It was a very fast and fun demo today online with Opus Art Supplies! Thank you to the 100 attendees who joined in, I really appreciate your support and hope you were able to enjoy mixing colours!  Ann Mountney was a fabulous host and Opus representative and provided great details to go along with the demo.  

onto the next demos and free upcoming events!  I am learning about streaming with Twich.tv and will be streaming demos and chats during the Culture Crawl.  This year the organizers are helping the 262 artists to go virtual.  Go online and check out all the great demos and events as well as the "community" platform at the Opusartsupplies.com website and view the gallery for the crawl.

Nov 14 and 21 are dates that I have definitely plan to stream.  I'm looking into more times and dates as I learn more about the application.

and - Happy Halloween!  Stay safe and be kind!  Don't forget to take in the "Blue Moon".

So I haven't been able to find the Halloween shirt yet.  I did a major cleanup of my art writings and material, but have not had any success in scaring up the shirt.  May I will just wear something orange!  

These have been busy days - setting up work and videoing for the next 6 intermediate art classes online, thinking about ideas for the 4 classes with the Roundhouse, prepping for the demo Friday and I still have lots to catch up with for the East side culture crawl.  promo material is coming in and it's time to get the social media sites away from the fun candy wrappers.

now it's back to a more fluid and varied set of paintings that I have been doing over the last six months.  Lots of people working with their hands in various settings, some travel related, also more ink with watercolour and even more trees and forest scenes.  

I am beginning to feel more comfortable with a narrative or two for my paintings and I will be tweeking some more ideas for the coming weeks.  Time to update the website and more.  Stay tuned! In the meantime, I've been testing out shadow violet by Daniel Smith and am enjoying the rich grey/brown that it can create.  Always something to try out!

Time is quickly approaching since I signed up to demo with a still life of a Smartie box through Opus art Supplies.  Great thing with this is that I bought something I have been wanting for a while.  Opus has made up their own half pan metal painting tray and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.  I work mostly with plastic palettes or ceramic mixing dishes.  Even a plate can work.  However, metal does not retain the stain of some of the colours.  It's going to be a great tool to have for worj]king outdoors!

The bonus is trying out all the other opus colours I don;t use very often.  They are great quality and a very good price point.  This weekend they are even doing free shipping across a Canada! 

I have a videos that are instructing the processes that I will be demoing for the hour and a bit - but it's there for anyone who wants to try colour mixing, who wants more beginner information and finally to have fun actually painting a still life.  More videos of this nature will be coming to my YouTube channel including more on my colouring pages.

off to try and find my Halloween shirt to wear for the demo!  

Weather is turning and the lighting and humidity has changed now as I paint in my temporary studio. It's harder to control the water on the paper and lighting depending on whether it is warm or cool can really impact even how the watercolour looks.

It's important to test your paint out regularly and practise with it in varying light so that you are not surprised when deciding to use it in a painting.  It's so much fun to purchase new colours and play with them.  Keep doing that! It's the best way to explore your creativity without starting to think of colour theory or other processes that develop as a painting is developed. 

I love trying different colours and forget when I settled into a routine of 3 primaries that I can mix the colour, but oh it's so nice when just going to the colour I want without having to create it. On the other hand, with just 3 colours, everything has cohesion in the painting, because it is uniform wherever you place the primary or another colour that is created.  

so to have some fun between classes and try to quell my chocolate cravings, I've stared painting the wrappers from the candy.  Lots of fun trying to recreate the image colour and the shadows and the shiny metallics and reflections.  This series will definitely continue as I know it can't enough of my favorite sweet!

Opus has the registration up for my demo Oct 30th.  11am pacific time

do you paint the red ones last?

https://opusartsupplies.com/events/sonia-mocniks-smartie-still-life-a-beginner-guide-to-colour-mixing-in-watercolour/

This has been a busy weekend.  First, really great news from Opus as they have chosen a date and a topic for the virtual demo on October 30th at 11am.  It will be about colour mixing and a still life.  Follow along the coming days on my blog for more hints.

i was working on the weekend with my online class material, more info for advertising the demo with Opus and other online applications for new juried shows.

North Van arts still has the Art Rental Show up.  They have just closed the application for the anonymous show which will also be online.  The new art rental juried application is still open and I have some irons on the fire for this.

i applied for the first time to the canadian society of watercolour artists online juried show. They are going online this year, so it is a little easier to apply only because the painting will not have to be shipped.  Normally the item would have to be sent framed to their gallery.  A lot more difficult for watercolours under glass.  I recommended it to my students and artist friends which meant I needed to know more about the process myself.  It was worth going through this for the first time as it helped another artist understanding how the juried process worked for this organization.  They didn't require biographies or CV -I imagine that will only come if a painting gets selected.  It's always interesting to understand the fees and requirements for different juried shows.

the midmain art show that I organize is scheduled for June next year, but there is still all sorts of concerns regarding venues and protocol with Covid.  Lots to figure out and keep busy with.

hopefully art is keeping you busy and inspired!  I was inspired to use permanent rose, Hansa yellow light, new gamboge and phthalo blue to paint some fun loose fall trees and leaves.  I am off to paint some more fall themed items so I hope you get inspired to do something too! 

Where did September just go to? An attempt to get some watercolour classes back in the studio at West Vancouver Community Center is proving a little more difficult as there is a lot of protocol and the size is now going to be a maximum of 8 students.  The next set of classes starts October 8 and they are Thursday mornings or afternoons.  Check my instruction information on the website for more details or directly with westvancouverrec.ca

I am working with the Roundhouse Community Center to bring watercolour classes back sometime late November.

East Side Cultural Crawl is ramping up their virtual program and there are already 241 artists setup on the website inlcuding myself as part of the artists at Portside Studios #7 on the map.  We are going virtual at this point as the protocols for touring become a bit difficult.  However, lots more information will be coming forward.

Opus and I are teaming up for a virtual watercolour demo - keep your eyes peel looks like it will be at the end of October or early November.

This beautiful weather is really starting to make the fall leaves slowly show their true colours and the sunflowers have been amazing.  I'm painting some these days for my classes and hope to capture more of the fall colours in various formats in watercolour.  Keep your eyes peeled for more on my website.

Happy Painting!