Tonight (Friday, July 3rd) at 8 pm — Open House for “Word Up”, a group exhibit featuring loads of local artists; at CycleLogik, 1111A Wellington Street. Fellow Ottawans, come on out!

A month ago, the lovely Andrea Stokes of Pink Wagon asked me to partake in this show… which starts in just under two hours. I decided that I should do this ‘properly’ and undertake a real-life painting… the first non-digital painting I’d done since graduating university over 10 years ago. It was a mixed bag of remembering how much I love the physicality of working with paint on canvas, wondering what I’d gotten myself into, really missing the power of “undo”, and worrying that I wasn’t going to like the outcome.

Thankfully, I do like it and am posting a sneak peek:

It’s a diptych called “apart + together”. Each panel is 12″ x 12″, and I did it with acrylic paint, plus a bit of pencil and fun Sharpie water-based pens.

A step-by-step of how I got here..

Below: this was very definitely the “Oh  #%*!@, what have I gotten myself into?!!!” stage. I seem to encounter this for every non-digital piece I do…

Here are details of the finished piece:

I’m definitely feeling a wee bit nervous about the event tonight — if you’d asked me a decade ago if I’d ever partake in another art show, I’d have said “Not likely!” I’m not sure how solo exhibitors do it! So there you have it — and *gulp* off I go…

general rambling Andrea Stokes, CycleLogik, Open House, original art, Ottawa, pink wagon, Word Up