Can’t deny it’s winter!

But I can try!
2 weeks ago I was raking and bundling the leaves from these trees in 60 degrees F and thinking what a wonderful fall it was…NOW, we have this, and 4 more inches on top.  Two days ago it was –20 Celsius ( or –4 F!)….talk about a quick change!  Now we are skiing again!

                                                      
                                        

Now that I’m looking 4 months of winter in the face, I just want to post a few last glorious photos of autumn in all its intensity – it’s really that I’ll be missing the color!  I suppose I’ll just have to make do with the boxes of color in my studio between skiing expeditions.  Here are a few shots from our last fall walk in Gatineau Park…


                                      


They’ve mowed the fields to make them ready to become cross country ski trails – the mountain bike trails will be smaller classic ski trails.

                                     


Across the flat and up the slopes…
                   

                                       


Glorious color and shadow everywhere

                                              


 Stopping to look at stuff…sometimes it’s hard to move forward!

                                             

Fern and bark

                                       
                                               


Something dried and wonderful and wintery…not sure what the plant is though

                                                         

In the middle of the forest with long afternoon shadows…




                                                                        


Bad long shot, it was as close as I could get…nevertheless, I like the bad horror movie intensity of this photo!


                                                  

Framed…


                        


A doe and her two clunky fauns…closest I’ve ever been..

                                                                         
                                              

And suddenly, we were too much for them…understandably!

               

And here’s my last burst of color for the winter….I’ll have to enjoy a subtler palette for a few months. 

Back soon with some new work!

A second thing -

Must be a record for me, two blog posts in one day. 
Yesterday I received my package from my  Bead Soup Blog  Party partner - she is Marie Cramp of Skye Jewels.  I'd  just like to give you a taste of things to come:

the mystery-

 After opening, I have a generous number of beautiful flat tiles with very evocative images.  I know this is going to to a true challenge for me because I rarely, if ever, use images in my work.  Oh , Lori.....

 What I immediately gravitate towards in these tiles is the sepia/magenta/blackness of them, because I work with these colours all the time.  Maybe I'll be able to find a way in...
Also included are lovely brass finish findings, bead caps, chain and a clasp - another challenge, I ususally make everything in polymer.  (Don't despair,  you'll find those pliers somewhere in the mess on your desk).

 And finally, these lovely little glass beads!  The way to an ex-glass blower's heart...something I can always relate to!

I will succeed, I will!  (But it will be difficult).

Thanks for everything, Marie!

Out of focus

I'm still working on a list of things I've set myself, one being the use of polymer without paint.  Hmm. Paint withdrawal - not a pretty sight here, but I'll persevere!

Since I have become interested in using images on polymer, this has naturally rekindled my interest in photography - and also in blogs that post photographs of interest to me.  It's difficult to define precisely  what  interests me but  I've been looking more critically at my shots and deleting lots.  A couple of things occur to me here.

 When I was at school for design in glass,  I had a drawing teacher who simultaneously inspired me and annoyed me (isn't that the role of the gifted arts teacher?).  We had a schoolwide project (teachers included) to assemble disparate objects into some sort of sculpture.  We were each given 20 objects - no personal choice was involved.  I remember having a mini 'aha' moment when I looked at my drawing teachers' finished work.  He had taken dark brown micro-crystalline wax and had coated each of his given objects so that only the form remained and had then assembled them into quite a powerful and resolved piece.  All those competing voices were silenced...

I'm finding (late in life, it's true) that focus in photography works that way.  Sometimes when things are blurred, the competing elements are damped down a little and the form or structure is more powerfully evident.  Like this picture of my son opening his birthday present-

Or this, of my front yard,

Which became after fiddling -

So many images, so little time!  My son is in his own world, it makes me laugh! And  oh yes, I'm quite certain my drawing teacher will never read this blog....