Springtime!

Hello!

Spring is here in all its flowery glory! The cherry and lilac trees in our alleyway have blossomed in bright pinks and purples, and it's been absolutely gorgeous out. All the kids are all walking around in rain boots, so I thought I'd put some on my little girl as she waters her plants out on the porch.

This porch is actually inspired by one of my neighbour's porches down the street. If you look carefully at the art in my alleyway portfolio, maybe you can find which one.

new studio!

I've moved into my new studio space!
It's so awesome, and I really love spending so much time in the mile end, near Montreal's best coffee and best bagels. Seriously considering moving out there...
So here is my first piece of art from the new studio. Now that I am looking at it on the screen, I realise that I should fix that group of orange leaves on the top middle. But other than that, I'm pretty happy with the overall mood.

Sketching

Hello!
It's been forever since I've posted, I know! So sorry, but I have been busy looking for a new studio, working on getting a website together and doing lots and lots of sketching. Here are a few of the things I'm working on.
Lately, I've been trying to take a couple of characters from some of the earlier illustrations and run with them...
The first one is the girl who had been lecturing her mifi bear. Now she is bringing all her little kid toys down to the basement, because she is all grown up. Mifi, of course, has sucessfully talked his way out of this dreadful fate.
The other 4 are based on the girl in the tree. I'm thinking that she's been away for the summer (maybe visiting her grandparents?) and now she's back, trying out all her favourite spots to see if they still fit. She can still swing from her favourite branch, and the muddy spot in the park is still full of excellent bugs, but unfortunately, she still isn't tall enough to reach her bear when it gets stuck in the branches!

Now I just have to decide which one to do first.

Beaugency latest

The devil, who is always reading the newspapers, heard about this sad state of theirs so he dressed himself and came to call on the lord mayor of Beaugency, who was named Monsieur Alfred Byrne.

Hello all!
Here is the latest in the Beaugency series. I was rather bummed to see, as I was browsing at the bookstore recently, that this story has actually been illustrated and published quite recently (or at least it has in French). Oh well, I suppose finding an unpublished James Joyce childrens story was a bit much to hope for!
But enough with the whining, how about some good news? I got a show! Yes, Niagara Artist Company (www.nac.org) has accepted my proposal for a duo exhibition- along with Colin - which will probably take place in September. Sweet! So it looks like I will need to find a studio for the summer. I can't wait!

I will be back very soon, with more,
Andrea

Bananarail

Hello!
I can hardly believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post. It's good to be back!
Last week was a week of CRAZY snow storms. Last saturday night I got home to snow piled up so high that I had to wade through thigh-deep snowdrifts to get to my front door. Then, when I finally got the door open, the avalanche of snow that fell into the front hall made it impossible to close the door again. So picture Colin and I, yelling at each other over the howling wind, desperately trying to shovel snow out of the house, while every gust of wind brought more snow back in. We did eventually figure out that there was ice stuck in the door hinges, and got the door closed.

Despite the insane weather, I have been working hard. Here's my first attempt at an animal character. It all started with this quote from an illustration exercise:

But when I took the box of donuts, the lady behind the counter said, “Hold on, little guy. Don’t forget your dinosaur.”

For whatever reason, I pictured a little gorilla kid with a stuffed dinosaur, buying donuts on his way to catch the train... This illustration is the page after the original quote. I will be posting more in the next 2 weeks.

And what of Beaugency? I am practically finished the next illustration! It's taken me a little while, because it features the devil... and he's a trickier character than one would think to really get a handle on.

As I type this, I can see snow flakes the size of quarters falling into the alleyway... It's really unbelievably beautiful. The snow is so high, you can just see the tops of people's fences peeking out. I really would like to do some snow-related samples before the winter is over.
That's all for now!

Le Chat de Beaugency

Here's the latest from my work in progress.

This little story was written by James Joyce in 1936, in a letter to his grandson Stephen Joyce. It is based on a legend from the Loire region of France.

My dear Stevie,
I sent you a little cat filled with sweets a few days ago but perhaps you do not know the story about the cat of Beaugency. Beaugency is a tiny old town on the bank of the Loire, France's longest river. It is also a very wide river, for France, at least.
At Beaugency, it is so wide that if you wanted to cross it from one bank to the other you would have to take at least one thousand steps.





Long ago, the people of Beaugency, when they wanted to cross it, had to go by boat for there was no bridge. And they could not make one for themselves or pay anybody else to make one. So what were they to do?

**
Keep checking back.
More to come, soon!

OK bear...

Mifi has been clamouring to be imortalised on the wide world of the web. Here is a new collage I finished today! I think I've been in a particularely exhuberant mood since New York, as demonstrated by the crazy wallpaper.
PS: Mifi is the bear, by the way. Sometimes you need to be firm with bears.