Bali Seascape

Anchored    Acrylic    24 x 36

Here's another painting from our time in Bali. This one is from the Island of Nusa Lembongan. We stopped at a little beachside warang for lunch, and this was our amazing view. I had a lot of time to take in the many astounding shades of blue before our eyes. I knew I was going to have to paint this one!

Bali Seascape

Ubud, Bali - Original Acrylic Painting

Path Between the Rice Paddies   Acrylic   16 x 20

This past Fall my husband and I went on a two month trip to Hong Kong, Australia and Bali, to celebrate his retirement. It was the most amazingly fabulous trip with every single day rated 10 out of 10. Bali was our final destination, and it was very special for a number of reasons. The most important though, is that I was celebrating my 60th birthday ( I can't believe I typed that!), and both of my kids (now young adults) arrived in Ubud, Bali to surprise me for my birthday! The whole family spent two weeks together island hopping and bombing around on scooters. What a treasure of memories I have! This Bali painting is called 'Path Between the Rice Paddies'. This was a truly magical day in Ubud. After lunch at Sari Organics, an outdoor restaurant in the middle of the rice paddies and organic vegetable garden, we wandered this path for a few hours. It was so beautiful and exotic, and full of friendly smiling people whose conversations with us made the experience extra special.

Ubud, Bali - Original Acrylic Painting

Porcelain and Pears

Porcelain and Pears   Oil   8 x 10  SOLD

This is another piece from my Eastern Aesthetic series of blue and white porcelain. It was a small work that I painted for my Studio Tour.  It was a popular piece over that weekend, and ended up going to new home. The lovely couple who bought it have taken painting classes from me, so I was very happy that it went to a good home with people I know and enjoy. Our paintings are almost like our pets! 

Porcelain and Pears

Asian Still Life with Satsuma Oranges

Satsuma II   Oil  12 x 16   SOLD

Here is another Asian inspired painting from from my blue and white porcelain series. I love painting blue and white porcelain with all the beautiful patterns, and organic shapes. I drew inspiration for this painting and the painting in my last post, from Matisse, who combined many patterns and textiles in his still life paintings. I incorporated a silk paneled tapestry in the background, reinforcing the Asian theme, while relating the background with the foreground. I have a thing for Satsuma oranges, which I've painted many times. For me they speak to the genre of the still life - a simple everyday object given a special beauty through the study of light on form. 

This painting is going to new owner on the weekend, as it was purchased at my recent Oak Bay Artists Studio Tour. Thanks to all of you who came out for the event, and stayed for some great conversations. I so enjoyed meeting you!

Asian Still Life with Satsuma Oranges

Oak Bay Artists Spring Studio Tour

Satsuma III   Oil   16 x 16  $750

Wow, it's been so long since I posted, that I had trouble getting into my blog! I've been having wonderful adventures which have resulted in some series of paintings. My husband and I spent two months travelling to Hong Kong, Australia, and Bali, and had the time of our lives. I've just spent a few months since our return quietly painting away and trying not to be distracted by things like social media and housework. ha ha!  

Above is an Asian inspired Still Life that I'm really pleased with. I've been working on utilizing textiles in the background to reinforce the theme of the painting, to create depth, and to relate the background with the foreground. 

This upcoming weekend is the Oak Bay Artists Spring Studio Tour and I will be opening my home studio to the public, and exhibiting my new series of Still Life and Bali paintings. If you are in the area, I hope you can drop and say hi! Here is a link to a printable online map and brochure for the tour. You will find the PDF at the bottom of the page.

Oak Bay Artists Spring Studio Tour

TD Art Gallery Paint In and Small Works Show

Bowl of Cherries  Oil  8 x 8  Available at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's Summer Small Works Show

This past weekend was the Annual TD Art Gallery Paint In, the years biggest and most exciting art event in Victoria BC, Canada. This one day event covers about 1 kilometer of street, filled with artists on both sides, showing and demonstrating their work. About 140 artists were out painting, sculpting, creating pottery, mosaics and printmaking to name a few. This year I did not apply and loved being part of the public! I was able to visit all my friends, have a chat, enjoy the art and thread my way through the crowd. About 30,000 people took in the show. Below are some of my friends with their beautiful art and the last photo is the amazing throng of art enthusiasts.

Sandy Terry

Wendy Oppelt

Sharlene Stushnov - Lee

...and the AMAZING crowd!!! Victoria loves it's art!

TD Art Gallery Paint In and Small Works Show

Still Life with Pears

Where's the Brie?  8 x 8  Oil  -  Available at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

Hello everyone! Yes, it's been quite a while since I posted. I'm at a very busy time in my life and I'm choosing what I can fit into each day, so unfortunately posting hasn't made the list lately, but let's see how I do over the next while. I have to say I've missed all of you supportive artists out there, and especially seeing what all of you have been producing. There is so much talent and beautiful artwork on your blogs. I especially want to thank Hilda Muxo who has kindly checked in on me more than once, to make sure everything was okay and to say she missed me. How special is that when we've never formally met?!

This small painting is one of three juried into the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's Summer Small Works Show. There are over 80 local artists showing in all genre's and styles. It's always a wonderful show well supported by the art lovers of  Victoria.

My husband just retired, and to celebrate we are going on a two month trip including Hong Kong, Australia and Indonesia. I'm just in the process of trying to decide what to take for creating art while I'm there. Because we're going to be moving around and flying quite a bit, I'm thinking ink and watercolour in a sketch pad. I haven't done ink and watercolour in hmmm.....more than 30 years!! But that medium used to be one of my favourite means of artistic expression, so I think I'll try it out.

Still Life with Pears

Pomegranates

Pomegranates  8 x 8  Oil  $150

I've had a very strange and frustrating thing happening to the URL of my blog. It was changing on it's own to indicate that it was an address from another country. First it was ending with .tr to signify Turkey and my menu bar was in Turkish. Then it became a British URL. When I checked my settings, everything was as it should be. It only appeared this way on Google Chrome, it appeared normally on Firefox and Internet Explorer. The fix was complicated and arduous and I was not even wanting to start the process, when my son came along and within one minute he solved it for me. He disabled Zenmate, which appears as a green shield icon in the right corner of the menu bar of your blog. If you are experiencing similar problems, you might want to try that.

This little painting is a study in red as you can see. It was all about color temperature and value to highlight the pomegranates and push the cloth back. I added some blue and green with the cream in the pattern of the cloth, to add some contrast and cooler colors.

As I was saying in my last post, I've been reading a great book called Color- A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Findlay available on Amazon. Apart from learning about where all the colors originated, it's full of fascinating factoids to share over coffee.

According to Findlay who has traveled the globe investigating the origin of colors, red signifies many things - red is anger, red is love, it represents fire, stop and power. It's also significant in religions. Think Buddhist robes and the Popes red silk hat, not to mention the cardinals. The color red dates back to the Inca's and Aztec's who made red from (are you ready?) the blood of beetles, called cochineal. These little beetles thrive on the prickly pear cactus. During the Conquistador era, Spain discovered the color red in Mexico in the State of Oaxaca and started exporting these little beetles back to Spain, controlling the supply of red dye all over Europe. They shipped up to 160 tons of cochineal bodies each year! That's a lot of insect bodies! Although the whole world was enamored with red, it was fugitive, it would fade or disappear. It was then discovered that Alum needed to be added to the pigment to help it set. It's rumored that Henry VIII married  Anne of Cleaves for her countries source of alum. How romantic! 

One of the artists who had many problems with red was Turner. He loved those sunsets and big skies and used whatever color best described what he wanted to capture. Although warned by Mr. Windsor of Windsor and Newton, Turner was adamant that he would use whatever colors suited him in the moment and consequently many of his paintings are no longer representative of what he originally painted. 

Luckily we now have paints that hold their color and have UV protection, not to mention varnishes that also include UV filters. But when asked, I always tell people that if a painting is subjected to direct sunlight, even for limited periods of time, it will most likely fade. 

Pomegranates

Breezy Bay Farm

Breezy Bay Farm     Acrylic    24 x 36   $975

He everyone, it's been a few weeks since I last posted. I've been really busy getting ready for the Oak Bay Artists Fall Studio Tour, coming up this weekend November 15 and 16, 12:00 - 4:30pm. If you're in the area, be sure to drop to by and say hi! For an online tour brochure click here.

This past August my husband and I visited Saturna Island, a jewel of an island in the Salish Sea just a short ferry ride from Victoria, BC where we live. We stayed at a B&B called the Breezy Bay, pictured above. It's a working farm and the farmhouse we stayed in is the original family home from 1889. We just loved sitting on the big wrap around porch at the end of the afternoon, looking out over the orchard and vegetable garden, and watching the cows, geese, and osprey. Every day when we returned from our daily adventures we came upon this view of the farm, and on the third day, I said "Stop the car!". I just had get some reference material to remember this fantastic view.

I paint mainly still life, and although I love a landscape or architectural piece to switch things up a bit, all this green was a challenge! I find green is a particularly hard colour to mix accurately. 

I'm currently reading a book on the origins of paint, called Color - A Natural History of the Palette, by Victoria Findlay. It's a fascinating read with so many interesting stories to help you work any cocktail party with style! In the 1700's newly invented green paints and dyes became all the rage. Everything from clothing to furniture and wallpaper were done up in green. But unfortunately the green contained arsenic and it was a full 100 years of using arsenic filled green, before a researcher Henry Carr, spoke out, outlining deaths and illnesses as a result of the colour green, particularly in wallpapers. Carr pointed out that just two or three grains of arsenic would destroy the life of a healthy man, and that the country was producing 4,809 tons in one year. Most listeners were shocked and agreed with his call for an investigation. Then a Dr. Thudichum stood up and suggested that Carr was being alarmist. He said his eyes rejoiced at the beautiful bright arsenical paper, and when he looked at the abominable grays and hideous browns and dreadful yellows made without arsenic he could not help thinking that green is what he would like to see on his walls! 

Although we don't have arsenic in our modern paints, (I don't think), it's good to remember that you don't want to hold your paint brush in your mouth, or dry sand paints as there is still the possibility of health risks involved with paint. I remember years ago when I painted in watercolours, everyone in the class ended their painting session by putting their paintbrush in their mouths to bring it to a perfect point - until the instructor suggested that it wasn't best idea, and that Van Gogh, and Whistler could attest to that. :-) 

Breezy Bay Farm

Oak Bay Artist Fall Studio Tour 2014

It's almost that time again already! The artists are pretty busy painting, framing, firing and all sorts of other artistic activities. If you're in the area myself and all the other artists would love you to drop by and check out our latest works. Below is the poster for the tour featuring my friend Joanie's paper casting art cards. There is something for every art lover and every art lover's budget, from art cards, to paintings, pottery, jewelry, photography and more.  Hope to see you!

Oak Bay Artist Fall Studio Tour 2014

Contemporary Still Life - The Golden Hour

The Golden Hour   Acrylic   30 x 30

Here is my second piece that I am honoured to have had selected into the prestigious regional annual show, The Sidney Fine Art Show. 

When selecting props and designing this painting, I had in mind the opulence and beauty of the still life paintings of the Dutch Masters. In 'The Golden Hour' I wanted to create a contemporary setting of opulence with draped damask, silver, glass, fruit and flowers. Inspired by Jan Davidsz de Heem, I discretely added some (what I consider attractive) insects, and one of the most beautiful subtleties from that time period, the reflection of a French pane window in the highlight of the vase. I usually paint in contrasting colours but opted for an analagous palette and some brighter contemporary lighting.

I attended the Opening Gala last night and so enjoyed seeing all my artist friends and viewing all the outstanding art on exhibit. It was truly a wonderful evening. 

The Sidney Fine Art Show is on October 17,18, and 19 at the Mary Winspear Center in Sidney BC. If you are in the area it will be a fantastic way to spend a rainy afternoon this weekend, or Saturday night is Meet the Artists and Local Samplings Night. As you view the art and chat with the artists, you can also enjoy samplings from our local wineries and cider makers. How great is that? Hope to see you there!

Contemporary Still Life - The Golden Hour

Still Life in Acrylic - The Sifter

The Sifter   Acrylic  11 x 14  SOLD

Available at the Sidney Fine Art Show

I have a collection of vintage goods along the tops of my cupboards in the kitchen. Some of the items are from my family and some were collected from various places over time. I've been eyeing the sifter for some time and decided one morning to create a still life with it. I remember as a child watching my mother bake and she always used a sifter for the flour. So this is a memory of baking day, way back when. This painting entitled 'The Sifter' is showing this upcoming weekend at, The Sidney Fine Art Show, October 17, 18, and 19, at the Mary Winspear Center, in Sydney BC. This is a regional juried show and an annual arts highlight of Southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. I'm really happy and honoured to have two pieces in the show. I'll post the second one later this week.

I've been painting mostly in acrylics for the last few months, as I'm teaching a painting class in acrylics. Over the summer I took a workshop with a fantastic artist, Janice Robertson,and learned how to properly use Glazing Fluid. This medium has opened up a whole new world of possibilities in acrylics for me. I glazed the pears and some of the shadows on the tea towel, but most of all I glazed the heck out of the sifter! I love how I was able to create such soft edged reflections in the metal. It's my new favourite medium!

Still Life in Acrylic - The Sifter