Rocky Bloom (oil, 8"x10")

On the rocks along Sheep River, near the falls, these tiny lavender flowers go about their blooming business as they are designed to do by their creator. They do this despite their rocky perch and sandy soil and despite the likelihood that no one will sing their praises. They do this for the audience of one, their creator who does all things well.

 

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Royal rework (oil, 12"x12")

My oil version of "Royal" has been languishing in my studio awaiting some attention. I gave I a very few minutes to it today to see whether I could make a difference. I like it better with these few changes. What do you think?

Here's the original version...

 

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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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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!

First to Bloom [oil, 9”x12”]

Ron brought me these lovely spring-time tulips last week.  They were all tightly closed at first and then one pink and white opened before all the others… 

 

Here’s a photo of the tulips and my original rough sketch.  It was fun to get back into the studio even if just for a few hours.  I’ve missed it as life has been pretty busy lately.  Happy Spring!

Spring’s Hidden Gems

Spring on the prairies is heralded by the crocus, purple/blue and feathery, opening with the cool spring sun.  I wanted to keep this feathery and wispy with the focus on the crocus blooms.  They last such a short time that they must be enjoyed in situ and quickly.  Enjoy!

Royal Oil [oil, 12”x12”]

Monday felt like a good day to paint but my fatigued brain was void of fresh new ideas…  I retreated to my comfort zone, pulled out one of my fav watercolors, and painted it in oil.  Wow, what a challenge.  It sometimes feels foreign to do the darks first and lights last rather than save my whites/lights until last, as in watercolor.  It was also a big challenge to get splatters in oil – there must be a trick to that.  I may end up going back into this and adding a few more highlights before I call it finished [even tho I signed it :( ]. I suspect some opaque lights in the purple flowers might be cool but I’m thinking it over.  Anyway, here are a couple of shots of the painting in process and my source painting “Royalty”.  Cheers!

Yellow ground laid and subject sketched in… Part way through…  still needing the highlights.  

Today’s Picks [8”x10”, oil on board]

In my little front garden the chives and the Lady’s Mantle are blooming side by side – a wonderful confusion of red-violet and lime green.  I selected a few of the stems – yes, I realize 5 chives would have been more “right”…  but I felt a bit rebellious as I selected these and made four work [I think].  The squat little marquise shaped vase was a bit of a scary shape to paint.  I just blocked out all “vase” thoughts and looked at the light and dark patterns.  I did my best to capture the biggest ones and I think it’s working. 

My daughter and son-in-law [Kim and Kyle] are off to the Calgary Stampede for the evening, leaving our grandson, Parker, with Grandma and Grandpa for the evening.  This will be the first 24 hour + period of separation for mommy and Parker.  Hope it goes well…  have a great day all!

Bold and Beautiful [6”x6”, oil on canvas]

Much of my energy lately has been focused on preparing for other folks to see my house.  Ugh!  I bought some sunflowers at Costco last week in preparation for one of these showings.  I just grabbed this little guy one evening and sketched him up quickly.  He’s nice and bright and cheerful, just what I need around here!  Cheers!

Late June Tulips [oil, 8”x6”]

No, I’m not kidding!  The tulips planted on the northeast side of my house just bloomed a few weeks ago and they will probably last another week.  It’s been a very cold spring around here but today is glorious!  Sunny and warm for the first day of summer!  Enjoy!

Work in progress… flowers in vase

I’ve been working on this one off and on for a few days now.  I’m keeping the colors almost analogous, but the flowers want a bit of that orange in them.  This surface has a lot of molding paste texture in the background.  My next step is going to be excavating some of the texture with my Speedball lino cutter.  This will be my first attempt at this so wish me luck!  I’m in an experimental mood – why not? 

Poppy Pod

Here’s a little flower sketch – just a poppy jumble.  I started this way back in May and it’s been sitting around in my pile.  Today I decided to putter a bit more to see if I could make something out of it.  I like the seed head and the top left background and I think I’ll chalk the rest up to experience.  Tomorrow is another painting day.  Cheers!

Tulip collage... done

I have learned a lot from this collage because I've basically done it over about 4 times. Collage is so flexible and that makes it really easy to take a 'do over'. Here are some other things I've learned while re-re-redoing this project:

• Acrylic paint application - FAR different than watercolor and there are pluses and minuses. They really can't be compared to each other in my mind. Kinda like comparing really good automotive paint to really good makeup - the applications are just too different to make it worthwhile.
• Acrylic mediums... part way through this project I learned that I should be using soft gel MATTE medium to attach collage papers rather than soft gel GLOSS medium. That's because the gloss medium is, you guessed it, glossy!
• Paper weight... I used good quality sketch paper on this project and I've been fighting that from the outset. The smooth lines on the teapot, vase, and the apple are way too noticeable for my liking. Lighter paper - even 20 bond paper would have been a better choice in that regard. Archival quality doesn't matter because collage papers are sealed by the acrylic paint on top and are attached with more acrylic medium to the support.
• Support - I used a stretched canvas support that I had on hand. The upside of that is that, if you a like the piece, you don't have to frame it... a little black paint on the edges is all that is needed. The downside is that, if you like only part of the piece, you can't cut the bad parts out and keep the good as easily as on other supports like watercolor paper, mat board, or illustration board.

I hope you had a great weekend. Ours was decent until late last night when it started to snow - 31 centimetres before it stopped. Enough said. Cheers...

Tulips...

Back to the tulips today and I'm feeling good about where this is going. I definitely like the color with the warm dominating. I like my apple better but the reflection on the vase isn't right somehow. So, I'll rest this up against the wall so my mind can mull it over for a while.
We're off to see Australia tonight. I wish it were the real thing but, alas, just the movie. Still, it'll be fun. Cheers!

Collage tulips...

When it comes to art, Grandma's old adage "a job begun is a job half done" is just WRONG! Sorry, Grandma... I've got a decent start on this 16"x20" piece but I have a long way to go to completion. I did a background in acrylic before I began laying collage elements. Now I've done a bit more painting and I will most likely continue that cycle a few more times... lots of fun. It's puttery though. Tomorrow I'm setting up another piece because I need to have more than one thing going... my brain needs to mull things over between sessions. Figuring out the next steps takes a while. Enjoy!

Red Lilies (13"x9")

Another "start" finished. This one didn't have a lot of texture at the beginning... just colors mixed up on the paper. Once dry it sat around for a week or more before I thought of a photo I took this summer of my red lilies. Looking at it now gives me the feeling of a jumbled up garden in bright sun... Enjoy!

Fairy Ferris Wheel (11"x14" for now)

I was intrigued by the lady slipper form and long moustache of this orchid. Using a photo reference works better when it is a reminder of a time/place/feeling personally experienced. My folks and I visited the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden in August 2003. It was a great day for orchids - warm and humid in the shade of the garden. I think I captured some of the mystery of the flower in this painting. Now if I could just get my hands on a milkshake from What's Shakin'! If you ever go to Hilo, don't miss this treat... the memory of the home grown fresh fruit taste is very strong! Aloha!

Windy Whites (13"x10")

Cosmos, especially white cosmos, are an interesting subject to paint. This time I tried a new method for saving the whites - clear contact film. Although it did it's job well I don't think it's going to be a regular in my bag of tricks. It gave a very hard edge to the flowers and it's not only unrealistic, it's misleading. These flowers were blowing hard over from left to right in the wind. The hard edges make that less believable than painting around the white would have done. I softened some of the flower edges and it did help some. Go vote Canada!!!!

Golden Vase (21"x14")

Here's the finished product... You might recognize the split compliment (blue/orange & violet/green gold). This painting was a lot of work and, although I am satisfied with the result, it's not a favourite. I may need some time to get perspective on this one. Right now all I can think of is SAVE MORE WHITE PAPER! I had so much work to scrub out (barely) enough lights to make a painting. Something to think about when preparing the next start.

For easy reference here's what it looked like 2 days ago:

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!!!

Work in progress - Golden Vase

A few days ago I covered my kitchen table and sloshed around in paint just as if I was in grade 2. After I added paint to the watercolor paper I placed some saran wrap, wax paper, onion mesh and a variety of other texture making stuff on the wet surface and left it to dry. At that point it looked like this:

This is where the interpretation and second guessing begins. I looked at this "start" from all angles and I saw a woman leaning on one elbow, a box jellyfish, an octopus & seaweed, a bullfighter and a Franciscan priest....... Before you assume I'm crazy these are all options that I could have developed in this painting. However, I like doing still life paintings and I also saw flowers wrapped in clear cellophane with a greenish gold vase behind it. The purples, however, were troublesome - way too dark. I pencilled around the shapes I wanted to develop and began painting this morning. I added some rice paper "leaves" to the plant on the right hand side before painting the plant and pot. Also I've developed the darks (maybe too much) around around the bow, flowers, and the cellophane highlights.After a couple of 30 minute sessions this is how it looked:

I continued to develop the flowers and darkened the background vase this afternoon and here's how it looks right now. Stay tuned...