New Year's painting goals met

My goal for new years was to have completed 500 paintings and I accomplished this a few days ago. This Game Boy camera with a shiny silver painted background was my 500th. Of these painting, there are 406 different "real" cameras depicted. Those are mostly manufactured cameras which can, or at least once could, be used to capture an image. Some where video cameras without the recording component attached. A couple were pin-hole cameras which were made by individuals and not "manufactured" conventual. I would count every variant model as a different camera such as my recent run of Canon Eos T3i, T4i, T5i, and T8i (am previously painted T6i and forthcoming T2i). There are 24 paintings of objects that look like cameras but do not, and never did, function as cameras. These include toys, ornaments, salt shakers, jewelry, and keychains. One was a projector. Another was a pair of binoculars. The other 80 or so are second or third paintings of cameras previously done. 

63 people have lent me cameras for this project. Thank you everyone. If you have more, please let me know. 

What is next? More. Just more. Perhaps aiming for 1000, and then I might dare call myself a painter. Not sure yet. I would like to show them in a large block sometime. Each of theme (with a couple exceptions) is 9x12 inches on masonite The first hundred were on canvas board and might not hang as nicely. 

My reward to myself is that I am finally going to take a chisel to my desktop easel and get rid of the collected paint on it. 

 

Dad watching Goofy

Had a visit with dad today. He was in the dining room yawning huge yawns. I wheeled him over to the adjoining tv area where a bunch of the others were watching Disney cartoons. Dan lit up when he saw Goofy, but he was so tired that he couldn't really hold his eyes on the screen very long. Seemed in good spirits but didn't talk much. 

 

Turkey stew

While William was in the garage modifying chairs to look like drawings of chairs, I made the last of the turkey into a small portion of stew. The key is the rue and the wine.

 

Julia and Erik at MAG

Met up with Erik and Julia at the MacKenzie. The new fabric art exhibition is central to Julia's research and teaching so it was vital to take in this show while she had a chance. I've been through it in a tour twice and William has had 3 tours of it, so we managed to point out some of the hilights. Geremy, Ellen, and Rory also came. Erik had a full schedule so we didn't have time for lunch, just a Sockvile meeting after tht gallery. 
 

Pancakes with nephews

 Made pancakes this morning for Quinn, fulfilling a promise I'd made to him about 3 years ago. Sean came down from Saskatoon last night for a very short visit (under 24 hours) and he was able to join us too. We played a round of Sheriff of Nottingham after eating. 

Visiting dad

I visited with dad (along with mom, Lori, Al, and Quinn) for a couple hours this afternoon. He was enjoying the chocolates and cookies. Not every talkative. Mom has all the cards on the wall as well as William's Carillon cover. 

 Mike and Paul came over in the evening and we played a round of "Sheriff of Nottingham", a board game that Geremy and co brought us. Pretty fun. 

Christmas 2023

The first gift that I wrapped had Marvel superhero paper and a tag that gave what I worried was too obvious of a clue to the content. It read, "To defeat Thanos" and was signed "Barnabus". Very few people would figure this out, but William might. Thanos was defeated through the clever use of time travel. Barnabus Collins, sometime in the middle season of Dark Shadows, also uses time travel and does so through the use of I Ching wands. The gift was a set of 60 or so I Ching wands that I found over Amazon. When they arrived, they smelled terrible. They are probably a few years (or a few decades) old and were produced to look like they were made in the 19th century. They are thin wood inside a lacquered paper cylinder (rather than wood, which would have been authentic to an actual antique). The cylinder was inside an oily cardboard box which was the source of the fowl scent. With it removed, the whole thing is pretty okay. William bought an extensive book on the I Ching in the summer but doesn't have the wands. It is part of his collection of old fortune telling devices. 

Our morning began with making a cheesecake and setting it to cool while I put a turkey in the oven. We did supper at Lori's with my mom and Al's parents. Sean didn't make it in and Shim is in China with the baby until later in the week. 

 

Christmas Eve

 

We usually spend this night with Margaret's family but we are a bit run down and there is a crowded house over there with George's entourage of Simon and his family. Figured we would only be in the way and make the even overwhelming for her dad, so we stayed in. Had a nice roast beast dinner, painted, drew, and watched some tv. Overall a satisfying night. 

Fish tank

Cleaned the fish tank and installed the two new plants I bought for it. The plants take up the hiding space that the catfish usually spent all his time in so we are seeing it more often. It's spots are becoming more and more distinctive as it gets older. 

Painted the inside of Ian's camera today and was very happy with the result. For the most part I don't think my paintings have changed much over the past couple years, but we do notice that the photos are no longer better than the paintings, which Margaret says is a good sign. 

 

Painting

 Not much to say about this painting. I've been doing one almost every day lately. Margaret is usually at the table working on the Christmas letter and drawing to mail out. Likely won't get them in the mail until well after the 25th. William might be catching a cold - had a fever after supper. 

Perogie making

 Went to Mom's and made about 10 dozen perogies in the afternoon. She makes and cuts the dough and I do the rest. Arthritis in my hands (or whatever this pain is) is starting to inhibit this activity. 

painting and preparing

 Christmas just a few days away and I'm far from ready. Some things don't seem important but to me they are. One such thing is to be able to return cameras to people. We'll be going to my sisters on the 25th and I want to have her cameras, and her friend Carolyn's cameras, finished before then. 

Jhazley review

 Jhazley did a multi-projector presentation of her term work for the end of semester in the visual arts course she is in. This is mostly for visual arts students, so things went a bid differently but well. 

Painting

Over the past week, I've been ramping up my paintings. I am almost at 400 different cameras (am at 399) and almost at 500 paintings in total (which includs about 75 doubles and about 25 paintings of non-cameras such as camera toys or camera shaped ornaments). 

 

William working on his art

William has continued to use the garage as his studio and is preparing materials for his BFA exhibition. Area heater and garage insolation combine to make it a good space for this. My car gets cold though. 
 

More animation shooting

 Jhazley and I (with help from Erika) continued to shoot animation demos today - picking up where we left off. I now have most of the basics. I'll need to start editing and writing the narration to see what I'm missing. 

New TV

 Had to tear tv room apart to get the space ready to install my new OLED Sony 4K Tv today. William and Griffin shot a fill in the middle of the chaos. 

Cat on a cold neighbour's roof

 Met with Gerri Ann about animation today. Noticed cat on roof. This one is pretty spry and cunning. I see it hunt, so I didn't worry about it. Two hours later Steve had a ladder out to help it get down. Lucky the weather is nice. 

Shooting for web course

 Setting up with Jhazley's help - shooting some demo films for my web delivered version of our animation course. So great to have some money to pay people for their help. 

Work holiday party

 I brought some cookies I baked last night. Even though the term has been over for a few days, I  am far from catching up on life. It was nice to be on campus with no big deadlines though. I had a long chat with Risa and her grad student who is opening her exhibition tomorrow. Had some confusing observations about reflections that didn't make sense until I was driving home and realized that the mirrors were simply not hanging parallel to the wall. The simplest solutions....

Record player back

 The belt on my record player needed to be replaced. It was in the shop last week awaiting the belt to arrive by mail. First thing I did after putting it back together was to play some April Wine and think about Myles Goodwin who pass away last week. 

Matt's camera again

 Some of the cameras I borrow are either uncommon or rare, or come from people I don't see often, or in this case it is also very heavy and takes a lot of space. With Christmas coming soon, a tree taking up a chunk of the living room, and all three of us doing some sort of art project, cameras need to move along home. As I don't expect to borrow it again, I painted a second version. 

Matt Ripplinger's camera

 Matt Ripplinger was over this afternoon recording a radio show with William. He brought with him his 35mm Arri C III camera for me to paint. It's a beaut. I dove into it right away. 

Decorated the tree

Decorated the tree that I bought a couple days ago. Mixed and matched light sizes (some mistakes in purchasing new strings) but in the end the mix of colours is pleasing. Also did some painting. Trying to reach 500 by new years. 
 

Slate opening

 Group exhibition for the holidays opened at Slate. Also, the stories on 13th were all open late. Picked up a couple things. Nice and warm out, so walking was nice. The university newspaper with William's cover came out today and there were copies at the book store on 13th. 

St. Nicholas Day

Found some more Adventuretime Lego in shoes this morning. This is the first day of holiday break, but for assignment (William has one more) and grading (of which I have lots). 
 

Maquette

William finished the 1/8 scale maquette for his BFA exhibition for his term end crit. Comments seem to include "the cardboard is distracting" and a lack of understanding of what 1/8 scale means. Hmmm. 
 

Meeting with Jhazley

 Moving along developing Jhazley's screenplay as quickly as we can. She was working a catered function earlier in the day for a Ukrainian function that was under-attended so she brought some left overs. Not bad, except the vegies all tasted like cabbage.  

Carillon cover update

 Multiple deadlines this weekend for William including this new task of creating a colour cover for the University newspaper "The Carillon". This features a new character, Christmas Bully. 

Paint

 Top photo was from yesterday. Lower one is from today. Trying to find more time to paint these days.