When I’m working on a canvas or other piece of art I find I work best when something can put me in the “zone” so I’m not over thinking what I’m doing. I need to hear something to concentrate my mind. I tried music or movies but found of late I work best when listening to someone talk, especially if it’s an enjoyable topic to me. BUT I don’t like having others in my studio, I need to be alone or it’s too distracting while I work. A lack of focus can be super frustrating at times. To help focus I have turned to podcasts, and YouTube.
I’m into history, espionage, mystery, and the James Bond related. Currently listening to My Favourite Murder, True Spies, and The Great James Bond Car Robbery. I’m always open to new podcast suggestions if you have.
In the last couple years I’ve found enjoyment in hearing Josie of Fashion Mumblr and Lydia Millen chatter about their homes, gardening and fashion on their YouTube channels. They both have lovely styles and their gardens are inspiring while I paint my flowers – not to mention all the cute dogs! Oh and I’d be remiss not to mention the channels How to Renovate a Chateau and Doing It Ourselves. They have some great talent, humour and inspiring DIYs. They’re also amazing artists in their fields. Baumgartener Restoration is a fascinating art restoration channel. Some of his videos are so therapeutically satisfying and his commentary and explanations are hilarious and fascinating. My husband and I have spent many an evening fixed to his channel.
When my brain focuses on what they’re saying and doing I can disappear into my paintings. Doesn’t always work with music for me, though sometimes jazz or classical does. Not sure why. Maybe its hearing adults talk that is helpful – I’m around little kids all day! It’s a nice change even if I can’t converse.
With school back in I’m now able to get back into a schedule for studio time and focus on more work. It feels great and it’s motivating me well! I can’t wait for clients to see their commissioned pieces. Once they have I’ll share about them here and on Instagram.
Valentines Roses, Coloured Pencil by Jolene D. 2021
Its August and I’ve been busy searching for back to school supplies for the kids. As a child I aways loved back to school shopping especially for the colouring supplies.
Oh those pencil crayons! Cautiously carrying that new pack to the check out, mindful not to talk about them in case your mother realizes you still have lots of them at home or that older sibling generously offers you their old ones. On that lucky day you did arrive home with them you’d relish breaking the sticker seal and lifting the flaps to smell the chemically newness of the pencils in their vinyl carrying case. Savouring its never-to-be-witnessed-again full size, writing your name on them and then finally testing it on its maiden colouring voyage – immediately snapping that impossibly sharp point you worked so hard on. Sigh!
Wait, what?! Hold on. Pencil crayon? Vinyl carrying case? Yup! If you’re Canadian and went to grade school between 1960 and 2001 you probably get that reference to Laurentien Pencil Crayons because as I recently learned, these are two very Canadian things just like poutine and saying Eh.
I knew subconsciously that “pencil crayons” were Canadian speak but it didn’t fully register until I went to add hashtags to my art on Instagram! I felt like a hoser, but apparently not many of us have fully realized this either. Its not one of the famously talked about Canadianisms like hydro and chocolate bar and… hoser.
In the US they say “Colored Pencil” and in the UK its “Colouring Pencil” or “Coloured Pencil” I’m told. I like to use the latter too (many here actually do) but in conversation I’ll say pencil crayon, its the most common. It seems the term “Pencil Crayon” comes from the mixing of French “Crayon de Couleur” and the English “Coloured Pencil.” “Crayon” in French originally meant “Chalk Pencil” dating to the 16th century. I’m curious if it was Laurentien who coined “pencil crayon” in translating their packaging to English.
So about that packaging – the iconic vinyl case. Laurentien innovated the vinyl pouch in the 1960s. Some had a vinyl strap that the flap could tuck into but you usually had to tuck them in between the pencil and case or you’d try in vain to keep the sticker seal in use. It was pretty satisfying to have them all tucked in neat and I loved that the case flipped open like a book. They were inexpensive and came in packs of varying quantities that I never got to see. At most I had the 24pack. The pouch was really great… until it wasn’t. You’d always try hard to reorganize them back in after each use but the darn flap would get in the way when in a rush and inevitably something would rip and it had to be tossed aside. I was glad to see they had switched back to cardboard in 2001, they all went into our pencil cases by week 2 anyways. Some Crayola products actually have similar pouches nowadays. I’m sorry to say I do not have a pouch anymore.
Each pencil was painted to match the lead and they had a white bar (yellow for the white) for writing/etching your name on so classmates couldn’t steal them. According to my remaining collection of them that did not entirely work – sorry Jeff W! They came unsharpened and had numbers and odd names like 2. Sarasota Orange; 4. Hollywood Cerise; 20. Arizona Topaz. The names were based on the colour-by-number kits Laurentien once created.
These were, I’m guessing, the number 1 selling brand of pencil crayon in Canada for well over 4 decades and it seemed every kid used them. They were so much better than the Crayola, they actually had a decent blend… to an extent… or at least the red ones did. The purples were completely shit. I always layer warm colours over the Arizona Topaz (a beige) then went over every thing with the White to blend. They had decent enough colour payoff so my geography class maps were bold and bright – often in a rainbow.
Laurentien was made in Quebec, Canada and marketed as Paradise by the Venus Pencil Company in the US. Faber-Castell bought Venus in 73. Sanford (who became Newell which is the parent company of Prismacolor, Sharpie etc) bought the Laurentien brand in 94. I don’t recall the other art products they had as the pencil crayons were the most popular. The brand was discontinued in 2012.
I didn’t realize until recent they were discontinued. I had a good chuckle to read that people are now collecting these pencil crayons. I. have a secret – until this summer I had been using solely Laurentian pencil crayons in my sketch books. I had amassed such a huge collection of them over the years that they’ve lasted until now. I always thought I’d use them for my sketch book until it was necessary to move on. Well, I’m down to my last couple beloved Hollywood Cerise and Cherry Red nubs and I thought it was time I started using more professional quality coloured pencils for my sketch book and stop cursing out the purples. Currently using Castle Arts for my sketch book. Game changer for the purples!
So now that my son is needing pencil crayons for school, I got him Crayola, and forbade him to use my collectable Laurentiens. It’s always his job to sharpen them though. Hehe!
If anyone knows of a made in Canada art supply please let me know, would love to check them out!
Atelier JD 