Painting at the Parkside Hotel
I recently had the pleasure of being the Artist in Residence at the Parkside Hotel in Victoria BC, Canada. I painted each day in the most beautiful studio ever, the lobby of the hotel, with floor to ceiling (three floors) windows, Koi ponds with a bridge and exotic tropical gardens and waterfalls. How lucky was I?
I'm best known for my still life work, so although that is what I'm painting in the photo, I mostly painted west coast scenes,which was a lovely change of pace. I had a large gallery space just adjacent to where I was painting, which unfortunately didn't photograph well, so I don't have photos of that. Painting still life pieces from life requires choosing the objects and setting the scene with a single light source, as well as a lot a close observation and working on depicting form, volume, the drama of light and shadow - the reality. Painting land and seascapes allowed more freedom of creativity, combining photo reference, changing colours and basically having a whole of fun! Below is one of the paintings I completed. It was a combination of photos adding the water flowing down the sand to the shoreline, and I also played with colour and enhanced the reflections. I was pretty happy with the result.
Coastal Reflections Acrylic 12 x 12
