Blueberry Fields Forever

6x8 Oil on Board

This is a scene in Pitt Meadows B.C. in early Feb. , a bit of a contrast to the snow scene I posted the other day which was taken about a month earlier. There are acres and acres of blueberry fields and a walking path along the dyke so the walkers get to enjoy it. It's hard to believe how close you are to a big city, there are kilometres of walking paths along the dyke and it's all very peaceful.

Will It Ever Stop?

Oil on 8x8" Board

A friend once noticed that people talk a lot about what matters to them. So if you live in a city where the housing prices are challenging, people talk all about their rates and lengths. If you live in a city where the weather is a challenge, there's a lot of chatter about that. Well, this year on the West Coast, talk of the weather trumped all else. It brought the city to a standstill more than once. This little painting is from a photo Mom took and sent when she ran out of words.

Spring has sprung

Necessity being the mother of invention; this little painting covers the old front door bell. We had to change our door bell last year but people weren't seeing the new one so I covered the old one with this little painting. Worked like a charm!

A sure sign of Spring in Edmonton is when the jackrabbits coats turn brown. This is the first time I've seen our resident "bunny" with it's spring coat. A week ago it was pure white, 'course a week ago, we still had snow. A couple of days ago Faye Christian Phillips posted a little painting of the bunny in her yard and she inspired me as always.

It is just lovely and I can hardly wait to get outside to paint and garden.

Ligularia Othello Sketch

Happy Easter weekend!!! And happy springtime. Last weekend we still had almost two feet of snow in the backyard and I was chipping glaciers out of the culdesac so that I still had some suspension in my van. This Sat. we did Sketchcrawl and had a great day. We'll be there again this summer. Thanks to Terry Elrod and Cindy Revell for organizing it. There are more cities participating every quarter. If you're interested check it out. It was a glorious day, 18c by the afternoon. I feel like a little kid, yippee, spring is here!

It's been a very busy month, I was shocked to come back and see that it was nearly a month since my last post. Lots of work marketing, studio rearranging and work on a commission painting but not far enough along to post it.

Today was our anniversary and Easter dinner but I had to go out and do a quick sketch. The snow has melted and the perennials are just beautiful. I was so glad I didn't have time to cut the Ligularia before fall. When it's winter in Edmonton, it certainly is, but it turns quickly, with daylight lasting well into the evening.

I also wanted to pass along two links that I think you will enjoy. One is Lianne Faulder's blog Eat My Words Lianne is an award winning journalist and she had some great book recommendations for Peter Brown recently. The other is a link to a two part interview with Chloe Albert on the Tony King program on CKUA. Besides CBC, Chloe's album Dedicated State is my favorite music to paint to. She recently won Emerging Artist of the Year and will be at Folkfest this summer.
I think of Easter as a time of Hope and that's certainly what I felt in my garden today!