Ron and I visited the Last Mountain Lake Bird Sanctuary over the Labour Day long weekend. This fellow graced us with his presence as he hunted in the grasslands. We saw many other species of birds but this great horned owl was the most impressive.

I took my imagination on a summer excursion to the beach this weekend and this is the result. There are a few refinements I will be making before complete but I love these colours and the feel of this so far. Enjoy!

Today was the last day to enter our AWOB juried art show. It was a busy day 🙄. I used to work best under pressure but I’m going to have to rethink that strategy. The last item finished was my 8x10 monoprint of a Brewer’s blackbird which I called “My True Colours”. Shown second, “Gems of Kejimikujik” is an 18x24 oil painting, and my “Fierce” owl is an 11x14 acrylic. Friend and jewelry artist Kathy Dumouchel and I collaborated on the last image, a 16x20 3D work called “Autumn Fields” featuring copper cast wheat made by Kathy (so beautiful) mounted onto a barnwood oval with a painting and copper harvest moon in the background - so much fun!

It’s hard to beat the fun of Gelli printing. I’m learning new techniques during these experiments. I printed two copies of a magpie photo and covered both sides of the paper with clear shelf liner. Then I cut stencils and masks with a craft knife (a heated knife works best). Once complete, I ran a few prints to test and I like how they turned out. I’m slowly compiling quite a few custom stencils. Happy Easter!

I combined two of my photos into a composite for this one. Then I cut a stencil from the new image. I fooled around with some prints and I like the single colour ones the best. How about you? Here are the rest of the pics...

and that’s a wrap for this 30 day painting challenge. I hope you enjoyed it!

lots going on in my studio today... enough that I missed several “rest/stretch” alarms. Oops! Although I’ll likely pay for that later, it was FUN! I consider one or two of these prints complete, the rest are on their way. Here are the steps for interested parties:

1. Sketch the branches and birds on copy paper
2. Apply plastic contact paper to both sides
3. Cut stencil with exact knife, leaving a full border around the 8.5x11 image
4. On Gelli plate create complex backgrounds with lots of colour. Allow them to dry completely.
5. Brayer white paint (tinted) onto Gelli plate, apply stencil to the wet white paint, align the prepared background over the printing plate, press, and pull the print.
6. Immediately remove stencil and pull a ghost of the paint remaining on the plate.

Fun fun fun!

I’m loving playing with my Gelli plate again! I enjoy the process of painting this backwards: first the birds, the trees and the white horizon line, next the lines that would be in the sand and the water. I let each of those layers dry before applying a transparent blue, pink and yellow layer over the sky and water and a neutral over the sand. Lastly, a layer of white over the entire surface followed by pulling the print. It’s surprising how complete the print is. So.much.fun!!!

Today I made a reinforced mask/stencil set of these three birds and I played with them for this post! It’s just so much fun, even if this project ended up darker than I’d hoped.

I received a call from the computer guy today... my computer’s hard drive is toast! I’ve got most, but not all, of my photos backed up. So, here’s a public service announcement: be obsessive about your computer backups. It’s not fun finding out that your weekly backups ceased months ago!

Gelli prints are a fun painting process. The results are often unpredictable but I enjoy the lack of control (some days :). Enjoy your Sunday!

Photo credit for this sawwhet owl goes to my brother Dwight. Particularly because this guy was cosied up to a cammo fence post! Such a velvety looking owl - gorgeous!