Out to Sea (oil, 6"x6")

Just across the sandbar is the open sea... Somewhere. I've been tinting a few of these little 6"x6" deep canvasses when I've had landscape friendly paint left on my palette. This canvas suggested a cloudy scene and this came from that suggestion. Cheers!

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Monday (oil, 8"x10")

Monday was always the day for laundry where I grew up. How about you? Have a great day!

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Garden Pot (oil, 6"x6")

This painting has been a long time in developing. It started out with an allover blue layer which was allowed to dry. Then, each time I painted, I used what I scraped off of my palette on this canvas. The goal today was to resolve this one. I love the texture in this little guy. Cheers!

 

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Evening Farewell [oil, 8”x10”]

This is a gorgeous time of year when the sun sets in the northwest and we have the softest evening light.  The swells are gentle and the sun sparkles before it slips behind the surrounding hills.  I took the reference photo for this painting in August 2010 when Ron and I visited Chuck and Elaine’s lake home in Sorrento, BC.  What a gorgeous, special place it is!  Wonderful memories to cherish forever.

Geranium Red (oil, 8"x10")

This week, despite fantastic weather, I've been painting inside. I am trying out a couple of new tools on my iPad. First, I took a photo of my still life setup with my iPad and opened it in an ap called Value Viewer. I made the image black and white and played with the program until I felt I had a decent value pattern. Then I formatted the image to my 8"x10" size, added grid lines, and sketched the outline on my panel. Finally, I painted.

This is the black and white image I was sketching from. I think this will be a helpful tool for studying subjects. It has a notan feature as well, which I found useful for confirming relative lightness and darkness of portions of my subject and simplification. I like the way the flower turned out in this and it was a lot of fun to paint. I do want to work on my drawing skills though... This bowl is not quite the right shape. Cheers!

 

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Columbine (oil, 8"x10")

Here's a little plein air painting I did with my friend and mentor Sharon Williams a couple of weeks ago in her garden. I was struggling on this particular day due to having had dry brushes for several weeks. One of the most important things I've learned as an artist is this: keep your brushes wet if you want to learn! I really want to learn, therefore it's critical that I get painting again and stay painting regularly. Right now I'm working out how I can carve time for this out of a busy life... A few minutes at a time.

Cheers!

 

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Leighton View [8”x10, oil]

Last Saturday I wandered out to Leighton Centre to do some plein air painting.  It’s nice out there on the weekend as there are a number of other artists painting and other folks visiting the gallery and schoolhouse.  It certainly makes me feel less nervous about the cougars that have been seen prowling around in that area lately!!!  Anyway, this is a bit of the vast, panoramic view from the Centre…  if you live near Calgary but have never visited the Leighton Centre, you are missing out!!!

Cheers!

Summer Gems [8”x10”, oil]

I picked these fleurs in my garden and set them up as a little still life today.  It feels great to be painting again.  I’m still quite busy and many things in life are up in the air…  but painting helps keep my perspective and focus.  I’m thankful for the things it brings into my life!  Cheers!