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.