Last Wave (6"x10")

In Canmore, just 45 minutes west of our house it is SNOWING. Now, don't panic... it's just a little bit of snow. But it does tell you something about our weather right now. We are experiencing cooler weather. I like it. I think I'm going to enjoy fall and winter this year! It's not that I'm crazy about cold weather... lets just say I'm not as crazy about heat as I used to be. My little wave petunias have had a great year - loaded with blooms since I planted them in May. They just seemed to be saying their final goodbye to summer today - their "last wave". I plucked a stem and stuck it in this vase that I've been wanting to paint and I kind of like how it turned out. The stem on the bottom is a "popcorn orchid" given to me by a neighbourhood gardener named Michelle. This spring she was pulling the little plants out as quickly as they could grow... apparently they are a very aggressive reseeding plant. She offered me some of her little plants and they are now about 5 feet tall and covered with these little orchid like blooms. That reminds me... I really need to take the seed pods off as they mature or I'll have a time of it next spring!

I can't decide if I like this painting without the bottom 1.5 inches or with it... thoughts?

Mediteranean Climb ( 9"x4")

Again, I am enjoying painting stairs. They fascinate me because they take me somewhere if I have the effort to climb them... In this case, I may have to rest a few times on the way up but it looks like fun and the weather is nice and bright at the top.

Thanks to Denise for providing the artistic material for this photo. She and her son David travelled over to the Mediteranean to visit with husband and dad Sandy, currently posted in Afghanistan with our Canadian troops. They took a Med cruise together and wandered a variety of towns and streets... LOTS of great stairs over there!

I think they set a great exampe for our family - when Matthew goes on tour in Feb 2010, I'm hoping we can pack the kids and Christina over to the Med for a week of R&R. It sounds like a great thing to look forward to. One consideration will of course be that a motorized scooter might not do so well on islands covered with stairs like these.

Enjoy your long weekend!

Floral Reflections (8"x11")

Again, I am not satisfied that I captured the reflections accurately in this lovely piece of pottery. However, as Jane Fonda says "good enough is good enough". I don't often quote her but... I'll make an exception today. "Perfection is overrated" she says - and I believe her. I like to think of myself as a recovering perfectionist... you could even say I have an entry level position as a recovering perfectionist some days, lol. I like the yellow flowers on the right hand side... they're pretty loose... just as I tried to be throughout this painting. I'm still tighter than I'd like. I'm giving myself as much time as I want to preparation but maximum 1 hour on painting. I hope this will loosen me up.

What I want you to see in this painting are the reflections of the purple and yellow flowers on the surface of the dish AND the lovely, sparkly lights that the bottom of the dish is throwing onto the table cloth. This candy dish is turning into a real fun toy... enjoy!

St Albert Elevators (21"x11")

Growing up as a Saskatchewan girl the sight of elevator rows was not only common, it seemed permanent. Sadly for elevator lovers, they are disappearing from the landscape like dinosaurs did ages ago. Anybody reading this that has photos of elevators - especially those around Eston, Saskatchewan - please email them to me??? I'm gathering loads of material for the future and I've learned a whole lot about what I like to paint this summer... buildings are one of those loves.
I'm getting all nostalgic typing this... better get back to what I've been doing. I'm spending some time to sort out my art room in preparation for my fall classes. It's not like I'm actually going to school but I love my art supplies... never mind commenting Ron. I need to make sure I've counted all my stuff so I don't over-shop. The gadgets are building up to having a life of their own and I'm working on organization and finding everything a home. Unfortunately, I'll have to use last year's pencil crayons, sigh. [for 12 years running I hassled my mother for new pencil crayons whether I needed them or not. I NEEDED them because I could face anything if I had new pencil crayons. What a funny duck I was... ]
Now I have 6 grandkids getting ready for school - things change so quickly and it's only Kalista now that will be home with mommy. Two more tikes are off to school... Kiera is going to have an intereting year in Japanese pre-school. Ethan is joining his brothers and sisters for a home-schooling experience. It's going to be a lot of fun!!!

Head Shot (10"x10")

Flower portraits intrigue me... The tulip lends itself well to a close-up with a huge variety of looks from delicate and unusual to the more common, garden varieties. This particular flower head shot is loosely based on a photo I took just down the street last year.
I enjoy drawing and painting things that have defined shapes like this. It's easy to concentrate on the shapes rather than on "painting a tulip". Thinking about the latter can sometimes impact my ability to paint what's in front of me.
Here's and example: can you draw a tree? Of course you can! You've been able to do that since you turned three. Make a circle and then make two parallel lines down from the centre. See? You can draw a tree. The symbol for a tree anyhow. The problem with that is now you have an idea in your head and it's hard to knock it loose. Your brain keeps on telling you that a tree is that even when your eyes are giving you better information. Learning to "see" the real shapes in a subject takes time and practice. In this little painting there are many ovals, a parallelogram, a (near) triangle, and a couple of circles. When you take "tulip" out of your thinking and deal with the shapes in relationship to each other... voila! a tulip centre emerges. Fun stuff... sign up for an art class at a community college near your home, lol...
Have a great night!

Flowers With a View (15"x15")

Flowers With a View - A catchy name for a painting that would have benefited from a few more minutes of planning...

What do I like? The colors are working for me - especially on the right hand side of the painting. I like that this was done from life, not a photo. I think that makes it fresher and more artsy... working from photo reference just isn't as much fun. The flowers are bright and cheery... and very informally arranged... I was still cutting flowers when Lindsey arrived to paint. An afternoon of color and light... it doesn't get much better than that (unless the grandkids are in town!).

What would I change? I would mess around a bit longer with the setup to make the overlapping sections interesting. I would use my viewfinder when I sketch so that the entire bottle has room on the page (!?!). I would make the flowers facing the viewer instead of having them facing toward their own personal window (which was added last to give the flowers "a view").

Overall, it was a fun painting experience - Lindsey was over to paint for the first time since our painting challenge August 12th. Where has the summer gone? Wasn't that a fast one? Here's a photo of what Lindsey did today.... lovely and loose!

Over the course of this summer I've come realize that I really love to paint still life arrangements. I'm not sure if this is because I get to the painting experience without a drive... or that some of the shapes are hard edged and I love that! More stairs are on the agenda folks.


Anybody else on Olympic withdrawal?

Middle Lake Kettle (4"x6" ink & watercolor sketch)

Ron & I have decided to see some of the nearby sites after living here for 14 years. There are so many treasures within one hour drive of our home it's a new goal to see as many as we can now while the weather holds. It was a lovely day... bit windy but that was fine. We wandered around today and ended up in Bow Island Provincial Park in the northern part of Kananaskis Country. Featuring in this sketch are the Middle Lake Kettle, Mount Lawrence Grassi (far top right) and I'm working on names for the rest of the mountains... Google Earth, be good to me!
What a beautiful place to stay with a trailer or tent. The day facilities are very nice too. We parked and walked in about 100 yards where we found a bench just waiting for us. Ron wandered about with the camera taking photos of interesting flora and fauna and mountains, while I set up to sketch the beautiful little lake and the spectacular backdrop Rocky Mountains. About the time I began to add the watercolor to my sketch the wind picked up and it was a challenge to get the job done before the entire set blew away. Hurry doesn't generally improve these sketches... and the wind blew away the overhead clouds, changing the lighting. So, I made adjustments as best I could and we packed up and moved along. What a fun thing to look forward to on a Sunday afternoon drive! The sense of adventure, meandering along with no firm thought as to where we would land up... lovely and relaxing. I KNOW I could enjoy camping if I had a good mattress. That's all I'd ask.... But, my honey requires a few more bells and whistles... we're dreaming.

Salsa Thoughts (10"x14")

I just needed to set up a still life and paint from it. I have this neat pewter cup - a remnant of my days at Arthur Anderson. I set this arrangement up, rearranged a few times and then sketched from life. Now, two days later I pulled out the tomatoes and set it up for painting. The challenges with this painting were the colors of the pewter cup... reflections in the cup seemed to be quite green. I like how this one turned out. It's very kitcheny and I'm excited to get it framed and hung.

This painting has a split complementary color scheme. The green bottle and leaves on the tomato are compliments to the red tomatoes. The oranges in the blinds and the drapery are complimented by the blue's in the cup and in the folds of the drapery. This was fun to do - still life is beginning to be a favourite subject of mine. I enjoy relating the items together, looking for good negative shapes, and watching the paint do it's thing.

Blessings to all... And welcome to Maverick John Coppola, born yesterday in Gilbert, AZ. Proud parents are Christa (my neice) and John Coppola, Proud big sister is Tula Belle 14 months old! All are well and looking very happy!

Burnt Orange Iris (6"x6")

I spotted these gorgeous orange irises in Colorado Springs at the horticultural art club's demonstration garden. I think they're just lovely colors and looked just beautiful with the bluish foliage. You can check out the demonstration gardens here... be sure to visit them the next time you're in Colorado Springs! Enjoy...

So Glad We Came (6"x6")

... and I'd be glad to go back anytime! The sketch for this little painting is based on a couple of photos I took when I was in Nuevo Vallarta. This couple was standing just in front of us as we watched this astonishing sunset. They seemed to be reveling in each other and the memories of the week - a great week. It was such an awesome sight over the ocean and it lasted a long time. The reflections on the sand were more colorful than I've been able to capture here. Perhaps on a larger surface I'll have enough space to explore that more fully. It's on my list.

Folks talk about Hawaiian sunsets but Nuevo Vallarta served up gorgeous sunsets almost every night - any of which were more beautiful than what I saw during 14 days on the big island, 8 nights on Maui and 3 nights on Oahu. Don't get me wrong - I'd be quite happy to return to the Islands at any time... August is a particularly beautiful time there with the ocean SO warm for snorkeling.

Now, back to beach volleyball... until tomorrow!