New Blog/website Home!

Hello I have moved to a blog on my new website...

Here is my new address. Save the link because the search engines haven't found it yet...

http://felicitybergstrom.weebly.com/

I have just written a post about this new painting over there. If you have trouble subscribing etc. please just comment on this post. 

I hope you like the new site!

My new Studio

 
In the front of the garage where we now live is a smaller room which Caleb and I have converted into our work space the 'Site'. As with the back room we layered cardboard over the cold, hard concrete floor and then replaced the carpet in an effort to make the place a bit more comfortable and not so cold on the feet. During the first couple of weeks after we arrived in Christchurch we spent a bit of time setting up our little home and carried a lot of pallet wood, mattress, cardboard, etc through the streets back to the flat ( called the 'Habitat' ) on our heads or on our bikes as feet or peddle are our only means of transport here (Buses are not for poor students except in extreme necessity).

   Caleb did a bit of furniture making also -- or furniture alterations-- including extending a small desk for me for more table space and leg room, and making a tabouret for me out of an old desk on wheels. This will be very handy for painting on, and I just need to locate a sheet of glass for the top as a pallet. I still need to find or create an easel of some kind. Maybe something like the one demonstrated in this video.


  I am all set up to start plein air painting and have just primed fifteen small boards on which to paint en plein air as well as some larger boards for studio painting. I am using traditional oil primer for the first time and using rabbit skin glue for the first time to seal the boards before applying primer. Rabbit skin glue is a traditional glue that has been used for sealing canvas or wood panels for hundreds of years. It comes in dry form in tiny pieces which is soaked 3 to 10 in water and then you melt it in a double boiler and paint on all surfaces of the board to seal it. In my research some sources recommended applying it cold as a gel, but others said that it worked better and soaked into the wood applied hot. I applied it hot, and warm as it cooled down. If any of my readers know anything about it I would love to hear your comments as to the correct way.

  I'm planning to do a lot of plein air work, explore the city and get out and about. It's becoming more of an arts city since the earthquakes and all of the damage from them. I don't know why people still live here it is so unstable the ground could skake and any time.  Since I've been here I have already experienced two skakes, one was big enough to have the university evacuated. So why am I living here for that matter? well for love and study I guess.

Just Married

   Back on the internet again, under a new name! I am now Mrs Bergstrom! I was married on the 9th of January to an amazing man, Caleb Bergstrom who has appeared now and again in the background of this blog and who helped begin The Art of a Hut project.

  Here are a couple of wedding photos which were taken by my very talented sister who has a photography business, you can see more of her work here: Luce Bianca Photography.

   Being married is ideal and now there will be no more long distance calls and living only for the holidays. Now, I am married to the engineering student and get to share in his daily life of highs and lows. I am now in Christchurch which shall be my home for a year or two while Caleb completes two more years as a forestry engineering student. We have moved into the garage of his flat which is now composed of five guys and me.

 We have two little rooms in the garage and the front room has been converted into a studio 'Site' For us both, but with all my painting supplies I'm beginning to take over most of the room... Last week and this I have been biking about the city finding the best stores for art supplies. Coming from a small town in the far north to living in one of the main cities of New Zealand is a little overwhelming and the art shops here have so many of the equipment and tools I'd only heard of before, or would have to order online. It was as good as being in a chocolate shop with a dollar to spend.

   Now that I have come back to my blog again I plan to write a lot more here than last year, and post images of my future paintings and drawings so look out for more from me soon. As well as my newsletter which I will email soon.

  I am also working on a new portfolio website as blogger is a bit limited in that department. I will still keep this blog up... Though I will have to do something about updating the header.