New World Clouds

 

New World Clouds

7x7"

oil on canvas

sold

I have been meaning to post this painting all week. It is the other painting I did on Monday when I pulled out my little starter set of oils. Actually I did this one first and "Clouds Over Emma" second. It is painted over a Burnt Sienna acrylic ground and I like the little bits that show through near the edges of the clouds and the horizon. I think there is a more subdued energy in this one compared to the last post which was done on the Cadmium Orange ground. I went down to the art supply store on Thursday and got four more little canvases so I can continue playing with my oils next week.

Cloud Over Emma

 

Cloud Over Emma

7x7"

oil on canvas

sold

I have been saying for awhile now that I would like to try my hand at oil paints. I have been enjoying acrylics, but have felt that I am limited by them to an extent, especially if I want to go for a softer more blended look. Acrylics just dry so darn quickly that you either have to work fast or else use a gel medium (not a fan) to keep them wet longer. Well, last month I was extremely close to ordering the full gamete of oil paint and supplies through Opus online because they had a sale on their Gamblin brand (Karin Jurick uses many of their colours). Then the practical and frugal side of me kicked in, as it often does, and said, "Why don't you crack open the starter set you got for your birthday a couple of years ago before you shell out the big bucks?" So yesterday I went to the studio and that is exactly what I did! I pulled out that little set of 12 colours and had the time of my life! Seriously, it's a whole new world ... I swear could hear Alladin and Jasmine singing as I painted... or maybe it was this guy.... "a whole new world, a new fantastic point of view... a dazzling place I never knew... it's crystal clear that now I'm in a whole new world..."

So the result of my studio playtime was this little sky, and another which I will show next time, on a canvas I had prepared ages ago with a cadmium orange (acrylic) ground. You can see the orange peaking through here and there and I like the undertone it gives the lighter part of the sky above the horizon. I was a pretty large mess when I finished for the day because I kept forgetting the paint was wet, so there will be a learning curve fo sho, but you know what? I think I'm up for it! And today when I went in I got some serious encouragement and positive feedback from two of the other artists that were there working. They both especially liked this one, so here it is for you to see... my first little oil painting since first year university (many moons ago)!  

An Honour

 

Imagine my surprise when I got a lovely message from Barbara Muir saying she was giving me the Sunshine Award for creative and positive blogging. It is high praise coming from one of the most positive bloggers I have ever come across! Please swing by the link to her art blog and you will see exactly what I mean. I am quite determined to meet this amazing woman in person someday.

The rules for accepting the award are:
Put the logo on your blog or within your post,
Pass the award on to 12 Bloggers
Link to the nominees in your post
Let the nominees know they have received this award
Link to the people who gave you the award.

Okay, so I am giggling about Barbara's comment that it is too hard to choose only twelve and I, too, am a middle child who wants to be fair and not miss giving it to all the wonderful blogs I have come across. However, besides giving the award to me Barbara has also given it to many of the blogs I know and love... so what is the etiquette here? Do I double the award up and give it to the same people she did? Hmmm... I think I will try to list twelve different blogs and I will just say ditto to her list!

I'm paying the Sunshine Award forward to the following lovelies:

Deborah Ross... check out her gorgeous self-portrait blog banner
Julie Beck... now here is a creative person and I love the history and stories in her paintings 
Don Michael Jr... he paints masks with tons of personality... and also did some kick ass portraits of his three children for Christmas
Sheila... her subject matter is varied, but her style is consistently colourful and joyous... and everyone loves her!

Tatiana Myers... I recently discovered her beautiful pastel paintings and blog
Christine McCoy... she started a daily painting adventure about six months ago and I admire her ambition

Jeffrey Boron... oh, how I love his Canadian West Coast Impressionism style

Halima Washington... rich and buttery paintings done with the impasto technique

Judy Mackey... she paints with a palette knife and it's wonderful!
Lisa Daria... love, love, love her still lifes 
Liyana... a sweet young lady working hard at her dream 
Auspergertopia... a beautiful, heartfelt blog by an amazing woman...she's a prairie Martha Stewart

I want to be sure that everyone on this list knows that I chose them to acknowledge them for the enjoyment I get out of looking at their blogs and I hope now that others will find you through these links. Please do not feel obligated in any way to do anything more with this award... it is completely okay to smile and do nothing more than bask in it's sunshiny glory!

Thank you, Barbara, for shining the sun on me! XO


P.S. I need to alert everyone on this list that they have received this award, but it is now very late so I will handle that part tomorrow...

Six Months Ago

Autumn Magic

acrylic on 200 lb paper
sold

This is a painting I did in 2003 and it was included in my first solo show (2004) in a local coffee shop. It was purchased by one of my oldest and dearest friends and her husband who have been extremely generous and supportive of my art since day one. I don't have the dimensions handy, but if memory serves it is somewhere around the 11x14 mark. Keep in mind that my memory often doesn't serve me well, so I could be wrong. I never have fully recovered from "baby brain". How long is one considered post par-tum anyway? My guess is I can't ride that train almost eight years later. Nuts.

I have not been to the studio for almost two weeks and therefore have nothing new to share, hence the trip into the archives. The kids have had no school this week and the week before was riddled with stress and "goings-on" that threw me for a bit of a loop... so no creative moments for me. I've been happy to be on holidays with the kids this week and decompress a bit from the week before. It would have been nice to get away, but after our accident last fall our holiday fund quickly became the new(er) car fund! Oh well, there is always next year. We made our own fun in this great city of ours and so it still feels like we got a break.

Today is a milestone which is why, despite having no new artwork to show, I wanted to make a post. Exactly six months ago today I gave myself this blog for my birthday. I had been thinking about starting one for ages and even begun the process on Blogger before, but always backed out after a few steps. Well, six months ago I stopped thinking about it and I just did it! I kept on typing and filling in boxes until the next thing I knew I had a blog. I am so pleased I didn't let those negative voices interfere that day. Maybe you know the ones I mean... the voices in your head saying things like: "You are computer illiterate, how can you start a blog all by yourself" or "You aren't good enough to be posting your art on the web! Are you kidding me?" or maybe the one that says "Who will ever leave a comment for you? You aren't interesting. Nothing you say or show will be worthy of comment". The voices also say other things like: "Did you really need to eat that bag of chips in one sitting?" or "You have no business putting on a bathing suit, lady", but that is another story for another post! Where does that negative self-talk come from and how soon does it start? I certainly don't know, but I am profoundly happy that on that evening in August when the kids were in bed and my husband was reading his paper, I was able to quiet the voices of self- doubt and go for it!

Bright Summer Light

 

Bright Summer Light

22x28"

acrylic on canvas

sold

 

Well, here it is. It took me longer than expected, but I think it is now done... unless I get looking at it too closely again! I'm sure I could keep working on it, but for now it is time to stop, put it away and move on. It didn't end up being as much like "Looking Up" as I originally thought. It is more an examination of this section of this particular pine tree which had a bunch of dead, broken branches coming off it's amazingly textured trunk and the strong shadows they cast. I remember when I took the photo I thought how glorious this old tree looked standing there so proud, lit up by the bright summer light. I hope I conveyed some of that here in this painting. 

Thanks for stopping by to check it out.

Shady River

 

Shady River

7x7"

acrylic on canvas

sold

I thought I would get to the studio four out of the five weekday afternoons this week and now it is looking more like two! I went Monday and then today. Yesterday I helped with Sammy's skating field trip, tomorrow is a therapeutic massage and Friday Sammy's class has another field trip! At any rate, I thought my pine tree was done when I left the studio on Monday, but looking at it today I felt unsure about the moss on the tree branches. I tweaked them and now I am even less sure! None of the other artists were there so I couldn't get an opinion. I think the problem is that it has all turned out differently than I originally imagined in my head. If I can let go of that I might be able to move on. I decided to step away from the tree, regroup and do a little painting of one of my favorite subjects, Spruce River. Here is what I left with after two hours of pure happiness. I am pleased with it and it was nice not to struggle which is what I have been doing with the pine tree. This one photographed a little dark, but it is close to the real thing. I used a more limited palette compared to my norm and the ground was very dark blue.

As I said, I felt so happy as I worked on this today because I love Spruce River and also since nobody else was there I cranked up my music and took a trip down memory lane with "Talking Heads". I got a "best of" CD awhile ago and I felt so much nostalgia when I listened to "And She Was", "Wild Wild Life", "Burnin' Down The House", "Once In A Lifetime", "Road To Nowhere" and the list goes on. A very enjoyable afternoon.

In Progress

 Bright Summer Light 

(in progress)

I had hoped I would have a finished painting to show you, but there are still issues to work out on this one. Here is an image from a corner of my new studio. I think the problem at this point is with the shadows.... I realized that I didn't put in all of the branches... but I did put in most of the shadows! I'll hopefully get some tweaking done on Monday and be able to post an official picture by mid-week.

I'm really enjoying having my own studio and it is just so spacious compared to the way I was working before. My poor space looks so sparse compared to the other established artists, but if I'm still there in 10 years I am sure it will have lots of character, too! At the top of my wish list is a proper studio easel. I am just using my portable Plein air easel right now. I also need to get another table or trolley that is better than that t.v. table you see. It needs it to be larger and higher, maybe with drawers or shelves underneath. Accumulating these things is all part of the fun, so I can be patient.

 

I thought it would be neat to show these post-blizzard photos that I took at my parent's yesterday when the boys went over to play (day off school). The top image shows the overhang of drifted snow off their roof and the other one shows my boys playing on the awesome hill of plowed snow at the end of mom and dad's street. The kids had a blast climbing on it and making up games. It sure brought back memories for me. When I was a little girl I absolutely loved making snow forts, climbing snow "mountains", digging snow tunnels. It is so fun watching the boys do the same. Although instead of playing "Charlie's Angels" they are playing "Indianna Jones"!.  

Thanks for stopping buy. 

Reflect

 

Reflect

7x7"

acrylic on canvas

sold 

I never got around to posting this little reflection that I had in my show last November/December. I thought I would show it today because I just donated this to a silent auction at work to raise money for Haiti. Although my main gig is as a Stay-at-Home-Mom, I do work very part-time out of the house when my husband is home. The company I work for will match dollars raised by staff, so I hope someone will want it and that it will bring in a bit of money. I also donated a plate of home-made "Skor Bar" which is ridiculously good and may just bring in more than the painting! Seriously... it is dee-lish!

Hopefully one more day at the studio and I will be done my Pine Tree... stay tuned... 

My Snow Angels

 

Unfortunately I haven't got a new painting to post even though I went to the studio four afternoons last week (yay!). I am working on a large (for me) canvas so it isn't something that I can wrap up in a session or two. It is 22x28 and is a section of a pine tree... along the same vein as "Looking Up". When last I left the studio I was feeling pretty good about how it was shaping up, so hopefully I will be able to show it to you later this week. In the meantime here are some pictures I just took this evening in our backyard. It is a glorious winter night with snow flying, a small wind blowing, and a temperature that is bare-able (-11 Celsius). We had had to go on "a great shovel hunt" because the kids' shovels were not put back after playing on Friday and in the last 36 hours we have had a huge dump of snow. Figures. The yard was covered in a deep blanket of whiteness and the boys had a blast stirring it all up looking for the shovels. Status: Found! On the prairies we are pretty used to these cold, snowy winters so blizzards don't usually phase us too much like they can in other areas of the country. We carry on with caution and help each other when our cars get stuck in snow drifts. We make chocolate chip cookies, drink hot chocolate, snuggle up with a good book... and these days... play Wii for waaaaaaayyyyy too long! However, I do see more fresh air, rosy cheeks and tobogganing in our future! 

Please Donate to Haiti

The North Side

approx. 2.5x6.5

acrylic on 200lb paper

I made this painting on the last day of the Emma Lake painting class in the summer of 2001. It was a pretty fast study of a mossy pine tree near the studio on campus. This was the class in which I finally figured out how to get acrylics to do roughly what I wanted them to do. This little study was an exercise that built on the breakthrough I had. When I got home from "camp" and showed my family the work I had created, my mom had a strong (positive) reaction to this painting, so I had it framed and gave it to her as a gift for her birthday. Which brings me to the reason for today's post...

It's my mom's birthday today! She is a pretty darn special lady and boy, does she love her family. She was a nurse for a few short years before my sisters and I were born, from then on she was a stay-at-home mom. I think it is because of the life she gave us girls growing up that I had the motivation to try to find a way to give a similar experience to my children when I had them. I remember in elementary school that I loved coming home for lunch to see my parents (dad was able to come home for lunch, too) and watch "The Flintstones" even though that hour went by quickly. And having mom home at the end of the school day gave me a sense of security that, looking back, was really priceless. She also volunteered at the school library for many years, so she was available if we ever needed her. At the same time she wasn't a crazy, clingy, over-protective mom. She was as good as it got and still is. I actually sometimes think, though, that if it weren't for us girls mom would have gone on to have an amazing career... she was born to care for others and there are so many people who would have benefited from having her as a nurse. To this day she loves medicine and is fascinated by it. She hasn't practiced for about 43 years, but her knowledge is as sharp as if she just took classes yesterday.

This year for her birthday mom asked us all to forgo buying her gifts. What she really wanted was for us to take that money and donate to an organization sending aide to Haiti. Right now through to Feb.12 the Government of Canada will match any contributions made to eligible organizations. So please, if you are Canadian and haven't done so already, consider taking a bit of your hard earned money and channeling it through one of these agencies to help the people of Haiti. Here is a link to the organization I used: Plan Canada- Haiti Earthquake and click on "make a donation today" for the quick and easy steps to do just that. I can't help but think that if there was some horrific disaster in our country we would not want the world to forget or ignore us. It is unimaginable what these families are going through and I am pretty sure there is a part of my mom, the nurse, who would love to be there helping the injured. By asking my sisters and I to make these donations on her behalf, she has found a way to help and she has made a difference.

"... I've got a good mother

And her voice is what keeps me here.

Feet on ground, heart in hand,

Facing forward, be yourself..."

- Jann Arden