Dreams And Opportunities

Dreams and Opportunities: Life on the Prairies

36 x 30"

oil on canvas

© Nicki Ault, 2012

sold

When I had my show at O'Reilly Insurance earlier this year, Declan O'Reilly's favorite painting was Kindness and Joy: Life on the Prairies. He said it reminded him of when he first came to Canada from Ireland many years ago. One of his first memories was walking through a grassy field with low bushes to get to a cabin. Kindness and Joy was put on hold with a second painting by someone that came to the show, but she ended up buying the other one. I have to admit that as soon as I got word of her decision I breathed a sigh of relief. I immediately knew I couldn't sell Kindness and Joy- the reality of my attachment to it had become clear. The problem was Declan decided he wanted it! I explained that I didn't think I wanted to sell it, but had plans to create another version of the painting for Family Tree (the tree-themed show I did with my Dad in May). If it turned out, perhaps he would be interested in it or maybe I would keep the new version and he could then have Kindness and Joy.

I was extremely pleased with the result of the new painting and that is what you see above. Happily, Declan was thrilled, too. After he made the decision to purchase it I told him the story of Kindness and Joy and how I titled it because of a friend whose initials are K.J. (read about it here). I then let him know that this new painting, Dreams and Opportunities, was titled in honour of him- the D and O coming from Declan O'Reilly. He followed his dreams to Canada, and eventually the prairies, as a young man searching for a better life with more opportunities. It is hard to imagine how scary and difficult that must have been even though it was likely exciting, too. And Declan gave me the opportunity to follow my dreams by providing space to show my art in his office. I think he was touched and I was happy to thank him in that way.

And that is the story I promised I would tell in my last post.

NUTS! x 3

The reception at O'Reilly Insurance was fantastic! After counting the wine glasses at the end of the night, it was estimated that about 100 people came! It was terrific to see friends and family and I really enjoyed meeting so many new and interesting people. One of the reasons this post is called "NUTS!" is that somehow I forgot to put out my clipboard for people to sign up their contact info. if they want to know about future shows and events. Even during conversations when I was telling people about the upcoming show with my Dad it never dawned on me to ask them for their address so I could send an invitation. NUTS!

A second reason this post is called "NUTS!" is that I was changing settings on my camera the other day and now, somehow, the date stamp is on... and the date is wrong! I painted this today and took the picture today, but that is not today's date! Instruction book where are you?

The third and final reason to say "NUTS!" is that I decided to use cradled panels for the next couple of paintings because I love the natural colour of the wood- it is basically Naples Yellow. I thought it would be pretty showing through here and there once the painting is finished, so I used GAC-100 (Golden) to seal the surface. Once I got the location of the trees, logs and grass sketched in I began with painting the sky, which I wanted to be a pale yellow (you can see the start in the top left corner). It soon became apparent to me that I should have, in fact, been painting on a coloured ground because I was not going to be getting any zings of energy from pale yellow wood under a pale yellow sky. NUTS! The problem was that I sketched in the trees with oil paint and I liked how they worked so I didn't want to wipe it off then glaze the surface with oil paint and then have to wait for that to thoroughly dry before I could continue. My solution was to do a glaze of acrylic in all the non-oil areas-in other words where the wood colour was showing. I took this photo when I was part-way done. What a pain! But I think it will work in the end.

I hope you have a NUTS!-free weekend!

September Mood Near Kapasiwin

September Mood Near Kapasiwin

30 x 60"

oil on canvas
©Nicki Ault, 2012 
sold

Above is my newest and largest painting to date and with it comes an announcement...

This morning I hung "September Mood Near Kapasiwin" and 9 other pieces at O'Reilly Insurance in Saskatoon. They recently renovated and doubled their office space and Declan O'Reilly had a vision of using the beautiful new reception area and hall as an art gallery of sorts to feature local artists. Declan is my son's (amazing) soccer coach and when I invited him to the Open Studio last November he was taken aback. I was a bit puzzled by his reaction, but up until then he didn't know I was an artist and I didn't know he had been pondering the use of his renovated walls as an art space! As such, two worlds collided. I'm grateful he liked my art enough that he not only wanted to show it on his walls, but he wanted me to be the artist to kick off this venture for him. I will have more details to follow... we are taking baby steps with this and he wants it all done right. The plan is to have a closing reception in approximately eight weeks, but if you are in the Erindale area please stop in and have a look... O'Reilly Insurance, 101-407 Ludlow St.

 As a side note, Kapasiwin is a beautiful area where cabins can be rented. It is on the way to the Waksesiu River and the Marina . If I had a longer canvas the cabins and quaint resort area would be found further to the right of the grassy hill in this painting.

*This is a big one. I tried to enlarge it for this post, but the next size up doesn't fit within the post perimeters. If you click on it you will see it in a light box and it should be larger.