Warm Thoughts

Warm Thoughts    6x6    Oil on Birch Board   

Well, we finally got the snow that's been hiding around the corner. Great weekend to just paint away so I finished up a couple of barn scenes and then I warmed myself up with this. scene. When I'm feeling cold painting beaches and palm trees warms me up! 

Windermere Barn

Windermere Barn     8x10     Oil on Board      $325 framed
This barn is on a farm that has been surrounded by new subdivisions just south of us. It would be great if it would stay like that but there is a nice big For Sale sign on the fence. Meanwhile the horses and other animals seem oblivious to all that is going on around them. It's such a peaceful resting place for the eye and the soul. There are a few more barns on the same property that I have in mind to paint while they're still here.

Barn at the U.

5x7   Oil on Canvas    $200 framed

I took my paint box with me one Saturday morning  when I went over to the market on the University grounds and this little scene caught my eye.  I love this farm at the U. because you're in the middle of the city but you could easily be out in the country. Also the Green and Gold Garden donate all the proceedings from the market to a Women's Shelter in Rwanda. It was fun doing this one with a palette knife. It's a great tool for plein air as the cleanup is quick and you can use big juicy strokes.
This painting will be in the Alberta Oil Painters Fall Show at the Dow Centre through October.

Yellow Hibiscus for Johanna

One of the many amazing hibiscus varieties I saw while in Maui. There were so many great landscapes but the birds and flowers also captured a lot of my attention. While I was away I wished I'd taken my oils so yesterday I tried using the watercolour almost straight out of the tube on aquabord and then varnished with acrylic varnish. I'd read online that it works providing the sides are also sealed. We'll see how it stands up.

I wish I'd thought of it while I was there.

While in Paia I stopped in the Maui Hands Gallery and was captivated by a couple of plein air paintings by Susie Anderson. She will be painting in the Kauai Plein Air Invitational event June 5 through June 11. It will be a partial benefit for two worthy non-profit museums, the Waioli Mission House and Grove Farm. The final exhibition and sales of work will be on the afternoon of June 11th at the Grove Farm Museum front lawn in Lihue, and the public is invited.

This small painting is for my little neighbour Johanna who looked after the house while we were gone with a little help from her Mom.

Gold Crested Wren Journal

I'm so looking forward to a bit of time in the sun and coming back to spring and a garden teeming with birds announcing the coming of spring. The massive amounts of snow will be good for the garden and for that I'm grateful. These guys are always just a pleasure to paint and I can't help feeling they have personalities.
I've spent a lot of time this month building a website and changing my blog template while it snowed away so I'll unveil all of that when I'm back.

Aspens Journal

Aspens Journal 5x7 $45.- SOLD

My favorite grove of aspens had to make it on one of these journals. I've painted it a few times in a square format but I decided that I like the vertical as well. I love the combination of craggy and graceful with these trees. So often when you're walking past the sun will land on a group of shrubs and light them up like jewels. And you all know colour is my thing.

Warm Snow-Journal

Acrylic on Acid Free Journal $45.00

Serendipity is a wonderful thing. In Oct. I took a great workshop with Mike Svob using either oil or acrylic. It made me want to get more comfortable with the acrylic paint I had and I had quite a few of these journals so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to work with the acrylics in a way that was playful and low stress, no limitations of palette or theme. It's been good fun and they seem to be selling themselves but now I need to get a few large oils done for a deadline. This scene was inspired by a timely note in Doug Swinton's newsletter reminding us that snow is warm as it moves back. I guess I got so caught up in how much there was to shovel....