What I did this Weekend

I belong to the Battle River Arts Club - a wonderful organization made of of 25 enthusiastic members. Every year we try to have a course where we invite a professional artist for a workshop. This year, one of our members found the artist Graham Flatt. Graham lives in Lloydminster, Alberta. If you want a real treat check out his website here.



Today is the final day and as all final days go - there are mixed emotions. We are all tired as taking workshops is hard work, but we are also sad that it is over as we would just like to keep him around to inspire us, to work us and to just encourage us to paint.

Graham paints in a very loose free style - not a lot of detail. This allows the viewer to feel that sense of peace and tranquility of being quiet. While he almost always puts horses and riders in his paintings, the lack of every minute detail means that the view is able to formulate their own details in the pictures.

Graham has taken us all back to the basics - taught us that putting paint to paper comes only after you think about the principles and elements of design. To think about the shapes of the things you are placing on the paper, how rhymically those shapes dance across the paper forming a pleasing dance that allows the eye to stop, rest and move on. To think about the harmony of the painting, how the sky relates to the earth, through shape, through color.

Making good art is more than putting color on paper, it is knowing what you want to say - just as a writer, through the use of words, paints a story in our minds, so to must the painter use their words - the paint - to make the viewer feel what you are wanting to convey.




It is our hope that after today, we will have the knowledge, the tools (paint and paper) and the will to make good art.

The rest is up to us - making good art is like training for a marathon - you don't decide one day to run a marathon the next weekend - it takes training - so to does painting.

We need to practice, put paint and water together and see what happens. Let paint and water determine where the painting is going. We need to not get discouraged when it doesn't work - but to pick ourselves up, lay out another sheet of paper and pick our brushes up again.

The following is by Ralph Marsden - from his daily motivational website http://www.greatday.com from which I reprint this essay.

Creativity is not reserved just for those who engage in artistic pursuits. In every life, in every situation, there are opportunities to be creative.
Being creative means acknowledging that there are many possibilities beyond the obvious. Being creative means having the courage to consider doing things in a way that's different than the way they've always been done.
Creativity gives you the ability to solve multiple problems with a single course of action. Creativity transforms weakness into strength, and builds value where there was none before.
Imagine the possibility of a connection between things that don't appear to be connected, and creativity will start to take hold. Look at life from a new perspective, and it will further nourish your creativity.
Creativity refuses to accept limits. And as such, with sufficient creativity you can move beyond any obstacle.
There is always room for improvement, and there is always a place for beauty, for achievement, for fulfillment. Be creative, and you'll continue to add richness to life.
-- Ralph Marston

So when the sun sets on this last day of a great painting workship - it doesn't have to be over. We take with us renewed enthusiam plus the encouragement of a great instructor who believes that we can all make great art. He has given us the knowledge and the techniques. The rest is up to us.

Spring is in the Air

Sunday - February 18, 2007 - Deck sitting weather.

I need to note that because when one thinks of February in Alberta, sitting on the deck does not come to mind.

It is a beautiful spring-like day, the sky is a bright blue, cloudless and the sound of dripping water promises an end to the snow covered landscape might come soon. We enjoyed a wonderful hot tub this morning, basking in the warm sunlight. Once out of the tub and up on the deck, I realized how hot it was up against the east side of the house.

So a second pot of coffee was brewed and dressed appropriately (after all, it is only February) myself, the Hunter and Dog sat enjoying this first taste of spring.

The sun is still low in the eastern sky as it makes its journey back northward, creating long, blue shadows across the snow.

As we sat, we could watch the constant drip, drip, drip from the Horizontal Icicle that had formed on our eavestrough, an interesting phenomen destined for a short life today.

Yes - February 18, 2007 is a wonderful day, full of the promise of spring - a day to take a moment to appreciate this break in the grip of winter, to be grateful for the sun's warmth and to relish in such a small thing as being able to sit on the deck in the middle of winter.

Spring is DEFINITELY in the air!

OK, I admit it - I am a Global Warming Denier!!

So, the three opposition parties banded together this week to ram through the Kyoto accord.

For weeks now, the newspapers have been full of horror stories about how the climate is changing, the Fruit Fly Guy - David Suzuki (his claim to fame is hosting a Nature show back in the 70's on CBC)- is on a cross country tour in his "green bus" to appeal to us all to pay attention to "global warming". Al Gore (his claim to fame is a failed presidental bid) makes a movie showing icebergs falling into the sea and proclaims dire warnings if we don't heed the signs. Hundreds of "psuedo-scientists" put out a report at a world wide conference on climate change telling us we have 10 more years until - BAM - climate change will cause the world to blow up~!!!!. (of course these "psuedo scientists" did not tell us that their report is based on the possibilities that could happen - the real data has not been calculated yet and the real report will not be released until June - but it creates much more drama to put out possibilities. Of course the fact that hundreds of real scientists have debunked this report never makes it to the light of day.

Global Warming - which has now become "climate change" ever since the temperatures started to drop - oh - about last October - has become the new religion. Big Oil is to blame! If only Alberta would stop producing Oil all would be well. If only we would pay Russia and India and China billions of dollars, global warming would be solved.

Back in the 70's the same Fruit Fly Guy was proclaiming we were heading for another ice age - then in the 80's it was the hole in the Ozone layer. The 90's saw the signing of the flawed Kyoto - (yes Stephen Harper was right - it is a socialist scheme to send money to third world countries) and that brings us to the present.

The Liberal government - through two majority government - failed to take any action on climate change other than to make promise after promise - in the Liberal way - to do something. The new leader of the opposition - Stephane Dion - (his claim to fame was that he was awarded fossil of the year at a Climate Change conference - a little fact that the media in this country failed to report) while environment minister did nothing towards climate change except name his dog Kyoto.

But they have now saddled us - yes you and I - with the "cost" of Kyoto by playing partisan politics in an effort to force this flawed bill into existence. So what will Kyoto cost you and I. Well - because the Liberals want to cut emissions to 0, that means that factories, refineries, and power generating stations will have to either shut down or cut back drastically. Layoffs and job losses will be like nothing this country has seen since the depression. Alberta will be particularily hard hit which means that everyone in this country will feel the effects as Alberta is the major contributor to equalization in this country. You will pay more for your food as costs rise and you will pay to retrofit your houses with new furnaces and mechanical systems that meet these emission standards. And Kyoto will cost you in your pocket as well as new taxes will be instituted to collect monies to "buy" credits from the third world countries. Buying these credits will allow these third world countries to apparently become more developed while alleviating your guilt for driving your car.

And if you do not believe in the principles of Kyoto, or believe that man is somehow responsible for the fact that our earth has warmed up .02 degrees you are branded a "Global Warming Denier". Well I have lived through winters with so much snow that it was higher than the car roof and winters where we wore street shoes until well into January. Yet all of a sudden we are told that "climate change" is the thing we are all most worried about.

Well - I for one look forward to some warming - I would rather put my faith in those scientists that actually study climate change and believe what they are saying - that weather is cyclical, sun spot activity has alot to do with the weather on earth. Did you know that the glaciers on Mars are melting as well? - must be those Martians driving around in their SUV's.

Am I one of those Global Warming Deniers - You bet I am!!!

Update - Sunday, Feb 18, 2007 - a big hat tip to Darcy over at Dust my Broom for the following link that shows how the 70's global cooling has suddenly become today's global warming.

http://www.dustmybroom.com

The Sounds of Silence

I slept in this morning - well slept in to me - I woke up at 7:30 - which for someone who often is up at 5 and almost always up by 6 is definitely sleeping in!.

Anyhooo.... the bedroom curtains were open and I could tell from the light coming in that it was either snowing or had snowed as it was that soft, gray light that happens when the world outside is covered with a light blanket of new snow.

By the time I actually got up and got my coffee, it had started snowing again - the kind of soft, flakes that drift softly down to earth. I opened the back door and stepped out onto the deck and was hit by the silence enveloping the world.

It was dead calm and so quiet that I just stood there wondering at how a world as bustling as ours could be so quiet. The fact it is Sunday morning in a small town possibly contributes to the quiet. No oil workers in their diesel trucks roaring off to work. No construction workers pounding nails in the new house next door. No kids laughing as they head off to school. No far off sounds from the highway as commuters head to their destinations.

A kind of soft, quietness had enveloped our world - it seemed so strange that it commanded me to stand there in my pajama's and take note. I can't imagine it is a quietness that many in our populated world get to appreciate living where this kind of silence never happens given the 24 hour hustle and bustle of our cities.

But here - in our small town - on a Sunday morning in Feburary - with the soft snow flakes drifting down - I experienced the beauty of total quiet.

I heard the sounds of silence.

The Winter Doldrums

So here we are in the (hopefully) latter part of winter. Environment Canada has put out a statement that winter is far from over. The rest of this month will be colder than usual and March will be much the same.

So the winter doldrums seem to hang on. Hopes of an early spring seem dashed as the temperature hovers in the high?? low?? (hmmm - is -18 high or low) teens.

We had a taste of what is to come in Calgary last weekend when the temperature climbed to +10, the air was sweet and layers of winter clothing were ripped off to accomodate the welcome warmth. The freezing rain and cold temperatures that we faced on the trip home brought us back to the reality that spring doesn't come in February in Alberta!

Sigh.........

Ah yes, the winter doldrums. The doldrums make us want to curl up under a blanket on the couch instead of walk on the treadmill, or even less make us want to head outdoors!. The doldrums make us want to eat comfort food instead of salad - yes, those dang doldrums seem to wreak havoc with the weight loss plan. The doldrums seem to slow down the incentive to sort and organize and tidy.

But thinking about the doldrums, perhaps they serve the purpose to make us rest before the sun starts to melt the snow and reveal the work we are facing. Perhaps the doldrums are meant to make us sit and dream and plan and envision what will be when the warm breezes make us want to walk outside, to dig in the garden, to plant new shrubs and flowers, to build ponds and rock gardens.

Even though these early days of February seem to hint at the promise of spring with the lengthening light, we are rudely reminded that winter still has its icy grip firmly on the landscape with one glance at the themometer. But we know that spring will come, and perhaps that is the most important lesson of the winter doldrums - patience.

I came across a saying by Herve Desbois

I learn to love the seasons, since we are made to live together.

I often lament that time is rushing by, life is going faster and faster as I get older. Perhaps it is because I am willing winter to pass, waiting for the next season to get here instead of living now, taking what the winter doldrums are offering - a time for rest, a time for planning, a time for dreaming.

Hmmmmm........................

Spring will come soon enough - it is a given. February is thankfully a short month following the seemingly endless month of January. And we know that March will bring those days that give us a taste of what is to come, days when the breezes are soft and sweet, melting away the snow to reveal the summers work. We know that March will tease us with these days only to remind us that winter is not too far behind us.

I think I will make a salad for supper!