Saffron and Turmeric

8x8 Oil on Board $250.00 framed

This is another of the series I've been painting of the aspens along my walk. I think I'm hanging onto the warm fall we had this year. Today it's cold and sunny, the kind of day that makes you feel deeply happy whilst also making you want to keep a very quick pace to get home to a warm cup of tea.
Another of this series, Jewels of Fall was included in this months Canadian Brushstroke Magazine. If you haven't seen this magazine, I urge you to take a look! It's an excellent online magazine, published every 2nd month and free to subscribers. There is an article this month profiling the massive project called Project Heroes which is slated to show in 2012. Three of my good friends Susan Abma, Cindy Revell and Shairl Honey are working on it.

Enjoy!

Small, Smaller and Smallest Show

Laguna Waves
6x8 Oil on Board $225.00 framed

I was excited to have this painting accepted into the Small, Smaller and Smallest Show at the Federation of Canadian Artists this month. The show is running until Dec 4th if you happen to be in Vancouver.

Clearwater Vista

5x7 Oil on Canvas

I'm back from the Osoyoos plein air workshop, pooped but happy. The drive through Jasper was unbelievably beautiful, the colours were spectacular and it was all I could do not to stop every 10 min.
This little painting is of one of my favorite spots on the N. Thompson in Central B.C. about halfway to Osoyoos.

Art in Our Park

The City of Edmonton developed an initiative this year for community involvement and by serendipity our neighbourhood chose to do an Art in the Park day on Sept 18th which corresponded with the day Alberta chose to hold Alberta Arts Day. It was chilly but the sun shone and that's enough for Edmontonians, hardy bunch that they are. Approximately 800 people attended and enjoyed great music, art and kids stuff and lots begged for a repeat next year.

I want to put out a Thank You to Moshe Mikanovsy for his posts on what an artist needs for a succesful Art in the Park. It was very helpful and it was a successful day!

Not a Thing Happening!

6x8 Oil on Board
This little scene epitomizes the Dog Days of summer. When I was painting one of the cabins, I turned to look at the water and there was absolutely nothing moving. Usually this patch of water has boats of one kind or another coming and going but at this moment it was absolutely still. No wonder water skiers are drawn to get up early!

Coast Cabin

6x8 Oil on Board

This little cabin was built with what was at hand as many were. Back in the day, before B.C. Ferries, folks would load their family in a little boat and leave the city for the summer. Now it's a quick walk from the ferry but some things don't change. New shingles might be the best it could hope for and that's what it got this summer.

Hawaiian Cabin

6x4 Oil on Board Box
This little painted box was intended to be a hibiscus but that made me think about Hawaii and that reminded me of a little shack I loved and the hibiscus just had to wait. Thirty years ago I bought a series of books for college called(surprise), Colour, which were really an exploration of what colours do next to each other. Think a book of colour swatches and patterns, no words. This combination is one of my favorites.
I'm painting as many small paitings as possible before the Art Walk in Riverbend Sept. 18th. so for a little while I won't post them for sale.

Friday's Bloom

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Hibiscus Bloom

8x8 Oil on Board

This was the bloom I came home to. I couldn't resist painting it while it was backlit and left the laundry for another day. Good thing I did because last night we had clouds and then a massive thunderstorm that tore all the blooms off. Looks like there may be one ready to open tomorrow so I'll have another go at it.

This one and I hope many others will go in the Riverbend Art in the Park Sept. 18th. Look forward to seeing you there!

June is Peony month in this house!

Being a lover of peonies, June is one of my favorite months. Thank goodness they're staggered or I wouldn't know which one to paint. This one is Coral Dream and Festiva Maxima is shouting out to be painted.
I have lots of different varieties because they love the prairie soil and the sunny days. Tireless workhorses that are so much more than a pretty face!

MacTaggart Sanctuary

9x12 Oil on Board
We had a wonderful morning for paint out. Warm air, good company,the place to ourselves! It was the first paintout in awhile so lots of borrowing of paints, sweaters, etc. There was not a whiff of wind until just before I packed up and I thought my Guerilla box was going to become a parachute. It nearly took off and that would be a feat based on the weight of it. But this is Edmonton so as fast as it came up, it was gone. Not a bird in sight though probably due to the fires burning just outside of town.

Austin Highlights

These boots were made for walking. We had an evening and a day in Austin to jam everything in so we didn't waste a minute. We had a "don't miss" list and Allens Boots was on the list. They have a huge stock of the most amazing boots. We had a yummy dinner at Vespaio's and finished with good music at a patio bar down the street. The next morning we headed to Laguna Gloria to check out the Art School where Laurel teaches. What a treasure that site is! You can self tour the house and walk the grounds which I highly recommend. These peacocks looked for all the world like they were saying "What the heck are they doing today, where's our lunch?
We'd taken our suits for a swim at Barton Springs but hadn't thought about needing a lock... next time. Next on the list, Carol Marine's paintings at the Wally Workman Gallery. It was great to see Carol's painting "in real life" and we got the bonus of seeing Fatima Ronquillo's show. Then we crossed the street to the Russell Collection Fine Art and caught an amazing Impressionist show that was due to open soon. Many paintings, all from one private collection. We had a great dinner across the street at Z's which is snuggled into the treetops and then back to San Antonio to fly home the next morning. The whole trip was full of lucky bits of serendipity and tons of good memories. Thanks for listening while I shared them!

Fredricksburg Poppies

5x7 Oil on Canvas $75.00

This was the spectacular view I came upon as I turned a corner outside of Fredricksburg. The entire field was just a scarlet blaze. The ditches were filled with either bluebonnets or strawflowers. Hard to keep your eyes on the road! Thank goodness there is a pullout at most every driveway so people can pick up their mail from the boxes.

Our plan was originally to do a circle drive from San Antonio through the Hill Country to Austin where we were heading for a few nights after the conference. As best laid plans go, they often need adjustment. Turned out I was on my own for the day. Would it be worth the drive by myself? It would mean driving there and back to San Antonio by dinner time. It was well worth the drive, I'm so glad I went. Actually I went about 30 miles beyond Fredricksburg to see the fields of wild flowers I'd heard about.

San Antonio Fun

As I’m looking out the window, it’s snowing like crazy in Edmonton. I tell myself the farmers will be thrilled and if we were still in Vancouver it would be pelting down rain. But still, it makes it so easy to slip back into my memories of our little trip last week to warm, sunny Texas. The week before we left was so busy stocking up the larder for the boys and getting organized to go that when we landed in San Antonio it felt a bit like hitting paradise! What a great city with gracious people, the River Walk and such wonderful food! Good thing the city is so walkable.
The highlights of San Antonio for me were the afternoon I spent at the McNay Art Museum to see their Impressionist exhibit and the Greenhouse Gallery around the corner to see the Salon International 2010 show. My blogpal Laurel Daniel had her painting Lake Road accepted so I wanted to see that live, so to speak. The exhibit was 392 paintings and it astounded me, It rivaled exhibits of many large city galleries and I can’t imagine how long it took them to hang it!

McNay Art Museum /Greenhouse Gallery

We had a glass of wine with friends on the patio at the Hotel Contessa and a wonderful anniversary dinner at Las Canarias where the chef specializes in using Hill Country game and the setting is a beautiful old college building. Both restaurants are on the Riverwalk so the ambience is such a part of the experience. The last night of our stay we walked down to Rosario’s on S. Alamo for a fantastic Mexican dinner and walked back in a warm evening breeze. Am I repeating myself? Get the picture? It was a great town for a romantic or restful time. It felt like I was in another world but the flight wasn’t overwhelming and the language and currency are easy.
More about Austin in a couple of days and I promise I won’t turn this into a travel blog but please just indulge me for a few days of Art travel.

Safe Harbour

5x7 Oil on Canvas
$75.00 shipped

This is a study done from a similar one I'd done in Jan.
I thought I'd try using the study instead of a photo and it
was fun, a little more like memory painting.
It is a small quiet harbour on Vancouver Island. Before
kids, we used to sail on a boat called ByeByeBlues and we
would find anchorages like this all the time. Then along
came busy boys and land sports. Different chapters but
all good. Off to Texas for a bit, I'm 'cited Lucy!!!

Hopkins Path

5x7 Oil on Canvas unframed
$100.00 including shipping
These small studies start my painting day. I wrote in January
about Doug Swinton encouraging us to do them as often as
possible for the learning and fun. The idea is to make our
photographs as useful as possible by reducing the scene to the
it's iconic shapes.The exercise of painting these studies as often
as possible is so invigorating.
This scene is the path at Hopkins Landing where people walk
their dogs and take in the beauty of the place.
If you are interested in purchasing any of these small landscapes,
please contact me.

Barriere Farm Touchups

5x7 Oil on canvas unframed $100.00 shipping included

I thought I would repost this little painting because it was

sitting on my desk and a couple of things bugged me. One
is that the green field on the hillside was "coming forward"
as it was the same colour and value as the flat field. The
other was the barn roof. To stay true to the exercise of
quick studies, I could only let myself change it if I promised
to do it with only a few strokes. I like both the changes.
The bit of blue in the field seems to push it back and I like
the roof brighter. What do you think?

Red Barn Near Barriere

5x7 Oil on Canvas

I loved how this little farm was nestled at the base of this
hillside. It's also fairly near the river so these huge willows
grow everywhere. I'm beginning to see a pattern in the
buildings I'm drawn to. There is something about a barn
that I can't resist. Maybe it's the family stories about the
challenges of homesteading or maybe it's the memory of
my cousin's barn. She had the biggest reddest barn I have
ever seen. Tragically it burned to the ground a few years
ago and the are just too expensive to replace now.
I wonder if the nostalgia would be as strong if I weren't a
city girl?

Fraser River Near Clearwater

2010 © Tracey Mardon 5x7 Oil on Canvas

This is a little study of a scene near Clearwater, B.C.
It is one of my favorite chunks of the drive to the
West Coast from Edmonton every summer, the colours
are always wonderful, whatever the weather. My Panasonic
Lumix has an aerial photo option that I find really useful
for taking photos while zooming along at 110km, in the
passenger seat of course! They are often amazingly clear and
even when they aren't, they evoke a memory of the scene that
is sometimes just as helpful.

White Barn at Windermere

5x7 Oil on Canvas

I love this barn, I'm drawn to it every time I drive by.

And when I'm painting it, it makes me think about one

of my favorite painters. Her name is Laura Daniel and

she teaches at the museum in Austin Texas.

The Bend at Windermere

8x 8 Oil on Gallery Canvas in Floater Frame

$200.00

I love how the N. Saskatchewan makes lazy turns along

the way. This is from a photo I took just south of the

Windermere Golf Course on a beautiful late afternoon

last summer. The sky and water were just shimmering.

5 Sheds near Okotoks

Oil on 24x24 Gallery Canvas

I came across these sheds as I was coming back from a workshop at the Leighton Centre last year. It seems to be a common thing to have 5 red sheds and I love the feeling these simple farm buildings evoke in me. My grandfather homesteaded in Saskatchewan and I've heard so many stories about the challenges of building a life from bare land.

Linny D. Vine found she had the same feeling about grain elevators and from her west coast studio she paints the most wonderful serendipitous elevators interspersed with the coast scenes you would expect.

This painting is now available as it will now be painted in a large horizontal format for the collector. If you have any interest, please drop me a line.

Prairie Lakeland

A friend asked me to explore painting a prairie lake scene with canola fields in a diptych format on 24x24 canvases in floater frames. I liked the idea so I did these two 8x8 studies to play with it, having never painted a diptych. Two issues that showed up pretty quickly are palette control and keeping the horizontals lined up. When I'm working on the larger ones my plan is to put my two easels side by side and paint them simultaneously. I'll also premix large puddles so that I can paint both without remixing.

Mini studies-watercolour of Blueberry fields

Keeping with the thought of inspiration, I was given at book on watercolour journalling that gave me the urge to try watercolours! Yesterday I thought I would pull them out and see if I could paint anything that excited me, knowing that it will be necessary to pack lightly next week during the Olympics. I painted this little study of the blueberry fields yesterday and it was so much fun! The process is quite different than oil or acrylic. There are a couple of things I would do differently but on the whole it was exactly what I was looking for.

This is the book I was given in case you want to give it a try.

Inspiration

5x7 Oil on Canvas
Curlew at Water's Edge
This is another of the quick studies we've been doing since our trip to Calgary in Dec. I am loving this process. It forces me to load my brush and commit to each stroke. I'm also keeping a little journal to jot down notes on what I learn with each study. We painters look for inspiration wherever we can find it!

Quick Paintings

An early Christmas present was a road trip to Calgary to do a 2 hr. workshop with Doug Swinton and watch the Friday Night demo with Neil Patterson www.neilpatterson.com at Swintons Art Supply in Calgary www.swintonsart.com . The road conditions were crazy with cars in the ditch both ways but it was so worth it, thanks to Susan for driving! Neil's demo was amazing, he painted a 4x6 ft canvas fearlessly and beautifully.
Both Neil and Doug urged us to build a habit of doing a quick painting everyday focusing on visual editing, lots of paint, and strong values. This is one of the little ones I’ve done since coming home. I think this will prove to be one of the most important projects I have done. I'll post more on how I'm approaching it and what I'm learning over the next while. I'm moved into my new studio and soo happy to be there.