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....

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!