Reaching Out & Connecting

Hello to all who are new to my blog!

I haven't written a post in a very long time, and this is more to update new and existing clients/friends/family the many ways they can view my artwork!  Please feel free to view the work I have displayed on my blog through past posts.

My work can also be viewed on my Facebook fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Danielle-Gaudry/195514054840?ref=hl

And as well on my Online Portfolio through the Behance Network:
http://www.behance.net/danielle_gaudryf56c

I hope that if you are viewing my blog because you picked up my card at the craft fair you find what you are looking for! I am very much available/able to create custom work in any medium, be it painting or textiles!

Baby Bliss

It's becoming more and more obvious that I've reached the child-bearing age. Not so much yet for myself, but for close friends and family. To try and incorporate my art with something useful I've been trying to make a few baby blankets. The first I made for Mike's niece Lily. Before we knew she would be a girl, I decided to make the blanket very gender neutral with yellow, turquoise and white, and created a soft checkered blanket.

I purchased the acrylic cotton "baby" yarn at Wal-mart with understandably low expectations, but once it was washed, I was extremely surprised at the softness! I was so happy with the result of this blanket, that I decided to make one for the newest member of my "family" Leiland!

This is my best friend Christie's second child, and her first is my Goddaughter, Faye. So I wanted to make him something extra special! Since I started the blanket already knowing what the sex was, I was able to choose yarn more "boy" oriented (sorry to all those gender-sensitive!). I purchased two variegated yarn colors from Michaels, and created a series of thick and thin stripes.

One of my biggest frustrations with weaving larger projects such as a blanket is that my shuttle, while it is immensely beautiful, the bobbin on it is so small that I can only weave about an inch at a time with a thicker yarn. Thankfully, I'm awaiting a Leclerc standard shuttle from a place in Ontario which should arrive any day!!!

I tried to create some horizontal stripes with the darker colored yarn that I had purchased, but because the yarns were so similar in color, it didn't go as well as planned. I ended up weaving the rest of the blanket with the lighter of the two, and placing another darker strip at the end.

I had procrastinated in weaving this blanket for a while, for whatever reason. Probably because with such a small bobbin, it was getting frustrating weaving such a small amount, and having to rewind. It felt as though the weaving was creeping along. But I finally finished and I'm pretty impressed with the results.

I feel that this blanket doesn't scream "baby" and will be good for Leiland to carry on to older years. Or at least until the point where he doesn't fit it anymore (although it covers me!) and I'll have to weave him a larger one! I'm currently working on one as well for Faye (have to be fair now...). If anyone is interested in having a blanket woven, please contact me!

Wedding Prints

Recently I was asked to create a piece of artwork that I had never done before, and ended up being very interactive! Friends Matt and Lisa were getting married and Lisa approached me and asked me if I could make her a Family Tree Guest Book. I'd never heard of it before and decided to do some research. Apparently it's frequently advertised on Etsy, where a bare-branched tree is painted or created, and during the reception at the wedding, the guests place an inked thumb/fingerprint on a branch posing as a leaf. Some versions will also have guests sign their names by their print! I was very excited to try this new concept, and add it to my artistic wedding repertoire.

A close up of their names and font

A close up of the date and font

A close up of the texture on the tree

The finished result when I handed it over to Lisa before the weddiing

The finished result at the wedding reception

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. The painting was pretty large (30x36inches) and really made a statement within the reception room. Matt and Lisa opted out of having everyone sign next to their prints, and had a separate guest book for their guests to sign. All in all I'm pretty pleased with the end result and I have a new skill to add to the list.

Tell Me Who You Are

So it seems like forever since I've posted last. Been really busy with the visit from my parents, training Zoe, and getting into the hang of working full time, and really just trying to find my place in the world now that I've finished school. I recently had business cards made to hand out to people who may be interested in having some work done, and in that spirit, I feel like I should post some pictures and information on my Solo Exhibition so that prospective clients can get an idea of what I like to do, but am not limited to.

The idea for the show Tell Me Who You Are started from multiple ideas. I really enjoyed the process of "breaking down" a photograph to be as simple as possible, only keeping key details of a person's face, and seeing if the end result still maintained the character and "essence" of the original person.

 The second idea was to play with the notion that social Networking sites offer a place for individuals to recreate themselves, and in these portraits that we see, which have been significantly reduced and highlighted, are these who these individuals really are? Or are we seeing what they want us to see?

Also to mention, these portraits are now for sale. Please contact me for more details! A special thank you to Bobby Craig and Jo-Ellen Sterling for buying their portraits and showing your support!
Anyone interested in commissioning a painting, please contact me, I am able to create all types of artwork. Below are some further examples of my work...

This drawing was done in high school from a photograph of myself and two friends. It's done in pencil crayon and drawn in our favorite colors of the time!

This painting is done in oil and was a school assignment in my third year at NSCAD. It's done from a photograph I took on Vancouver Island.

This painting is done in Acrylic and is a portrait of my friend Connie. I enjoy creating portraits of people and incorporating their interests and personality into the image. This is another example of how I've "simplified" a portrait.

This was another school assignment in my third year of NSCAD. It's a mixture of rubber latex with soap, food coloring and a screenprinted image overtop. The assignment was to experiment with unusual items to create a painting. One thing kinda led to another...

This again, was a school assignment in my third year of NSCAD. It was to create a 3D painting. I was really inspired by these Mexican Jumping beans given to me by a friend, so I experimented again with the rubber latex to create a kind of "skin." One I painted more realistically, the other I tried to make it look like there was a worm inside with a stuffed nylon.

Impossible Possibilities

So my dear friends, I promised last time that I would stop talking about my new little puppy and start talking about art that I've been working on... so I'm hoping this post will satiate you for a while!
So I had an amazing time at Erin's wedding! But it was definitely not relaxing, and now I'm back in Halifax and have only one week left of my art school career (or at least for now...) and I have SO much work to do in a short amount of time!
For my upcoming show I've made about 40 small paintings. All portraits of my nearest and dearest. I also wanted to include some larger paintings of the people in my life who are literally larger than life.
The first one was of my sister. My first post contained an image of it unfinished. I've been trying to not show too many images of my work until my show so that the surprise is not blown! The second painting I made was of my Grandma Eaton who passed away a few years ago. The third painting that I literally started and finished today, was of my Dad, who passed away when I was about 7 or 8 years old.

 I chose this photo of him (he's in the lower left hand corner) and I soon learned that this photo was taken on his 30th Birthday. I found it really interesting to work on this painting for two reasons: Mike is turning 30 this year. And the other paintings I've worked on, most of my decisions surrounding image choice and color choice were based on what I thought were characteristic of that individual, or reminded me of that individual. This was a totally different experience.

 Because I'd only known my Dad for a few years, I've had to rely on information gathered from other people who did know him really well. I know he was a goofy guy, and many of the images my Mom had sent to me were of him sticking his tongue out (and if any of you know my sister, you now know where she gets it from!). So it seemed only appropriate that I select an image where he's making a goofy face!

This is a bit of a close up so you can see the line work in the face. I had a bit of difficulty with the mouth. I made some of the recessive teeth a bit gray so that they would fall back a bit. Let me know what you think, and if you guys think I should make any changes or if something looks off.

So my other project from this semester has been my Tactile Notebook. In my class we had to do a research presentation on an artist who maintains a Notebook practice, and I chose Danny Gregory. (www.dannygregory.com). I was really inspired by him because he also has a blog, and has inserted images from his Notebook where he's written an entry about his day, and then written again in his blog about it. His Notebook perhaps may be more personal, but I thought it was a great idea to share the Notebook, so I thought I would do so with you guys!

So these are just images of my Notebook... notice how fat it's already getting and I've only covered a third of the pages in the book! The next few images are pages within my book. I'm not going to say much about them, perhaps you can give me your thoughts, but I just thought you might like to see how different one day is from the next!