Week 1

Highs

I got to be a tourist in my own city and enjoyed a tour of Sun Yat Sen Classical gardens in Chinatown. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour.  I've been to this garden many times however never was able to partake in the tour because I was always there with visitors from out of town who did not speak english.  The main garden theme is one of balance; something very important to me.  It is about the balance of yin and yang or feminine and masculine forces, soft, round and curved versus rough, hard and square.

I went for a beautiful False Creek seawall walk from Chinatown to Granville Island (GI) through the Olympic village.  This is my old stomping ground from my teen years and twenties.  I used to walk and jog here all the time because I lived in Kits and worked at the Keg on GI.

If It's Raining, Must be Vancouver

Fritallaria

Street Art

I watched an art demonstration called "Beyond the JPEG" that taught how to print jpeg images on almost anything including paper towel and tinfoil.  I haven't tried the technique yet.

I had a lovely dinner and visit with my parents.

I went to a movie with Paul.

I drew and painted a portrait a day.  Here are a few.

I went to my first beginners watercolour class.  It was a near miss because only 6 people signed up so was nearly canceled by the centre coordinators.  In spite of me being too young to join, one of the participants who complained I wasn't 55 years old, was happy I was there after all since I paid the adult fee rather than the senior fee and increased the numbers so that the instructor was willing to proceed.  The instructor says that "watercolour should be 60% the paint, water and paper doing their own thing and 40% the artist".  Based on this premise, I created the following at home after class.  I started with flowing pink, orange and blue paint, then saw flowers so painted in the pot, scissors and flowers in the foreground.

Once again, I had to find a new hairdresser.  They seem to move salons regularly.  So I tried a new one and went blonde.

Please skip the following post and go to the "Lows", if nudes offend you.  

I went to my first Life Drawing drop in session.  During the session the participants draw 5 - 1 minute poses, 5 - 2 minute poses, 2 - 5 minute poses, 2 - 10 minute poses, 2 -25 minute poses with the remainder of the 3 hours divided into more poses.  Here are some of my attempts.  I'm not sure how to do shading.

Lows

My Mum had a lumpectomy.  I hope the results in 2 weeks time will be a "high".

Loonie skate and for that matter all other weekday ice skating on a decent transit route has been canceled until July.

Belly Dance class was canceled due to insufficient numbers.

The weather most days.

Misses 

The move "The Host"

Near Misses

I had a "Disaster DIY" trying to install shelves.  As you can see by all the plaster fill, it was a near miss.  Thankfully I realised the danger and removed the shelves before they fell down.  Lesson learned - confirm the thickness of your drywall before using hollow wall anchor screws or hire a carpenter.

That's all for this week.  Thanks for dropping by.