Showing posts with label French pitcher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label French pitcher. Show all posts

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Any Title Ideas?


I managed to take a few hours today to finish off this painting, while our visitors went downtown and did a few things. I'll probably make some minor adjustments once I've had time to live with the painting a bit. I don't know what to call this one, so if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Here I am in my backyard painting in the shade. Yes! we're having a sunny day! Maureen the winner of the Rainy Day Painting Draw, from the Art Gallery Paint-In came by and picked up her prize today, the painting l'Aperitif. She said she felt so lucky to have won the painting, that she almost went out to buy a lottery ticket. :-)
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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

En Provence


Original Acrylic on Exhibition Canvas
Image painted over all Four Sides
24 x 24  $800 + s/h


I completed this painting last summer, as part of a show entitled Mediterranean Moments. I did the still life set up with props that I owned, and was given a huge, beautiful lavender bouquet by a friend of a friend. The owner of the lavender has a lavender farm on her property, and as she is also an artist she went above and beyond to get the lavender to me, in perfect shape. I was deeply grateful. I then needed a background for the set up, and having lived in France, I had photos of lavender fields in my photo file. But to place the still life in front of a field from a photo was rather tricky. I was very nervous to try this and didn't want to ruin a good still life with a bad background, so I decided to paint the background first, thereby eliminating unnecessary work if it turned out poorly. The next tricky part was depicting the hot Mediterranean sun. I did many set ups in full sun at various times of day, and took even more photographs, finally arriving at this design. The last challenging part was painting all that white! White is so hard to paint! Very little of it is actually white. Because of all the lavender in the painting, I mixed a variety of temperatures and tones of lavender grey. In the end it was a great experience which I believe grew my painting skills. So don't be afraid to try something difficult. When we push ourselves we grow.






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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

In the Garden


Acrylic on Exhibition Canvas 24 x 24 SOLD

I'm pleased to announce that I have been juried into the Butchart Gardens Summer Art Show and Sale. The Butchart Gardens is our premiere Victoria attraction with 50 acres of the most spectacular floral finery and landscaping. It's a fabulous experience in all seasons. The above painting 'In the Garden' was a perfect fit for this show. When I first had the concept for this painting, I wanted to capture the pleasure of breakfast in the garden on a summer's day. When I actually set up the still life to photograph, it quickly became about light and shadow. I loved the shadows cast across the tea cup and table and onto the garden chair. I wanted to capture the bright summer sun, but give the impression of the freshness in the garden with the cool blue and white colour scheme. I'm really pleased with the result.











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