New Blog

For anyone who'd like to reconnect, I've moved my blog to here: Shayla Paints If you're on Tumblr, please leave your link.  I'm looking for inspiration old and new. I'm also on Instagram and love it like a mad thing, even posting photos to empty space. Also registered under Shayla Paints. 

Tell All

"What is the one thing that you know now that you would have liked to have known when you first started to create art?” Good question! Seth, of the Altered Page is taking 'the pulse' online and on Feb 10 is publishing part of his series "Tell All". I'm one of the participating artists, and I told all ;)

Below is my own altered page. Part of my diary. I made most of the page before coming to Vancouver and find it funny to see the Asian Garden in the background. It reminds me of work. And yes, I've become a dancing pig ;)  One of my favorite places to dance in the city is on the 7th floor roof/balcony of the Scotia Bank Dance Center with my class, Ecstatic Dance. I was also at the center last week to see the performance Haptic and Holistic Strata by Japanese artist Hiroaki  Umeda. Unforgettable!

Goodbye to 2012

Last year "magic" was one of my words for the year and I never guessed how much it would change my life and what a magical year this would be. It's fitting December's going out in a bang of glitter and lights. 

Flickr photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/eych/6558028829/

At the Garden we organized an epic Winter Solstice Festival, with communities coming together to dance and drum, drink tea, listen to music, make art and of course watch the lighting of the lanterns (real candles! the Garden was full of them).

 Shortly after the festival there was a power outage further complicated by the Holidays and I've been on call with alarms, security and electrical issues since, with Christmas being a welcome break. Today is the first day I breathe out in about a week and I'm enjoying the 'cosyness' and sharing some of the glitter. I hope your 2012 is filled abundantly with memories and that 2013 brings you light and love.

Skittles on Davie Street

Skittles on Davie Street © Shayla Perreault (Atc, mixed media on paper). 

 

 

My neighborhood is dynamic with hot pink bus stops, rainbow flags, sequins and stilettos at night, the occasional dance beat thumping out an open club door, and a riot of wondrously, tacky Christmas lights. It smells like savory donair meat and pizza, yeast, cinnamon and melted brown sugar. It's recognizing the faces at my favorite cafe (Melriche's), the health food store and the West Valley Market after work when getting ingredients for a curry. It's a lazy Saturday morning watching all the dog walkers in the rain from my balcony with a cup of mango tea.

"Enter"

"Enter" © Shayla Perreault

Started at lunch break as a line drawing, finished at home with pencil crayons and watercolor crayons.

Belated posting for Art Every Day Month

"Hands Down" sketch

The only camera I have right now, is J's iphone and when he's home it's dark. Not the best for taking pictures. I'm scheduling a couple of things I did over Art Every Day Month. Yesterday was a great studio day. I got an Atc finished called "Skittles on Davie Street" that I'm really excited about. I did battle with a painting I've had on the go for a year, and I think I came off victorious- won't know for sure until I get some better lighting. It's been pretty gray and dark since. Lastly, and this was euphoric, I took a new 36x48" prepped canvas and put paint to it with such energy and release that it was done in ONE HOUR! Contrast: 1 year vs 1 hour. Same size. Same series. It was a pretty spectacular way to finish the month.

Behind the Scenes Tuesday- Studio Color

AEDM- Day 10, House on Fire

When moving from New Brunswick I left much of my equipment behind. Now to photograph my work, I have either a phone or the camera in the mac. Took the photo after dark, looked crappy so added a filter.  

Mercury Retrograde is bombarding me in the most maddening way this month. The post won't publish or safe, so I'll try scheduling it.

AEDM- Day 7

Getting over my shyness of asking people to pose for me. Felt good. I want to do more of this. 

AEDM- stands for Art Every Day Month and the challenge is hosted at Creative Every Day.

Help for victims of hurricane Sandy

New York artist, Seth Apter's auction is high caliber, for collectors, and the funds go to a great cause. It's worth getting in on this. He talks about it below:


 "As I traveled around promoting the book, I obtained as many signatures as I could from all the contributing artists I met along the way, as I knew that one day there were be a special reason to do this. And today is that day. I have decided to auction off a copy of the book (signed by 30 of you) along with a piece of my art to benefit the victims of Sandy. The charity I have chosen is The Mayors Fund to Advance New York City. I will be donating 100% of the proceeds and this fund uses 100% of the monies received for direct aid. I have no idea if anybody will bid but I felt like I needed to do something to help my hometown recover."

If you check out the link you'll see it's not only the book, but an art collection with original artworks from many of the contributing artists and the caliber is outstanding. 

To contribute directly to the mayors fund, go here.