Studio Tours... Harmony Arts Festival

I said the same thing last year, “I can't believe the Harmony Arts Festival is but a few days away”, but this year it has really snuck up on me! I thought I still had a few weeks…

I will once again be participating in two events; two paintings for sale under the "big white tent" as a North Shore Artists’ Guild member, and in the Studio Tours along with 15 other fellow artists’ at 195 Studios.

The Studio Tours are a unique opportunity to meet the artists in their studios. We will be there to give personalized tours, answer any questions or simply just “chat”.

HAF is August 3-12, with the studio tours on the weekends only. See our listing for dates and times in the HAF Guide (Page 10) in Sunday, July 29^th’s North Shore News or online.

If you are able to make it to the festival, the BIG white tent will be located west of the Silk Purse in West Vancouver's John Lawson Park. For both events, come and browse through a great collection of art, from oils and watercolours to acrylics and mixed media... ~ Sharka

"A Window in Tuscany"

It was nice to finally finish my painting today, “A Window in Tuscany”. This one took me some time… but I’m happy even if I am the turtle racing the hare, lol!

I’ve had the photo in my reference file since 2008 and when I went through them, I kept putting this one back. I knew I would paint it one day. I had hoped that by the time I got around to it, I would have actually had the experience of seeing a window in Tuscany. Tuscany is on my bucket list!

I almost had it finished last week, but my old stone Tuscan wall was a tad flat and dull. I rushed over to Opus (the art store) and bought some molding paste. I laughed because a while back I had a few jars of it and didn’t think I’d ever use it – so gave it to a friend. Maybe keeping one jar would have been a good thing.

I enjoyed using the paste and think I’ll be using it again for paintings where I want to create and enhance the texture. You might say I went outside my ‘box’ on this painting as texture is not typically in my repertoire.

I hope you enjoy… ~ Sharka

4-legged Memories

In the last few months, four of my friends have sadly lost their 4-legged companions to Rainbow Bridge. One friend lost two within a few weeks of each other… :(

I knew I had to do something so I decided to create a doggie mini album for all the memories.  I finished the album this week and would like to share some of it.

  

For the album I used an older paper collection by Basic Grey© called Max & Whiskers and I used Kathy's (from Paper Phenomenon) hidden hinge binding system. 

We are animal lovers ourselves… we have a 13 year old tabby named Kramer and a 7 year old (her birthday was on Wednesday, July 4^th) cocker spaniel named Molly. She is the “Princess’” of the house!

If you would like to make one of these mini albums for yourself or as a gift, I will be selling a few of them as a kit. It will have complete instructions, photos and materials. If you would like one already assembled instead, I can do that too… you can email me any time at info”at”sharkaleigh.com to order. ~ Sharka 

(Sorry... As of August 29th, this kit is sold out)