Dear Treehouse

Finished Mixed Media on Paper

2011-03-01T09:53:00.001-05:00

Finished Bundle March 1, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

This is where I have gone...

2011-02-16T13:20:00.002-05:00

Litho Drawing February 16, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

WIP, Mixed Media on Fabriano 300lb HP

I'm stuck...where to go from here?

2011-02-02T09:07:00.001-05:00

Litho Drawing January 31, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Maybe I should abandon the ship...

2011-01-28T14:03:00.003-05:00

Litho Drawing 4 at desk, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

I am following along, but I'm not liking it. Just sayin ! In any case, I will continue in hopes of resolution and learning. The below detail is one section which I believe is promising.

The thrill of the ride!!

2011-01-27T14:01:00.006-05:00

A current 'Work in Progress' and a detail of it. I am trying to create larger spaces within the drawing, larger components and bolder lines; together with, working on composition. Given my freewheeling style it doesn't always work. I remembered a friend of mine saying 'get angry with it', well I did! Take that! Pleased with the direction. It isn't always the end result of a drawing that thrills me, but the moments of exhileration during... :)

Litho Drawing 3 January 19

2011-01-19T10:25:00.004-05:00

Litho Drawing 3 January 19, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Lithograph Pencils on Paper, 22" x 30" , 300lb HP Fabriano

During my run cool down today, I got to thinking about working some black acyrlic into the next few drawings. That would allow me to create some larger shapes ... like the red in this detail of a drawing I did two years ago. I realize I'll need to increase the scale of the drawing components within the current paper size I'm working in. That is the next challenge...

Litho Drawing 2 January 18

2011-01-18T10:13:00.002-05:00

Litho Drawing 2 January 18, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Lithography Pencils on Paper, 22"x 30", 300lb HP Fabriano

Maybe I am over winter! Maybe...

2011-01-14T13:24:00.007-05:00

-18 windchill AGAIN!? Sigh, what is a girl to do? Suck it up, yes, blah... that is what one does. Ten years ago when I lived in New Brunswick I went out exploring on the trails, it was a beautiful windy morning about 10 degress with a light spitting of rain. I walked for quite a distance that day, traveling over the train bridge of the St. John River and behind a mill with big stacks of cut lumber and then on towards Marysville. Once I get going on those trails it is such a delight to explore that I often go for far too long. Well I certainly did that day; such that, over the next couple of days at work I noticed my face was numb. My cheeks and my lips were mostly effected, so on the way down the hill as I was walking home from work I stopped into the walk-in clinic and was quite surprised when the Doc. told me that I had soft cell skin damage from frost bite. Well now I have that same numbness in my face and lips only this time from running in wind chill. Blah! I do wear a balaclava, but the moisture from breathing covers my face in a thin layer and obviously freezes. What fun!

I'm drinking a cup of tea from my Dad's mug ( I love his mug, it is brown of course, Daddy brown ) before I go. This morning I started another drawing, it just feels good to get going with it. Promising... Leonard Cohen kept me company again today! Leonard Cohen lyrics are essential to letting the mind drift off while the pencils continue their show. That is my thinking.

This photo below was taken along side the road during a short road trip in 2009, I believe it was October. Information gathered during road trips have long influenced my drawings, such as telephone lines - one sees miles and miles of telephone lines. During our 10,000 km family road trips as a child, I saw my share of lines, from Fredericton to Vancouver and beyond. Good memories Always! The latest 'object' to appear in my drawing are the moose fences along the Trans-Canada highway in New Brunswick. Anywho, nuff rambling ;) Time to run!

Great run today, much better than yesterday, mind you I did a much better stretch and that obviously worked. The sky is so blue today and the sun feels glorious. You see, now I have a cheerful disposition. :) I quickly ran into the grocery store on the way back and got through the line in a jiffy, with my bag of cornmeal stuffed inside my jacket I continued home. Flop Flop, all the way! Ha! Yesterday I smuggled home proscuitto and espresso... ;) I've always been a bit of an odd girl! ;) Now I'm off to make gluten free cornbread with rosemary. Yum!!!

Twenty Years Later...

2011-01-13T11:08:00.004-05:00

Litho Drawing 1 January 13, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Lithography Pencil on Paper, 22" x 30" 300lb HP Fabriano

Today there is a -20 windchill whistling through our neighborhood and I am debating how many layers I will wear when I finally boot myself outside for a run. I need to run, it returns me to a state of normal. ie. clear head and a cheerful disposition. :) This morning, after brewing a fresh pot of espresso, I sat down for a few hours of working on this drawing and listening to Leonard Cohen. It helped a great deal to leave this drawing overnight and to have a fresh look this morning, only then could I see there were areas I would need to shade darker. I then made the addition of some small and larger dots and some wildlife. Ha! You'll have to look for those, let me know if you find any.

Note, in this drawing I am using lithography pencils, which I ordered just before Christmas. All I can say is, what took me so long ?... I first learned to use litho pencils in 1991 while in art college and now twenty years later I am very thrilled to be working with them once again. I may work some color into some of my later litho pencil drawings, but for now I am satisfied with the results I am getting from working with black and white.

Gosh I am truely rusty at writing, I barely know what to say. Perhaps I should ease myself into it again, bit by bit like with drawing I will build my skills. Well I'm off for my daily run, hoping for no shin splints today. :)

Back in the Biz ...

2010-04-21T12:11:00.001-04:00

Pozzuoli Drawing, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Breaking up the panels...

2009-11-19T12:42:00.001-05:00

2, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Who would have thunk it?

Breaking up the panels...

2009-11-19T12:41:00.001-05:00

3, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Quite interesting...shall do more of these...nice trick!!!

Hmmmm

2009-11-19T11:43:00.004-05:00

4, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

I thought I would give my wooden panels another go. Originally I bought them to experiment with moving panels about while I paint, in hopes that I could trick myself into generating ideas. All those months ago, I remembering being pleasantly surprised how much I liked painting on wood. Could it be my surface? Moving panels about also works well for me, keeps me thinking, changing and moving forward. I 've never been much of a 'design' or composition guru; so in this way, the twitching up of panels really does help...hmmm, least I think it does! And...note the busy parts of the painting are pushed to the sides...hmmm I usually do the busy parts right smack in the middle. Well this definitely does force me into a different way of working...and I really needed the push. Not sure which orientation I like this painting yet, thought I liked the red circle at the top...not sure!

2009-11-17T14:03:00.001-05:00

White, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, 36" x 36"

Lady Bug

2009-11-12T10:35:00.003-05:00

Lady Bug, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Lady bug lady bug, do you think you have found a bright yellow flower to perch upon? Well I'm happy you have found something bright. Go Lady bug! Yes my support even extends to Lady Bugs...sigh!

Sometimes small things can be big things? Today I am refilling squirt containers of paint and unclogging blocked nozels ( yes how ironic that the painter who has a creative block is unclogging the flow). It is seemingly a small part of painting, but doing the dirty work is a big part of life. And there you go, such wisdom...haven't had much of that lately...hmmm Anywho, sometimes small things can make big differences? Just sayin and thinking out loud here...

When the writing is on the wall, do I listen?

2009-02-05T09:02:00.003-05:00

Drawing 2007 3, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Well I do always listen but I don't always hear, but this time I am hearing loud and clear! This drawing (detail of a 2007 drawing) is on the wall of my painting space. I look into it everyday. Lately, I've been quite interested in what it is trying to communicate to me. I believe it is telling me I am working in the wrong medium. One day, I will think I have a painting happening and then it will die right before my eyes and I will glance over at this drawing, time and time again, I look to it. Why on earth am I putting myself through all this daily torture of painting? Look what I can create on paper!!!! I can make magic happen on paper and it has always been my number one love.

Sometimes, it is important to know when to switch gears. In the words of my favorite painter " you know when you're making love and when you're not making love." ~ Philip Guston

-33 windchill this morning. Next week, I'm heading downtown to go ice skating on the canal. It has become a tradition to mark my Dad's birthday. I shall be thinking about all those locks we passed through in Europe and the lovely friends we met there. The people I've got to get my butt in gear and write back to. Luvy luvs from Jacie

Slice of Shoofly Pie

2009-02-01T12:50:00.004-05:00

Slice of Shoofly Pie 2, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Well helllooooo there! It has been ages since my last post. I've been painting up a storm and of course cooking up a storm. Doing some snowshoeing in the beautiful forest. Although, it would be right swell if I could actually take some pictures while I'm out there; however, the camera does not like the cold temps. It will operate, but the change in temperature from inside to out and back again is not ideal for digital cameras, so I'm waiting out the cold. My painting is finally progressing, although not in the direction I had thought it would go. A friend helped me to see that if I wanted to let the work evolve, I should just let it happen. Funny, I hadn't realized I was fighting with myself and not letting myself evolve, but really that is exactly what it boiled down to. So I have let go and I am having a ball and using big brushes and making sweeping movements with my arms; thus, I am also building arm muscles. Wahoo! I'll show you what I've been working on real soon.

In terms of taking photos, last night I took a shot of this slice of Shoofly Pie. This camera was new to me when I went to Europe and I had not read the manual. However, when I uploaded many of the Europe photos to flickr, I noticed on quite a few of them it said they were taken in normal mode. Normal mode hmmppphhh, whatever that is I thought!???! I would say, the first 1/3 of our trip, before I started using scenery mode and sports mode, I was setting the camera to this one camera icon. Only to realize last night when I took this Shoofly Pie photo in manual mode... normal means manual!!! Ohhhhhh Myyyyyyyyy Gawwwdddddd! Well isn't that just tooooo funny!

BTW, this Shoofly Pie is just totally to die for!!!!! Now I'm off to paint on this beautiful Sunday.

Tripod Party Bouquet!

2009-01-13T21:45:00.002-05:00

Tripod, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

R and I are listening to music tonight in our media room. B.B king and lots of Raggae. I am doing a few digital drawings on my Wacom drawing tablet. Why can't I do this on canvas? It comes so easily to me with a digitized pencil. The medium is so immediate, so perfect for how I like to work, which is with great energy.

Having fun tonight, while the snow continues to fall, just outside my window. We have tonnes of snow! Great for snowshoeing, which is what I've been doing lately. R had 3 weeks off work and we had so much fun together...oh we would be sooooo very good as a retired couple!!!!! Now he is back to the stress of work and driving in the heavy traffic. We are in the 4th or 5th week of a bus strike and people are getting very fed up with the whole affair. Everyone practically commutes by bus, here in Ottawa. At least we have a vehicle, certainly we are not as bad off as some...and I get to stay home and paint, really I can walk anywhere I need to go.

Tomorrow is a full painting day! I may bake cookies as well! Yum!

I'm loving working with panels!

2009-01-01T22:06:00.002-05:00

New Work, Acrylic on Board 2, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

Happy New Year! I've been able to steal a few moments here and there to do a bit of painting. Actually, I was in mid - stroke when the power went out this evening. It was out for a couple of hours. So I had to leave it for the evening.

I'm still working out this two panel birch piece. It is a whole new way of working. I can see now how endless the possibilities can be with rearranging panels as I work. Great fun! No pressure! No thinking! What on earth has gotten into me? I believe I am painting again!

Oh happy happy day!

There She Be, The Avalon Imagery

2008-12-08T13:46:00.007-05:00

Late Afternoon on the River Danube, Melk, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

This photo was taken just outside of Melk Austria, with that beautiful golden glow of a bright late afternoon sun. It was a glorious day. Although, it just occurred to me, this picture doesn't look at all sunny or bright. Ha! Actually, the bright sun was coming from the the opposite direction and was lighting up the boats. Or it could just be my positive outlook. lol

Today I got my Mum's calender all ready to have printed for Christmas. I could hardly sleep last night, worrying about whether I would choose pictures she would like. etc. Mum will be gracious and pleased with any gift. It is me who is the perfectionist! When it came down to putting a calander together with pictures from our trip, I realized that only landscape oriented photos were acceptable. Rats! I did a tonne and I mean a tonne of vertical pictures, what with all those statues and building details. So that certainly did narrow down my choice of photos and I guess it did make it easier in the end to choose 12 from hundreds of photos.

I'm painting daily, pretty much all day, give or take a couple of hours baking etc. Nothing too exciting has come about yet, but I keep at it as always and try not to get discouraged. I keep fighting with the ideas and for some reason won't let it come out on canvas. Drives me nutty!!!!

The government take over, is for now 'a no go' , parliament will resume again in January. In the mean time, the leader of the Liberal Party has been asked by his party to step down ( and to think how close he was to becoming our next Prime Minister) because they realize just how incompetent he is and therefore can never win an election with him as party leader. Ha! Ha! Ha! Yes that is my two cents worth of Nah, nah, nah na na! Loosers! Giant "L" !!! However the man set to take over as leader of the liberal party, is no weiner and therefore may give the conservative party some trouble. Please do keep in mind, when we talk about a conservative party, at least in Canada, we are really just talking, just barely right of middle. This is not a party who is extreme in any way.

Now to make some Bouillabaisse for dinner and some cinnamon buns for R. I've never made Bouillabaisse and it calls for saffron, which I don't have and it is super expensive, so I looked it up in my food substitution bible and it says to use tumeric and paprika. So there you go. That saves me a hike to the grocery store in this -21C wind chill day.

R and I are driving to Toronto this coming weekend to go the big annual motorcycle show. I am hoping to take in the new Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), which has been redesigned by Frank Gehry and is now open. I'm crazy excited to see it! Frank Gehry grew up very near the AGO. I love his work! Mostly because I'm crazy about organic shapes and all things sparkly! It will be a hoot to photograph. I'm packing my tripod and our Panasonic 35mm equivalent digital camera. Wish me luck!

Have a wonderful day! Luv luv Jacie

The Bridges of Cologne

2008-11-26T08:25:00.006-05:00

Leaving Cologne, originally uploaded by jwiggs.

This photo of the bridges in Cologne, on our way up the Rhine, is a good representation of my impression of river cruising. I love love love bridges and we saw more bridges than I have ever seen. To view my photos in flicker just click on the bridge photo. ;o) To view sets of pictures just click on set after the word Cologne and that will take you into the Cologne set. Then click set again, top left side and it will take you into the sets of pictures from each different place. You can also click on the little magnifier icon that says 'all sizes', just above each photo and view the picture at high resolution. In many cases, the pictures would be best printed not at their original size, but 1 or 2 sizes down, so as to reduce the visibility of noise.

Our friends Janette and David went across the river in a Gondola very much like this one. They said, you could see the entire city from up there. Then they went to the zoo and had a wonderful time there. Lots to do in every place we visited.

I'm posting this photo from my flicker, which I don't often use, but it will be a good way for you all to view the beauty of Europe. Ahhhem...in a shorter time span! LOL

In the beginning, of my editing these photos, I really didn't have a clue what I was doing. I thought I knew how to use photoshop, I thought I knew what a good photo looked like (although, my whole life I could never take a good photo, I just squeaked through the pass level in my photography class in art school) ; in any case, this trip would prove that I knew less than very little about photography. Ha! Editing did prove to be a huge challenge and I am still learning and still working on editing the photos that are worth editing for high resolution. That would not be all of my 2200 odd photo collection. Ha! Many are either underexposed to a point where it isn't worth trying to work with them or overexposed with blowout highlights and cannot be made into good photos. A good photo is good from the beginning. In my never to be humble opinion! All of the photos I have edited for high res. so far have been touched up only to sharpen them and reveal their true light and color. Very little color work needs to be done, after the levels have brought out their natural beauty. In photos where the color cannot be saturated as much as it was when I took the picture, due to overexposure or noise from too many competing light sources, I have abandoned these photos. Many were taken on the canal cruise in Amsterdam, where light coming from all different directions, bouncing of water etc. proved to be too much for my camera. I would have needed special filters to properly capture it.

So if you see only 1 or 2 photos in a place where you knew I took a tonne. They are still under preparation in the Wiggs lab and will be coming shortly. In this way, I can edit one and upload, one and upload at my leisure. Industrial photos are my favorite and they are about to go through stage three of editing. Industrial Awesomeness coming soon. Some of the industrial photos taken on the river from Cologne to Amsterdam turned out very well. I hope you enjoy the journey. I've had a ball working on these photos!

Yesterday, I was no able to get to painting, as I was doing html battle with my last blog entry. The photos were not all opening up when I clicked on them. I learned a lot yesterday about html code.

Then I shoveled the driveway. While standing there at the end of our driveway, with the snow scoop in hand, I began to look around at the shadows ( it was cloudy, about 3pm with the light getting darker) of the tree trunks, the shadows under the eves of the roof, the shadows of distant trees etc. I realized that they were indeed very dark ( even to the human eye) with very little shadow detail in them. I was a lot surprised to see on the photos I took in low level lighting, just a whole lot of dark grainy yuck in the shadows, with very little changes in tone, if any. Well, it turns out, the camera did a better job than I thought it did, because there tain't much to see in those shadows even with the naked eye. Quite interesting! My little Panasonic did very well!

Have a fun filled wonderful day wherever you might be!

Always be led by your inner voice...

2008-11-22T11:03:00.038-05:00

Sunrise in Vienna/ Over the River Danube

Pinch me, I'm eating breakfast in the middle of the River Danube, while watching the sunrise over Vienna. Pinch me hard!!!! I am, one lucky person! It is so very beautiful. I shot this picture from behind glass and the glass seams to have acted as a filter. I believe this is why the blue is so saturated and the highlights have no flaring. If you look closely (click on photo) you can see three suns. I dare say, these are pot light reflections from the inside of the boat. It took me a while to figure that one out. Ha!

Yes, I loved Vienna. The experience of walking around the beautiful streets was larger than life and beyond exciting. As we are now blanketed in snow, with morning traffic rerouting (the result of a big fire) being compounded by the treacherous road conditions; I do indeed, sigh to myself and think, well, I always have Vienna. I can easily close my eyes and go back in time, ahhhhh there we are near the Viennese pastry shop, talking to sweet Janette and sweet David ( two lovely people we met on our trip, I miss them) about the quirks of the local bank machine. It is warm, mostly sunny and there is excitement around every corner. Best of all, I am with my Mum and we are having the time of our life!

Vienna Elegance

Mostly Mozart, Everywhere Mozart/Vienna

No Kangaroos in Austria/Vienna

Philip Guston's Monument/ Vienna

We bypassed the Albertina, after seeing the crazy long lineup to see Van Gogh. I believe, I said "Van Gogh can kiss my ass", no, I stand corrected, that, was in Amsterdam; in any case, Van Gogh, you can kiss my ass, I love you, but not enough to stand in a huge line up to see you. No offense! LOL ... My single focus that afternoon was to go to the Modern Art Museum, funny no line ups there; in fact, there were no more than a couple dozen people in the whole building. Fine by me! :o) Have you ever tried to view paintings 6 or 7 people deep? It is no way, to view art! So there we are, walking through the top floor of the modern art museum...Josef Albers with two green squares (lovely) and on to the next floor...What? What is this? A show called ' Bad Painting, Good Art' ...omg, omg, there is a Philip Guston painting on the opening banner...my internal compass, in Vienna, has led me away from all the popular galleries (always be led by your inner voice, it rarely sends one in the wrong direction!) to Philip. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! My eyes filled with tears, as I stood before 'Monument' and 'Black Sea' . I was in a dream state. Mum said "well have a seat on the bench and spend some time looking at them." I couldn't even answer her, words were far beyond my reach (imagine that!). It was too overwhelming , too emotional... I just wanted to keep it short and sweet ...then I said goodbye. It meant everything to me! Mum was very generous to give up her afternoon in Vienna, so that I could go to a gallery. I am sure there were other placees she would have liked to visit. We were great travel companions in that way. At one point, in Cologne, I wanted to go see Gerhard Richter's paintings in the afternoon, but Mum really wanted to go to the Lindt Chocolate Museum. Actually, I did as well and the chocolate museum was so amazing I said, Gerhard Richter could wait until the next visit to Cologne. Our trip to Europe was just that, our trip. It wasn't all about Mum and it wasn't all about me, it was about US. :o)

Beautiful Vienna Statue with Winged Children (Cherubs)

Later on today, after I do some painting (first day back to painting, I'm so thrilled) I will be uploading pictures to my flicker, so you can see a lot more of my pictures in a quicker time frame. I'll still post some at high res. to my blog. At this rate, we won't get to Amsterdam until the spring thaw! Also, because I took over 2000 pictures and have been editing until the end of time itself...Ha! ...I am now having circulation problems and I can no longer sit for hours on end at a computer. I know, how halarious it that! However, I do have to get my butt in gear and get a wall calendar (with trip pictures) made for Mum and a skull collage for R. So much to do!

I've been busy reorganizing the house, bagging up clothing for the good will, cleaning the kitchen cupboards and getting rid of all things gluten. I've been cooking up a storm in the kitchen. I made Vichyssoise one day, bagels yesterday and Chocolate pot de creme the day before. Chocolate pot de creme (chocolate custard) will also leave one without words. The recipe called for whipping creme, but really @ 35%MF, I don't go near the stuff. I used light cream at 5% MF (bad enough) plus a Tb. of cornstarch and since it doesn't have to be whipped, it is a substitution that works. I'll be posting the recipe to my Gluten Free Wiggs blog, when blood flow allows. LOL

The house now feels fresh, clean and spacious, filled with the smells of home cooking and holiday candles. It is time to paint. Oh...and shovel snow. It snowed all night and is still snowing now. The snow, it always ruins my summer!!!! But very good for working off chocolate pot de creme, since I no longer have back problems. Eight months now and pain free! Yippeee!!!

Have a wonderful day! Luv luv Jacie

Photos from Bratislava and Vienna, Words from Canada

2008-11-12T14:09:00.021-05:00

Captive Falcon/ Budapest, Hungary

Ah yes, the spaceship has landed and I am no longer of another planet. However, I draw the line at returning to reality, that would just kill my spirit - so I ain't goin there! Ha! Reality almost clobbered me over the head a week after returning from Europe, when 15 cm's of snow hit the ground. What did I do? I pulled the blind down and went back to editing pictures. The thought of sinking into a long cold winter is extremely unappealing. So that was the third and fourth week of October, it was -6 C with windchill, then last week it warmed up to 19 C and we had summer again. It was the same temperature it was in Europe. Yeahhhhh!!!! Yesterday, for November 11th, it was 4 C. I don't mind so much easing into it slowly, dipping my toes in just slightly, but I'm definitely not into polar bear swims. Today it is sunny and a bit cool, but no snow.

Bishops's Tomb/ Bratislava, Slovakia

Two days ago I started flipping through my stack of paintings ( works in progress) and it was beyond halarious, my reaction to them. First one, uhhmmmm...definitely underexposed ; second one, needs cropping ; third one, omg...way too saturated! Ha! I had a good laugh ! I looked at them long enough to be satisfied that there has been a shift in thinking. I have stepped far enough back from them, to begin again with a very fresh eye. Perhaps it takes leaving ones homeland to begin again. Photography has definitely had a big influence on my thinking about color ( hue and saturation), light, composition and texture. I am very anxious to experiment and very soon I will return to painting. My head is just about there.

Reflection in a Granite Wall/ Bratislava, Slovakia

Yesterday morning, R and I went to the Rememberance Day ceremonies. We always go together and it matters greatly that we do. I could capture the experience with film, but I really can't put it into complete sentences. Perhaps, I could relate it to you like this: We walk in the front door of the legion hall and there are two older male veterans in grey slacks and navy jackets with a poppy each on their lapel, they are wearing berets. An older female veteran with a cane is walking arm in arm, with perhaps her daughter. The two gentlemen are looking back at them to make sure they are not moving too quickly. In this scene, our world that spins along at great speed...slows down... it slows down long enough, for us all to gather. On this day, we stand together under partly cloudy skys and we share in the rememberance of an enormous human tragedy. And we don't forget the soldiers, we don't forget the civilians and we don't forget the six million Jews.

Crumbling Beauty/ Bratislava, Slovakia

After the ceremonies, R and I go to Tim Hortons to get a coffee, my first one after coming home from Europe... and I choke and sputter...oh, it tastes horrible. The nastiness...watery, flavourless and yucky! But it does have caffeine, so I gulp it down... but, for the very last time! We spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for the car to have snow tires put on. So, I took the opportunity to talk with a man in a local photo shop and learned some tips about editing and printing photos. We had a lively discussion about digital versus traditional photography and we both agree that film offers more of a tonal range than digital. That tonal range, to me, is so very important. Digital captures way way way too much noise. That is my thinking, but I do want to keep on exploring digital, particularly for the wonderful possibilities for editing.

Viennese Golden Girl/ Vienna, Austria

The man in the photoshop mentioned that I might try printing some of these photos at an 8" x 10" size, to check for sharpness. So, currently I'm editing for the purpose of printing at high resolution.

Golden in Vienna/ Vienna, Austria

I played around with the clarity of details in many of these photos. I thought some of them needed a softer touch than others. I think it worked beautifully. So pleased with them all! Oh I forgot to mention, you should click on the picture to see them in an enlarged format, you will see the softening of the details.

Vienna Statue/ Vienna Austria

Two Men with a Heavy Load/ Vienna Austria

Franz Josef Vienna Statue with Pigeons/ Vienna Austria

Viennese Beauty/ Vienna Austria

It is time for this busy Canadian to move from computer to kitchen and begin this evenings dinner. Seafood Chowder. Yum! A lovely dish for a cool November evening. Homemade gluten free pumpkin pie for dessert. Double Yum!! More pictures to come very soon, now that I've got some of the kinks ironed out.

Freakin Awesome Budapest, Let Us Start Here

2008-10-24T12:29:00.009-04:00

What a trip. It has left me wanting more. My best friend Holly left 34 comments on my pictures on facebook and she worried that this was going overboard. Oh, the poor girl, she hasn't even come face to face with overboard. Just put on a life vest and get yourself ready for the ride! Such daily exhileration as we experienced on this trip has left me unprepared for a return to the real world. My poor man has yet to have a decent meal cooked for him since I got home. He turned sideways the other day I called out to him "hey where did you go?" But he has had lots of chocolate as Mum and I stocked up at the duty free on the way home. A person can live on chocolate right? I think it is an excellent diet!

The train tracks was the first photo I shot in Europe.

Looking from Buda over to Pest with the River Danube in between.

I fell in love with this green roof and while most other tourists in Budapest were photographing the Revolutionary Square, I was off marveling over this roof. It would be the first in a long list of forays into other

things. Like Graffiti, smokestacks, piles of rusty scrap metal and containers on barges etc. Everything in Europe in beautiful and interesting and so worth taking a photo off, especially all that is unusual and off the beaten path! Below are two boats very much like the one Mum and I and 150 of our fellow passengers cruised up the River Danube on. We also sailed the Main and the River Rhine.

As we sailed out of Budapest with the sunsetting we past this beautiful palace. At least I think it was a palace. Forgive me my attention span is quite narrow and I am prone to severe attacks of complete distraction and quite proud of it. LOL!

Below is a captive hooded falcon which was so freaky to see. After taking these next two photos I really got into the spirit of the trip. I knew it would be beyond amazing! It was! Where we going next ?

Can we leave tomorrow for the next trip? More to come in next post, I've got up to the end of Bamberg edited. That was day 10. What an editing machine I've been. Sadly my staff of cooks did not fly home with me. I did jump on the scales and lost 5 or 6 pounds on the cruise. Likely the only human in the history of cruises to loose weight! I'm sure the Captain was thankful for that while trying to sail through low water conditions of the River Danube. Man there was a lot of whipped cream on board that cruise!!!!!!!!!!!! Luv luv Jacie

Jeanette and David, where we going next? Ey, ya better get on that!

Finished Painting, gwe-duk

2008-09-05T11:01:00.003-04:00

Finished Painting

*gwe duk

36 " x 36 "

Acrylic on Canvas

gwe duk is a Nisqually word, meaning " dig-deep"

Yehhhhhhh!!! Geoducks ! And so Wonderfully Abstract!

2008-07-17T12:58:00.007-04:00

Thrilled! The best part, I love it, love it! It took some time, to get to know my bivalves, almost gave up on them, I did. Then I got an idea flash to paint a diagonal line across the top and poke some Geoduck necks out the top. It worked and then some became inverted and that worked too. I had considerable trouble with composition, as I absolutely decided I could not stand to have a horizon line. However, eventually the horizon line blended and then dropped off, this really agreed with me. It only needs a bit more finishing work.

A keeper!

Painting Portfolio 2

2006-10-11T07:21:00.009-04:00

Spelunking

48"x 48"
Acrylic on Canvas

May 2006

Night Vision

48"x 48"

Acrylic on Canvas

April 2006

Surgical Paint

48"x 48"

Acrylic on Canvas

April 2006

Downtown Cancer

48" x 48"

Acrylic on Canvas

March 2006

Painting Portfolio

2006-10-10T15:16:00.004-04:00

Landing Gear

48"x 48"

Acrylic on Canvas

April 2006

IED

48 x 48"

Acrylic on Canvas

March 2006

For R, May The Pac-Man Win

48" x 72"

Acrylic on Canvas

March 2006

E3B Meets 4P8

48"x 60"

Acrylic on Canvas

February 2006

Geoduck Song

2006-05-10T19:25:00.001-04:00

So I think it is time I made good on my promise to share my Geoduck song, since I am longing for my favorite beach and beloved ocean.

Geoduck is a giant clam and is pronounced "gooey-duck", the name comes from the Nisqually native word "gwe-duk", meaning "dig-deep". Panopea abrupta.

It is a kids song and Valdy if your out there and you want to put some notes to this song please do. Yes that is a challenge! : o )

Dig A Gooey Duck

You Can Hear The Diggers, As They're Headed To The Bay

Oh I Gotta Dig A Duck, Gotta Dig A Duck

Cos I Get A Buck A Duck, When I Dig A Duck A Day

Chorus

Dig A Duck, Dig A Duck, Dig A Duck

Dig A Duck, Dig A Gooey Duck, Dig A Duck A Day

Dig A Duck, Dig A Duck, Dig A Gooey Duck

Dig A Duck, Dig A Gooey Duck, Dig A Duck A Day

Oh It Takes A Lot Of Luck, And A Certain Kind Of Pluck

For To Dig Around The Muck, Just To Get A Gooey Duck

He Hasn't Got A Front, And He Hasn't Got A Back

He Doesn't Know Donald, And He Doesn't Go Quack

Chorus

How do we know that a Geoduck is a he? Well lets just say there are certain features...

Geoduck Research Courtesy of a very loving Dad!

Long Live The Ducks!