Hello everyone. I'm posting the information sheet that I will have available for people who come by on the studio tour. This is particularly for my friends at long distance who can't come. I hope a little bit of the spirit of my contribution comes through.

Welcome to my ocean!

My basement art began with wanting to transform our ugly old oil tank and voila the”yellow submarine” was launched. Some children visiting from England provided the fish. Then my attention turned to our rusty old freezer...an ice block with penguins and polars bears seemed the perfect solution. Now everything in the basement looked rather dull (even though I did have my album covers from the ‘60’s on the walls) so I came up with the idea of making an “ocean” and having myself, friends, and family all contribute paintings. We had a ball doing it!

I moved on to the guest room and created a "room with a view" from our favourite hotel in the south of France. Then on to scenes from my favourite city in the world (Paris, of course) in my studio. In my kitchen I’ve tried to recreate a little bit of the spirit of Provence with my tiles, floorcloth, and paintings.

Much of the furniture is from the Oak Bay Dump Exchange area (my neighbour, Chris, finds many treasures there for me), thrift stores, and throw aways from friends. It’s really satisfying to take something ugly that no one wants anymore and tranform it.

How it all began...

Since I never got beyond stick figures in school, doing anything artistic wasn’t on my list of around a thousand things I might do after I retired from teaching. It's unfortunate so many of us turn off this pleasure of creating art so early in our lives when we think that/or told that other kids actually have a natural talent for this and we don't. My friend, Carole, got me involved in doing mosaic tiles and I found I enjoyed playing around with colour and design so took the plunge to do some Absolute Beginner courses. Alesha and Jessica at Island Blue were such encouraging teachers that I haven’t stopped since.

And now

It’s given me tremendous pleasure to give my creations to my friends and family. These same friends and family have been urging me for quite a while to sell my work so this Studio Tour is my first foray into the commercial. Mary, who is helping today, was particulary persistent. I have had such joy out of this unexpected tangent that I am thinking of writing a book to encourage others to explore their creativity. My working title is “Have a ball creating art without talent, training or effort!”

Thank you for coming and I hope you have enjoyed your dip in my ocean and your petit voyage en Provence. And above all, think of buying some paints and having fun!


Janice S.

A few things I'm selling.



Beach at Carqueiranne
9 x 12 acrylic on paper - Painted in Carqueiranne, France, 2002
$35



Mimosas
8 x 11 acrylic on paper - Painted in Carqueiranne, France, 2002
$35



Tuscan Hills
11 x 14 acrylic on paper - 2002
$75



Campaniles on box - $195



Carqueiranne Harbour on chair - $195

I finally gave into pressure from friends to start selling my work. I figured I got such tremendous pleasure out of giving things to friends, why take a chance on spoiling that. However, I sold my first painting today and it is quite a charge as my friends have been telling me it would be!

I've been accepted into the Oak Bay Studio Tour which takes place Dec 6 & 7 from noon - 4:30. Brochures with addresses will be available at all the houses on the tour so drop by my house and get one if you're interested in seeing some of the studios. I went to the one in the Spring and thought it was quite fun and interesting.

I've got most of the thiings I'm going to sell priced and displayed and friends are welcome to have a pre Tour look and possibility to buy.



Olympic View, Victoria
11 x 14 acrylic on paper, 2002

SOLD to my very dear friend, Monique!

Today we met our friends from England for lunch. We suggested we go to the Victoria Estate Winery since I had an excellent meal there in the summer and was very impressed with the whole set up. We had chosen all this wonderful food from the menu and were going to have the "wine flights" (a tasting of various wines). Would you believe they are having problems with their liquor licence and couldn't serve us wine...! Surrounded by wine and not a drop to drink. Of course our British friends were flabbergasted...only in B.C.! We ended up at the Rumrunner. I know a number of people who enjoy going out there so you might want to phone before going to see if they have the problem sorted out.

We did our first batch of smoked and candied salmon on the weekend. Really quite fun and easy to do. Thanks to Don and Elaine for getting us started!

This is a really neat monkey puzzle tree that is outside the MacLarin Building at UVic. Going to my Group of Seven in Western Canada class I noticed this tree and thought it would be a good idea to paint for my friend, Mary, who loves Monkey Puzzle trees...then I thought, why not paint the tree she planted, then why not do that and their first house and do it in the original colours...the evolution of a painting! Used my new digital camera for this and am very pleased with the results.



Monkey Puzzle tree at UVic

I did this painting for my friends, Derek and Mary. This is their first house in Victoria only the current owners had white stucco put on it and blue trim...sort of a Greece villa look. We all liked the original barn look so I made it that way in the painting. Also, Mary had planted the monkey puzzle tree and was wishing she had it back so now she does in a small way.

Fern, Carole and I had a great time making canvas floormats. Thanks to Carole for all her expertise in helping us with this project!



"Harbour in Cassis"
Canvas floormat 21" x 27"

What I've been reading:

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark haddon. Told from the point of view of an autistic teenager. What an amazing book...excellent! I see it's on Bolen's best seller list at #1 this week.

"Elizabeth Costello" by J.M. Coetzee. I'm quite glad he won the Nobel prize for literature. He is always an interesting and intelligent writer. Not too sure how to respond to his latest...could be quite brilliant or just reworked previously written essays loosely put into novel form. Lots of intriguing ideas and somehow I was involved and interested with the "protagonist" who mainly goes round to various conferences and gives talks. The novel mainly consists of these talks.

Here's my latest painting overlooking Kits pool in Vancouver.



Kitsilano Pool, sulpher barge, English Bay slide

For those of you who are interested in languages and especially Spanish you might want to give this url a try to access live TV from Mexico.
http://dgtve.sep.gob.mx/tve/red_edusat/TVeducativa/en_linea.htm
Choose Channel 16 for the best Mexican tv channel.

For Destinos (all 52 programs of the Spanish language course) connect to Annenberg CPB. You will have to check a US state for address--no problem. Then you will get access to plenty of good PBS shows on demand.

For Spanish and other languages try this url:
http://wwitv.com/portal.htm

What I've been reading lately.

"Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. A pleasant surprise in that although it seems to be generally considered "magic realism" (which I don't like all that much) there was a very heavy concentration of realistic details. Fascinating really in that you are actually made to believe that a tiger, an orangutang, a zebra, and a hyena all ended up in a life-raft with Pi and he managed to keep alive through it all. Very much about the brute force of nature and how even man will do almost anything to keep alive.

"Marrying the Mistress" by Joanna Tollope. Excellent. Sounds like it's some trashy novel but quite the opposite. A wonderful portrayal of the mess and beauty of family life and relationships.

"A Place of Hiding" by Elizabeth George. Always gives you pretty good value in a mystery.

"Next of Kin" by Joanna Trollope. Not as polished as "Marrying the Mistress" but pretty good all the same.

You might want to take a look at this site
Arts and Letters Daily
It's a service by the Chronicle of Higher Education and points you to an amazing number of current articles of interest plus has links to news services, newspapers, magazines, etc. Worth a look.

Got my film pictures of the Horne family today. Brings back memories of a super afternoon!





The Horne family with Jim and Richard



The Horne artists at work

Aren't these sunflowers great? I was going to try to paint them but they died before I got around to it. A cousin I hadn't seen for years contacted me via email and we had a great visit and got into a search for trying to figure out various family mysteries...lots of fun and learned about naming traditions in Sweden. Makes one realize how all these bits and bobs of family history we pick up can get transformed and also that even official certificates and documentation are questionable given the times. We do make our own stories to explain events in the end...as Pi Patel would tell us.

What I've been reading lately:

"The Light of Day" by Graham Swift. Quite a compelling read...very suspense filled. Interesting development of a rather accidental relationship. Well done.

"The Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri. Short stories and an excellent chronicling of the immigrant experience. Author grew up in London & Rhode Island. I will be interested in reading her first novel which is due to be released very soon called "The Namesake".

"Original Minds: In conversation with CBC Radio" by Eleanor Wachtel. Very engaging conversations with people like Johathan Miller, Jane Goodall, Bernardo Bertolucci, Desmond Tutu, Gloria Steinem etc. Probably have to return the book before I get round to reading all of them.

Yesterday I heard Wachtel interviewing Nuala O'Faolain (interview took place in Victoria last Spring at the Manulife Writers Festival) and found her very funny and entertaining. Put a hold on her memoir called "Are You Somebody: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman". I think she catches the essence of this strange, desperate country very well.

Fern, Carole, and I are going to do canvas floor mats together. I've never done one but should be fun. I want to do something with sunflowers. I have quite a few pictures and also bought a bunch of sunflowers yesterday so these should give me some ideas.

Barb brought along her new English Cocker puppy today...isn't he a real sweetheart?



Chester at 10 weeks old

I haven't done too much with my sunflower pictures but I did do this stool that's been hanging around.


sunflower on stool

It's so great not being back at school this week. Golf yesterday, lunch out at the Victoria Estate Winery today. I made a celebratory paella for Jim since he has to work and it's one of his favourite foods.



Paella with men playing boules (napkins holder out of olive wood)

What I've been reading lately.

"The Murder Room" by P.D. James. Up to expectations. What a treat to get another book from her considering her age. She is so wonderful at creating atmosphere.

"Black Bird" by Michel Basilieres. Macabre and very funny story. Very critical of Quebec - I can understand why the author lives in Toronto now. Another one of these very good first novels - how do they do it? The pet crow character is wonderful especially the scene where she plucks out the eye of a very nasty man about to do her harm. The description of the crow swooping behind the ambulance, finding the man's hospital room and standing guard is wonderful. The man who now has one eye wakes up to looking through his remaining eye to see this crow pressing one eye against the hospital window. Only the crow's eye is visible as it is winter and the window is frosty. "A short cawing like laughter is often heard from the crow."

"The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. A really fun to read mystery come thriller. Also makes some interesting comments about the validity of what we feel is historical fact. Very cleverly done.

My latest painting...an almost local scene!



Vancouver freighters

I finally got around to painting these chairs I bought at a garage sale quite a while ago.




Carqueiranne harbour


Bandol vinyards

We had a great time with the Horne family from London yesterday. Madeleine and Victoria did some wonderful paintings...wow!


Madeleine's first painting


Madeleine's second painting


Victoria's work in progress


Victoria at work


The raw materials. Picture taken by Richard.

Went to Madrona Farm with a friend who is a longtime neighbour of theirs. Got some wonderful pictures of their sunflowers and veggies. I'll paint something from the pix I took.


Their original sign

Quite a while ago I found these old suitcases in a thrift store for $2 each and thought they'd be good for painting on. Getting paint to stick on this surface is rather difficult so it needed to be a pretty simple design. Also, wanted something from the sixties since they date from that time...so lava lamps seemed to fit the bill.

Been reading a very interesting non-fiction book (yes...I do actually read something from the "real" world from time to time...) called "Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching, and other tales from Newfoundland Fishing Village" by Robert Mellin. The author is an architecture prof who has studied the architecture and culture of an outpost in Newfoundland called Tilting. The old houses in this community are almost like boats in that they are built on wooden foundations so they can be moved or "launched" relatively easily and any porches are called bridges. Very easy on the environment since structures can be re-used and moved easily and if they are left to rot there isn't a cement foundation to mar the landscape until the end of time. We've probably all seen pictures of outports in Newfoundland so I included a picture of a patchwork quilt. I seem to recall having one of these in the family. The ones I remember more were made out of men's suits samples that my mom got from our uncle who ran a men's clothing store. My original scan keeps coming up upside down so am posting two that I played around with in Photoshop.



Quilt done with "crackelature" effect from Photoshop



Quilt done with "cutout effect from Photoshop

Books I've been reading....

"Fox Evil" by Minette Walters. What would summer be without a good mystery....well done as usual.

"Down the Road - Journeys Through Small Town B.C." by Rosemary Neering. Read a few selections before I had to return it. Quite interesting.

"The Photograph" by Penelope Lively. Found it a bit tiresome at times but perhaps it was the heat. Turned out to be quite good in the end.

"The Kalahari Typing School for Men" by Alexander McCall Smith. Very light reading but has an innocent quality of life in Botswana in a simpler time. I see this is the fourth in the series starting with "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency". Will be good to read on a plane.

The new P.D. James, "The Murder Room" arrived today. Looking forward to a good read!

We had a good time in Vancouver and got another nice swim in the ocean. Went to Las Margaritas with our son...wow, what a trendy and popular place...good thing we went early. Food is pretty good. The night before we went to Pastis (on 4th) and had their special menu with wine pairings. They have an interesting collection of pastis pitchers, glasses, etc. Most things on the menu were good but the monkfish course (which is why we were attracted to it since we've had fabulous monkfish or "lotte" as they call it in France) was lousy. Then the red wine they brought for the upcoming course of lamb wasn't very good. We rarely complain but did so and the owner couldn't do enough to satisfy us. He brought us another wine and also gave us the choice of ordering from the regular dessert menu. And, best of all, he gave us two pastis glasses (Ricard brand) for our own collection! We were thrilled with this because we don't have this particular type of glass and we were just talking about how we must get more glasses the next time we go to France since our new tile floor in the kitchen is taking a toll on glassware. We were impressed with the customer service since the place was packed with regulars and probably always is. I can see why with this attention to pleasing the customer.


My mom and son who share the same birthday. My mom will be 90 on the next one!
Not too bad a pix considering I used my mini digital camera. My mom was quite amazed by it.

My friend, Carole, gave me a wooden cube and I had this idea of using it as a planter stand for an olive tree. Apparently Le Coteau farms has these in the Spring and it should grow on my sunny deck. Then I had the idea to have some lavender in the meantime. So, I did four designs (one for each side) with lavender, olive trees, and other Provence type things. The lavender gave me a lot of trouble trying to get something I was pleased with so just let loose...figured anything would be better than what I initially came up with. I liked what I did in the end but except for the first one the purple came out as blue when I scanned them. So, did some hue adjustments with my scaning software but they didn't come out all that well. You'll get the idea at least.


Lavender and sunflowers


Lavender and olive trees


Lavender, olive trees, and cypress


Lavender and poppies
* Colours especially weird in this one...very different from the original.

Baking various yummy breads yesterday with a friend while enjoying a great view of the Gorge and all its goings on. I've included a recipe for one of the breads from Provence and some pix from my trusty little digital camera.


Fern with our "Fougasse".


La Fougasse


A herring skiff on the Gorge

Fougasse

1 tsp sugar
10 oz lukewarm water
1 tbsp dry yeast
1/2 cup hard wheat flour
1 1/2 cups hard white flour ( I didn't have these so used all purpose)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c. olive oil
2 strips rosemary stems removed
1 tbsp olive oil
freshly cracked black pepper
1 tsp rock salt


Mix first 3 ingred. Let stand about 5 min.

Combine all flours and salt
Add yeast mixture and combine
Add olive oil and begin to work dough
Knead until smooth and not sticky. I added about anothe cup flour as it was
too wet.

Place in oiled bowl, cover and let rise to double. (1 1/2 hrs)

Oil baking pan
Stretch dough to leaf shape
Create vein pattern with sharp knife.

Brush bread with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary, pepper and salt. (we
used pesto, garlic and oil) pushing it into the veins)

Let rest 1/2 hr. bake 25 - 30 min.

We were golfing Royal Oak today and this amazingly tame deer joined us on the fairway. Nibbled away and was completely unconcerned with our hacking away getting to the hole...

Took this picture of sunflowers at Galley's farms today with my micro digital camera.

The Oak Bay Car Show today was great and very well attended...wow...crowds of people and loads of interesting cars. Here are a couple of pix.



I loved these Vespas and the cool goggle helmut.



And I'll always love the Mini Minor.

It was interesting re-rereading Carol Shield's "The Box Garden". There were things I appreciated more this time around. I also had forgotten the rather contrived excitement in the plot. Not really necessary and Shields realized this in later works and did what she did best - close observation of the ordinary. It wouldn't be summer without a good mystery and currently being suitably scared by Minette Walters' "Fox Evil".

It was interesting re-rereading Carol Shield's "The Box Garden". There were things I appreciated more this time around. I also had forgotten the rather contrived excitement in the plot. Not really necessary and Shields realized this in later works and did what she did besst - close observation of the ordinary. It wouldn't be summer without a good mystery and currently being suitably scared by Minette Walters "Fox Evil".

We had some great swims in English Bay a few weeks ago when we were in Vancouver. Water temp 75 F. I do miss not being able to swim in the ocean in Victoria. The slide at English Bay looks smaller than I remember it as a kid. Perhaps they've made it less dangerous like everything else for kids these days. I notice they have water automatically running down it...gee, no more burns on the back of your legs!

My mom tells the story of being kids and getting two nickels for the streetcar to get to English Bay. They always bought chips with the return fare and told the busdriver they lost their money in the sand. Always seemed to work....


The slide at English Bay

Looks like I can get these pictures up now



Gallery wall one



Gallery wall two



My sign

In my studio I've recently created a couple of "gallery walls" by putting up some picture rails. It's great because now I can display lots of stuff that I don't have room for anywhere else or haven't managed to give away. A friend gave me an old frame that was 12 x 24 inches. I couldn't think of a design to fit so I made a sign. I was really pleased with it because I think it demonstrates where I am coming from with my very simple, naive style art. I seem to be having some problems loading the pictures...will try later.

Took this picture while out at Happy Valley Lavender Farm's recent open house. Quite neat to see this farm but not miles and miles of mature lavender that you get in the south of France. Been trying to paint another lavender picture...so far not very successful.



Lavender at Happy Valley Lavender Farm