3 friendly plastic designs with Gold Spectra

Lucky Dog design:  gold spectra head and body, mauve nose, pearl white dog bone, glass eyes

 Kitty Hears a Can Opener design:  gold spectra head and body, mauve nose, glass eyes

Chick of the Sea mermaid: gold spectra hair, purple bra and fishtail,
mother of pearl peach (underside)

oh oh!

Looks like I will need to find a substitute for the skin tone.

Probably will have to colour white fp with some kind of alcohol ink to make skin tones.

I don't see MOP peach in the current colour chart. 

http://www.munrocrafts.com/Friendly%20Plastic.html

Meditations on local traffic

The Commute
16" x 20" acrylic on canvas

Here's my latest 2 hr. painting.

I confess I have been affected by the Toronto commute. Traffic and traffic delays and cars cars cars have kept me away from my studio in the downtown core.
I just am not getting there.
In the need to be practical and to save some money, as I haven't been at shows forever, and we moved and all that, I have given notice on my downtown space.

That was really hard and I shed more than a few tears.

However, as you can see here, I am painting up a storm at home.

I discovered I can paint outside in the backyard. So, given our climate, I'm all set to work outdoors until about mid-October I figure. I recall painting at Ottawa Markets until about that time, after which it gets too cold to hold a brush, and the paint won't dry, and you don't want to empty your water jar outside, or get more water, for fear it'll splash on you inviting hypothermia to set in.

Eventually I'll find another studio space and it'll come naturally when I really need it to happen. Toronto is not Ottawa. Toronto has a lot of studio spaces. Ottawa has very few. But, this is a concern for the future. For now I am still focused on paintingpaintingpainting. Time to go sketch out a few canvases for the next round.

See you back here soon.

Today's New Work

Obey The Crown

22 x 28 acrylic on canvas

Continuing with the building of paintings for upcoming shows I made this today. I think it was longer than 2 hrs worth of work. I have another painting 2/3 done but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it.

2010 by guest blogger, Caesar Cat

Here's my look back at 2010

Winter. More accurately, I believe this was taken in February.


Here I am and it's Spring, quite possibly April.


Summer? Oh yes, this is right after the summer solstice. A long day of napping that was.


Fall, and the nights were definitely getting longer here.


I'll try to stay up to see that delightful Anderson Cooper but if I fall asleep I am sure I'll hear all about it tomorrow. Happy New Year.

New Paintings for the Ottawa School of Art Boutique

These are my latest paintings since I've completed my program at the Ottawa School of Art... graduation posts to follow, but not yet.

The three paintings are available in the school boutique here in Ottawa. That cat must have resonated with the zeitgeist of the times as he was snapped up in two days. I hope it's gone to a loving home... kitty needs some love methinks!

Cat Wants Out 16" x 20" acrylic on canvas 2009 sold

O Happy Day 16" x 20" acrylic on canvas 2009

You Look Good 16" x 20" acrylic on canvas 2009

Friendly Plastic New and Old

I was cleaning the living room and discovered a couple of friendly plastic things. Here's a lady relaxing on a chaise lounge skritching a very pampered kitty. This piece is about 14" wide by 7" tall, all one piece. She's really fun and I guess I still have her because I really liked her. Every once in a while I put something away instead of putting it up for sale. I might make her part of a larger piece, maybe place her in a hand-printed background or something.

And here's something from my plastic box. I carry my sticks with me when I am out at the farmer's market and I keep them in a see-through Tupperware box with a lid. I remember I had my plastic underneath my chair and the sun came around and all it took was a few minutes of direct summer sun and this happened! A whole bunch melted together. You can see one of my handmade stands in there and a tag that I attach to my work all melted together. Sometimes I can pry this apart. This one is a write off. I will have to use it for filler for bigger pieces.

My current use for friendly plastic is as material from which I am making a set for an animation. I have indian red chairs and a table, all based on the set from Inside the Actor's Studio. Once I have it all set up I'll take some jpg's so you can see it.

Strathcona Art in the Park 2008 -Sneak Peak

I'm almost ready for Art in the Park at Strathcona Park in Ottawa. Thought I'd post a peak of something new I painted for the show.

Art in the Park is scheduled for Saturday August 9th, 2008. We have a raindate for the show of Sunday August 10th which will come into effect *IF IT IS POURING RAIN AT 7:30 am on Saturday morning*

Let's hope it goes as usual. It rains everyday anyway. To get there, follow Laurier Ave East until you can't go anymore. That's where the park is, right alongside the canal.

Chance Meeting 16 x 20 acrylic on canvas SOLD

Illustration Friday: Sour

Never satisfied.

Mish Mash

I had a professor in medieval art history who encouraged us to look up whenever we were out somewhere. She said you'd often end up with wet feet from stepping in puddles, but you'd see things that half the people around you never will.

Carp Market birds

dipsy doodle on top of blow up ice cream

City wildlife

dog in a well worn bag at Ottawa Market

big big eyes

My backyard

these smell 100x better than they look and they look good

a riot of growth

KittyX : no longer an outdoor kitty .

Made Fresh Today- Dec 31/07- Queen

Of A Regal Nature


This is a free-standing sculpture, approx. 5" x 2", of a queen and her kitty. I rarely make things like this out of friendly plastic, though that's what the material was developed for: sculpture. I have wanted to create 3D objects more often but the time pressure of shows, and school, and orders don't leave a lot of space for research and development.

January is as close as I get to real down time and usually I like to just snooze the month away if I can but really, I should take advantage and do some R&D. This January I'm going to try to do some of the experiments that have been rattling around my brain. You never know what idea will be a really great one. And in my experience, you have to get a lot of bad ideas out of the way before the good one comes along, kind of like getting warmed up you know?

Anyway I like this. We'll see where it leads me.

Day Olds - Dec 29 2007 - Swamp Things #1 and #3

I made these years ago, maybe 2001? Maybe earlier. 1998? I had just started experimenting with drawing and painting and mixed media. I remember that I was selling in the lobby of the General Hospital here in town, and I had several different subjects in this style. They were all triptychs, as in a series of three related pieces, all made in this way. I had giraffes, dragons, moose, frogs, fish, cats and dogs. All of them had friendly plastic accents. Some were more successful design-wise than others. For what they were, there were a lot of steps. I haven't made these since. I do lots of one-offs, lots of experiments, and I usually just bring them to a show, hopefully sell them, or if I don't, they come back home with me and I misplace them to be found years later.

BTW I was at the General Hospital with my friend Tim of Mobius T-shirt fame and we loved going there to sell as they had THE BEST HOSPITAL FOOD ever! I know, I know, this is really not what you expect, but their scones! OMG they were to die for... oh. Probably I shouldn't say that when talking about a hospital eh? Hmmm.

Book #44 Cat Headgear

Those cats are so FIERCE! And so this was another one page book. Print it onto a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper, fold, cut and re-fold, and enjoy this word snack. If you don't know how to do this see making one page books.

Day Olds -Sept 22 '07-Cottage Custom Mirror

Perhaps this is the busiest mirror I have ever made. A client wanted a mirror for a friend who loved her cottage, her dog and her two cats. I managed to get everything into the composition and the recipient loved it.

I made another cottage mirror once for a man who wanted me to show his dead dogs in the composition so I had them appear as angels hovering over the two friends as they sat in their Adirondack chairs. Again the chairs were very specific as were the types of dogs. The mirror became a focal point in their cottage decorating scheme I was told.

Angels in Hot Water

Heaven 30" x 20" acrylic on canvas 2007

Recently I was asked to do a piece for someone's birthday. This is what I came up with. They wanted an angel in a bathtub, and they wanted a quote with it.

Besides trying to find appropriate words to go with this image, I had to figure out what to do with the angel wings. Are they in or out of the water? Believe it or not, this really bothered me, as I kept picturing birds and birds don't get wet. Their feathers are waterproof/resistant (not sure which) but you know the saying "water off a duck's back"... And angel wings are big, where would they be? How would they be positioned? It's funny what you have to work out when making up a totally imaginary composition. I was especially pleased with the shade of pink for the bathtub. It just says reeellllaaaaxxxx to me. And she's kind of sassy which I like as well. My anatomical dyslexia reared it's head in this as well as her heel also looks like her anklebone giving this a Byzantine perspective of a couple of views at once. It seems a year of art school has not irradicated this from me, at least not yet. Though she doesn't have two elbows which I have often done in the past and not realized until I was done and wondering what looked "off".

I am assuming that this went over well as a gift. I haven't heard back from the giver or the receiver as of yet. I did enjoy making it.

Made Fresh Today- Aug 31st '07 - fancy cats

Ye Cats of Olde

I promised a Carp Market vendor, and a mutual customer of ours who collects cat things, that I would have fresh cats for market tomorrow and I decided to pull this old design for them out of my bag of cat tricks. I like them. They've got real character. The size of the head seems to make all the difference in the cat's character, as does the tilt of the head, but these two are straight forward and direct. I am sure they're just waiting to be fed anytime now.


These were some of the original cats I used to make. I liked to contrast the colours and to put unnatural cat colours together, like the bright green and the confetti patterned cat on the far right. I rarely make this style now. Not sure why; guess I am always just looking for the thing I have never made before you know? But like I said, I am fond of these guys. I'll probably make a bunch now that I have made a couple.

It took 10 days. July 24th, 2007.

Ten days ago I mused about starting a friendly plastic piece based on a famous painting. I had this book in mind as my source material. My brother lent me this book a few months ago, and as you can see, it takes me a while from idea to execution but the time has come. there are lots of great projects in this book, and what makes a paint by numbers book so fabulous is that the areas of colour and the shapes themselves are already simplified, so crating this piece has one of the problems already worked out. In the past, I have looked at stained glass patterns for this same reason: simplified shapes. Friendly plastic flows, I always compare it to wax when it is warm, and so you can only get so much detail. It isn't like paint, though I think of it as paint and approach it as paint, but the reality of working it is not the same.




Here are my tools. Very basic. Toaster oven. Fiskars, a pin of some sort, push pin is best but in this case I have a bar pin that fell off of my Carp Market badge, a flat head screwdriver, a blade/exacto knife, piece of glass and a surface to place the glass on when it is hot.


And nothing can be done without inspiration: my cat Kitty X, beautiful cut sunflowers in a handmade vase by Chandler Swain, and a summer's day.

Day-Olds. July 15th, 2007

The Love Triangle 2003 8" x 6" acrylic in canvas

It's Sunday night and after another busy market weekend I am exhausted.

I'm not going to attempt to make anything.

This is a lesson learned over the years. At times I have had to force myself to keep working, keep working, keep working.. etc... This is usually in preparation for a Big Show Somewhere and it's the week before we leave, or a day or two before the show starts. I have often tried to make things when I am worn out and I know what happens. Things take 3x the time, then I drop my tools, or lose the eyes I've laid out for my characters, or misplace the list of stuff I am working on, and then when the plastic is hot, I'll wreck it by forcing something, or being too impatient for it to cool, or trying to make too many at once. It never works.

I've learned it's more productive to take a rest. I'll get more done in the long run by stepping back and taking the time to relax. It's not worth it to push push push.

Tonight, it's just like that.

See you tomorrow.

Self Portrait in Four Elements

24 x 36 acrylic on canvas

The task was to create a painting that represented who you were but to use four objects to represent yourself. This is what I came up with. I was very happy with this piece. I really connected to it for myself, and others saw other things in it beyond what I intended.