Fairy Lanterns

Fairy Purses

2012-01-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

The fairy purses have been mentioned mentioned before, they are Avril's crochet creations that were inspired by an antique "miser's purse". This one was in my Christmas stocking just a couple of weeks ago. Not miserly at all, these are stylish joined pockets of ingenious design; the entire work is a single continuous chain of crochet from one pocket to the other. Hard-to-find silky thread of just the right weight is necessary for the pockets to hang nicely and to support the beaded fringe.

Each pocket is 2.5 inches wide. The multi-layered flowers are Avril's invention too, plus the slider ring to keep the cords from tangling.
Designed to hold a few coins, perhaps or a sovereign or two, they are small enough to hang stylishly from a belt or belt loop.

Coming soon to the Etsy shop are these, in silky aquamarine

and fairy green.

Little fairy purses are beguiling things to shape and consider.

Peace on Earth

2011-12-24T00:25:00.000-08:00

"....Thus spake the seraph and forthwith
appeared a shining throng
Of angels, praising God, who thus
Addressed their joyful song:

All Glory be to God on high,
And to the earth be peace;
Good-will henceforth from heaven to men
Begin and never cease."

Thank you for visiting Fairy Lanterns this year - wishing a Magical and Merry Christmas to all.

Merry Chris-Moose

2011-12-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

I have been busy, on the move from one sales event to another with our books- though not as far afield as Santa travels!

Perhaps all nationalities see Santa as their very own. There is even a sense in this country that the North Pole is not so very far away, especially with the first snows falling. And if Santa is close to our northern woodlands wouldn't it be logical for the local creatures, like the moose, to be involved on Christmas Eve?

I have camped and canoed through this Great White North of ours, portaged around waterfalls and pitched tents beneath tall pine trees, and although I am not hardy enough for year-round life in the wilderness I find, like many artists before me, that the experience of the north inspires one's work ever after. Even to seeing Santa on a moose!
The "Here comes Santa Claus"card is now available on my Etsy shop.
Wishing a continuing safe and happy Advent to all.

Woodland Nutcracker, on the move

2011-11-04T07:24:00.001-07:00

Woodland Nutcracker and Grandmother's Tree are up on the Etsy shop! And here are some of the Christmas fairs that we are going to with our books and cards, starting tomorrow:

November 5, 9:30-4:00, East Plains United Church,375 Plains Rd E, Burlington
November 12, 9:00-2:00, Church of the Epiphany, 141 Bronte Road, Oakvile
November19, 9:30-2:30, Appleby United Church, 4407 Spruce Avenue, Burlington
November26, 9:00-2:00, St John's United Church, 262 Randall St, Oakville.

December 2 - 24, Under The Moon Fine Arts, 217 Ottawa St. N., Hamilton

December 15-24, Arcadia Gallery, 680 Queens Quay West, Toronto, opening reception Thursday December 15, 5-9pm.

More dates to come. Woodland Nutcracker is also available at

A Different Drummer Books 513 Locust Street, Burlington
Bryan Prince Booksellers, 1060 King Street West, Hamilton and
The Acorn Card Shoppe, 221 Lakeshore RdE, Oakville.

" Woodland Nutcracker"

2011-10-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

Our beautiful WoodlandNutcracker book, which was chosen as The Children's Picture Book of the year in 1999 by the Canadian Book Review Annual, was orphaned earlier this year when the publisher went out of business. We are fortunate to have obtained the remaining books from the publisher's warehouse, boxes of mint-new copies full of Christmas magic and adventure.

As with the earlier Woodland Christmas, the story was inspired by many camping trips and cottage visits in Canada's boreal forest, "far away from highways and city lights", where one can travel for days and not meet another human being or even a camera-shy bear. In a story that parallels the Nutcracker ballet, Clara is given a wonderful carved Nutcracker Bear who transforms into the dashing Nutcracker Prince. After settling a midnight battle between the tin soldiers and invading field mice with a Christmas Eve truce, giving the hungry mice food for their families, Clara and Nutcracker fly away to the Ice Palace of the Great Bear, Ursa Major.

At the Great Bear's palace an international cast of bears performs for Clara - juggling pandas and trapeze artist koalas and more, plus some of her dearest woodland friends. I have made two posters from the illustrations, grizzly bear Mother Ginger with her junior hockey team, and the polar bear Yuk Tuk dancing to the strains of the Russian Dance, pictured below. For the purposes of the poster I have placed a copy of the book in her gracefully extended paw!Sorting through the book images I rediscovered this little Nutcracker soldier, whom I have added to the title bar as a friendly exclamation point.

We are dedicating a portion of our sales of Woodland Nutcracker to benefit St. Matthew's House, a charitable agency in the Diocese of Niagara. We are taking the books to several Christmas fairs and the posters will show off the illustrations from across crowded rooms. The books will also be up on my Etsy shop shortly and I will be happy to sign copies or add a small embellishment for the finishing touch.

For the Bees

2011-09-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

Further to inventions that imitate nature, here is one of a series of bumblebee-themed images I was asked to design some years ago. A "friendly bee" was asked for, one that was busy about a garden. It was a fun assignment and I eventually came up with several versions of BumbleBee, a family of them and their garden, including hollyhocks. I have been reviewing the images recently, going through the files, and this morning as I walked by the lake I came upon this:

an end-of-summer drowsy bee nestled in the hollyhocks that have naturalized along the unfinished harbour wall, among the small convolvulus and michaelmas daisies.

"And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease.. "
"To Autumn", John Keats

Monarch Butterflies

2011-09-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

To quote Avril on the subject of Fairy, "It is difficult to invent anything for Fairy that does not already occur in nature". The description of Dr. Flora Fauna's bubblemobile travels (with fairy dog) alongside the famous migrating butterflies appears in the Winter edition of The Illustrated Fairy Gazette. This morning I stepped out into a flurry of Monarch butterflies on the move.

They dallied with my Morning Glories before disappearing over the fence.

In twos and threes, one cluster after another, they hovered over green lawns and wayside flowers

pausing for only brief refreshmentbefore moving on, along the lakefront and across the creek

east to west, on their long migratory path. They will soon reach Point Pelee where they gather in hundreds and thousands to feed on the milkweed plants before their astonishing long flight to the mountains of central Mexico, where they overwinter.
It is the first time I have seen them in such numbers locally and it was a fitting end to a beautiful, if all too short, summer.

Mermaids and Sand Castles

2011-08-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

Some years ago it was my pleasure to illustrate Kate's Castle, written by children's book author Julie Lawson. Like many beautiful books it is now out of print, even though the author and I still get requests from parents and teachers who would like to have a copy.

It begins, "This is the castle that Kate built"and builds from there with,
" This is the moat of sandy hue
That circles the castle that Kate built."
"This is the pool of anenomes,
whose swaying tentacles comb the seas
that fill the moat of sandy hue
That circles the castle that Kate built."

Kate's castle gets bigger, adorned with shells, crowned with turrents, waves come rolling in to surround it,

and creatures from the deep, including the mermaid above, swim by for a look.

Although the book is no longer available from the publisher I do have pretty cards with the above images and they will soon be on my Etsy shop.

On Author-Illustrator visits to schools I presented this book to many classrooms of children. They always fell right in with the winning poetry and the theme of sandcastle building and carefree hours on sandy beaches - they were even interested in how an artist makes the pictures that go with the words. I'm glad to hear from teachers that the appeal of books has not diminished, even with the advent of tablets and e-readers.

There was recently a sandcastle building event in the nearby harbour area. Artists set to work and within hours had produced these remarkable sand sculptures.

"Baby's First" ornament designs

2011-08-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

For the first weeks of summer I was busy designing ornaments for a Toronto company for Christmas 2012. Along with angels and sleigh bells were several variations on the theme of Baby's First Christmas. This was a fun assignment, bringing a new twist to a well-known theme. The designs for Christmas 2012 are under wraps for now. Here are a couple of my designs from previous years, which currently appear in the Walperts/SilverTree catalogue:

the Stork,
with a tiny cradle, baby and teddy bearand the Pram,
again with a baby and a teddy, plus a little dove on the canopy.

This week is the 17th anniversary of my own Baby's First event, but I didn't get a Pink package,

the stork sent us a Blue one.

The Apprentice Dragons

2011-07-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

The Apprentice Dragons by Alison Baird is now in print and available from Lulu.com! Last summer I had these dragons on the drawing board, large dragons and little scampering ones that wouldn't behave. I finally pinned them down the page, chapter heading by chapter heading, merry companions for this delightful junior novel.

The sequel to The Dragon's Egg , The Apprentice Dragons picks up the incidental adventure of the goldfish, the "apprentice dragons" as they were called by the boy dragon, Lung Wang. Lung Wang returned to his ancestral home but Ai Lien's goldfish stayed in their bowl on the little girl's dresser.

Or did they?

It really is a terrific adventure,

with enough tantalizing threads for the reader to know that the story is not necessarily over yet.

Summertime

2011-06-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

"Too busy to blog", terrible words! Between art classes to teach, new designs and art to prepare and an art show to hang, I had to let some things slide. The dog walks were shorter, good books were unopened and the garden went unweeded (which allowed the wild daisies and loosestrife to wander in).My annual "Midsummer Magic" art show at Sovereign House was visited by a host of fairies with every style of wings,

and even swordsThis quiet spot by the lake has a magic all its own, a perfect place for fairies and reveries.

The show is over now and so is the rush. I have an unaccustomed breathing space, time to think and to paint some random fancies before starting on new work. The fairy bridesmaids at the top of this post are about to make their debut in the new issue of our "Illustrated Fairy Gazette", which is coming soon.

A Royal Fairy Wedding

2011-04-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

"A simple country wedding for a Royal fairy bride" is the theme of the newest edition of our Illustrated Fairy Gazette. It is still a work in progress but is looking so pretty that I can't resist showing a glimpse.This will be the 6th in our series of miniature fairy magazines. Each one is just 4.5 x 5.25 inches, hand-stitched with rainbow thread, and packaged in a pretty fairy-parchment envelope. Follow this space for the publication date of the latest Illustrated Fairy Gazette!

Paper Cutting, Art and Magic

2011-03-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

My own experience with paper cutting began in childhood, instructed by my mother in the simple charms of making linked paper dolls, joined by their outstretched hands and the edges of their wide skirts. The planning and decorating of these - each with a different face, hair and dress - passed many happy hours. From time to time I still revisit the craft, deliberately or by serendipity.

Some years ago I spent hours in waiting areas at the hospital while my youngster had appendicitis. Too fidgety to read, I delved into my handbag and found pair of sharp little nail scissors and some paper (a church bulletin as I recall). I accordion-pleated the paper into eight widths and improvised with the scissors, cutting the shape of a bird, leaving the wingtips uncut at the fold-edge. A half an hour later a cascade of little white worry-birds lay on my lap amid the confetti of irregular scraps. I picked up the larger remnants of paper and refolded them to make even smaller bird chains. By the time my son was waking up from surgery I had a small menagerie of paper creatures to show him: birds, dogs, angels, mermaids, dragons and cats-on-roofs.

Here is the dog, springing at the birds,

then unfolded to romp with friends,

and all standing up to play with their shadows.

I still have the Mermaid chain too, here posed on their heads and facing their shadows, as though diving to meet their reflections.

The other inventions have since disappeared but were the inspiration for a variety of hand-cut Christmas cards that year. I discovered that beautifully executed paper-cutting only looks simple - that hours of skillful work have gone into the pieces that take your breath away.

If you have not already seen the beautiful paper-cutting work by Elsa Mora, give yourself a treat and visit her blogs about art and miniature books. There is always something new, something fresh in its vision and execution, with links to other contemporary artists who are also exploring paper craft in extraordinary ways. But Elsita is my personal favorite.

From nature, a different kind of fine design: last week's storm (the last hurrah of winter, we hope) left behind this glittering tangle of ice - not unlike an extraordinarily fine paper cutting.

Velvet Slippers in the Snow

2011-03-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

"We will dance in velvet slippers in the snow"

from The Illustrated Fairy Gazette, Winter Edition

Velvet Slippers, from our Illustrated Fairy Gazettes, is one of the many advertisements that reveal life in Picardy Orchard, a quiet place within the Peaceful Fairy Realms. The fairy fashion designer "Stitch-In-Thyme" always has a page to show off her latest creations, in this case a matching velvet gown and cape, and slippers for dancing in the snow. A fairy can never have too many shoes -

ruby red shoes, to match her gown,

twilight blue with stars,

and lilac-hued like shadows on the snow.

And because I like to design fairy shoes, they multiply with every new edition of the Fairy Gazettes!

At midnight here, when the snow was flying and a spinning cobweb of lace was haloed in every streetlight, Mr. Tumnus with his umbrella would not haved look out of place and a ring of dancing velvet-shod fairies would have seemed entirely plausible .

Everything is waiting for spring here in Ontario - fattening buds tightly closed on the trees, the first spears of snowdrops poised and ready under the snow. For now it is still boot weather - ski boots, skates, smart boots and plain ones, and even boots for dogs that must walk along city and suburban sidewalks, to protect their paws from salt burn. A trek in the woods is much gentler on their feet and a nice diversion for us too.

(In Bronte Woods, a welcome break after two hours skiing the trails)

"Let us walk in the white snow
In a soundless space;
With footsteps quiet snd slow,
At a tranquil pace,

Under veils of white lace."
Elinor Wylie 1885-1928

The Studio Cat

2011-02-16T14:55:00.000-08:00

Fond of little cats though I am,
and appreciating our tabby's company, now that he must comply with our municipality's new cat bylaw (no more outdoor roaming or else risk a fine) his quest for new amusements poses a challenge.

Pansies, Petals and Primulas

2011-02-12T17:07:00.001-08:00

For my watercolour classes this week I bought little pots of primulas, one each of white, yellow and pink blossoms. After some general and specific recommendations for colours and composition the real drawing and painting began (two of my quick demo paintings in progress above) and I made a discovery about the primulas. They had six or seven petals, every single of them, confounding a rule that I have been presenting to my classes as a reliable and unvarying truth:

Whenever we are painting flowers I point out the difference between monocots and dicots, a handy thing I learned in first year biology. The number of petals in spring bulb flowers is usually a multiple of three and the leaves have stripey, parallel veining. These two features are typical of monocotolydenous (one seed leaf) plants. Dicotyledonous (two seed leaf) plants have leaves with reticulated veining and their flowers usually have petals in multiples of four or five (and it is all well described at this page.) "Usually", and up until this lesson, unvaryingly, but these flowers hadn't heard of the phenomenon or read the text books and instead flaunted their pretty seven-petalled heads at me. "Paint what you see" is a good rule too and the one to follow when theories don't seem to fit.

Last year's pansies were much more obedient!

The important thing is to keep painting, whether following familiar trails or breaking a new path.

"Under the snow are next year's flowers, and always ahead are the happy hours."

Flowers in the Snow

2011-01-29T15:00:00.000-08:00

After a prolonged cold snap that had us all bundled up to the eyes it is finally possible to push back my hood and properly see where I am going again. The air is not so bitterly cold and the daylight is lasting a bit longer every afternoon. It is still hat weather though, and a plain beret is a blank canvas. I usually have an embroidery project on the go and for this winter I completed the Rambling Rose hat pictured above, with roses of pink and cream felt and beaded centres, linked with a scrolling vine of whipped running stitch. A plainer butterfly-themed hat is in progress, and my weather-worn standby from last winter is also ringed with butterflies.

I may stop here with the butterflies and keep this one relatively simple.

From a few winters ago, a Renaissance-inspired flower trellis with pearl details.

One my earliest embellished berets, with cherub bears in cross-stitch,

continuing the cherub bear motif of my Woodland Christmas and Woodland Nutcracker books.

Another blank canvas - perhaps bluebells for spring and the return (only 8-10 weeks away) of balmier weather.
"Over the winter glaciers
I see the summer glow,
And through the wild-piled snowdrift
The warm rosebuds below."
Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Happy New Year

2010-12-28T13:34:00.000-08:00

"The fairies go visiting from house to house with sweet gifts"

These four fairy revellers (plus fairy dog) first alit on the drawing board as little procession across a two page spread titled "Festive Fairy Fare", all about fairy kitchens, cookery and feasting. Along the top of the original layout are the pencilled words "The fairies go visiting from house to house with sweet gifts" , and to either side are roughed-in notes and sketched vignettes - a tray of individual cherry dumplings, gingerbread cut-outs, litle spoons. When creating a world on paper words speak to pictures, pictures to words, and multiply each other - a pencilled fairy cook hovers over a rectangle labelled "recipes" and the scribbled words "G-bread here". The next level of sketching provides more shape and details and the final painting brings them to life.

Wishing you all a very happy and blessed New Year, with feasting and merriment with friends and dear ones.

Christmas Interlude

2010-12-28T11:50:00.000-08:00

"And as the hunter braves drew nigh

The angel song rang loud and high
Jesus your King is born
Jesus is born
In excelsis gloria!"

In the peaceful interlude between Christmas and New Year's Eve I am completing existing projects and planning the new ones. I finished painting a page of little dragons last night, very lively ones, which must stay under wraps for now. New portfolio pages are being prepared for the website, and next year's card designs are under way. There is also the annual duty of finishing up the Christmas chocolate, which is going very smoothly with the benefit of boosted creative energy.

This is the twenthieth year since the winter that I worked on my first book contract, The Huron Carol. It was an tremendous opportunity and also a great responsibility to represent the faith, cultures and history. I usually painted late into the night and sometimes through to morning, absorbed in the details of stars, snow, animals, trees, dwellings and clothing as well as the subtleties of the faces, working to bring together Father Brebeuf's vision and the dignity and history of the Huron people, all against the backdrop of ancient forests and deep winter. Of everything that I have painted before and since then, Huron Carol was a rare, privileged experience.

'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime

2010-12-22T16:56:00.000-08:00

"Twas in the moon of wintertime
when all the birds had fled,
That Mighty Gitchi Manitou
sent angel choirs instead:
Before their light the stars grew dim
And wond'ring hunters heard the hymn:
Jesus your King is born,
Jesus is born,
In Excelsis gloria!"

Wishing you all a merry and blessed Christmas.

Oh Christmas Tree

2010-12-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

"Every year it is the same. First the tree and the box of lights are taken to the living room, where the furniture has been moved to leave a space by the front window...". Thus begins our book Grandmother's Tree, and it is still true. I have just put up the Christmas tree and unravelled the lights to wind and drape about the branches, as we do every year.

The ornaments are next. "Rustle, rustle through blankets of tissue paper as the inhabitants wake from their year-long sleep" .. the elf whispers "Wake up, wake up, it's time."

The inhabitants of my box of ornaments include paper birds, feather birds, Santas, an orchestra of plastic angels, the Hasbro "Dolly Darlings" of my childhood, tiny crochet Amigurumi dolls from Chinatown, and more.

Grandmother's Tree, written by Avril, celebrates 55 years of decorating our family's tree in all its lovely disarray, with its bent tinsel star, homemade ornaments and other family memorablia. The book can be ordered from my Etsy shop at a Christmas special price of $15 Can.

At the last watercolour classes before Christmas I have been teaching wet-into-wet techniques with Christmas ornaments for subject matter. In just two hours the results were merry and bright as well as reasonably proficient. So to all my watercolour students, Well Done and Merry Christmas!

Lesley at sea blue sky abstracts has a delightful giveaway this week, so hop over and have a stroll through her virtual gallery too.

A Miscellany

2010-12-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Claire for saving my files and restoring my computer after a virus got into the system. Going through my rescued files I am happily finding everything still there, including all the images. I love hand lettering and inventing fonts and have this week compiled the resulting alphabet of interchangeable letters. My website is being added to and will include these in a page of lettering samples.

My kind computer friend has loaned me a Wacom computer tablet to play with, my first efforts in direct drawing are below. The stylus responds almost but not quite like a pencil or brush, and after the initial loop-and-scrolls scribbling (reminiscent of playing with my first rapidograph pen) I began to get the feel of it.

The tremendous crop from my pear tree led to some serious jam-making this fall. The first batch didn't set but the next lot did and was delicious as well. It can can become addictive once you taste successful jam in the making and view with satisfaction the row of full and warmly gleaming jars. There was more than enough to give away, which naturally led to the fun of designing and hand-painting the labels. I cut out rondels of textured watercolour paper, set atop circles of fabric cut from a favorite faded denim.

I was invited to a local Brownie troup recently to introduce them to watercolour painting. This was a highly enjoyable evening - I have only been to Scout meets over the last decade! Our subject matter was fairies, of course. I took along some of my samples and demonstrated my method for painting simple figures. After some initial experimentation the results were charming, a host of Christmas card fairies.

With Advent beginning this weekend the outdoor Christmas decorations went up and I brought my big Santa's List painting out of its storage place.

I painted this in 1997 and have put it outside by the front door to endure the early winter Advent weather every year. Successsive coats of protective glaze have all given way to cracks and flaking.

If I put it out this year Santa will literally disappear, flakes of colour flying away in the wind, and we can't have that. (But it would make an interesting story if he was reassembling somewhere else)

I have sketched an angel for a new panel, with a good coat of wood primer to go on before the paint this time. Santa will stay indoors and perhaps the angel will be ready in time for Christmas.

Happy Advent to all.

Rubber Stamps and Morning Glory Fairies

2010-10-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

In the rediscovered box of rubber stamps are several of my images that were reproduced by Graphistamp some years ago. Here is one of them, the Morning Glory Fairies, a 3" by 3" wood mounted rubber stamp. I haven't played with these in a long time.

Tools assembled: the stamp, an ink pad and a brayer
for even application of ink.

The first impression, stamp to paper,

followed by more prints, more fairies.
Scissors and coloured pencils: working with two prints of the same
image I cut the central part out of the first to make a window and
slipped the second print of the image underneath, for depth.
I started colouring with my finest pencils, gently applying the colour in layers for glowing tones.

The first results, fairies seen through a ring of flowers.

In the next version I reversed the assembly, with the fairies
standing out against a backdrop of clouds and flowers.

As a final touch I carefully inked just the corner of the stamp
and made a floral corner decoration for the envelopes, also coloured in.

These cards and envelopes will shortly be up on the Etsy shop, along with stamp itself.

Stamping is a beguiling activity and strolling around the Creativ Festival yesterday we saw the latest innovations in stamping techniques and embellishments. There are more stamps in the box to be rediscovered and some nice new tools to try out.

"I wish I lived in a Caravan"

2010-10-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

"Rainbows in the daytime and shooting stars at night gave notice that the gypsies were in our galaxy. So we were not surprised to wake up early one morning to the neigh of their little winged horses rejoicing in the rich pasture of Skylark Meadow by the stream. The smoke from their camp fires drifted across the orchard and we all abandoned our daily routine and flew to meet them." The Illustrated Fairy Gazette, Gypsy Visitors.
The fairy caravan paintings for Gypsy Visitors are among my favorite pieces, ones that beckoned me into the magic as I painted, with the lure of romance and adventure that was captured in the old poem "I wish I lived in a caravan". With original edition of Gypsy Visitors now sold out we are making the cover art available as a card, the newest item on the Etsy shop.

A short story of travel and discovery: On this beautiful autumn day Avril and I set out early to attend the Creativ Festival at the Convention Centre downtown. Michaelmas daisies and goldenrod made splashes of colour on the grassy edges of the highway as we left the suburbs. We eventually came off the expressway, into the city and past the CN Tower, consulting our downloaded tickets and discussing the best parking options and the booths we would visit. Having parked we made our way along the halls and up the multiple escalators of the Toronto Convention Centre, finally nearing the South Convention Hall and encountering the first trickle of crowds. We had both expected the other attendees to be more casually dressed for the occasion than they were - more casually chic with smart hand-made items and embellishments, more hats for example - but of course it was us.

We were as out of place as the giant woodpecker on the steel sculpture outside.
The Creativ Festival is next
weekend, and all those serious and tired-looking people with their suits and messenger bags were on their way to the The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) 2010 Annual Meeting and to lectures on bone and skeletal health.

We made our way back to the car and went to Queen Street instead, finding an excellent bead shop and other stores that cater to the creative passion. I doubt that any of the ASBMR attendees had noticed us or wondered if they were overdressed for their own event. They were probably thinking only of the convention schedule and their part in its important work. (And reminded of the importance of dietary calcium, we both ordered salmon at lunch, and a glass of milk.) We'll go back next week, in creative company.

Home again some hours later and inspired by the thought of the many crafts that will be represented at the show, I went looking in the basement for a certain box that I put away years ago.

Found it!

It was all still there, my beautiful stamps.
To be continued....

"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend."
— Robert Louis Stevenson

Trumpets from the Steep

2010-10-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

I love the intense, glorious, fleeting blue of morning glories. From pale green spears they lengthen to creamy white spiral buds striped with blush pink, then the blossoms unfurl rich blue pleats that are heavy with inky colour.

Fully open, the trumpets
seem to shimmer with a dazzling haze of blue, reflecting the sky for one glorious day.

By late afternoon
the colour shifts, the blue
gives way to lilac....

and lilac gives
way to intense and deepening
pink, the blossoms infolding to buds
like furled parasols.

For the brilliant blue trumpets I must buy annual seeds, but the wild bindweeds (weeds indeed, yet welcome) come back readily and are equally fascinating to watch as the colour changes through the day, a glimpse of magic in the garden.

"Banbury Cross"

2010-09-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

"Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross

To see a fine lady upon a white horse..."

New on the Etsy shop are prints of one of my favorite pieces, the pen and ink rendition of Banbury Cross. It is one of a series of black and white illustrations of nursery rhymes, all on a large scale and all of them luxuriant in detail.

In my first year of art studies our required course materials included a set of Staedtler or Ko-Hi-Noor Rapidograph pens. There were four in the box, the nibs ranging in size from 1.0mm to 0.13mm, along with little ink cartridges and a spare bottle of india ink for refills. I remember the transformative delight of trying them out for the first time - the glossy, silky flow of ink as I styled fine leaves, flowers, feathers, curlicues and twisting vines, smaller and smaller with the increasingly finer nibs. It seemed one could approach infinity with fine enough tools. The white of the paper behind the ink sparked like silver filigree and I fell in love with black and white work for quite some time. I still begin paintings by visualizing them in black and white values, and in every series of watercolour classes that I teach there is a lesson in grisaille painting.

The fall term for art classes (two courses at least, possibly four) begins next week so it is well and truly autumn at last. From my one pear tree I have picked bags and basketfuls of fruit to give away. I took one large and overflowing basket to church this week and left it on the narthex table - all gone in minutes at the end of service. The last batch, below, represents one more afternoon of baking and jam making before classes and other painterly obligations resume.

Dragons on the drawing board

2010-08-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

Our summer adventures brought us safely home again and I am back to work with pencil and paint. The pleasant task at hand is the art for the sequel to The Dragon's Egg, cover art above. I was well into it before we left on holiday and the dragons were waiting for me on our return.

Written by Alison Baird, The Dragon's Egg (a national bestseller and Regional Winner of the Silver Birch Award) was first published in 1994. My young model for the girl has since grown up but fortunately I still have some of the photos of her. The dragon has stayed in my mind, endlessly striking poses to be captured on paper, so I am very glad that the sequel is coming together at last. It is as charming as the original, with wit and adventure, and (not to give too much away) more dragons and magic.

The new cover art is complete, under wraps for now, and some black and white chapter headings are next.

I took my paints and brushes with me on holiday (a fully loaded palette, with fresh blues than softened and ran under the palette cover and combined to make interesting new tones), but it turns out that I am a good sailor only as long as I do not try to draw or paint at sea, so I enjoyed the rest from work and took photos instead. When the dragons are taken care of I'll get back to painting those beautiful blue waters and pink sands.

"Gon Out, Backson, Bisy"

2010-08-03T15:25:00.001-07:00

In other words, we're going on holiday. After busy weeks of painting, art show, and classes (the above picture is of Sovereign House, where I have been teaching painting en plein air) we are taking off to visit pink sands and coral caves. A house sitter is coming to mind our four-footed ones. The garden will mostly take care of itself.
The pear tree is again heavy with sweet-scented fruit. Twelve years ago it was a spindly little orphan from a local garden nursery, and now it is a towering tree that produces an embarrassment of riches every year. Sometimes a branch breaks under the weight, like the one sketched here.

They will be closer to ripe when we come back, in good time for pear tart and pear jam making. Meanwhile we are going down the shouting sea (taking my palette and brushes with me), or as Christopher Robin put it,

Gon Out
Backson
Bisy
Backson

After the ball is over... and a new Give Away

2010-07-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

The show as Sovereign House is over and the visiting fairies have flown away. The "How Many Fairies" contest drew many entries and last week a winner was declared and the prize presented. The contest is this simple: How many fairies can you count in the picture above? (Hint: they all have wings)

The prize is a fairy-tale princess on a gilt ladder, as seen here, from the Princess and the Pea collection that I had the pleasure of designing.

Count carefully and post your entry in the comments section, and next Sunday, August 1, the winner will be announced.

To quote from A Midsummer Nights Dream, "Fairies away!"

(or my favourite, "Give me your hands, if we be friends...")

Fairy Finds

2010-07-11T16:45:00.000-07:00

Along with the fairy paintings currently on display at Sovereign House are other fairy finds. There are the fairy purses of course, and now another one of Avril's crochet inventions, a little blue-finned mermaid with cascading golden hair. Like the fairy purses she is made of the finest, silkiest cotton thread, very beguiling to the touch. She fits charmingly into the palm of one's hand.

Some weeks ago I found a pair of child-sized chairs in my favourite charity shop and brought them home to sand down and repaint with a fairy motif. The weeks have slipped by with so many things to have ready in time for the show, but this weekend I finally finished the chairs and brought them into the gallery.

Here is the signature motif under the seat,

and here are the chairs, with daisy seats and winged back rests.

One of our young visitors pulled up a chair to sit and paint with me for a while. Working on scraps of watercolour paper we came up with these (fairy with a flower vine, fairy flying over a golden ship) and other miniatures, making up stories to go with each one.

On a table in the middle of the room are books, cards and ornaments. In recent years I did some designs for a giftware company and have a small stock of the resulting product. The Frost Fairy collection included these little cherubs,
and another group of ornaments was designed around my "Princess and the Pea" illustration,
with the Princess on her ladder, sets of Princess slippers,
and a trinket box of the Princess in her tall bed with (what else) a small golden pea inside, under all those mattresses.
The show continues until later this week, concluding another magical interlude at Sovereign House.

Midsummer Magic - Fairies at Sovereign House

2010-07-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

The paintings are framed, labelled and hung on the welcoming gallery walls of Sovereign House. Just a few steps in from the door is a poster of a busy fairy scene, above the little half moon table with entry slips for the "How many fairies" contest.

Usually I hang book illustrations in narrative sequence, from the cover art and title page vignette through to the last page and end papers. This show is a little different, featuring selected art from all of the Illustrated Fairy Gazettes, including fairy advertisements, events, interviews and articles of interest on fairy life. I grouped the paintings to make a new narrative, beginning with the Fairy Wedding. Here is some of how it looked.

"Little Flower Creations" has an advertisement in each of the Fairy Gazettes and now we have examples of the fairy purses. Typical of Avril's fibre work, they are beautifully finished inside and out. No two are alike. They are crocheted with the finest silky cotton thread, embellished with tiny floral inventions and hung with a netting of beads.

Some of them have already gone home with young fairies who came to visit on the weekend.

Summer Solstice and a Fairy Festival

2010-06-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

"International Fairy Day is June 24. What is a fairy to wear?"

This weekend at the Guelph Fairy Festival a range of fairy-tale attire was to be seen,

on water sprites and wood nymphs,

on fairy godmothers and dragon tamers,

even knights of old and their attendants.

It was a perfect day for gathering in a green glade

and we managed to blend in and slip through the gates for a day of fun and inspiration.

Back on the home front I am preparing for the upcoming art show, putting new art into frames and making lists and labels. The latest edition of Faerie Magazine has arrived, another beautiful production from editor Kim Cross.

This issue includes a new article by Avril about the seeking and finding of fairy paths, in particular the legendary One Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River (with photos by Ian Coristine).

"Travelling through the region in 1848, years before development arrived, England's Rev. James Dixon described the islands as "...the most perfect fairy scene in the world." Situated in Ontario on a stretch of the St. Lawrence River, this piece of fairy land is only a few hours drive away and we are planning a trip there later this summer.

Further into Faerie Magazine is my latest "Posy's Fairy Wardrobe" spread, more fashions for summer days.

For now I am surrounded by frames and pictures, with my spiffy new framer's point-driver to facilitate the process. In 10 days it will all be hung and ready. "Children and fairies welcome, wings may be worn."

Woodland Christmas - Special Delivery and a Give Away

2010-06-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice surprise in the mail box. My Woodland Christmas, first published in 1995, has been repackaged with a CD and the publishers have kindly forwarded my complimentary copies. I think this calls for a little celebration and further down this post are details of my give-away.

Woodland Christmas is the well-known Twelve Days of Christmas, but with all of the characters interpreted as Canadian wildlife: One gray partridge, Two rock doves, Three ruffed grouse, Four common loons, Five river otters,

Six Canada geese,

Seven whistling swans, Eight raccoons (maids a milking became eight raccoons gathering stars from the milky way),Nine red foxes (ladies dancing - remember Botticelli's three graces?), Ten moose-a-leaping (you can tell they are lords by their chains of office. One of them - look closely- is a knight of the garter),

Eleven red squirrels piping and (drumroll) Twelve beavers slapping the water with their tails. The courting couple are black bears and their courtship

is told in vignettes throughout the pages, concluding with a skating wedding party for all.The publishers have put together a charming CD with the song and music, very user-friendly for classroom use in teaching the carol. The book and CD are packaged together in a recloseable sleeve and will be distributed in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.

My baby was on the way when I started work on this in '94 and I finished it up with him in a cot beside me. He was a useful model for the cherub bear on the title page!

Now about that give-away: Peaceable Kingdom Press published a selection of the images as Christmas cards, large and small, and I am putting together a package of them.

Leave a comment to enter and on Friday, June 18, the winner's name will be drawn.

************
June 18, shaking the names in a hat....

And the winner of the Woodland Christmas card Give Away is:
Frances of City Views, Country Dreams.
Congratulations! The bears will soon be on their way to New York.
Very best wishes to all who entered.

Dandelion Clocks - Make a Wish

2010-05-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

I love the silver spheres of dandelion seed heads, the magical globes of "wishes" ready to be blown away on a hopeful breath. On local walking paths and ecologically friendly herbicide-free lawns and sports fields the shaggy golden crowns have flourished and have given way now to seed heads that catch the setting sun and glow like lamps in the early evening hours.
It is a mixed blessing, leaving nature alone. If natural and beautiful the dandelions are also invasive and I have spent some hours on my knees uprooting the shaggy darlings from my flower beds. I usually find, on brushing my knees and finishing up, that some healthy specimens have escaped the purge. Sometimes I'll put them in a jar, to paint. But in their proper place, among tall grasses and buttercups, they surely must be sign posts to the fairies' meeting places.

Acorn Moon's beautiful post about buttercups sent me hunting through my bookshelves for a long-remembered image from "Faberge, Jeweler to Royalty", the Spray of Buttercups.

("...in gold enameled translucent yellow and green over engraved grounds, and cornflowers enameled translucent blue with diamond centers, with green gold stalks and leaves in a rock crystal jar. A diamond, ruby and black-enameled bee in red gold is poised on one of the buttercups. " Height 9 inches. From the collection of H.M. Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother).

I know that somewhere I have seen a photo of a Faberge dandelion too, but it is not in this book nor in any other I have here, which is a mystery. As I recall it had little diamonds clustered at the centre or accenting individual seeds. Perhaps it is time to find a dandelion puff and make a wish to find the lovely thing again.

(If it is fern seed that confers invisibility on fairy folk perhaps the airborne feathery dandelion seed boosts levitation?)
Best fairy wishes to all, whatever your heart's desire may be.

Victoria Day

2010-05-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

Victoria Day weekend - fishers on the pier, sail boats on the lake, families on the board walk, dogs on leashes, boys on skateboards (hair carefully brushed over their eyes), girls in shorts and flip-flops going by in groups, the distant sound of firecrackers (leading up to full fireworks at nightfall), an ice cream van with it's tinkling music drawing adults and children from the park next door, and gardeners like myself happily up to our elbows in potting soil.

Fifty three years ago today my parents arrived in Canada from England, docking at Halifax after two weeks at sea. They look stylish and impossibly young in the photos, their two little sons in their arms. Interest in seeing more of the world had brought them to Canada and here was the first of many surprises, that their new country celebrated the birthday of the previous century's monarch. "It's Victoria Day!" was the greeting on that first morning as they made their way from the docks to the train for Toronto.

Back to painting tomorrow, and to preparations for the upcoming art show at Sovereign House.
Meanwhile, Happy Victoria Day!

Puck, Plain and Fancy

2010-05-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

A certain youth here used to climb the door frames and swing from the carved brackets, sometimes pausing long enough to be sketched or at least photographed. Most of the fairies in my paintings are young ladies, but every fairy tale needs its Kay or Puck and it has been handy to have one about the house. The sketches are turned into detailed paintings with details of leaf and petal, wing and antennae, and the in-between preparatory work, with the transformation from present realism to timeless tale, is set aside. But both have their magic.

For a Mother's Day treat last week I revisited my favorite book, Good Housekeeping's Cookery Compendium of 1954 (and I could dwell all evening on the delights therein - puddings, pies, crumpets, jam roly-poly, biscuits and cakes, including the exciting chapter on Special Occasion Cakes that I used to leaf through even when my birthday was months away) and looked up the recipe for biscuits with feathered icing.

After an hour or so with the mixing bowl, rolling pin and cookie cutters, I had an impressive stack of plain biscuits (the resident lean young man efficiently disposing of the broken ones for me).

Glace icing was next: first the white, then with the piping bag I applied bars of colour...
dragging the lines with a toothpick to make feathered icing.

The butterfly pattern was a new approach and they turned out reasonably well, with no two alike. Like stages of sketching and painting, the plain ones were as enjoyable in their way as the finished, polished product.

So I wonder, which do you prefer in life - sketched or polished, plain or fancy?

Mothers and Godmothers

2010-05-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

Specially for Mother's Day, on the Etsy shop this week are some hand-bound issues of the "Mothers and Godmothers" edition of our original small Illustrated Fairy Gazettes. Stitched with rainbow thread, this little fairy-to-fairy magazine has 16 pages of articles and advertisements of interest to fairies everywhere. Each one comes in a fairy parchment envelope,

with the Fairy Gazette label as a finishing touch.

We have enjoyed putting together each and every page of these limited editions, small to be shared with small hands, and as perfect in detail as we can make them.

A recent search through long-stored boxes here turned up this 2" item from a Mother's Day some decades ago, my young attempt at perfection in small stitches. I have been enjoying Salley Mavor's beautifully stitched and whimsical illustrations which have brought back memories of my early instruction in embroidery, a lasting gift from mother to daughter.

Have I passed on the craft? Suffice to say that it is rumoured that a hand-wrought gift from welding class is in progress for me this Mother's Day, and I know it will be remarkable.

Welcome May

2010-05-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

White petals are falling from this Spring's early blossoms and the lawns and sidewalks are covered with scented confetti, as if festive for the May King and Queen.

On this beautiful first weekend of May I set out with friends to mark the turn of the season with a long walk in the woods. There were trilliums, may apple about to flower, and masses of trout lilies; yellow ones, such I have seen before,
and translucent white ones, which are new to me.On every walk up in these woods I hope to see the deer but once again only small wildlife showed themselves, like this bright-eyed garter snake beside the path.

"Yellow and black, you're all right Jack,
Red and yellow, a dangerous fellow"

Following fresh deer tracks in the mud we found another small field dweller. He was in a hurry and in one hop he was out of the picture frame and away.

Not pictured here are the furred black ground bees that swarmed around our ankles at a spot overlooking the ravine. They were busy making their new homes in the clay ground and, fortunately, unconcerned with our big boots.

I came home crowned not with a garland of May flowers but with a fine clump of burrs in my hair, and a camera disc full of wild flowers to paint.

"Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire."

- Virgil

England, Harry and St. George!

2010-04-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

I have no knight for this St. George's day, but a very gentle pet dragon from the Peaceful Fairy Realms!

This year is the 175th anniversary of the St. George's Society of Toronto, the oldest charity in the city. To quote from their website:
"On April 23, 1834, a group of citizens celebrated St. George's Day over dinner at the British Coffee House at King and York streets and changed the future of the city.

They formed The St. George's Society of Toronto, named after the patron saint of England, which grew to provide crucial social services and a lively social life.

While originally founded to help immigrants of English and Welsh origin, the Society assisted anyone who qualified for assistance. It was famous right through the early 1900s for providing food, money and medical services to the city's poor and less fortunate."

The good works of the Society continue to this day, "bringing together men and women of all cultures with an interest in things British for good fun, good fellowship and good works – a tradition that has helped Toronto become the enviable place it is."

Happy St. George's Day to all.

All Around the Garden

2010-04-18T18:33:00.000-07:00

A handful of sea shells in a bowl and some earthy garden gloves at the back door led to thumbnail sketches of gardens and gardeners, and the next advertisement from Hedge and Hogg came into focus:

with Hedge preparing the ground

and Hogg bringing in the materials

and a fairy garden under way.
The next Illustrated Fairy Gazette is also in progress, with sketches and notes to sort and refine. I think I can allow myself a little gardening time each day, for both inspiration and gratification.

"Hedge and Hogg's Garden Design" will be up on the Etsy Shop soon.

"Who loves a garden still his Eden keeps" -Amos Bronson Alcott

Gardens and Gardeners

2010-04-04T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well fortified with Easter chocolate, I am tilling the soil and uprooting weeds this beautiful Easter weekend. There are beds to be raked, perennials to be divided and moved, planter pots to be emptied and refreshed, and seeds to be planted all over the garden. The gardening year has begun.

Who are Hedge & Hogg? "Specialists in the maintenance of Fairy Gardens" proclaims their advertisement in the Illustrated Fairy Gazette,

"Complete garden care. No job too small.
Lawns rolled, bulbs lifted, borders planted.
Molehills our speciality."

The Etsy shop is reopening for spring with Hedge & Hogg cards from the fairy realms,

and new fairy cards, all from the Fairy Gazettes.

Would that Hedge & Hogg were my gardeners. I would don a flowered shady hat and stroll the garden, nodding approvingly at their lively and expert ministrations to the lawn and flower beds.

"'Springs unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil"

Reginald Herber, 1783 -1826

Palm Sunday

2010-03-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

"Hosanna, loud hosanna the little children sang;
through pillared court and temple the lovely anthem rang"

Spring has sprung (and so has the roof)

2010-03-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

Snow drops have bloomed at last and the green spears of scillas and lillies are coming up all over the garden. I took an hour away from sorting papers this evening and raked the garden, well into the twilight, and found early periwinkle blossoms looking like pale stars against the tangled ground cover. Drenching rains a few days ago have revealed a leak in the roof and I could use the services of Wren's Nest Roofing and Thatching (from the fairy realms).

Frances in New York has tagged me to reveal what is in my handbag. Even I wasn't sure what lurked at the bottom of the Big Aubergine.

Zippered side pockets first:
Pocket #1, A little round tin of Rendez Vous Lemon drops, a lipstick, a car wash receipt, and a slip of paper with email addresses (to send art students photos of our still life of the day), and a receipt from the video store (rented Jane Campion's "Bright Star", which was beautiful).
Pocket #2, a scrap of paper with a phone number written as small as the Tailor of Gloucester's "no more twist", a fine liner pen, a notebook and a sample menu from a local restaurant where I recently lunched with author friend Alison Baird.
Pocket #3, spare glasses, cough drops, a pocket-package of kleenex tissues, another fine liner pen (so that's where they have been going), and a church bulletin with "Mothering Sunday" and "Simnel Cake" underscored in fine liner ink.
Pocket #4, keys and cell phone.
Now diving into the main holding area: Wallet, cheque book, address book, 2010 pocket diary, a spiral notebook, an envelope with a nice supply of my printed bookmarks that double as business cards, yet another fine liner pen, a hairbrush, another lipstick, a bill, a hair grip, a 5 page print-out of "Sanctuary Servers Duties" and some post-it notes with relevant scribblings (eg, "candles out at lst verse Recessional", I haven't been a server long enough to have it down pat yet) and, last but not least, a white Crayola crayon that I had been looking for in my art-class bag. Wax crayon is an effective resist for textured whites in watercolour and I will use it in an upcoming class.
And that is everything.
Looking at an article on AccessoryWeb I read that the above is fairly typical, representative of a normal woman, and has at least a couple of points in common with Eleanor Roosevelt!

I have enjoyed this first year of blogging and the friends it has brought, highly creative individuals of generous spirit. I wonder if some of them would like to share the handbag reveal?
Middle of Nowhere
Acornmoon
Oasis Writing Link

Well over a whole month ago (sorry for the delay)Land of Shimp was kind enough to tag me for a Kreatif Blog Award, a very nice surprise and one which I will properly acknowledge in the next post.

Strawberries in the Snow

2010-02-26T15:09:00.000-08:00

Illustration by Charles Folkard for
The Three Dwarfs in the Wood, Grim's Fairy Tales.

Growing up with books like this, how could I not want to take up my brush and paint? That very world of snow and magic was right outside our door in Montreal: the deep woods and heavily laden trees, the glittering outlined branches and the long lines of shadows across the snow. Except for the strawberries, the dwarves and the maiden in her paper dress (for the dwarves' little house would not have looked out of place in our nearby St. Genevieve, Quebec) this was just how the maple woods appeared in those long winters. Incredible complex snow gardens bloomed along the lower edges of the window panes too, and like Kay and Gerda in Hans Anderson's Snow Queen, as children we used to press heated coins into the frost to make peepholes to look through.

A walk down the 16-mile Creek ravine on a recent sunny day took us by familiar sites made new with ice formations. An earlier freeze and thaw have turned the flood plain into a tumbled checker-board with slanting table-top sized slabs of ice, and delicate plates of patterned ice are reforming along the banks.

This one was as hard as parquet flooring,

while ice ledges with patterns like broderie-anglais were as brittle as thin glass

(so we stick together on these walks).

Turning to designs made by human hands, the Three Bears appeared close to home

and Queen Victoria, petite and poised, is right outside the door.I can do better - tomorrow I'll improve the shape and add a companion snow dog or two.

It is snowing outside (and snowing heavily as I type this, a good packable snowman-weight snow that will, tomorrow, make the neighbourhood ring with the sound of shovels on driveways) and inside, in progress on my worktable, is a summery fairy scene. But it isn't incongruous, for in both delicacy and transformative power the falling snow and bells of Elfland go hand in hand.

A Valentine

2010-02-13T22:30:00.001-08:00

Good morrow! 'Tis St. Valentine's Day
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your valentine!
Wm Shakespeare, Hamlet

Sunshine

2010-01-18T09:41:00.000-08:00

Cold and wintry as it has been outside, in the art classes we are already talking about bulbs and seed packages and plans for the coming garden year. Rows of potted daffodils, tulips and hyacinths greet us at the supermarket entrances and I cannot resist them. Snow is falling tonight, it will be weeks and weeks before even the first snowdrops bloom, but indoors the magic begins.

Notes from Fairy Land

2010-01-10T12:05:00.000-08:00

The deep freeze has given way to milder weather and every slope, every frozen creek and pond, is merry with the sound of young voices.

"Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone", wrote Christina Rosetti. The older ones have been busy with snow clearance, making smooth places for skating on the ice and preparing snow jumps on the hills.

"Up and down, up and down, I will lead them up and down"
(Puck, quoted Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, but isn't it always true)

When the short afternoon turns to dusk the younger ones go home to warm up and enjoy hot chocolate in a mug, but the boys always stay out for longer, playing the age-old game.

I must spend the coming beautiful weekend indoors, armed with paints, brushes and determination, with the merry voices outside for inspiration.

Robbie Burns day is coming up, an occasion for some singing and dancing. To quote,
"O wad some Power
the giftie gie us,
To see oursels
as others see us",

and here is just such a glimpse, a few words from the Green Man Review .

Happy New Year

2010-01-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

My preferred way to welcome the New Year is with a bit of music and dancing, like the Woodland Bear family pictured above, celebrating with a Round Reel of Eight. In past years a piper led us around the block at midnight and a young dark-haired stranger was invited to be the first over the threshold on our return.

Every year on January 1 we go for a walk

along to the park, where crowds gather

to watch this celebration of the New Year:

the annual Courage Brothers Polar Bear Dip.

2010 is the 25th anniversary of the Polar Bear Dip here at Coronation Park, hundreds line up to run into the freezing waters and the more normal thousands of us line the shore to cheer them on.Since 1995 the funds raised go to World Vision Canada, this year in support of water projects in Kahi, Rwanda.Most mortal dippers make the plunge and then beat a hasty retreat to the shore and their towels and blankets. The occasional naiad seems unconcerned,

and for others it's just a regular walk in the park.

No polar bear myself, I'll stick to dancing.
Wishing you all a safe, happy and sometimes magical year.

The Heart of the Tree

2009-12-26T12:50:00.000-08:00

Between Christmas and the New Year is the time to tell stories.

Decorating the tree is a yearly re-acquaintance with old friends: ornaments from my childhood and my son's, crocheted stars and shell angels from church sales, gifts from dear friends, toys that have found their way onto the branches, little flocks of feather-plumed or paper birds, a cardboard Santa, and favorite cards including one of the Madonna and Child that is always set at the heart of the tree.

I learned how to decorate the tree from a friend of ours from Montreal days, back in my preteen years. About whom I have this story:

In 1970, on a grey and snowy December Saturday so cold that even weather-hardened Montrealers shunned the outdoors, we went to Fairview Shopping Centre for groceries at Steinberg's. With the bags in a shopping cart we battled the wind and snow across the parking lot and back to the car. My mother and I got in straight away while my father and brother endured the cold and loaded the groceries into the trunk. Such was the civilized division of labour in those days, considerate and gentlemanly.

It was a relief to be out of the wind and I curled and uncurled my freezing fingers in my mittens. Suddenly my father opened the passenger door and thrust something into my mother's hands. "Here, take this" he said. My mother exclaimed and quickly put the something - I barely saw it, a glimpse of kittenish ears and fur - down the front of her coat. "What is it, let me see! Let me see!" I leaned forward between the seats excitedly, and my mother bad me to sit back and wait, but also answered "Yes, it's a kitten, a frozen kitten". My brother got in beside me and then my father took his seat and started the car. My mother said, "It's starting to purr, in shudders", and my father told the story. While they were loading the groceries into the trunk he felt a slight tug on his trouser leg and looked down. A very small brown and white tabby kitten, weak with cold, was attempting to climb up onto his boot, looking up with a silent meow. If not for that tug it might have gone unseen.

We took him home, of course. He might have been 8 weeks old and, once well-revived with a saucer of sardines and milk, he took over the house.

I remember us sitting down for lunch (tomato soup and toast) while the kitten explored the kitchen and under the table, around our feet. My father had telephoned one of the radio stations with an announcement for the lost and found segment of their noontime broadcast. The announcer read out our bit, "Found in Fairview parking lot this morning, an 8-10 weeks old kitten, call (number given) for more information" and then added "Now that's too bad. Who would leave a little kitten out in a parking lot on a day like this?".

We already had a cat, an older and dignified male who did not take to the newcomer. A friend offered to adopt our orphan, she christened him George and took him home to her welcoming family. He seemed to appreciate having a home and people who opened a door to him, and expressed it in ready purring. And Christmas was coming.

Our friend had her own way of decorating the tree, putting things in clusters and decorating from the heart of the tree out to the tips of the branches. Small objects were at the top, medium-sized ones around the middle and large ornaments went on the lower branches. All were hung gracefully to complement the line of each branch. It was a work of art, every year. She closed the doors to the living room and none of the children were allowed in until the last strand of tinsel was in place. The doors were opened and glory was revealed, a glittering tree with many exquisite and irreplaceable antique glass ornaments, hanging like beautiful
fruits from fairyland.

George climbed the tree.

I think the story really stops there. What happened next can be imagined by all - the fall, the soft explosions of fragile ornaments hitting the floor, the scattering of fur and glitter and innumerable fragments and constellations of fine pastel-coloured glass. The terrible silence that would have followed.

Pat didn't speak to George for days, but he still had a home. And I have always remembered how to decorate a tree.

Merry Christmas to All

2009-12-24T07:28:00.000-08:00

Thank you for visiting my very new blog this year.
Merry Christmas to all!

Here Comes Santa Claus

2009-12-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

It is the time of year again for Christmas crafts, for making fan-folds of the pretty papers and foils saved from last year, for colouring and cutting and trimming with ribbon. One of our old friends in the craft box is the jointed cardboard Santa, such a good friend that we made a page for him here in our book "Grandmother's Tree", and on the Santa craft page of my website.

It is simplicity itself - colour with pencils and magic marker, cut out the pieces, and fasten with brads. I have taken this little craft to school and library events and of the resulting jolly Santas no two have been exactly alike! Some have been glittery or adorned with angel hair; one thoughtful child made him a paper sack to carry over his shoulder. The traditional round-head fasteners, also called brads, are also available in a dazzling array of shapes and colours. Stars seem to be a nice choice for Santa.

The Santa craft kit will be on my Etsy shop, which is to reopen shortly. More about this in the next post!

The tree is going up soon, with all the paper cut-outs and crafts, long-loved ornaments and fairies. The little one here, one of the tucked-away surprises inside the Illustrated Fairy Gazette's Christmas Celebration, reminds me of the poem by Walter de la Mare,

Mistletoe

Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale-green fairy mistletoe),
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.

Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
No footsteps came, no voice, but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen - and kissed me there.

In a Heartbeat, Advent, and Good Fairies

2009-11-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

The gallery is looking lovely. The creatures and characters from Woodland Christmas and Woodland Nutcracker are beautifully displayed and despite dreary weather we had a busy weekend at the opening. It is a real pleasure to see these pieces together again, and in a setting reminiscent of the summer cottage that inspired the Woodland books.

Fairy art and books are on display too,

And between the fairies, keeping them company, is the last of our Gund Woodland Nutcracker bears that were produced for Eatons reopening in 2000.

It was a brief reopening for Eatons, a chapter of Canadian retail history in which our Woodland Nutcracker played a decorative role. While the Titans of retail wrestled for supremacy, our lovely bears and woodland friends were recreated as life-size figures for in-store Christmas displays. A phalanx of Woodland Nutcrackers was commissioned and the 9-foot bears were positioned at store entries, and more bears and Woodland friends twirled inside in animated displays.

I wonder how many busy Torontonians in 2002, crossing at the intersection of Yonge & Dundas, noticed Clara and Prince Nutcracker?

When the displays were taken down for the last time the Woodland figures were dispersed. Some went to libraries and many of them to the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, where they are brushed up and set out every Christmas. I can't think of a better place for them and occasionally I make the trip to see them on display.

Making for a longer than usual post, also happening this first weekend of Advent was "First Light" at St. Marie Among the Hurons. It is believed that Canada's first Christmas Carol, The Huron Carol, was written by Father Jean de Brébeuf at Sainte-Marie in the 17^th century. Since 2007 St. Marie has celebrated the Huron Carol with a pictorial gallery featuring my illustrations, plus a video presentation. First Light is a magical event. Although closed to unscheduled visits during the winter, for these three evenings St. Marie is open to the public and the paths around the mission buildings and longhouses are lined with candles.

There is a sense of timelessness, walking under the stars here. In 400-plus years the cold and snow have not changed. Inside the longhouse and in the recreated mission buildings there is heat, if you are close enough to the fire, but it is a compelling reminder of the isolation and challenges of those earlier days.

Which way to go, the darker paths that lead away between the trees, or the blaze of light that leads back to the museum, to crowds and warmth, music and celebration?

A brief glimpse of part of the Huron Carol display, above. In the twenty years since I worked on this beautiful carol it never fails to move me. Many thanks to the people at St. Marie who made this lovely exhibit happen.

There is a generosity from artists to other artists in blogland ( of which the talented Valerie Greeley and Gretel Parker are outstanding examples) that enriches the experience for all. Recently a lovely review of our Illustrated Fairy Gazettes was posted by Tangle Catkin/Bryony Whistlecraft at Fae Nation. This beautiful site is truly "your virtual portal to faerie" and many are the enticements to visit and linger awhile. Thank you Tangle, from the fairies!

A Christmas Fantasy at "In a Heartbeat"

2009-11-11T13:55:00.000-08:00

Once again I am surrounded by paintings and frames, getting ready for the Christmas Fantasy art show at the In a Heartbeat Gallery. In addition to fairy art from "The Illustrated Fairy Gazettes" we will also hang originals from two earlier books, Woodland Christmas and Woodland Nutcracker. The image above is from "Woodland Nutcracker", showing Grandfather and Clara with her handsome Nutcracker Bear. Adventure is only hours away.....

and a royal welcome awaits....
But I'm getting ahead of the story. It begins like this:

"Long ago, far away from highways and city lights, where bright stars touched the tree tops and forest roots touched the edges of frozen lakes, a woodland family welcomed relatives and friends
to a Christmas Eve party in their cosy island home.
Softly falling snowflakes drifted into the cottage as the guests arrived."*

Remembrance Day

2009-11-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

"We will remember them"

At the local cenotaph the wreaths were placed on Sunday and today the main events take place at the centre of town. But a few people came here this morning to leave their poppy and remember the fallen. I came over early, camera in hand, to take a picture with the sun rising - and the camera jammed completely. But I do remember them.

I remember ... my mother telling me of the skies over her London suburb dark with planes, of hearing Chamberlain's 1939 radio broadcast "This country is now at war with Germany"", of their classroom windows covered with glued shatter-proof netting, of nights spent in an air raid shelter, and more. It wasn't sure that the Allies would win.

And we are in uncertain times yet. Young people who don't look much older than my teenager's friends have enlisted, wanting to be a force for good in the world. So I am grateful this day to be here, a fortunate descendant of brave people, that kind hands loaned me a camera, and that good brave people - before whom I am humbled - are passing on the torch and going forward, despite the dangers.

All Souls Night and All Saints Day

2009-10-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

"Make a wish"

Halloween is an appropriate time to reflect on little black cats. Tiger Tim is the tabby who walks alone, but Merry follows me around like a shadow. For variety she anticipates my moves and gets there first. After her first year spent in a shelter, this little house presents a maze of possibilities. Black as Kohinoor's India Ink, she settles herself in the darkest patterned areas of carpet, behind a curtain, on an unlit section of the stairs or in corners I hadn't even noticed before. Only a blink of her green eyes shows that she is there. Yesterday she was just inside the bedroom closet - where, oh horrors, I stepped on her soft paw before I could see her. (St. Gertrude of Nivelles is the patron saint of cats.)

In Scottish tradition black cats are considered good luck. (St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland) After a run of nuisance problems I could wonder about that, but good things are happening too. I have an art show coming up in November. Last weekend I made the hour's drive north to visit the gallery again. (Saint Christopher, patron saint of travellers) It is a scenic trip away from the highways and up past the Niagara escarpment, through farming country and small towns.

Arriving in Eden Mills we crossed the bridge and there it was, the In a Heartbeat Gallery. (Who is the patron saint of artists? I had thought St Luke, whose portrait of the Madonna was the template for women in medieval art. It seems there are three more: Angelico, Catherine of Bologna, and Saint Michael the Archangel. A learned friend says that Saint Michael is also the patron saint of fairies.)

"In a Heartbeat" is currently featuring the work of sculptor Jamie Brick. Avril's latest article for Faerie Magazine was about Jamie and his highly imaginative work. (St. Claud, patron saint of sculptors)

In a Heartbeat is a lovely gallery with an almost fairy tale quality. The wood-burning stove is welcoming on these cooler days and the big sofa beckons you to sit down and enjoy the art. We looked over the paintings I had brought and discussed dates and lead-up preparations. After concluding our business we took a little walk up the road to see the mill pond and the eponymous mill wheel of Eden Mills. It was quiet this day, but in September Eden Mills is bustling with the annual writer's festival . (Saint Francis de Sales, patron saint of writers)

Then home again under steel-blue skies, passing by fields remembered in Thanksgiving hymns , "Come ye Thankful People Come", "We Plough the Fields and Scatter". (Saint Isidore the farmer, patron saint of farmers and labourers)

I have my voice back and I can join in the hymns again, with enthusiasm if not talent. (Saint Cecilia, patron saint of music, and St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes) Why the list of saints? Halloween is an enjoyable diversion, but the day after is the prize, All Saints Day.

Rose Hips and Autumn Days

2009-10-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

The last rose of summer may have danced away, but in fairy kitchens the magic continues. A handful of plump and glossy rose hips, collected in the summer and lined up in a row on the windowsill, led to "Rose Hip Kitchens", one of our Illustrated Fairy Gazette contributors.

The rose hips are over now
but berries are still on the
vines,

milkweed floss is floating over the fields

and along the ravines the leaves are turning gold. I haven't been up to the woods in months, too busy between work and then surgery, but Tippy and I are back to a full walking schedule again. Some of my favourite trees were cut down this summer, they must have been in the way of Parks Improvement projects - widened paths or old tree maintenance.

My very favourite tree escaped.
A remnant from the cottage-country years before urban planning reduced the green space, it is the last of the apple trees along this particular green corridor.

It beckons young climbers and there are several doors and windows, suitable for fairy comings and goings.

Closer to home geese scattered as we came near another tree, except for these greedy two. Who knew that Canada Geese eat green apples?

(The rare four legged Canada Goose, a species not unlike Hugh Lofting's pushmi-pullyu)

More about Hugh Lofting in another post.I grew up with Dr. Dolittle, Jip the dog and company, and better book company can not be had!

Speaking of Jip the dog - time for another walk.
Best wishes all

Dancing to Willow's Ball

2009-10-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

Rose Peace, the Last Rose of Summer, is dancing her way to Willow Manor Ball, taking a route Down by the Sally Gardens (on little snow white feet). Her dance card is almost full, but she still needs a partner for "Let's Have a Ceilidh" - perhaps Davy Nick Nack will be there......

Dulce Domum

2009-09-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

On the number plate for my house is a scene from Wind in the Willows. Mole and Ratty in the little blue-painted boat is a vignette of perfect friendship and domestic harmony. Ratty is an engaging character: outgoing, sympathetic, reliable, capable, resourceful and kind. Bless Kenneth Grahame for seeing these possibilities in the common water rat.

But who really feels an affinity for rattus norvegicus? When he tries to make his home in a human habitation it cannot be Happy Ever After; it is unhealthy for the humans and ultimately disastrous for the rat and his kin.

Idling at the traffic lights on the local high street I saw a little brown creature with that characteristic slinking side-to-side gait. He sniffed under an open door and then flattened himself and crept into the store. Drawn probably by the warmth, he couldn't know that within this cavern of silkiness and perfume and elegantly thin models there would be not a crumb to eat, not even a morsel of rice-cracker or drop of Slim-fast.

Where did he come from? Up from the harbour, probably, or evicted from some other dwelling. I know this store, they have lovely things and although I cannot afford to shop there I often pause to admire. So I quickly parked and went in to tell the lone saleswoman about her guest. He sat against folds of oyster-coloured satin and turned his head this way and that, nose twitching.

"Pardon me, but a rat... "

"Where? " She moved quickly.

"Here, in front of me - no, down by you now, between the rack and the magazines" - for he moved around and searched for new corners as we spoke. He looked, for a moment, both incongruous and pretty, with silky brown fur showing very well against the rich drapery of a display table. Then he simply disappeared, and not out the door. We prowled around the store cautiously, but could find neither tail nor whisker of him.

I had to go on my way eventually. I would like there to be a happy ending to this story, something for a picture book. It was more likely a baited trap.

Papa above!
Regard a Mouse
O'erpowered by the Cat!
Reserve within thy kingdom
A "Mansion" for the Rat!

Snug in seraphic Cupboards
To nibble all the day
While unsuspecting Cycles
Wheel solemnly away!

Emily Dickinson

PS. I think I have a happy ending for him, stay tuned.

High Flight and Poppy Cat

2009-08-31T23:27:00.000-07:00

Poppy Cat slipped out of my pencil many year ago, inspired by the shower of poppy seeds from the dried seed heads in the garden - a scattering of pepper in the air, like something from A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Do fairies and flying creatures capture the imagination because of a common wish that we could also take wing? To my four-year old mind it had made sense. I reasoned that I could fly: lift one leg off the ground, then the other, then hover. What was not to work? I tried it and the floor came up to meet me. Gravity. I still remember the pattern of the linoleum on my knees. But in dreams I still fly.

High Flight

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds,
– and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew –
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God."
John Gillespie MaGee

Best wishes, dreamers and fairy followers all.

Storms and Splendour

2009-08-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

From a few$2.99 seed packages in May, these delights: Nasturtiums in a swath across the front bed for end-of-summer glory, and Shirley Poppies that have bloomed for weeks, silken and lovely.

And I am enamoured of my pear tree, only a couple of months ago in blossom...

and now laden with ripening fruit.

Alice in Wonderland-like, one idea threads unexpectedly but logically to another. "Creative re-purposing" leads to fine china being stuffed with pencils and paintbrushes, and vessels re-purposed leads to domestic economies. Not the economies of nations, but of one household, in the spirit of environmental conscience. Leading to the concept of Magic Thinking, which is not generally considered to be a compliment to anyone's intelligence.

It began with wanting to continue to enjoy a nice deep relaxing bath every day, but not wanting to waste water. How about having the baths and saving the water to pour on the garden, which has to be watered anyway? One could use the plastic jugs that otherwise go to recycling - the kitty-litter and liquid laundry soap containers. The benefits immediately presented themselves to be listed on a satisfying check-list -
bath (check)
wise water management (check)
flowers watered! (check)
nice arm muscles from carrying jugs up and down stairs (check)
who needs a Stairmaster! (check)
and so on, virtue upon virtue.
In June I started saving the plastic jugs instead of sending them to be recycled. I filled up about 10 of them after a bath, ran out of jugs and there was still water in the tub. Tsk, tsk, the waste. The next morning I carried the jugs downstairs and emptied them over the flowers. Very hot day, with thunderstorms in the evening. Flowers very well watered indeed.
Ran not such a very deep bath the next night, saved the water afterwards, and carried the jugs downstairs. The flowers didn't need watering, they were well soaked from the previous night
and the next band of thunderstorms was on the move. The full vessels sat there on the front deck, and so the pattern continued through July.
Now for the "magic thinking": I didn't even have to fill up the jugs any more, I just stood them at the front door and uttered my intentions to the sky. It has rained almost every day and the garden is very green indeed.
Ah well, I don't need the exercise after all. I am supposed to Do Nothing for two weeks after next week's surgery, then the summer will be over. The lawns and gardens are marvellously green and the pear tree is heavy with fruit, faintly gold (delicious pear-tart recipe here).
I have nearly finished up the next fairy book, helped by the memory of the little fairies who came to visit earlier in the summer at Sovereign House:

the stylish,

the small

and best friends,

observing every detail,

and undeterred by weather.

Best wishes, fairy followers all.

Fairies at Sovereign House

2009-07-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to all the fairies, mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, sisters, patient brothers and friends who came to visit the Fairies at Sovereign house.

Such a lot of fairies
with wings, little fairy shoes, tiaras, gloves and clouds of pink,

enjoying fairy refreshments and fairy finds, and entering the "How Many Fairies" contest (there were several correct entries, "44 including the fairy dog and snow fairies", and the winner was the first correct one drawn from the jar. Well done!).

These are only a few of the many lovely photos we took and I will post more soon. Watercolour fairies on the drawing board are keeping me busy for the next three weeks.

About the Fairy Finds, the consensus is that the carved, hollowed-out acorns must be lanterns like those in the Illustrated Fairy Gazettes, and the walnut shell with the thistledown lining certainly looks like a cradle. The rounder, squatter acorns are common in this neighbourhood but the longer, pointed one is unusual for around here. And yet there it was in the garden.

"They who have eyes to see, let them see". What fairy finds are in your back yard?

A Reverie

2009-07-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

"My paddle clean and bright, Flashing with silver,

Follow the wild goose flight, Dip dip and swing"

Entirely surrounded by paintings and frames, with Merry pouncing on the brown paper and bubble wrap, we are paddling into the home stretch for the Midsummer Magic show at Sovereign House later this week.

Midsummer Magic

2009-06-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

A cordial invitation to fairy followers near and far to join us for Midsummer Magic at Sovereign House, featuring paintings from The Illustrated Fairy Gazettes and Posy's Fairy Wardrobe.

This is merely a flutter away for some of us, across the 12-Mile Creek bridge in Bronte and down West River Street. There is a path through a fairy glade to Sovereign house, overlooking the lake.

Mazo de la Roche, author of The White Oaks of Jalna books, lived in this house from 1910 to 1915.

Saved from demolition by the Town of Oakville and the Bronte Historical Society in 1988 and modestly renovated with the addition of gallery space on the ground floor, it retains a quiet charm and is the perfect place for art shows.

This is the fourth year that we have hosted Midsummer Magic, and every year we have been graced by the presence of would-be fairies with best dresses, little flowered sandals and, of course, wings.

Mug Monday

2009-06-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

"Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used."

"When I use a word" Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less". Through the Looking Glass

Prowling around the house for just one of my mugs for Mug Monday ( hosted by the talented Valerie of Acorn Moon and Pat of Weaver of Grass), I discovered that most of them were already in use for anything but their intended purpose of simply holding a warm beverage. Needles and thread were in one, paint brushes and pencils in another, pennies in a third. Even the Portmeirion milk jug is stuffed with brushes. And so it was all around the house and garden,

Old canoe paddles double as useful garden stakes,

A lidless teapot and Limoges dinner plate have been home to an African Violet since 1997 (it thrives on benign neglect),

And the cloche that should be protecting strawberries in the garden is sheltering fairies in the house.

In Psychology 101 we were told that a sign of flexible intelligence is the ability to overcome functional fixedness, to perceive new applications for existing tools. And that is my excuse for filling the charming, stylish mug on my worktable with more paintbrushes, like feathers in her cap, rather than topping her up with hot chocolate or mint tea.

Speaking of tea, where's the coffee pot?

Journeys in Bookland

2009-06-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

My desk is strewn with complex drifts of sketches, sheafs of them stacked or sliding and crackling, faint fairies everywhere, to be sorted into order and details filled out. This is the next fairy book in embryo state, on the long road to the exciting box of glossy new volumes.

The life of even a well-loved children's book eventually comes to this, either a collectors shelf or the recycling bin. The Saturday morning dog walk took us by a community garage sale, with the usual boxes of coffee mugs, planters, used electronics, videos on vhs, magazines and once-popular novels, plus a few surprises. In a box of plain-looking and well-worn books with moisture-bent covers were these treasures.

Their very shabbiness was the draw. Some one spent hours with these once, as the crayoned-in illustrations and pencilled notes testify.

I used to colour in my books like this, I thought it made them prettier.

This chapter-page brings to mind blissful holidays spent on Prince Edward Island, as a child and more recently as mother.

In surprisingly fine condition is this volume, The Magical Land of Noom, 1922, by Johnny Gruelle (of Raggedy Anne and Andy fame), all 12 illustrations in place, with only a single water-droplet mark on the cover. I'm almost afraid to read the story for fear I might let a crumb or friendly cat-paw mark a page. I'm getting out the cotton gloves for this one!

The shabbiest volume, coverless and tattered, seems to have been the best loved. "Mrs. Herbert Strang" edited several other annuals like these. A pseudonym for Mr. Herbert Strang, it was in turn a pseudonym for two male editors. The illustrator doesn't get a mention, which is too bad,

for this illustration is my favourite.

I wonder who he or she was?

Loyalty to the crown, expressed in primary school readers, was once a part of the national identity.
There used to be a picture of the Queen in every classroom and my young school days began with the Lord's Prayer, a salute to the flag ("shoot the flag"), "God Save the Queen", and "Oh Canada". ("Two pastry gloves in all thy sons command", years later turned out to be "True patriot love" etc. And "Forgive us our trespasses" always led my thoughts astray to Winnie the Pooh and Piglet's "Trespassers Will". But I digress.) The Royal Visit in 1939 made its mark on the country, and on school textbooks.

The years go by and things change. "God Save the Queen" disappeared when "Oh Canada" became the official national anthem in 1980. Canada Day, which used to be known as Dominion Day, is coming up on July 1. There will be a street festival in the neighbourhood, flags and red maple leaf icons every where, and in the evening, fireworks in the harbour. At dusk we'll pack up the lawn chairs, blankets and snacks and make our way with the holiday throng, down the street to the lake. Adults and children will sit on the pier, children too close to the edge for parental comfort, swinging their feet over the water and applauding the test flares that go up first. Sometimes a few will start singing "Oh Canada" (with silly cheers) while waiting for the show to start.

From a daughter of the Empire, "God Save the King!"- and Queen.

Domesticity

2009-06-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

There are so many birds here in the harbour area that I could easily overload the posts with pictures of them. I was delighted today to see mother duck with her 12 (count them, 12) ducklings, newly hatched last week and all of them still present and accounted for. There are 4 drakes that seem to have a shared interest in the family and stay close to her and the brood, which may explain their survival so far.

The geese are careful parents too, very protective of their young and of each other. Their reputation for being untidy neighbours is, alas, well-earned.

Particularly devoted partners and parents are the swans,

doing everything.....

....in synchrony

Up tails all!

And then there is the domestic partnership, blessed harmony on the home front between all the four-footed ones. Merry, the camera-shy newcomer, has settled in. She has taken to knocking my paintbrushes off the worktable at night - forgiven, so far.

Fairy Gazettes

2009-05-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

A flutter at the mail box, a knock at the door - a nice weighty box has been delivered, well sealed with packing tape and bearing the sticker "cleared by customs". The fairies have arrived at last.

Or rather, The Illustrated Fairy Gazettes, "By Fairies, for Fairies", a labour of love that began some time ago, now realized in these pretty volumes.

This is not their first incarnation. The true original fairy gazettes have a closely guarded history, and the small-format desk top gazettes that we stitched together with poetry and vision and rainbow thread were our best approximation of those delicate little editions and the glimpse of fairyland they offered.

In these new expanded books we have done our best to be faithful to the originals and the fairy virtues therein, and I have had the pleasure of indulging in my childhood past-time of paper dolls.

In an envelope nestled between the back cover and jacket flap is a "Posy's Fairy Wardrobe" doll, with outfits and accessories...
and busy as we are with the next volume in the series, I took time out for a little fashion parade...

Which would you prefer - morning glory blue or columbine's pink hues?

Mothers Day

2009-05-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

My Mother
by Ann Taylor (1782-1866)

Who fed me from her gentle breast,
And hush'd me in her arms to rest,
And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?
My Mother.

When sleep forsook my open eye,
Who was it sung sweet hushaby,
And rock'd me that I should not cry?
My Mother.

Who ran to help me when I fell
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My Mother.

And can I ever cease to be
Affectionate and kind to thee,
Who wast so very kind to me,
My Mother.
From Festivals and Fairs, The Illustrated Fairy Gazette

Where are the fairy places?

I had heard that along one of our main roads and up a certain drive there is a path that leads to trillium woods.
So on this Mother's Day we went looking....

and there they were...

Lovely starry trilliums in a fairy dell,

more and more of them, a vision of beauty.

Eventually we turned back to the not-so distant sound of traffic, then across the road and down to the lake,

where mothers and children paddled together beside still waters, on Mothers Day.

"Nature - the gentlest mother is,
Impatient of no child -" Emily Dickenson

May Festival

2009-04-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

"White coral bells upon a slender stalk,
Lilies-of-the valley line my garden walk,
Oh, how I wish that I could hear them ring!
That will happen only when the fairies sing."
From Festivals and Fairs, The Illustrated Fairy Gazette, 2009
Listen carefully, wherever you are, and you may hear the fairies sing. Happy May Morning everyone!

A Fairy Path

2009-04-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

The deluge of new work is upon us and I have to separate myself from distractions for a time, like the little maid in this endpaper from my copy of Louisa May Alcott's An Old Fashioned Girl. But there is time for a walk first....
Despite the encroaching suburbs the woodlands are still to be found along the creeks and deep ravines. We went for a long walk in our nearby provincial park, where in a short while masses of trilliums and trout lilies will appear.

We started into the tall woods

following the edge of the ravine

then down the sloping trail
to the creek

for a stroll along the sunny banks

before starting home again,

to the fairies (in whose company time seems beckoningly elastic). As a child I bought every paper doll available in the local book stores. Now I design for Posy, her models and their wardrobes, for our Illustrated Fairy Gazettes.

Tools of the Trade

2009-04-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

Preparing for the start of a new session of watercolour classes, at the midnight hour I was cleaning up palettes to load with fresh clean colours. It turned out I was using the new brand of coughdrop-impregnated tissues, which made the palettes cherry-menthol-fresh.
The tools of this watercolour trade are simple enough:
a few good brushes (silky-soft, but with a strong snap-back to position when flexed)
a palette and some artist-grade colours,
a block of 140 lb watercolour paper,
plus an HB pencil, my wonderful mystery-putty eraser, a box of tissues, and (though in practice I rarely use it, opting for brush control instead) a bottle of liquid latex removable masking fluid.

Simplicity is often the key to good painting, and to quote from Louisa May Alcott's An Old Fashioned Girl, "taste is economy sometimes". At the drawing stage I put everything in, then with the eraser I pare it down to the essential lines before starting to paint.

It wasn't until I started working for the greeting card industry that I was introduced to the liquid satiny qualities of artist-grade tube colours. For years I worked with a selection of fine brushes (my only extravagance) and a box of student-grade watercolour cakes, a boxed set. Despite their limitations, and perhaps because I didn't know any better, it was possible to produce clean bright colours that have lasted over the years.

One such early painting was
"Daffy-Down-Dilly
has come up to town
In a yellow petticoat
and a green gown."

And so she has.

Easter Weekend

2009-04-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

It is deceptively sunny this Easter weekend. The wind is sharp, driving in a cold spray from the lake.
Not everyone minds the cold...

...and there are sunny places in which to rest a while among the early violets.

I know, there are beautiful gardens and natural landscapes that are simply covered with flowers like these and more, profusions of snowdrops or daffodils or bluebells, all in their proper season. There used to be woods near here that were starred with masses of trilliums in the spring. In their place now are streets of new houses with neat oblongs of green lawn and small beds or planters of garden centre flowers, and only fragments of the woodlands and wild flowers remain.
Before the bulldozers moved in I took along some plastic bags and a trowel on my morning walks and brought home clumps of bulbs and roots, wild geraniums, and some surprises too. I dug them in and waited for spring, and behold, they rose again!

Happy Easter, everyone.

Snowdrops

2009-03-31T13:13:00.001-07:00

The "Fair Maids of February" are cautious here. After a brief appearance near Valentine's Day they tucked their fair heads under their green cloaks and waited for less bitter winds. Now they are at full height, pretty clusters of white petal-bonnets pushing aside the matted leaf roof. I dug up a cold moist handful, settled them in a pot and brought them inside to paint their portrait. They fell about unsteadily at first, then straightened up and opened a little in the warm room.

My approach is always analytical - first the drawing, then a groundwork of faint colour, then light preliminary shadows and shading, followed by more defined colour, more intense shadows and shading, layers of transparent glazes, until the whole approaches a finished state. Hours slipped by and bars of sunlight moved across the table - my ideal studio would have western exposure for a longer visit with the sun - and still the snowdrops needed details, the green markings inside the bells of the flowers, the fine stripes on the leaves, and beads of moisture here and there.
There is never enough time in a two-hour art class to get to this final polished state, except in a very small painting. And art teachers never tell their students to paint small!

2009-02-26T13:52:00.000-08:00

"For, lo, the winter is over and past,
the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land..." The Song of Solomon, 2: 11-12

Spring is weeks away yet, of course. It is still cold, with nearly a month of Ontario winter ahead of us. But the snow has melted and revealed the bare garden, bleak but promising, with a garden sprite peeping out from between the flower pots.

2009-02-25T20:58:00.000-08:00

Fairy Lanterns

Fairy Purses

Peace on Earth

Merry Chris-Moose

Woodland Nutcracker, on the move

November 5, 9:30-4:00, East Plains United Church,375 Plains Rd E, BurlingtonNovember 12, 9:00-2:00, Church of the Epiphany, 141 Bronte Road, OakvileNovember19, 9:30-2:30, Appleby United Church, 4407 Spruce Avenue, BurlingtonNovember26, 9:00-2:00, St John's United Church, 262 Randall St, Oakville.

December 2 - 24, Under The Moon Fine Arts, 217 Ottawa St. N., Hamilton

December 15-24, Arcadia Gallery, 680 Queens Quay West, Toronto, opening reception Thursday December 15, 5-9pm.

A Different Drummer Books 513 Locust Street, BurlingtonBryan Prince Booksellers, 1060 King Street West, Hamilton andThe Acorn Card Shoppe, 221 Lakeshore RdE, Oakville.

" Woodland Nutcracker"

For the Bees

Monarch Butterflies

Mermaids and Sand Castles

"Baby's First" ornament designs

The Apprentice Dragons

Summertime

A Royal Fairy Wedding

Paper Cutting, Art and Magic

Velvet Slippers in the Snow

The Studio Cat

Pansies, Petals and Primulas

Flowers in the Snow

Happy New Year

Christmas Interlude

'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime

Oh Christmas Tree

A Miscellany

Rubber Stamps and Morning Glory Fairies

"I wish I lived in a Caravan"

Trumpets from the Steep

"Banbury Cross"

Dragons on the drawing board

"Gon Out, Backson, Bisy"

After the ball is over... and a new Give Away

Fairy Finds

Midsummer Magic - Fairies at Sovereign House

Summer Solstice and a Fairy Festival

Woodland Christmas - Special Delivery and a Give Away

Dandelion Clocks - Make a Wish

Victoria Day

Puck, Plain and Fancy

Mothers and Godmothers

Welcome May

England, Harry and St. George!

All Around the Garden

Gardens and Gardeners

Palm Sunday

Spring has sprung (and so has the roof)

Strawberries in the Snow

A Valentine

Sunshine

Notes from Fairy Land

Happy New Year

The Heart of the Tree

Merry Christmas to All

Here Comes Santa Claus

In a Heartbeat, Advent, and Good Fairies

A Christmas Fantasy at "In a Heartbeat"

Remembrance Day

All Souls Night and All Saints Day

Rose Hips and Autumn Days

Dancing to Willow's Ball

Dulce Domum

High Flight and Poppy Cat

Storms and Splendour

Fairies at Sovereign House

A Reverie

Midsummer Magic

Mug Monday

Journeys in Bookland

Domesticity

Fairy Gazettes

Mothers Day

May Festival

A Fairy Path

Tools of the Trade

Easter Weekend

Snowdrops

A Different Drummer Books 513 Locust Street, Burlington
Bryan Prince Booksellers, 1060 King Street West, Hamilton and
The Acorn Card Shoppe, 221 Lakeshore RdE, Oakville.