Jupiter's clouds

I started the painting of Jupiter’s clouds, from a photograph by NASA. Well, it’s not like I can take my own photographs. It’s going to take a long time to do, but it’s not very big, so that will help. This canvas is only 20 x 24”. I want to do another one, much much bigger. It’s Jupiter. It should be big. They’re luscious shapes and colours. I love it.

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I did the bottom of the painting last night. It’s fun, but slow.

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This is the first layer of paint. I’ve managed to get one layer on the whole canvas. Now I can start to do the next layer. I like it so far.

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The upper right hand side of the painting, layer 2. It needs some more work, but it looks better.

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The bottom right hand side. I still have to finish the bottom corner.

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The finished painting. I love the colours. I want to do another one, but bigger. This is only 18 x 24”.

The Fat Lady Sings book

The cover for the next book, ‘The Fat Lady Sings’. Hand-painted photograph.

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I’ve finally started the book, but I’m just adding things slowly. I need to paint faster.

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A photograph of a house in Lavenham, England, for the book. For the poem ‘love is a runaway train’. I’m up to page 85 so far, so it’s comin’ along.

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‘Tin Man’. Male doll, silver mirror spray paint, heart-shaped button. For the poem ‘a tin man and a lion’.

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The moon over Rangitoto Island, New Zealand. For the poem ‘the soft cocoon of sleep’.

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These look similar. I didn’t plan it, it just worked out that way. The first photo is from New Zealand, and the second is Jupiter’s clouds.

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‘turn me over’ potato bag assemblage. Miniature playing card, plastic heart, bead, paint.

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Perfume bottle plastic skull assemblage.

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Jo, Rapunzel, the house in Oshawa.

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Gold torso, dollar store plastic torso, gold chocolate bar foil, rub-on tattoo, torn collage heart from wrapping paper.

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Woman bared her innocence, and Man invented cloth

This is the photo for the next painting, or the one after that, if I decide to do the pear painting next. I might need a bigger canvas to do them both. The only canvas I have left is a small one. I might have to order a curb-side pick-up before I can continue. The doll and the snake are from Value Village, which I bought some time ago. The orchids are fabric, but the bleeding heart and the leaves are from the garden. I’d like a blonde doll at some point. I had two, but I made one into a flying fairy for the garden, and the other one is Rapunzel in a tower, also for the fairy garden. If I could find a plastic wolf that’s the right scale, I’d make this doll into a Red Riding Hood.

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I painted an outline around the drawing. I’ll probably finish the background first. It’s Eve, and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. The moth in the upper left corner is going to be a death’s head moth. The verse goes:

Things evolve unknowingly,

the orchid lures the moth,

Woman bared her innocence,

and Man invented cloth.

from the poem ‘the tick-tock pitter-patter cadence of the verse’, verse: 57.

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A few days later… I’ve painted layer one on the doll, and I’ve painted her hair. I’ll finish the flowers next.

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Layer one finished. Now I can start the next layer.

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I’ve done a little more work, but I haven’t spent more than an hour a day on it since I had to have a tooth removed. It’s o.k., it just feels a bit weird.

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I did coloured glazes over the whole painting. I think her face still needs a bit more work, but otherwise, I think she’s done. I’m priming the last small canvas I have to do the next painting, which is of a pear and flower still life.

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Pear painting

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I’ve been working on two images for the next two paintings. One is to go with a verse from the last poem about a pear, and the other one is about Eve. I didn’t like the layout in the original photo. The two pears were too low in the photograph, so I copied them and positioned them higher in the image to make a better composition.

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I started the pear painting last night. I’m short of gesso, so I did a layer of white paint on top, so the surface is kind of slippery.

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Well, I skipped a few in-between images. I’ve been doing a layer of matte medium over the layers of paint. It’s easier to paint on, which makes it more fun to paint. I’m working on the cranberry drapery now. I’m going to add the word ‘pears’ to the top right hand corner.

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I painted another layer on the top part of the painting, and I’ve started the drapery on the bottom. I added the word ‘pears’ to the upper right-hand corner.

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I added some red to the orchids to make them more three dimensional, and I added some brown spots to the pears. That made me think ‘leopard skin pears’, so now I have to buy some pears and paint leopard spots on them. I’m still working on the drapery at the bottom of the painting. I’m going to have to get another canvas soon.

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I took the painting outside and photographed it with a better camera. It still needs to be varnished.

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Anne, with the pear painting.

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'Alphabetic Ink' painting

I did a painting for Ryan, at Oddfellows Coffee, at the Brantford Farmer’s Market. It’s from a photo of him from his Facebook page. I knew it would make a good painting the moment I saw it.

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Ryan, at the Market, with the finished painting.

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Me, with the painting.

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Ryan’s painting hanging at his store in the Brantford Market. I like it.

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a man without a star - poem

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This is what all my poems look like. Handwritten on lined paper, in a binder with a printed page I type on the computer. I have 57 binders. I need to figure out what to do with them after I’m gone. I don’t want them to end up in the garbage, or burned. Sold? Donated to a library? I’d like them to stay all together as an archive of my work. I have similar feelings about all my precious objects…and I have hundreds of them. I was thinking I should make shrines to all of them…that would only take years to do. My wedding rings, my grandfather’s watch, and the story that goes with it…things like that.

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This is a painting of someone’s keepsakes I found on Pinterest. I love the idea.

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A glass jar ‘memento vitae’ assemblage. Found objects from the beach, beads, waxed thread.

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My grandfather’s watch. (My dad’s dad). It doesn’t have a mainspring because my aunt pulled it out, and wrapped it around the knobs on the dresser when she was a child.

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gourd painting

I started the next painting. It’s from a photo I took of a weird gourd. I loved the shapes.

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This is the original photo. I shot it at night, with a flashlight for the light source.

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I managed to get the first layer of paint onto the canvas. Now for the next layer…

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The original photograph, and the painting. I just liked the weird shapes of the gourd. I took lots of photographs. I got three of them from the grocery store.

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I did another layer on the background paint. One or two more to go before it looks the way I want it to. I made the shadows on the gourd darker too. I like it so far.

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'The House of the Rising Sun' painting

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I started the self-portrait for the video ‘The House of the Rising Sun’. This is layer one of several layers. I took it this winter in front of the house.

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Me, in front of the painting. I want to shoot a short video of me in front of the painting. I want to move my eyes, and have the painting’s eyes move too. I don’t have any idea how to do this, but I’m going to try.

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The photograph, and the painting. It’s for a music video with the song of the same name, by the Animals. My friend Leonard is doing the music. If I need it, it can be for my funeral, hopefully not any time soon.

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The drawing on the canvas, the photograph and the paint.

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I started working on my hair. I like it so far. I added red to my eyes. It’s so much fun.

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A few layers later. Still not finished, but I like the way it’s going.

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I’ve finished the ‘House of the Rising Sun’ painting. I’ll wait a few days for it to dry then varnish it. I like it.

'the red shoe' painting

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I’ve only done a little bit so far, but I like the colour. She had really long fingers, so I thought, maybe she had really long toes too, so I painted the shoe longer than it actually was in the photo.

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This is the original photo. I’m changing the whole colour scheme to cranberry and pink.

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O.k. so I skipped a few photos between the last image and this one. I thought I’d just cut to the chase. I’m adding a candle on a table to the left side of the painting. It’s not finished yet. Oh, I like it.

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Still working on the drapes in the background. When I’m finished, I’ll do the fabric on the people.

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I did some more work on Mrs. Forrest’s dress, and started Mr. Forrest’s jacket.

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I signed it, so it must be finished. I like it. I really love the shoe.

Howard Small

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‘Tugboat’ drawing, pencil, pen on paper. Howard Small.

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‘The Ghost of Cape Scott’. Pencil on paper. Howard Small.

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amaryllis painting

I’m stretching my own canvas for the next painting. I ran out of the regular weight canvas, so I’m trying this, which is a heavier weight. I cut the canvas 2” bigger than the frame and wrap it around and staple it with an electric staple gun.

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I primed the canvas with some crimson paint mixed in to colour it. I just like it. I haven’t decided what I’m going to paint yet. It’s either going to be an amaryllis, or an old family photograph. I’ll see which one looks better on the canvas.

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The beginning of the ‘amaryllis’ painting.

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A close-up of the leaf and stem. I just wanted to see what it was going to look like. None of the pink background will remain when it’s finished. I just like painting on top of a colour. I put a layer of matte medium on top of the tinted gesso background to make it smoother to paint on.

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I was up late working on the painting. I’m just trying to paint the first layer so I know which colours go where. I’ll do another layer and add more detail after this is done. It looks pretty good so far though, I have to say.

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The fist layer of paint is almost finished on the flower. I had to stop and go to bed.

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I’ve got the first layer of paint onto the canvas. I’m working on the central part now. Lots of subtle changes to be made yet. This is the beginning of the next step, which is to blend the colours from light to dark a bit better. The lights need to be lighter, and the dark parts darker.

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I painted the blue background on the painting. I did a couple of white-to-blue graduated stripes, but they were too distracting, so I painted over them.

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I’m working on the right-hand side of the painting, and the middle. I’ll do the petals on the left side next. It’s comin’ along.

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the fat lady sings

This is the over-painted photograph I did for the cover of the next book, called ‘the fat lady sings’. This was taken in Value Village by my friend Kate. It’s for the poem of the same name.

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I’ve done some paintings and I have lots of poems for the book, I just need to start.

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'goldilocks' painting

The front of the double-layered ‘goldilocks’ painting. Me in the kitchen of the house in Oshawa, with three bowls of porridge, and a panda bear looking in through the window.

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The back of the ‘goldilocks’ painting. Me outside the house looking in at a wok on fire, from an actual event. The painting was done in 2003.

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Painting how-to for the 'bumpfish' painting

Tinted gesso on the canvas, layer one of three.

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The projector, projecting the image onto to the wall to see what it’s going to look like. This isn’t my photograph, of course. It’s from a Blue Planet program. The photographer is Tony Wu.

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The drawing on the canvas, with one layer of paint on the fish.

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The original photograph. I got this online.

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A look at the painting and the photographs I printed as reference. The fish is called a Sheepshead Wrasse, or Kobudai in Japanese.

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More work done on the ‘bumpfish’ painting. I started the scales on the right hand side.

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I painted the first layer on the scales. I wanted lighter and darker stripes running down the side.

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Now I’m blending the colours to make the stripes less distinct.

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The whole fish, with the scales and the lighter areas painted on the top of the fish.

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I started the fish on the left hand side. I also did some of the seaweed in the background, just to paint something in a different colour.

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Layer one of the paint on the scales on the left-hand side. The fin wasn’t as hard to do as I thought it was going to be. There wasn’t much definition in the original photograph.

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Layer 2 of 3 on the fish on the left.

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The scales on the left hand side are finished. I also added some more green and blue paint to the bottom of the fish.

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O.k. so I missed a few in-between steps here…

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A closer look at the seaweed details.

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I think it’s pretty much finished. I have to try to take a good picture, then I can varnish it.

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The finished painting, varnished.

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Stained glass roses for the outer door

I had to re-draw a simpler design for the triple panel front door window. The first one had pieces that were just too small to cut out of glass. I really like it too…but this will look fine. I’m going to try to get clear glass jewels for the panels. That should add a bit of sparkle.

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This is the inside of the door, with the three panels of glass.

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The second panel is the one I liked. I changed it a bit to make it fit the window size. It’s going to be mostly clear textured glass to let as much light in as possible, with some red, cobalt blue, and amber glass. The colours will go with the two panels I already made for the front foyer, and the stairwell. I found this on Pinterest.

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A close-up of one of the small rose panels, foiled.

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The first of the small rose panels soldered together. It needs came around the outer edge, and a black patina. The black patina always makes it look 100% better.

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The three small rose panels, soldered together. They still need the came around the outside edge, and black patina.

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The almost finished large rose window for the inner door. I still have to put the zinc came around the edge, and polish it, and polish it, and polish it…then install it.

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A close-up of the window, soldered together, but without the black patina.

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The magnolia wreath for the front door. I added some blackberry decorations to it, and some gold glitter.

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The zinc came is on, and painted. I have to flip them over and do the other side now, then I can install them.

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The windows with light coming through them, from inside the house.

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I finished cutting the wood strips for the outside of the door. I don’t have enough to do the inside of the door right now. I bought all the wood strips Canadian Tire had. I’ll have to wait. It looks good though.

Stained glass rose for the inner front door and the outer front door.

I finally got around to doing the drawing for the stained glass for the inner front door. I have some cobalt blue glass left over from the other two panels, which I want to use for the border. The inner door doesn’t get much natural light, and we don’t need the privacy, so I can use a lighter textured clear glass for the background. I need a good red or pink glass for the rose, and some light gold glass for the ‘wings’. I’m thinking of doing the central part in green. That might change. I’m going to finish the hyacinth painting first though, since this will take over my studio table for the duration of the construction. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a year, at least. After this, there are three small windows in the front outer door that will have to be done too. I’m still thinking about them. This design came from a picture of a firescreen I saw on Pinterest.

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This is the original photograph from Pinterest. I liked the overall idea, but I changed some parts of it.

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I saw this too, which I liked as well. The central single rose panel might work for the other door.

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The inner front door, in the front foyer.

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This is the outer front door. I did the pattern, but when I was cutting it out I realized some of the pieces were too small, so I stayed up until 3 a.m. trying to redraw it without any success. I’ll have to rethink it.

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This was the drawing I did on the computer. I really like it, but it’s too complicated. I have three 7 inch wide window panes. This would have to be a lot bigger than that for the smallest pieces to be cut from the glass. I really like it too.

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I saw this screen on Pinterest, and liked the pattern.

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The mess I made trying to re-draw the rose panel. The original is so pretty. Well, I have other patterns I like, I can do one of them.

A close-up of the large rose window for the inner door. It’s soldered but it hasn’t had the patina applied yet.

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The finished window, with the black patina. It still needs to be cleaned and polished, and it needs the zinc came applied to the outside of the panel. Then I can install it. It looks nice.

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The rose window for the inner door, with the came attached to the outside edges, and painted black. It’s ready to install now.

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A close-up photo of the rose window. Cleaned, ready to go.

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We managed to get the rose window installed into the inner door. It’s held in with some clear silicone seal, and some glazier’s points. I’m going to add some thin strips of wood to cover the edges, and make it a bit more secure. I like it. Now I can put the zinc came on the three small rose windows for the outer door.

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The finished window with the wood strips installed over the zinc came to hide the glazier’s points, and the small gap around the came.

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The three rose windows installed on the outside of the house. They have silicone seal holding them in. I had to order 1/4” wood strips from Canadian Tire to trim them, to hide the little gaps. I have to paint it, then I can install that, which should help hold them in place.

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The windows from inside the foyer. Ooooh, they look good.

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The left hand panel.

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Trudy Small

My mother, Trudy Small in Gibsons, B.C. with the ‘avalanche’ pour painting.

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A drawing of me, by my mother Trudy Small, in 1974. The coat was bright green.

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My mother, in front of the Arts Center, in Sechelt, B.C. Burrell Schwartz in the window.

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Me, in 1974, in the green jacket.

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Another drawing of me, by my mom. Also done in 1974.

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A fantastic drawing of a figure, by my mother.

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A vintage photograph of my mother, Trudy Small.

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A painting of me, my Aunt Heidi, and my mother, all in one. Paint applied over an old painting, then scraped off, then the black lines were painted on top of that.

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Leaf collage. Photographs, cut painted paper, staples.

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‘Avalanche’ painting, Trudy Small. One of the spray paint and water pour paintings. The blue sky was painted after, to help define some of the shapes.

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Trudy Small, vintage photograph.

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‘Seated woman’ drawing, Trudy Small.

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hyacinth painting

This is the photograph for the next painting. It’s of a hyacinth that was growing in the neighbourhood in the spring. I just loved the colours. I’m combining this photo with another one of leaves that I took in another garden. The drawing is done, I just have to mix the paint and start. I don’t have a verse to go with it yet. I’m sure I can find one, or write one.

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I started the painting. I like it so far. I’m combining the original photograph with another one of just leaves.

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These are tulip leaves in another garden. I wanted to fill in the bare earth background in the original photograph with more leaves.

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A closer look at layer one of the painting. I usually do at least 2 or 3 layers to smooth out the brushstrokes. I love purple and blue.

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Even closer.

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I painted some more of the leaves at the bottom of the canvas. I’m going to do the bottom flowers next so I can see what it looks like.

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One more flower done, and more leaves, and the sky. I’m basically painting the easiest things to reach first.

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Finally finished the first layer, on to the second layer. It already looks better. The second layer of paint always looks richer and smoother than the first. There will be a layer three though.

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I did another layer or two on the two leaves on the left, and the right hand side. Not happy with them yet. Close, but no burning tube of leaves, as they say.

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I’m still painting the leaves in the background. I’ll do the sky next, then the flowers. It’s taking a while, but it’s working out o.k.

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I made a T-shirt out of this painting, with the text from the poem ‘the gilded crown of lilies’ #764 v:13

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I made a t-shirt from the painting, and a mug.

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The mug with the ‘hyacinth’ painting on it.

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'boom' 2

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The bomb went ‘boom’,

I broke a tooth,

there’s not much else to say,

the tower gave its atoms to the wind,

and blew away.

I’ve seen the heart of suns #759 v:6 2020

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I started the next atomic blast cloud painting. I’m hoping it won’t take a wrong turn along the way.

I stayed up late and did the bottom part of the painting. So far, so good. This is looking the way I wanted it to look. The red/pink/orange background is going to be painted over with black paint so only thin lines of the colour will show.

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This is a close-up of the bottom part of the painting. This might actually work.

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The first layers of grey are on, with more to come. I started doing the black background to see if I liked the coloured lines or not. I think I do. If not, I’ll paint them out.

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A closer look at the black background. I think I like it. I’m not sure yet.

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Painted a layer of black over the background, leaving the coloured lines. I painted some blue circles and overpainted them to add a bit more colour. I’m making the dark areas darker, and the light areas lighter in places to add more contrast. I do like it.

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I did another 3 hours on the cloud. I think the top part still needs work. It seems a bit vague to me. I’m going to think about the background next. I might paint out some of the shapes.

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O.k., so, I added some flames. It’s basically finished now. I have to add another layer of black paint to the background to cover some of the small brushstrokes that show the colour underneath. Otherwise, it’s signed and tagged, so it must be finished.

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'boom' painting

I started the next painting, called ‘boom’. It’s from a black and white photograph of an atomic explosion I saw on-line. I just liked the shapes.

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Boom and crash shiver the house,

shaking the walls and canting the paintings

just a little off-kilter.

I swim up the chimney and take a breath,

wrapped in the persistent dreams

of tattered flags from unknown countries,

long forgotten in the inundation.

the patchwork animal #758 v:14 September 2020

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Two layers so far. I like the shape on the far right.

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The original photograph. I was going to do it in black and white and grey, just like the photo, then I thought, what if I added just a little bit of colour…and then this happened.

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The day before. Some of the basic shapes done with a larger brush than usual.

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I was up until 3 working on the painting. I like some parts more than others, so I’ll keep painting until I like all of them.

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And now for something completely different. I decided to go back to my original idea of a black and white image, with some colour. I thought it was getting out of hand with all the colour. I like this better, so far. It looks more like a cloud now. Not sure about the second area of pink and white. I’ll finish painting it and see if I like it. If not, it’s only paint, I can paint over it. This is why things take so long sometimes. I try something, and it doesn’t work out. For some reason, it’s the simpler shapes that give me a hard time. I did a painting of a peach that caused me the same problems, but then, the next painting of four peaches went smoothly. I don’t know why. This could end up being the same thing. I hope not. I really like parts of it. There’s a weird thing in the bottom left hand side I like. It was an experiment with some crackle paint, and it worked, so I kept it. I’m thinking it’s the exhaust from a rocket, to go with the boom cloud.

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A closer view of the right hand side. It looks more like a cloud now. I like the shape beneath it too. I’m going to try not to get carried away with the colour this time…

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Layer 7 of 20… Now I have to paint lighter grey and white areas onto the dark grey. I hope I like this. I like the black and white area to the right a lot more now. I doesn’t look so much like a fried egg anymore.

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What a difference a day makes…painted some parts out, and I like it better. Still a long way from right, but I like more of it now.

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Waaaaaiiiiitttt a minute….do I actually like this now? Really? How many layers did it take?

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A closer look at the bottom of the painting. I’m repainting the orange/pink shape in shades of grey, (only 49), and I’m changing the circle things to red. Man, I tell you. 20 more hours ought to do it.

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I stayed up later than I wanted to, but I was trying to do all the grey in the background. Now I can paint over the pink/orange bit in the middle. I really love the pink and white striped cloud thing at the top. I’m going to try to keep it. I still have a long way to go. I wrote a poem called ‘I’ve seen the heart of suns’, the word ‘boom’ appears twice, so I’m going to use one of them for this painting. I haven’t decided which one yet. Or maybe I will use another verse from another poem. It appears several times in previous works.

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And…. fade to black. Add some flames. Recalculate. Hmmmmm…. I think I like it.

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More work on the background and the flames. The top needs more work, it’s too dark. I ended up painting out the stripey cloud shape, even though I really liked it. I need to make a stencil of the word ‘boom’ with my Cricut. It doesn’t need to be too big. I’ll probably do it in a dark grey on the black background. There isn’t room to do the whole verse. There is another image I like so I might do another one.

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I added more dots to the painting, and two swirls. It still doesn’t feel right. It needs to have a bit more light grey in the body of the cloud. The tones are too muted. I added a little gold to the flames, which doesn’t show in the photograph. I haven’t done the text yet.

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O.k. so, what happened was… I still didn’t like it, so I painted the white ‘cells’ on top of the previous layer, then painted the insides of them grey, now I’m repainting patterns into them. This could take a while. I’m also fading the white to grey and dark grey at the edges, which works. I’ve stopped painting for a little while, so I can make a curtain for my kitchen. It takes over my whole studio table, so I can’t do both at the same time. Oh, for a barn/studio with lots of tables…

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Up late, as usual. The top part still needs more work, but it’s getting there, wherever ‘there’ is… It kind of looks like a night sky on the left hand side, where it’s dark.

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