Lucky Me!

Just had to show you what my daughter surprised me with this Christmas. I was blown away by her inventiveness. She's 19 and an aspiring photographer. She often uses her friends as models and secretly took their pics wearing jewelry that I made this year and then had it bound as a hard cover book. I was so excited that I wanted to share this with you. I'm now thinking that I will do another book with a compilation of my YOJ (Year of Jewelry) submissions and then maybe my paintings!
The model (Lindsay) is a friend of my daughter's.

Studio Cleanup

I've been taking it sooo slow in this week between Christmas and New Year's but thought it was time to start sorting through
my studio and decided to list this painting on my Etsy shop. See the very first link at the right to get there and view the description and purchase details. It was a fun little painting meant to explore the capabilities of a texture medium and how to
use it.
I'll post a few more small scale paintings in the near future.....

My favorite Christmas Carol

My Christmas Card to all of you who stop by for a visit......

Painting up a Storm....

Keeping up with commissioned works. The bike painting (measuring 30" x 40") with a basket of field flowers will be in a sunny bathroom painted pale yellow. The second image is another image meant for a main floor bathroom of a mediterranean terrace filled with flowers and distant hills in the background...I'll post more pictures in the New Year..... and finally the third image (again in a main floor bathroom) is a faux window scene to be placed where a real window was removed due to a room added on just beyond. The shutters were too nice to not use and the idea of a faux scene was just what was needed.
These are in three different homes......

Mid December!!!!!

I've been so busy I haven't blogged for over a month! I had to put something Christmasy up today so I've used an image I took
two years ago and used as my Christmas card in 2005. All my family members are pictured within this image......I'm taking a break from painting, baking, cleaning, baking, wrapping, baking........and I promise to be back a little more often......

Calendar Image

A nice surprise a short while ago when I received a cheque for the use of one of my paintings from the Galerie Jeannine Blais in the Eastern Townships. The pharmacy chain "Proxim" used one of my paintings in their calendar for 2008. Today I received my copies of the calendar and they were beautifully done; nice format and quality of paper. Exciting news for me!

Mmmpumpkin

Well...my pumpkins never made it to Halloween.......This squirrel hung around all morning, dined on pumpkin and now he must be sleeping it off because I haven't seen him since. I love having a digital camera. Without one I'd never capture these images.
one of which will become a painting to go with my other one that shows my one-eyed cat cozying up to our Halloween pumpkin
on the front porch that is on the home page of my website this month.....www.joannaolson.net.

Vignettes

When I don't have the budget or the space to decorate, creating vignettes satisfies that need. Living artfully is
important and surrounding myself with objects that speak to me creates the atmosphere I need to keep on creating.
This grouping is on my fireplace mantel and seems to fit the season perfectly. I'll post more as I photograph them, especially since the season for decorating is upon us. Ninety percent of these items are "found" at flea markets and second hand stores and are treasures to me.........

Fall Leaves

I wonder how many other bloggers have titled their entry with "Fall Leaves"....not very inspiring, I know but I can't believe
it's already more than two weeks since my last entry. The weather today was amazing....sunny periods, warm for this time of year and the leaves are at their peak but this is it, the last week to see them at their best...so I went out today to take some pictures. Tomorrow I'll make sure I make time to do that again as even a handful of pictures can be the most inspiring references for paintings I'll work on later in the winter......

....and now Thanksgiving

...and now my attention is on this weekend's Thanksgiving dinner.....possibly one of my favorite dinners to do.

Some of the vintage pieces that I have influenced some of the art work such as the antique Remington typewriter and the
doll size sewing machine.....and the last image of the hand in the jewellery cabinet was a gift to me of a trailing vine of
Morning Glories that krept in a barely opened window at one point in late summer and I couldn't bear to cut so I let it
grow and grow it did!......and bloomed in and around my cabinet.....a better display I couldn't have imagined.....

......a walk around from the dining room into the kitchen where the "real work" happens........

Great weather, soft music playing ...

Photos from the Hudson Artists' Studio Tour 2007

Saturday morning, my house transformed into a gallery.....

Studio Tour!

Wow, it's Sunday and Day 2 of the open studio tour.......exhausting, but now I'm at the halfway point and all the hard work is behind me and I get to fine tune the display. People have been wonderful and I'm looking forward to today! I'll post pics
later on....

Wing Flutter Problems

Just finished.....I'm pouring myself another cup of coffee, one last self critique and then it goes into the frame....
Having access to many vintage aviation books, I came across this excerpt on "Wing Flutter" problems and loved the idea
of an avian subject over this as a mixed media piece. Many more will follow....
P.S. that bit of pink in the upper right corner is part of my tablecloth and NOT part of the painting.....

Photo Imagery in My Paintings and Jewellery

I've probably mentioned this here in my blog before but as I'm pulling together a collection of both art and jewellery for this
weekend's open studio tour I found myself using photo imagery more and more. Art and jewellery are both very personal choices and made even stronger by the inclusion of something of yourself. Of course I accept commissioned work to be
able to do just that. How many wonderful vintage photos are left sitting in drawers when they could be telling their story?

COLOR!

When working with acrylics I'll often spend a session just preparing backgrounds and get so enamored of the resulting colors
and textures that I find it hard to move on. Taking photos of these backgrounds can often result in color schemes for paintings at a later date and are a visual treat for me. Glass is another medium that shows color at its' best. I love wearing
this necklace. Each glass bead is made on my torch and annealed in a kiln for strength and durability and the chain is forged sterling silver.

I promised to upload a piece of jewelry and a painting each day until the studio tour and already I'm a day late!....so here goes..
a wonderful burnt orange "donut" stone wire wrapped with three carnelian dangles below and sterling silver chain.
The collage is a fun little diversion from the large florals I've been doing and I'm rather hooked on them. All those wonderful
little bits of hand painted papers and textures I can now use.....a sort of paper quilt. The image is of our train station here in Hudson which was converted into the Village Theatre. Hudson is a picturesque village on the Lake of Two Mountains and provides me with much inspiration every season of the year. It is the sort of place that if you grew up here you want to come back to so this little collage is a bit of a story of returning home.

Fall Studio Tour Sneak Peek

I've been so busy pulling together paintings and jewelry designs for the tour that I've totally neglected my blog...so my intention is to post one painting and one piece of jewelry per day that will be shown during the weekend tour September 29th and 30th.
For those who can't be there it will be my way of bringing the tour to you (at least my little part of it).
The painting shown here is not finished but I'm confident enough of it's outcome at this point to show it. It is actually done from a photo I took of the same tree of pink blossoms that produced the painting I uploaded to my blog a short while ago. This time I digitally changed the pink blossoms to white (and all the wonderful colors that white actually contains - almost a prism
of colors).
Here is a bracelet, crocheted around a sterling silver core so it feels like a bangle really, and contains an assortment of seed beads and pearls ending with lucite beads and sterling silver filigree caps. Created months apart from the painting, you'd think I had a color theme going!

So Much Inspiraton - So Little Time!

Outside my window where I sit at the computer I see a constant progression of flowers in bloom. I run outside with my camera or pick up my scissors (then I don't run :>) - and pick some to arrange. A flurry of picture taking activity (especially when sunlight is involved) and then I download to my computer to sort through them. Files and files of beautiful images to choose from.......and still there are only one or two that are candidates for paintings. Sometimes a composite is required to pick the best angle, colors and shading. Here's what I took this morning. The last of the daylillies of this color that are left so I really couldn't have waited, they'll be finished by the end of the day. I didn't even take the time to set up the fabric and surrounding objects as long as I have my main subject I can always shoot those items separately.....and yes that is my coffee pot the flowers are sitting in......

Les Idees de ma Maison!

Whoohoo! The September issue of the Quebec publication of Les Idees de ma Maison has several pages of my work featured in a beautiful house on the Lake of Two Mountains. This was work done about two years ago and I knew they had photographed the home last Fall but had forgotten about it until now.......Pretty much every page of that article has something that I painted. I'll post the pics on the weekend. It's always a thrill to see my work in print.....

Studio Tour Preview

With the Studio Tour here in Hudson coming up at the end of September (last weekend) I thought I'd use my blog
to introduce the new projects I'll be working on and that will be on view. Stay tuned as I'll be taking pics of what I'm currently working on and posting them soon! Currently on my easel is a laaarge scale view of a flowering tree that is outside one of the best café/bakeries off the island of Montreal. Every Spring the eye level pink blossoms beg to be photographed and
that is my inspiration. This one as you see it here is perhaps two thirds finished. (I shouldn't even let you see it yet!) Flower subjects are always present in my studio but this year I promised myself I would work on
landscapes.....so I am prepping my next canvas for that. Pics to be uploaded soon!

Studio Tour

I've been told the studio tour brochure is almost finished and I look forward to seeing it. Tour takes place September 29th and 30th, rain or shine. I will post projects I'm working on leading up to the open house and look forward to seeing you. There is a
wonderful selection of artists and sculptors to visit. See http://www.studiotourhudsonandregion.org/ for information, maps, etc. and of course if you are local the brochures will be distributed soon.....

Week 27 and 28

Week 27 theme was "Flames of Passion/Fire in the Belly" now there's a theme you can conjure up interesting designs for!
The center pendant is an interesting. A combination of cherry quartz and tiger eye. Can't say for sure if it is created or natural though as I'm still a newbie in jewellery* design. *I seem to still switch between the American and Canadian version of spelling.
A lush tassle of silver hearts, cherry quartz stones and swarovski crystals dangles below along with a battered heart (symbolic of love's tortured ways).
Week 28 was Phoenix and Dragons and all I could think of was something cool when I saw these lampwork beads waiting to be assembled. The cool breath of a heroine that confronts the dragon and extinguishes his flame!? Okay that's definitely reaching for it......however...turquoise and silver are so beautiful together. Lots of pearls and crystals dangle between....Bracelet measures 7 1/4".

Weeks 24, 25 and 26 of the YOJ

Week 24 - Pirates, Shipwrecked (Father's Day) - we certainly had a choice for themes that week.....I had been exploring chainmaille lately and this was my first completed project......It feels wonderful to wear, slinky and substantial. Blue green beads lie between chain segments.
Week 25 Waterfall, Mighty Waters
Not really on theme unless you consider barrells and waterfalls seem to go together?! The organic stones hang from sterling silver rings with turquoise and pearl dangles and a rolo chain.
Week 26 - Beach Party
Well anything goes for this theme!....and that week I was making these Mother of Pearl braceletes with a centered segment of
dangly bits of pearl, crystals and stones. A fun bracelet to make and wear.....