Valencia

Valencia  Oil  16 x 16 SOLD

This is the last of my new paintings to be featured in the Oak Bay Artists Spring Studio Tour, this weekend, April 20 & 21, 12:00 - 4:30pm. I loved this piece of fabric with it's strong design, and decided to combine it with the complimentary colour of the oranges. Things started well, but part way through I was questioning my choice of fabric with all those stripes, folds, shadows and highlights. Yikes! But I just slowly worked through it and bit by bit it came together. I kept a little mantra in my head, from my blogging friend Lorraine Shirkas, "Paint outside the lines", which actually made the fabric come together  much more easily. Although it looks very exact in the photo I did paint outside the lines! I'm pleased with the outcome of this one and the European flavour it has. 

I have some Jazz pieces in the LOOK Victoria 2013 Show, on now through the month of April at the Bay Center in downtown Victoria. There are a few hundred local artists participating in this show, put on by the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria. It's a non-juried show, and one where first time exhibitors can have their art hanging next to well known artists. It's a show with a wonderful sense of community and mentoring amongst artists, and it's such an important show to give newly emerging artists a supportive venue in which to enter the world of shows. If you are in the area the show is on the 3rd floor of the mall and is taking up two store fronts so give yourself some time to enjoy all the wonderful work on display. 

Valencia

Clementines

Clementines Original Oil Painting on Linen 8 x 8 Framed - SOLD

Free s/h CAN & USA International please email for shipping rate

I had a very slow start on this one. I wiped it off twice before finally deciding to sit down, thereby changing my viewpoint and avoiding drawing the opening of the pitcher. Some days you just can't make it happen! I ended up liking this composition better and am pleased with the outcome. I'm working on more painterly brushstrokes, which I think I achieved on the pitcher and the cloth. The clementines ended up a bit tighter, but you have to start somewhere!

This painting is of one of my favourite belongings - a Tuscan pitcher. I bought it at a flea market in a little village in the Southwest of France. The woman who sold it to me, told me a wonderful story of how she came to own it. A flea market vendor in Tuscany was berating the crowd for being so cheap and not buying anything from him on this particular day. He held up the pitcher and kept lowering the price until finally he offered it for free, at which point she stepped forward and accepted it. The irony is that she didn’t pay it forward, she charged me for it, and quite a healthy price too! But I’m happy I own it all the same. :-)

Clementines

Tuscan Oranges

Original Acrylic on Exhibition Canvas   20 x 16  SOLD


This is one of the paintings that I submitted for the Summer Small Works Show at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. It's a vibrant, fun, feel good painting, and will make an impact on someone's kitchen or breakfast nook wall.
I have been busy painting a piece for my Retro Series, which I had planned to post today. I've been photographing it in progress, to show a step by step, but decided that I like
it so much, I'm going to save it for an upcoming show, and therefore can't post it. Sorry about that, but I hope you enjoy the painting I posted in lieu.

Tuscan Oranges

Tuscan Olives 2

Tuscan Olives 2   Acrylic on Exhibition Canvas  $85

I painted a "Tuscan Olives" painting for the Christmas Small Works Show at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria 2009. I really enjoyed doing that painting and decided to paint this similar one. I love painting in warm Tuscan and Mediterranean colours.

 

Tuscan Olives 2