Reminder of new blog site....

A reminder that new posts will be on my website blog now - check it out for updates on The Honeybee project! And please sign up to follow me there....

website and new blog...

My Blog is Moving!...

I have just finished redesigning my website and have included a Blog as part of it. I hope you will check it out -
New Website and Blog

Some of my upcoming posts will be about my current exploration on the theme of honeybees. I am working on this project with a small group of other artists and we are very excited to see where this focus will take us! I hope you will follow me on this journey...

8 x 8 study for the Honeybee Project

A new piece in the Water Series...

I have returned to the larger paintings in oil, in pursuit of my fascination with water... This is from a series of photos I took at one of my favourite places - Grassi Lakes above Canmore, AB. It has a sentimental connection, since Lawrence Grassi was a family friend. There is a lot of subtle colour in this piece - I hope some of it comes through in the photo...

Reflection - Grassi Lake, AB

30 x 48 in.

Storm Moving In

Trying to use coloured conte with restraint... it is so easy to go crazy adding colour and having fun with lines - but going to far and adding TOO MUCH is a constant hazard... I think I stopped in time with this one.

Storm Moving In

Acrylic and conte

14 x 18 in.

Aspens

Playing with landscapes incorporating both paint and drawing tools - I love the energy of line (scribbley areas of colour, loose gestural contours, threads of line that lead the eye around...) I want to play with this idea for a looser approach to landscapes. This is early baby-steps in that direction - we will see where it goes!

Aspens    14 x 18 in.

Quicky No. 2...

Day 2 of a small, quick acrylic painting... I am still struggling with how the acrylics behave differently from oils, but I am enjoying the short-bite aspect...
This is Zorro, my wonderful French Copper Maran rooster - he's a real gentleman and an extremely handsome fellow. And Dominique - my only Austrolorp hen - a lovely black-eyed beauty.

A New Year - A New Project

After working very large for the last few years, I find myself interested in doing some small paintings. This should allow me to focus on a unique problem in each piece, rethink how I am using colour and media, and simply create more paintings. This sounds a lot like the Daily Painting phenomena that has become so popular! So here we go...

First, a series of quick value studies - a step I always intend to do, but seldom take time for. And it takes so little time... and the payoff is so worthwhile!

  

And then a quick 8 x 10 in acrylic - I started by mixing a dark neutral, which I used as a guide for the other colours to harmonize them. Then a highlight colour or two - and the whole thing was done in about 30 minutes. A nice change from working on 60 inch canvases! Not one of my most sophisticated paintings, but fresh and fun - can't wait to do the next one...

New Work in Sooke Fine Art Show

Breezes Over the Bay

24 x 60 inches

This piece (another diptych - I love painting across 2 panels!) is going to be in the Sooke Fine Art Show. It runs from July 25 to August 4, in the lovely town of Sooke just west of Victoria, BC. I have two pieces in this show. They are both views of Drew Harbour - my attempts to capture the sense of calm, with just light riffles changing the water surface and breaking up the reflected trees.

Upcoming Show - "Views of Drew"

 Moody Day - Drew Harbour (diptych)

Oil on Canvas

24 x 60 inches

I live near Drew Harbour on Quadra Island and I pass by this body of water almost daily. It is always a treat to look at the changing moods of this place. In August, friend and I have a show of our work reflecting (pun intended) our interpretations of Drew Harbour. My paintings will focus on reflections in the water, anchored at the top of the work by the strip of Rebecca Spit.

The Estuary

30 x 48 in.

Oil on Canvas

A trip by the Comox Estuary offered inspiration for this piece. This painting has a real sense of seasonal change to me. The work has more "land" in it than my Water Series paintings have usually had - this seems to be a trend in my work at the moment. We will see where it goes...

Bird Ballet

Birds are beautiful - in so many ways.... This video is a wonderful glimpse of something called murmuration - thousands of birds dancing in the sky... Click on the link and enjoy...

Bird Ballet

"Burmis Lake" receives recognition...

Burmis Lake

36 x 36 in.

I just opened my latest e-issue of Canadian Brushstroke Magazine (www.brushstrokemagazine.com) and found that this painting had been chosen as a finalist in their Water theme competition. I rarely enter these kind of competitions, so it was fun to discover that this work had received this recognition. 

More Ravens...

"I've Got Your Back"

Mixed Waterbased Media

14 x 18 inches

I love painting ravens! This pair posed for my camera most obligingly, so I have lots of reference photos of them being ravens. The posture, with the fluffed-up head feathers and "baggy pants" is very expressive. It indicates territoriality and dominance. Ravens use body posture for very complex communication - which is one of the reasons they are so fun to watch - and to paint!

Another recent painting...

Vaseau Lake Reflection

Once again playing with what is happening on the surface - what is really there, what is reflected, the illusion of depth. I love the grading of saturated ultramarine to cerulean blue playing against the gold in this one. The image refers to a spot in the Okanogan where I spent a bit of time working on bird banding at one of the migration monitoring stations. There was a Sandhill crane hanging out in this body of water - fun to be working around a great bird like that!

Something delightful

I want to share this link to a site about an installation in Montreal that involves light and music - created by people, having fun together....

https://vimeo.com/40980676

It is a delightful idea - simple, eloquent and engrossing for those who participate....

We need more ideas like this!

Happy mid September....

A new diptych

Flowing Water

40 x 50 in.

Another diptych - I do enjoy working over multiple canvases... I like how it emphasizes the continuity of the image beyond the confines of a single rectangle... This is a fairly large work - it was a challenge in the tiny space of my temporary rented studio. I am pleased with the sense of movement I finally captured here.

Another New Water Series Painting

Ripples and Reflections

30 x 40 in.

Another new painting - I am definitely getting more time in the studio now! This one gives the feel of the kayak-level view over the water. It was one of those paintings that flowed easily as I worked - no struggle. Often the paintings I feel are most successful also have that ease in their creation.

Wave Patterns

Wave Patterns III
24 x 74 in.

We have finally had some time to get out in the kayaks, and that has inspired my to work on one of my favourite themes. The patterns of waves always fascinates me, and. In this one I wanted to capture the luminosity that comes with sunny days on the water. I divided this horizontal format into a triptych (3 panels) - it helps to emphasize that this is "clipped out" from the immensity of the sea around it. Just imagine yourself sitting in a little boat, rocking in the rhythm of the waves as they flow by....

Still Water

Oil on Canvas

30 x 40 inches

This is another image exploring the effect of light on the surface against the reflection cast into the water. I love playing with that sense of solidity versus the feeling of depth. This image was inspired at one of the ponds near where I lived in Alberta. I frequently stopped by to check on the various bird families being raised on this tiny body of water (eared grebes, sora, wigeon...). Every visit offers a new visual experience for ideas to paint.

Bird as Printmaker

In this post, I offer an image made not by myself, but by a bird... A friend sent this image (thanks, Steve) which was left on his kitchen window after a Rock dove slammed into the pane of glass while escaping from a Merlin. Happily, the bird made a good recovery after being rescued by my friend (thanks again, Steve), and flew off without realizing that it had done some avian print-making. Amazing how you can make out the individual feathers, the eye, a bit of the elevated wings...