Conversations

60 x 60"
oil on gallery stretched canvas with 2"profile
$1500.00 (Canadian funds)

This was the larger painting I had on display at the Madplatter Bisto for the last month and a half.
I want to thank all who came out to see the show.
It was a deep privilege working with Tim and Doneta from The Maddplatter. They are very caring and compassionate people who want to do more to bring awareness to this issue.

Let the conversations continue...

"Through The Open Door" Art Exhibition Opening Reception

The opening of the art exhibition Through The Open Door was held last Saturday. I was so pleased to see so many people come out to it. We had the privilege of having the founders of both organizations present at the opening! Here is Brain McConaghy, Founding Director of Ratanak, chatting with the owners of the Madplatter, Daneta and Tim, and Pastor Chris in front of my very large painting Conversations, how fitting!



Blain Sylvester, founder of Place of Rescue, in conversation with Pastor Graham, Sr. Pastor of the Alliance Church in Stony Plain.
My friend Rhea and Blain's wife in the background laughing about something!! I think a good time was had by all!

A bit of background on this exhibition...

This project was inspired by my church family. The congregation was encouraged to use our own unique skills and circles of influence, create a small group of people to work with and come up with a project to bring awareness to human trafficking as well as raise funds for Ratanak and Place of Rescue. Each small group was given seed money to cover costs. This whole thing is called Traffic Jam, there are many other projects going on for the purpose of raising awareness and funds.

I worked with a good friend who organized people to pray for this project and who was such an encourager when things got crazy! I also have the privilege of knowing many talented artist with various world views, beliefs and opinions! I knew exactly what the project was going to be! I couldn't sit by and not do anything to help this horrendous brokenness in the world! I was discontent!

I read this excerpt from an entry on the Ratanak blog spot today. It quotes Bill Hybels and describes Holy Discontent this way:
if you expose yourself to all that’s broken in our world but neglect to view the brokenness from heaven’s perspective (which promises that everything is in the process of being restored), then you’ll get sucked into an impossible downward spiral of aggravation, frustration and anger. Once that frustration and anger is understood as being your ‘holy discontent’ through your spiritual connection to the God who’s working to fix everything, it’s as if an enormous wave of positive energy gets released. This energy causes you to act on the dissatisfaction that’s been brewing deep within your soul and compels you to say ‘yes’ to joining forces with God so that the darkness and depravity around you gets pushed back. Your perspective shifts from that which your eyes can see to that which God tells you is true and it is in this reality that what is enslaved can still be set free, what is broken can still be mended, what is diseased can still be restored, what is dirty can still be made clean and what is wrong can still be made right. It is that one cause or purpose or problem that grabs you by the throat and just won’t let you go. It is that “one thing” in your heart that God is stirring a passion for. Your ‘one thing’ brings you to a place where you feel you simply must do something. When you have a deep desire to see things change, you are compelled to show up. Your soul doesn’t give you a choice in the matter. Ultimately you have no idea what the end results of your labor will be; all you know is that it is critical that you engage.



If you came out to the opening and saw a piece that may be for you, I encourage you to come back and purchase it! Remember 100% of the sales go to Ratanak and Place of Rescue in Cambodia.

If you haven't yet been to The Madplatter Bistro in Spruce Grove, please make plans to go. The exhibition is up till March 31 and would love for as many people to see it as possible.

Here is a taste of what you will see, but you must go and check out the art for yourself!


Paintings left to right: Coming Home by Judith Martin, Grip by Daphne Cote, Marsh Marigold: Protecting the Young by Marika Wierda





Untitled painting by Reece Schulte





Far wall: Celsius Two by Linda Rempel; Feature wall: Conversation by Deltra Powney, No More Owies I and II by Linda Rempel, Caribou Rock Art by Jean Elizabeth Tait





Celsius Two by Linda Rempel



When you visit, leave a note in the guest book, and drop a few coins in the donation jar, every little bit will help save lives!

Yellow Mug and Small Apples

6x6"
Oil on panel
$150.00 (Canadian Funds)

The walks I go on with my kids I am often inspired by the foliage all around. I clip branches of blooms, leaves and ornamental fruit from the trees and bush as well as grass from the creek I live by. If you take the time to look, there is a wealth of inspiration right outside your door! I always try to put something more organic in my still life set ups. I feel it brings a bit of softness to the work.

Information...
The class being offered at the Color Crush Art Studio has been canceled. I will not be teaching any classes at this time.

I am thrilled to announce over the next year I will be focusing on producing work for my first solo show at the Multicultural Center Public Art Gallery from August 17 to September 19, 2012. This show will feature larger sized work. I will keep you posted on my progress for this show through posts on my blog and emails if you are a subscriber to my blog. I will also announce any other shows I will be having, as I have quite a few irons in the fire so to speak in regards to showing my work!

In light of these opportunities, once again the focus of my blog is changing. I am finding the administration part of being a regularly producing painter to be very time consuming. Because of this most of the posts in the future will be show announcements and my progress on producing for these shows as well as any teaching opportunities that come my way. My web site will be up and running this fall too and will send through that information when the time comes.

Thank you for your interest in my art and hope you will journey along with me during this next phase of my painting path!

Creative Insight Workshop

I had the privilege of leading a group of women through a creative insight project a few weekends ago. The content of the project talked about the importance of community, how we need others to walk along side us to make sense of the tangles we have in life. The beads represent friends in our journey and how they are like jewels to be treasured.


For more information on Creative Insight Workshops please contact me.
Thanks to Beth from Ryan and Beth Photography for taking such great photos! Check out their site!

Red Apple and Classes

6x6"
oil on panel
$150.00 (Canadian funds)

This was a demo I did for my Tuesday night students.

Yes I have taken in a handful of students for the winter. They are a great bunch!
In the spring I will have three evenings set aside for classes. Check out the side of my blog for classes and updates.
All classes are based on how I approach my paintings so if you like dynamic color and bold strokes these classes might be for you!

Please let me know if you are interested as soon as possible as my space can only accommodate a very limited amount of people.

Newspaper Article

It was nice to receive a bit of press coverage on the show last week. Take a read to see my thoughts behind all the work. There is still four more days left of the show if you haven't yet gone to see it.
Click on the article to view it larger.

Stage Fright SOLD

20x20"
oil on 2" profile, gallery wrapped, stretched canvas

The two new actors huddle together at center stage struck with a bad case of stage fright. They feel all eyes on them... will they remember there lines... Oh the nerves! Thank goodness for the coaching they are receiving just off stage.

Just a note I am getting ready for a small show of my work to be held at the Allied Arts Council in Spruce Grove, here in Alberta. Most of the work will be posted here on my blog, but if you get a chance to come and see them in person, that would be wonderful. Keep checking in for more details come closer to the beginning of August.

Mug and Willow SOLD

16 x20"
Oil on gallery wrapped canvas

I got into the studio the other day and painted this one. I have a collection of these colored mugs that I love. They are like old friends. So it felt like I was having this conversations with this old friend whom I hadn't seen in a while. Our conversation just picked up were it last left off. You know the type of friend? It filled my soul.

What else has been filling my soul...
This is Corwyn, the little man that has brought so much joy!

Here are the two brothers. These boys are what has been occupying my time lately. They are so much fun! And oh how they love each other!

Hope to be in the studio now a bit more. I will post photos of my new space soon too.

Be well,
till next time...

Can't wait to get back at it!

So no painting this week. Its funny how when I am not using my studio, how it becomes a catch all for things. We are almost done our renovations in the basement which includes my new studio space. My husband has been working so hard trying to get it done. Thats him and my son above in my new studio space painting baseboards. I am not sure when I will get back to painting to be honest there is a lot of transition happening here but it will happen. I ask for your patience in the meantime. Thanks :)

Announcement

5 1/2 x 6"
Oil on MDF board




Baby has arrived! Yesterday in the wee hours of the morning Corwyn Michael Powney was born. He is a very content baby which means hopefully I will be able to get back at the painting soon. I will be posting about once a week for a couple of months until we get used to our new normal.

Award

Allied Art Council Open Art Competition, Spruce Grove, AB

I received first place in the Advanced Category of the competition with the painting "Cider Served in Red" pictured here. It truly is an honor.

Check out this cute little movie by Myra "The Greatest Coffee Movie Ever Made" Some of my work is featured in! I love this blog, it gives me a caffeine boost without the caffeine, something I have to watch right now!

I'm in print!!!

The local newspaper did up an article on me and my work today! They did an amazing job!

The Show

The show is up in the Multicultural Center Dining Room. My little paintings look great in that little space!

I am happy to say that my camera is working again, it just needed to dry out. It also took quite a nasty drop today. It needed a bit of TLC but then started working again. Im telling you, it takes a lickin and keeps on tickin!

And just to let you know I am now 30 weeks along and things are going really well.

Oops!!

No painting this time around and not to sure how long it will be before I post again.
We had, using the headlines from the news, "hurricane like weather" hit us yesterday, and sitting in the middle of it was my camera that I left outside after photographing my last piece. Yah, really good one Deltra. Oh well the up side is we will most likely upgrade to a digital SLR. This camera that we had was a good little camera though, Sony Cyber Shot 4.1 meaga pixels. It served its purpose. The new one will be nice for when the baby comes though. So till next time, which hopefully won't be to long...


Attitude
is the minds paint paintbrush.
It can color any situation.

Irene Hortness

Announcing Art Show

I am excited to announce a show of my work. If you are in the area I hope you make time to check it out.

Thanks
Deltra

Hello

Hello out there! No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, there just has been allot going on here the last few months so I figured I would fill you in. I have finished up all of my teaching gigs for now and am now focusing on my own work. I have hit what I call a bit of an incubation time with my work. Different things are coming out of my creative time, I hope to show some of this work here. I am still doing still life work in oil as well and have a show coming up in August, September (Check out the side of this blog for details on that.)

The biggest news I have is I am expecting our second child! We are very excited about this. I have to doctor allot as I tend to have some issues during pregnancies but all is well so far. It is a very exciting time and will continue to be for the next year or so to come. I am three and a half months along due October 7thish.

I appreciate your patience with the sporadic posts. I will be posting more work however in the near future getting ready for this show.

Till next time be well everyone!

Deltra

Workshop Photos and Other Information

I did a Creative Meditation workshop with a great group of ladies on Wednesday. They were a lot of fun. Their pieces turned out so good, and they were so proud.

I have been preoccupied lately with preparing for various workshops and lessons. My posting of my work for the next couple of months may be a bit sporadic. I am painting bigger pieces as well, and of course we are still working on renos for my new studio. Life is a bit crazy, so I will be posting as much as possible, but given the circumstances of life right now, I unfortunately can not make it a priority. April will be the month I will be able to breath again!

For Your Information

I thought I would share a bit about what is going on in my creative life right now. My studio is full of bags of new art supplies purchased for various workshops I have the privilege of teaching over the next two months.

Please visit my blog for more information on the workshops I offer, I am in the process of listing then on the right side of my blog so just scroll down to see them. I will be updating this section periodically so check it out every once in a while.

Because of this full schedule I need to take a week off posting so I can focus on organizing these projects. I will be back posting Monday February 9th. See you then!