Mom’s RumRill Vase, Table runner, Hydrangeas and My Abstract Watercolour

Yesterday we cleaned up the front garden. My hydrangea bush had some incredible blooms on it this year. It was a joy to bring these inside. I found a lovely spot for them in my office. The background is a section of my abstract watercolour/rice paper collage which measures 40 3/4″ x 49 3/4″.

When I was a child we had two very large lilac bushes in our backyard. Every spring I would cut lilacs from these bushes and bring them in for my mother. She would go to the china cabinet and pull out this vase to hold them. Little did I know that this piece of American pottery was anything special. It is Red Wing RumRill art deco pottery with the number 629 on the base. The crochet table runner was made by my mother.

This was one of my final BFA pieces. My classmates, I’m sure, didn’t appreciate having to hop over this painting every day in order to get to their studio’s. I had to lay it on the floor with fans drying the large pools of watercolour. This process would take hours.

I love it because it was one of those pieces that I pushed beyond the breaking point and brought back. I thought it was trash, but my professor Adele Duck made me work it to death, or should I say back to life. I think I learned more on this one failed painting than in all my other works combined. Thank you Adele!

I photographed this in natural light. It’s a bit grainy because it is a cloudy day.

The Barne’s Farm, Wilberforce On.

HighlandsDSC_3679, originally uploaded by photographerpainterprintmaker.

HighlandsDSC_3638, originally uploaded by photographerpainterprintmaker.

HighlandsDSC_3636, originally uploaded by photographerpainterprintmaker.

I could have spent the whole summer on this incredible old farm. Here are a few photo’s I was able to take here. There are so many more, I could blog about them for an entire year. I hope to add more soon. Keep watching as I think this site is about to get very busy.

The True Morels vs the False Morels

Ascomycetes – Morchella – The true Morels vs the False Morels

If I told you where these were,  I would have to shoot you! They are a spring mushroom, and highly prized. We also encountered some false Morels, which are poison. I’m grateful that I have my Dad’s mushroom books to help me identify them.

Gyromitra, Helvella, and Related Species of the False Morels

Gromitra Brunnea Underwood

Cap large 5-15 cm broad, often saddled-shaped, lobed, often veined, chocolate-brown, white beneath, Flesh brittle, white. Stalk large, 16 – 15 cm long, 2-5 cm broad, Slightly larger base, somewhat ribbed to smooth, white, nearly hollow to cottony inside. Spores 28 – 30 x 12 – 15 elliptical, finely warted.
Single or several under hardwood forests in eastern North America in early Sp. Causes severe illness from high levels of MMH. (Group V toxins). G. fastigiata (Krombh.) Rehm (394B) is similar but looks as though it might be a darker brown formm of southern Helvella gigas; however it also contains Group V toxins. It is occasionally found at low elevation in western North America.

This mushroom is identical to the one depicted in 394B

Macro Monday challenge

Forecast grey days ahead.

DetSky027, originally uploaded by photographerpainterprintmaker.

Sun you say? Well if you live in Windsor you know that if you don’t like the weather stick around and it will change, and changes were on the horizon. When I discovered the weather was turning for the worse, I went out in search of a sunset. It was an extremely dull day, but I managed to catch this shot at around 6PM on Tuesday.

Macro Monday Dec 7, 2009

clematis Adj0156, originally uploaded by photographerpainterprintmaker.

Adjusted in ViewNX, a program that came with my Nikon D90