I have only been to Windjammer once before, but it is a beautiful location, and I look forward to sharing some photos of my trip to St. Lucia on Instagram.
Painted Feathers
This week we had the pleasure of going to a local lake for a swim three days in a row, during each visit Elle made a point of collecting the goose feathers that were floating in the shallows and scattered along the waters edge . With a beautiful bouquet of feathers sitting on our dinning table, I was quickly inspired to craft with them. I thought it would be lovely to paint them, and so I popped over to pinterest to see if it was possible…I did not find a tutorial, but I was inspired enough to try something! Using the same glass jar acrylic ink we have used on stones and leaves, we painted the feathers. I wanted a greater variety of colours than we had so I mixed some of the white ink with water colour paint pigment and that worked nicely. Feathers are water resistant to an extent and so the paint/ink takes a while to absorb. Elle particularly enjoyed this and painted three feathers.
Elle is developing a lovely relationship with the geese, it warms my heart as many of my childhood days were spent with the geese at my grandparents damn. Elle commented that these geese are different to the Edgemont park geese she likes to visit in Montclair, and it is true, these geese were very willing to engage with her. Who knew the country geese are friendlier!
Grateful to our feathered friends for leaving these gifts behind…foraged feathers are the only feather we play with! Factory feathers just don’t have the same loveliness and like buying shells, or any other animal product, unless you are super diligent about researching the source and the journey and only buying free range ground collected, it might have come from a really awful place and have been part of a process that hurts animals and damages the planet. Live plucking friends, is not beautiful. To leave you on a lovely note, we do hope you are inspired to find feathers and create with them! It might take a little more patience, but when you stumble across feathers by chance, it adds a little magic to your day.
Abstract Art
The painting above – Enduring, 30″x60″ – was the first thing I painted for 2016, an experiment in abstraction. It sat in a corner of my studio (waiting for me to figure out what to do with it) until I jumped on this chance to show it. As it turns out, I’ve been told by the manager that it is the piece that gets the most comments & compliments!
There is also another abstract painting of mine in the same room, but I’ll leave it for you to discover on your own. It has been hanging in my house since I painted it in 2012, the result of a long, cathartic painting session. Again, although it is an interesting painting, it did not fit into my regular body of work, so I kept it to myself. However, I could not get over the co-incidence that the only text in the painting is “Be” (the title of the painting is “Just be”), and the name of the yoga studio is Be Yoga! So I brought it along on a whim, and it turned out to be a good call.
The other Artists
Derik is showing some of his lovely digital images in a variety of sizes. I think they mostly start out as photographs he has taken, but then he manipulates them through computer programs, and the resulting abstract images are mesmerizing. They remind me of stained glass, and kaleidoscopes.
There are also some beautiful black & white images from Oakville photographer Bill Smith. And I saw a wonderful painting of a swimmer in a pool – with an emphasis on light creating patterns on the water- that artist Heather Horton dropped off, it’s probably hanging by now.
Thanks
I’d like to thank Be Yoga & Wellness for showing local art, and manager Kelly Foster and artist Derik Hawley for inviting me to be a part of this ongoing group art exhibition.
If you’re in the area, please drop in during regular open hours and take a look! The address is 4031 Fairview St., Unit 103.
All art is available – see labels for details, and purchases may be made through the front desk.
