teaching time!!

I had an awesome opportunity to teach this week. I had 2 days with 15 awesome students at a bible college in Toronto the School of Worship at Catch the Fire. It sparked in me knowing, really knowing that this is what i want.And I am excited to teach again and hope to get asked back soon!.

The Book Project: The Secret Place

 

I have been working and a little project that I have been loving and can't wait to share... I have been doing the illustrations for a book soon to be released called 'The Secret Place'. Alongside another artist we completed 19 graphite illustrations, some mine, some hers, some a collaboration of us both. But just this week I was asked my the publisher and author to paint the cover!! What was originally going to be photography, they felt that a colour drawn image would relate better to the overall feel and flow better with the illustrations. What an honour!!!!  i quickly jumped and began to work. I prayed asked abba to show me and started painting. 

the image interview

Well it is finally out! This was a ton of fun, and I like how it turned out.

The Image Interview: Featuring Heather Sinnott

2 long years

it has been 2 long years and while with my aunt for a walk through the art store something caught my eye... and finally the wheels started turning. it has finally arrived... the inspiration I have been waiting for... keep watch, i'm excited, its gonna be fun.

World Aids Day

Buy art and donate to an excellent cause! 2 of my pieces will be up for auction,  check it out! 

The University of Western is having a World Aids Day Benefit Concert and Silent Auction on  May 4 & 5, 2011 at the Metropolitan United Church, London ON  Proceeds to be split between  The Escolinha 17 de Setembro, a preschool for AIDS Orphans in Mozambique and University Lab School at the University of Western Ontario. Call 519-661-3699 for ticket information. 2 works will be there available for bidding!
Come support a great cause!

Post Nurtured Baby Show!!

Well the show was good, I was pleasantly surprised that by the end of the afternoon I was approached by a store, telling me they were very interested in my work, loving it and asking me to supply kids art for their Shop!  I am really excited to sell my little illustrations there!  this will be great! So if you are ever in Orangeville, check out 'Wee needs' and 'Nurtured' to find my work!Prints and originals available.

Also I just loved connecting with people, and a great new opportunity and was invited to teach classes at a new arts center opening up there in September, details to be released soon!

Yaaah what a great day!

Nurtured Baby Expo!

Nurtured Baby Expo TOMORROW!! 

Saturday, April 16 · 10:00am - 4:00pm

Monora Park Pavilion

633220 Hwy 10

Orangeville ON

The first annual show spectacular for expectant and new parents!
Local vendors, products and services geared towards expanding families!!

I will be there! Check it out!


~Small entry fee of $2 per adult, half of which will go to charity!


...~ Fashion Show~

~ Demos and workshops!!

~ Fabulous Swag Bags for the first 100 people!! 

---

UPDATES!!

I have been a busy bee. 

check what's new! 

1. PROJECTS IN PROCESS

The Hope Project: The Hope Project is something that has been stirring in my heart for about 1.5 years now. As it develops I just get more excited. I hope for it to become a yearly or biyearly event. The Hope Project is a big art show for all artists to donate 1-3 pieces to sell and to raise money for different charities. 

Love for Japan: Is another project that is in my heart, raising money for the recent tragedies in Japan. Works of art will be sold with 1/2 of the proceeds to be donated to Japan.

The Book Project: This project is out of personal interest. I am currently working on illustrating a series of Baby/Toddler Books, will include, counting, ABC, Nursery Rhymes and more as ideas develop. I will be blogging about its progress so follow along!

The Mural Project: This project is still in the works but I am hoping the details will be worked out soon. Along with photographer and artist Trayc Dudgeon we will be redesigning and painting the mural the Playroom for Sick Kids Hospitals’ Ronald McDonald House. I am really excited about it and can’t wait to get to work!

2. UPCOMING SHOWS

Fundraiser/Auction for World Aids Orphans Day, May 7th, 2011 at University of Wester Ontario. 2 pieces showing and up for auctioned.

Artist of the month: Credit Valley Hospital
Maternity/Obstetrics Wing, July 1-31, 2011

Brampton Arts Festival: Artist Vendor, original sales, minis, prints and cards to be sold, live painting in Booth in Downtown Brampton. Come Check it out! July 16th, 2011

Junction Arts Festival: September 2011 More
information to come

Live Painting at Catch the Fire in Toronto, various event and dates.

3. RELEASING NEW NURSERY COLLECTION! to be on the website soon! 

4. RELEASING NEW CARDS AND PRINTS FROM ALL COLLECTIONS

5. FINE ART SERVICES AVAILABLE: 

• Fine art original sales  (available in different styles from Representational to abstract please see my website for examples  www.heathersinnott.com)

• Commissions: looking for something specific?
Or see something you love, but it is already sold or not in the colour you want? I will paint for you a customized piece to suit your wants and  needs.

• Expressively Yours: Personalized original art works: send me a photo you love and I will create an original, unique expressive painting of your little one! Different sizes available.

• Letters to little ones: write a letter to your little one, I will create an original piece with your little one’s name and written letter to them,  incorporating the words you have written. An incredible cherished gift to them for years to come.

• Art Prints: in a variety of different sizes

• Art Greeting Cards: art cards from original pieces blank inside, glossy finish, can be customized for you!

• Personalized Baby name plates (cost per letter)
Individual 5 x 7 letters, designed to your colours and style, tied with satin ribbon for hanging

• Murals: nurseries, kids rooms, playrooms, adult Living spaces.

• Design Services: Birth Announcements, thank you cards, birthday & shower invitations. (Professional services available such as poster design, ads, logo design, portfolio design, brochures etc.)

• Birthday Parties: arts and crafts with your kids!

• Kids - Adult  Art Workshops

 

my space

its not much, but its mine.. its where i create, where i worship, dream, explore my thoughts, my heart. Have many conversations with papa and well.. work!
I don't think i have EVER seen it this clean. kind a nice organized chaos.

moment to myself

I took advantage of the baby's nap today and amidst all of the craziness of the upcoming nurtured show and a few commissions I have underway, I took a moment for me. I'm not sure what is stirring in my heart at the moment but there is something.. life is so busy. and i think it's easy to feel 2nd at times. balancing life, can often feel overwhelming, a young baby, a new family, a busy job, a new business, school, the future.. what's to come. This piece I painted, just for me. i don't know if it's done, it was a moment, it was a thought, it was apart of my heart that needed to be expressed. Its the first time in a while that i painted without putting expectation on myself... and. it felt free. 

its called forget-me-not.

forget-me-not

Triptych 8 x 8 

acrylic on gallery canvas

All things Baby: Nutured

I have been a very busy bee working away on an upcoming trade show “Nutured” baby show. It is an event put on by some wondering fun WAHM’s (work at home mom’s) and have inspired me to create some really fun things for my booth. Lots of great little baby mini’s and cute illustrations and lots of great things. Now here’s the thing… I am suddenly really inspired by this site a great friend sent me www.ohdeedo.com It has all these really cute nurseries and rooms. Of my goodness I am OBSESSED!! Ohhhh I want beautiful rooms!!!! Not that mine are crap I think I’ve done a good job but these.. this is a whole new world of really awesome, unique, creative interior design!!! On top of this,  I want to make all these cute SUPER cute baby things, the nurseries are just gorgeous and they have suuuch cute things!!!! (and so easy for me to make, or make even cuter) So perhaps there is a new business venture of some sort, making cute baby things. Hmm. I’ll sit on it. Seems it might be a tiny market but maybe it could work. It’s just that not everyone can afford original art. Sales are fine but it would be nice to have something just fun and cute and not so serious that I can make money off of too. So maybe I’ll make up a great etsy shop and sell them.. I have one for my art, I never really got around to knowing how to use it. Perhaps now is the time.

Etsy shop up!

I finally got my etsy shop up and working! will be updating often, check it out! cards, prints, paintings large and small, or just silly things i love to make.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/heathersinnott?ref=top_trail

Inspirational People: Kyle Stewart

Have you ever seen work that just stands out to you? Makes you really look, think & inspire you to create? I came across this artist a few years ago and came to my attention again at the recent Artists project Downtown Toronto. Kyle Stewart. His work just sucks me in!!! Just makes me want to stare at them all day.  I love the movement and texture of his work, it really blows me away how detailed but expressionistic the lines are. Check out his stuff, awesome Canadian artists  I hope you will be as engaged as I am.

www.kylestewart.ca

Tuesday Tips: Oil Pastels

Tuesday Tips           

So my wonderful Aunt who inspires me insanely and has since I was small has recently asked me about the pastels I use, that I like and my experience with them. After writing a massively long email, I was bummed when it deleted unexpectedly. I was going to write it again but have been recently thinking about this new blog and wanting to add some common weekly posts. A fellow friend and blogger does this and I love it, my favorite posts of hers “mama mondays’.  I  have decided to start up Feature Friday’s where I feature great talent that inspires me and have been trying to think of something clever for tips on art supplies techniques.. So I think Pastels are the first on the list of this.

Tuesday Tips…? Not as clever as I hoped but maybe it will do for now..

So lets get started

Hmm pastels.. this is my opinion and anyone can disagree or add to the conversation, this is just my own personal experience. I use oil pastels a lot in my art, mixing them with paint, thinning them out, blending smudging, accenting or just creating free flowing line with a different texture within a painting. Pastels can vary in their quality, from excellent ( smooth and buttery that glide across the page and blend perfectly), to a really crappy made pastel that is hard, almost like a  crayon that doesn’t glide or blend as easily but creates a different, finer line with a different texture and then there is everything in between. I personally am not particular to any type of pastel. I like them all b/c for me they all have different ways they are used based on their softness and hardness. You can buy pastels from the dollar store, to Walmart, to art stores like deserres or curry’s and in my opinion it is worth trying them all. I mix my qualities, some 4 or 5$ a stick or some 5-100$ a pack.  Three professional quality brands of oil pastel are Sennelier, Holbein, and Garich.  Mungyo & VanGogh  are student quality  brands but surprisingly decent products. They glide nice, a medium softness and blend surprisingly well and they are relatively cheap about $10 – 15 for a pack of 25 – 40 different colours. But I do have a certain softness in my heart to a really well made pastel, with true pigments and high quality everything.  if you have tried a really amazing quality pastel (easy to spot, usually sold individually, for a few dollars each) oh you will never go back. If you are looking for buttery softness and an amazing blend, these are worth it all the way. I tend to only buy certain colours of these, more for highlights and colours I want to have really beautiful vibrancy within a piece.  Rembrants are incredible  and $$$ but they’re  a chalk pastel, we’ll talk about those another day.

Tuesday Tip: TRY THEM ALL!!! I experiment and buy different kinds all the time and you only learn by doing, trying!! See what’s best for you. Try different ones Use them any way you can think of. Turpentine waters them down and you can make them a liquid on paper. Lay 2 colours beside each other and smudge the middle to create a perfect blend. Layer them on top of each other. They can become a palatable mixture (and the more they are worked and heat up the creamier they get) or can use as a single stroke to create broken lines. Commonly layering is used with oil pastels but I mix them with my paints, use them as overlays, highlights or defining lines. There are no rules, so throw out any ideas you did have about them and get working!

One important thing to know is that oil pastels don’t ever dry so they need to be sprayed with a fixative, can be found at any art store, Krylon makes a good product and offers UV protection so that your colours don’t fade and fixative doesn’t over time, yellow.

Happy Experimenting!

for the love of art

let me introduce myself...

My name is Heather Sinnott, I am a painter, I am a wife, a new mother, a teacher, a student.. i live in my own constant creative process, as it is my journey, living life in a mind full of ideas swarming, bursting inspiration, life and creativity in any form. I began painting seriously about 10 years ago and a graduate of the Honours Fine arts Program at Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec. I graduated at the top of my class with distinction receiving awards of excellence for my studio work. Though proud of my accomplishments, I am humble about my work, it is honest, it is vulnerable, it is the story of my heart.

I love being an artist because I love to create, without it would feel incomplete. It is simply a part of me. When I paint my mind disconnects and my hands start to work, I enter into a space of stillness that feels in slow motion, like i have all the time in the world. When I paint I am connecting with the paint & canvas, connecting with my heart  and God. For me it is a silent conversation of my heart because it is truly is a language that my heart understands clearly. Each stroke followed by another in a series of movements like a dance on canvas. In this place, there is freedom. 

I tend to work in series, their medium and subject can vary and is completely open to whatever is expressed. Each completely different from the next from representational to abstract. I paint what my heart feels at that moment in time, what it is saying, what it is hearing or feeling. Some series are well thought out and planned, some are completely spontaneous in the moment of stillness and complete peace.

My journey has been wonderful, challenging, lots of work and at times easy and flowing and full of some great opportunities at others. We all hit road bumps or creative blocks or times where we just can't seem to paint it out,  but we all grow, move forward and watch new buds grow and blossom on our trees of life. My work has shown all over and  I have enjoyed it and am proud of everything I have done and still look forward to more. I can't wait to see what's next, pushing myself to constantly move forward, grow and experience new things and find opportunities to share my heart with those interested in the journey.  

to check out my work visit

www.heathersinnott.com

this blog will be full of art, ramblings, things I love, things that inspire me, features, new work, shows, sales, all things art! Enjoy!