Live What You Love

Several months ago when I decided to get back to my painting, I bought a very beautiful letterpress print from an artist named Hijiri. (The texture of this print is gorgeous.) Hijiri has a shop named Heartfish Press on Etsy.  To date, the print has sat on a shelf near my computer, just beside the stairway to my studio.  It's a lovely reminder to keep focused on my art.

Flowers are also an ongoing source of joy and inspiration.  I don't know what I'd do without them. Not all parts of my garden are as beautiful or well-tended as I would like them to be at the moment, but I was still able to gather a pretty bouquet this morning.  It's composed of salvia, verbena bonariensis, lavender, gaura and lemon verbena.  I'm bringing this little vase up to my studio.

The past few days have been full of challenges but I've managed to keep painting. Thanks to everyone who gave me words of encouragement. ♥

I've been working on two paintings:  a sunset scene of the small lake in front of where we live and a simple painting of a stem of yarrow (achillea millefolium) that I picked from my sister's garden when I visited her this summer. I picked a stem of yarrow from my own garden yesterday to use as a reference for the finishing details. 

As for my printing headaches, I found a man with a lovely soothing voice on YouTube (someone said he sounds like Harrison Ford) who explains how to manually calibrate a monitor with the brand of calibrator I own.  I was relying on the automatic settings which may have been affecting my print output.

I am planning to scan a number of my paintings in the days ahead to make prints for an arts & crafts show that takes place in Dorval from October 13-16th*.  I'm hoping that the technology gods will smile down on me and everything will come together. (You mere mortals can send your positive thoughts my way too.) There's a good possibility that I might also rely on some advice from my in-house Photoshop wizards, those two clever daughters of mine.

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*For those who live in the Montreal area, the arts & crafts show is called Boîte de Noël.  It is a juried show that has been held annually since 1977.  I've been a participant for at least the past 16 years.  The women who run it put a huge amount of time and energy into it.  The whole show is set up like a boutique. It's at the Royal St-Lawrence Yacht Club at 1350 Bord du Lac in Dorval on October 13 (6 p.m. to 9 p.m.), October 14 (10 a.m. to 9 p.m.), October 15 (10 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.) and October 16 (11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.).  My cards and prints (fingers crossed) will be there.

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Hijiri, the New York artist who made the beautiful 'Live What You Love' letterpress print in the top photo, featured my post on her Heartfish blog today! Quite a thrill. Check out her blog and her Etsy shop.  She's lovely and so is what she makes. Thanks Hijiri! ♥