Sweet n' Spicey

Original Oil on Panel 6 x 6 - SOLD
Currently Showing at the Christmas Small Works Show
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria


This is the first post workshop painting I've done. It's always interesting to paint following a workshop, because you feel like you have all this new knowledge and no idea how to paint! So I've tried to forget everything I knew before and focus on the new stuff. My goal here was trying to nail the colour and tonal values - painting what I see. I'm pleased with the outcome, especially with the jalapeno pepper on the plate. The colour nuances really worked on that little guy.

Sweet n' Spicey

Hot House

Original Oil on Canvas Panel 6 x 6 NFS

This past weekend I went to a Daily Painting workshop in Vancouver, with artist and instructor extraordinaire Liz Wiltzen. The focus of the class was on painting small daily paintings to develop your skills as a painter. We covered so many valuable painting fundamentals such as relative value, relative colour, training your eye to see the colour accurately, and then mixing what you see. I had an added challenge of being new to oils. I have painted many tomatoes in the past, but these three little tomatoes exhausted me. I had to work so hard to see and mix all those colours and think about my edges, using enough paint, applying the right amount of pressure to the brush to either lay it on top or mix it with the layer below. Phew! In any case, I'm really looking forward to applying the technical skills and putting in lots and lots of practice.

Hot House

Kraft Canadian

Kraft Canadian - 6 x 12 SOLD

Original Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

As you can see, Canadian has a bit of glare on it that I can't seem to get rid of in the photo, but it gives you the idea. I'm on so many learning curves at the moment - painting, computer skills, photographing....it's very challenging and sometimes I just have to settle for my best try. :-)

Canadian
Original Oil 6 x 6
Right side of Diptych

Here is side two. I've had great feedback on these two little studies so I'm going to further investigate this theme. I'm going to try to post the two sides together, so you can see it as a whole, but I'm still being photographically challenged, so if it doesn't work for tonight, I'll post when I can get a good representation.

Kraft Canadian

Kraft

Original Oil 6 x 6
Left side of diptych

I've decided to create some paintings using some of the Retro items we have around our kitchen. This is an old cheese box from Kraft Canadian Cheese, and I was told when I bought it, that it was actually an original cheese mold. I don't know if that's true or not, but I love the box, and have many ideas for future paintings utilizing it. I had lots of fun painting the logo and am pleased with the colours forming the tomato as well. I'll post the other half tomorrow.

I apologize for the quality of the photo. I'm having trouble with my photos having glare or being too high tone. Someone suggested that it was the white balance in my camera, so I'm looking into that.

Kraft

Day Two Plein Air

Duck Pond  Original Oil Painting  8 x 10  $65 + s/h

 

It was the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada, so we doubled our pleasure and fit in two days of Plein Air painting. I'm painting beside the duck pond, with the bright green of the golf course showing through the trees. As soon as I saw that green grass glowing in the background and reflecting onto the water, I knew I had to paint it. I managed to approach the scene with a bit more simplicity, but I have to really work on simplifying even more. I'm on a big outdoor painting learning curve, and it's going to be a long and hopefully enjoyable journey. :-)


I won't be posting again until after the weekend, because I'm heading over to Vancouver for
"A Painting a Day" workshop with Liz Wiltzen which I'm really looking forward to. Check out Liz's blog. She's working on a project called '100 Paintings in 100 Days'. She painting most of her daily paintings in the Canadian Rockies, against all weather and temperature odds, and the results are simply beautiful.

Day Two Plein Air

First Plein Air

Here are my two painting buddies Sharon and Wendy. They are in one small corner of an enormous meadow of wild flowers. It was just gorgeous.

Here I am the Camus Meadow. I'm having a difficult time pushing and pulling the background, midground and foreground. But it's great to be outside in the sunshine and such a lovely location. There was a very busy woodpecker in the tree I was painting.

First Plein Air

Plein Air

Camus Meadow 11 x 14 Original Oil $50

This is my very first plein air painting of the season, and about my 6th plein air painting ever. I have a huge appreciation of artists who plein air paint regularly. It's an art form all to itself and a very difficult one at that. First you have to decide on a good location, use your view finder to figure out your composition, then the editing begins. What will you keep and what you will eliminate? There is so much information before your eyes. Then there's the atmospheric perspective and of course chasing the light! So this is really documenting my progress, as I'm showing square one here. Yikes!

A bit about the scene itself. My two painting buddies and I headed out to a local, very natural park near our homes. The park is full of protected species of plants and trees, and in the Spring for a few glorious weeks the Camus flowers are in full bloom. It really is a sight to behold. I've included a few photos of us painting so you can appreciate the setting.

Plein Air

Just Picked

Just Picked
Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas
12 x 12 SOLD

I have this great over sized Italian Latte cup and saucer that looked fabulous filled with cherries this past summer. That's about all the cherries we managed to get out of our tree because the birds make a steady diet of them, until we're left with just the leaves. But since I love all the birds that visit our yard, I'm willing to share. The fruit and the cup were quite reflective, so I concentrated on that with minimal brushstrokes, and trying to give the painting a summery, fun feel.

Just Picked

Little Red Car

Little Red Car - NFS

I painted this picture as a gift for my husband, who grew up in France. It's a scene of a small village in the north of France, featuring a car called a 2CV, or Deux Cheveaux, which literally means 2 horse power. He owned many of these cars in his youth, but the most legendary was the little red one in this painting, which even includes the original license plate number. This car, took him all the way to Turkey and back, through mountains and deserts etc., which was quite a remarkable feat. He's really happy with his painting.

Little Red Car

Zen Moment

Zen Moment   Oil on Linen  6 x 6 $65

Here is a little bit of Zen going out to all you Mother's on this glorious warm sunny Mother's Day, here in Victoria. We haven't had the best weather this Spring, so today is a real gift. Enjoy!

 

Zen Moment

Autumn Glow

Autumn Glow  Oil on Canvas Framed $175

My Plein Air buddies and I have not ventured out so far this year, because it's been sooo cold! We live on Vancouver Island, north of Port Angeles Washington, and it's been very windy as well. Last year at this time, we had been out painting several times, but so far, I'm still painting my landscapes from photos. This is the far end of the beach a few blocks from my home. It's one of our favourite places to walk. The colours on this sunny autumn afternoon, were glowing with warmth from all the wild rosehips growing on the cliffs, and I really enjoyed capturing those colours. This is my second oil painting. I'm having a lot of fun trying to figure things out with this new medium.

 

Autumn Glow

Single Pear

Single Pear

6 x 6

Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Linen
SOLD

I thought this pear had a wonderful sculptural feel to it, so I set it up with some fabric, for a classic look.

Single Pear