Naptime

Original Oil on Linen 11 x 14 $275

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It feels like quite a while since I posted. I've been preparing submissions for a variety of shows and events running through the summer, and am still preparing for the Oak Bay Artists' Studio Tour coming up on April 16th and 17th. It's been a very busy time, but I managed to get back to the easel and paint these cute little boats. The Gulf Islands are full of images like this, so I've photographed many boats turned upside down. They always look to me like they've come up on land to take a nap.

Naptime

The Boat Garage

Original Oil on Canvas  8 x 8 $150 Free shipping CAN & US
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Here's another scene from Hornby Island, although this time it's a house for boats instead of people. I've been rereading selected segments of Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, and trying to apply his techniques to my painting style. Changing your approach to painting is one of the hardest things to do, but I've been focusing on this while painting this series of beach houses. I have found that with each painting the application of his suggestions has become easier. I started by choosing just one suggestion, worked on that, then the next time I worked on the same thing, but added another suggestion to the mix. Here are the points I've been focusing on. 

• Note the artistic intention - what is drawing you to this image? Decide what to feature and how best to do that.
• Squint your eyes and block in tonal values of light and dark with poster-like flatness, covering all of the canvas.
• Introduce modeling into all the flat values.
• Look for and feel the landscape sense - the artistic expression, the rhythmic reach of the trees.

I feel that I've learned so much from purposely considering each of these steps,  while painting these small beach scenes and I'm totally excited about it. Although these are steps that I use to some extent regularly when I paint, by really giving them consideration, it clarified my values and  improved the expression of my brushstrokes.  If you can get a copy of his book (lots of used ones online), I would highly recommend it.

 

The Boat Garage

Beach House III - Under Cover

Original Oil Painting   9 x 12   



Another beach house scene from Hornby Island. This was painted from a picture taken on a walk along Whaling Station Bay. I loved the beach grass forming a path to the house, and the light play coming through the thick cover of trees. It seemed nestled in and cozy under the firs and arbutus trees. There was an awful lot of green in this painting. I find green a challenging colour. For me it's difficult to get just the right hue and temperature. So I really stretched myself on this one. I experimented with a variety of yellows and blues, scaping off my palette many times, before arriving at the colours I chose to paint with. I think the final result captures the light and feel of the place.

 

Beach House III - Under Cover

Beach House

Original Oil on Panel - Plein Air  8 x 10  $100 Free shipping

We recently returned from a heavenly week at my favourite west coast getaway spot - Hornby Island. This is one of the most fabulous places to holiday in the summer. It has gorgeous white sand beaches and WARM water, which is almost unheard of in the Pacific Northwest! It also has gorgeous scenery, spectacular bluffs with fields of tall grass and wild flowers at the top, and more bald eagles than you can imagine. This is a cute little house on Little Tribune Bay. I took the liberty of playing with the house colours a bit. There were a lot of different greens layering back, and some really dark darks, inside the foliage around the house. I tried to simplify without losing too much of the effect. At the end of the painting session, I stood back and decided that there was too much definition in the foliage, so it was competing with the house. I took a fan brush and lightly but boldly stroked over the foliage, in the same swooping manner that the branches grew, and liked the effect much better. The foliage maintained it's character, the house, the center of interest, kept the more defined brushstrokes.

 

Beach House

Rocks and Moss

Rocks and Moss - 11 x 14 Oil on Canvas $150

Here is my very first oil painting. I took a workshop at Vancouver Island School of Art to alleviate my worries about thinners and such. Now I'm at the bottom of a very steep slope. Caution! Big learning curve ahead! I love how you can blend so easily with oils, but I have to get used to how to apply the paint in layers while still wet. I'm having fun experimenting though. I'll probably go back and forth between acrylics and oils for a while, until I figure out which medium I like to use in which application. Got any tips for the novice oil painter?

Rocks and Moss