the best. After I catch my breath, do some laundry (our luggage was just delivered to our house although we arrived home at 1 am this morning), and make a dinner for my sister who is still without power at her house (just one county away) since Sunday afternoon. Apparently, remnants of Ike decided to rush up the country through our area and into Ontario at 80 miles per hour!! No major damage, and just some clean-up necessary around here and a check of the roof to see if any of the shingles on the driveway were ours (my sister said it was covered but our neighbor must have cleaned them up for us).

So - will share some pictures and words about Vancouver Island later. I highly recommend the trip even though it was a long one. They say it's Paradise and they just might be right!

Susan, they took away my cranberry marmelade at the airport after scrutinizing it for a full 3 minutes looking it up and down and sideways! So have a piece of toast and marmelade for me tomorrow morning :)

One More Day in Paradise

Well, we've crammed in so much in our trip to Vancouver Island and now we are leaving after visiting with Susan, a wonderful, lovely, gracious lady who opened her home to us as if we were old friends for decades! I'll have so many photos it will take a few days to sort out the best to share - and Jerry has taken twice as many.
After a short visit to Vancouver in the mainland - to see the Aquarium and the Beluga whales :),we will be flying home, home, home. It's time because I'm missing my routine a bit and especially my online pals and art friends.

More Birds - By Jerry, of Course

Hummer at the feeder.

The other day I saw the most amazing behavior: 2 hummers were trying to kill each other. Yep, that's what it looked like to me. One staked out a tree limb and waited for the other to come to the feeder and then ZOOM, down he whirred and BAM smacked into the other's chest hard!! I was standing right in front of the feeder and they were too busy in combat to pay any attention to me. This kept on for a while and then, finally, they both flew down to the ground and, I swear, they were rolling around on the ground together!! They were both males and they were both angry, territorial, mean little things.

So much for the angelic beauty of these hummers. Now this one here is a female (no red throat) and she did come around, timidly, that day, keeping an eye out.

This is a young grackle. They are obnoxiously loud and boisterous things, travelling in packs, trying to eat all the food at the feeders and chase off everyone else. Jerry doesn't like them. But I do like their irridescent colors.

What's your favorite bird?

Here's Lookin' At You

Jerry volunteers at a raptor rehab center and likes to take photos of the birds. This is Howard Hawk, and I think he's looking at Jerry in a comical way - or is that how raptors look just before they attack? ha ha

Skies and Water Over the Bahamas

Storm free and totally unbelievable colors...





























All photos by Jerry

Blue Skies Shining on Me...

Nothing blue blue skies do I see...

When you're in an airplane high over the clouds, you get a very different perspective of cloud formations and it feels just magical.

All photos by Jerry.

A Sunflower of a Different Color

A group online has a challenge to paint using 2 tertiary complementary colors (if you don't know what that means, go to http://www.handprint.com and you can learn :), plus one earth color. I chose Pyrrol Red, Cobalt Teal Blue and Yellow Ochre. It's hard to get darks with these three, but I wanted to try the sunflower.

Not my best but I did it!

Sunflowers from Shirley

Shirley, also known as Madame President for our Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society, gave me these photos of sunflowers. She had a field she leased out and the man planted the whole field in sunflowers! Oh, I would have loved to see that. But I have the photos...may turn into a painting next.

I flipped the green one because I want to paint that first and I like things moving from the left to the right. Do you have a preference?

Labor Day, er...Night Fireworks

Trying to do some things that are keeping me away from painting and blogging. So I'll have to come up with some photos from Jerry to keep you all interested until I can get something else back up.

Can you say, "Ahhhhh! Ooooooo! Wow!!!!"?

These are taken from the t.v. as we watched the Labor Day fireworks on the river. (Have you tried to take photos from the t.v.? Try it! You might be surprised what you get.)

I have to tell you I am sooooo in need of a vacation - so I think I'll take one very soon! Don't miss me too much - I will return...

I WON!!!

Deb Ward had a give-away over at her blog (see my sidebar for her URL) and I won a painting! Deb even hand delivered it to me at the watercolor society meeting, telling me I was a nut for wanting it because I could paint something just like it myself. Well, that's not the point. The point is I now have an original Deb Ward!! It's going into a mat and frame and onto my wall of fame (where I keep all my small paintings from artist friends and online swappers). But for now I have it sitting next to the computer (where I have been busily working away on the watercolor minutes and the start of another SWAP of paintings with a group of friends) - it inspires me. Deb probably should have kept this and made cards out of it for July 4th and Memorial Day and...who knows - but it's mine now :)

Better Photo, I Think

This is a sharper image of the umbrellas, I think. When my battery is getting low, my camera acts wonky - I swear, it's the camera, not me!!

For those who haven't heard where the term "fluid acrylic batik" comes from, run on over to Nicholas Simmons' blog at

http://nicholassimmons.blogspot.com/

and check out his work - he has some of the most jaw-dropping work (I am in love with his Spanish dancers) using this technique. He discovered it through a fluke (he didn't like a painting so was really taking the sprayer to the paper and got this batik look when some of the paint lifted and the rest stayed). I recommend his DVD out from Creative Catalyst, too - it's well worth the $ and will teach you more than a thing or two about this process.

Remember, Nicholas Simmons - you'll be hearing much more of that name in the future, I guarantee. But you cannot bring him home with you - Olga wouldn't like it!

Have to share this quote with you, sent to me by Sandy Maudlin :)

"You should keep on painting no matter how difficult it is,because this is all part of experience, and the more experienceyou have, the better it is.. unless it kills you, and then you know you have gone too far." --- Alice Neel

Back to Class - Back to Fluid Acrylics

Since I was in a bit of a rut this weekend - down and moody and not fun to be around!! - I couldn't make myself watch Nick's DVD again to figure out what to do with the fluid acrylic painting. So it's good to get back to class and have Sandy lead us - which is what I needed because I didn't know what to do with all those hard edges and they were really bothering me.

Here's the full painting:

But we all decided that it looks better cropped without the big dark umbrella on the right so this is how the finished piece looks...

Big Fireworks on the River

Last night my sweetie and I watched the fireworks on the river on t.v. It's so much better than going down there hours early, finding a spot, being crammed in with thousands of people. So we turned out the lights and enjoyed the spectacle (an annual event here in Cincinnati every Labor Day weekend - the last big bang of summer).

These photos were taken over the July 4th weekend here in our neighborhood. Jerry walked around and got shots of the fireworks many of the neighbors were putting on for the kids. Pretty cool hearts and spirals.

Happy Labor Day!