Lemons & Lace II

Lemons and Lace II   Oil   12 x 16   

Part of my 'Porcelain' series, Lemons and Lace II, features English porcelain and one of my favourite props, a vintage blue medicine bottle. Blue and yellow is one of my favoured colour combinations as I find the freshness of the yellow lemons against the blue patterning of the china very inspiring. In particular I enjoyed painting the varied depths of the shadow from the wedge of lemon protruding over the edge of table. It's these subtle observations that give me so much pleasure in painting a still life from life.

I've been trying to get back into a regular schedule of painting, following the passing of my father. When you haven't been painting very much, each colour mix and how you approach the painting, seems to be full of challenges. I've decided for the next short while to go back down to smaller pieces and try to get back into the groove of painting, and then I'd like to take a little break from still life and get back into some landscape pieces. Landscapes always feel so freeing as opposed to the close concentration of still lifes. They come off my brush in a much more impressionistic style. I hope that by mixing things up a bit I'll get back in the groove. Have you had moments when the paint just doesn't seem to flow off your brush or you're just not getting behind the easel as much as you used to? What did you do to overcome this obstacle? I'd love to hear some thoughts and suggestions.

Lemons & Lace II

Cooking with Colour II

Cooking with Colour II  Oil  8 x 8 SOLD

Here's another colourful still life using my new little Mexican bowls from my recent trip. I think I still have some value adjustments to do on the left side of the pepper.

Cooking with Colour II

Fifty Shades of Green

Fifty Shades of Green  Oil  16 x 16

This fabulously green cafe sparkling in the Sayulita sunshine was a must to paint! In fact the entire town was complete eye candy!  

 

I took a long time to paint this one. I hadn't painted in oils for quite a while and it was like learning to paint all over again. There was a fair amount of frustration, feelings of desperation and questioning if I had ever even know how to paint to begin with. But I persevered and ended up enjoying the last stages of the painting. 

 

Frequency of painting is so important in our development as artists. A hiatus makes everything that should be second nature seem so incredibly difficult. I'm trying hard to paint a few times a week to get the flow of my skills going again and get into the zen of it - a place I love to be. Do you find that taking time off from painting creates a huge relearning curve for you when you start up again? Tell me it happens to you too. Please!

Fifty Shades of Green

More Still Life Step by Step

So where have I been this year? Why am I blogging so infrequently? Well...I’ve been busy with family. My parents are both quite elderly and living in Vancouver, and I’ve been travelling back and forth quite a bit, and will  continue to do so. Add to that my full time Display Design work, my art shows, my own family, the house and garden etc. and something had to give. So blogging has slowed right down, and some months painting has as well. However, I’m fortunate to live close enough to visit my parents to help them out, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. So please accept my infrequent blog posts and please send me a comment when I post, because I love to hear from all of you and appreciate the feedback.

This is another commission piece for one of my collectors. There is a series of these long narrow still life pieces coming together. They are all 24" by 12" on Gallery Wrap canvas with the image wrapping around. I applied some texture to the canvas first with modelling paste to create some energy and movement, and to add another dimension to the painting. Starting with a value study in Transparent Red Iron Oxide, I then built layers of transparent or semi-transparent paint in the fruit. I like to use these transparent colours, because the light can pass through right to the white of the canvas, creating an inner glow in the fruits.. 

The fruit bowl is cobalt blue glass with some rings of texture running around it. I started to build the reflective quality of the glass, and the beaded table center underneath.

Everything but the table cloth is now fully painted.

I completed the table cloth, added depth and colour to the shadows, and added more texture and colours to the beaded table center. Again like in my last post, this was a commission for a strip out of one of my existing original paintings, so I used my previous advise and tried to see the image with fresh eyes, trying not to ask my myself how I painted parts of the image last time. For me that's important in order to enjoy the process and not second guess myself. I have one more painting left to complete in this series of six and this next one features star fruit, something that I've never painted before, so I'm looking forward to that!

More Still Life Step by Step

Summer Citrus

Summer Citrus  Acrylic on Canvas  16 x 16  $500

This still life was painted from a series of photos I shot in my garden last summer. I loved the light reflections on the glaze of the pitcher, the bowl and the fruit. There was a lot of light play on the tablecloth as well. I enjoyed interpreting the various components in the colour scheme of blue and yellow, carried through in the tablecloth, and the fence and foliage in the background. I think the final effect is quite harmonious.

My Tuesday night Still Life Painting Class had a go at this image as well. They had a photograph to take home and work on for a few weeks, between our painting from life studies each week. I was very pleased and impressed with the results. Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of their work, but they're a bit shy anyhow. 

I'm getting ready to hang a show this upcoming Sunday April 1st, for the Oak Bay Artists Society. A group of sixteen of us, is having a show at the CAC Gallery at Cedar Hill, April 1 - 8. This is a preview show for the Oak Bay Artists Spring Studio Tour, taking place on April 14 & 15, 12 noon - 4:30pm. Both shows feature some wonderfully talented artists and a host of mediums. If you're in the area, drop by and say hi! We'd love to see you!

Summer Citrus

Lemons & Light II - Still Life Step by Step

I just completed this painting as a practice with acrylics, for an upcoming workshop I'm teaching on October 23rd, at Monterey Center in Victoria BC  -  Contemporary Still Life in Acrylics. I've been painting all of my most recent Still Life paintings in oils, so I had to do a little practice to remember how to blend, layer colours, and create luminous light effects  Below is the step by step of the painting process:

When painting Still Life, I like to do a quick value study first. Because I wanted to create a sun drenched light effect in the fruit and cloth, I used glazes of transparent colours. This allows the light to pass through the layers of paint to the white canvas below creating a luminous light effect. 

Lemons & Light II - Still Life Step by Step

Spring Bloom

Original Acrylic on Canvas 14 x 18

Although Spring has not officially arrived in Victoria this year...it's SO cold!!! we do have the wildflowers blooming everywhere. They are actually about one month behind their normal blooming schedule. Usually we paint en plein air Easter weekend, and capture them just before they finish, but the blue Camas are still opening. This is Beacon Hill Park near my workplace, and at lunch I captured this shot while taking a walk. The shadows were very short because it was midday, but the colours were wonderful. As always, when I have a lot of green in a painting, I struggle a bit with foreground, midground and background. I pushed and pulled the values and finally settled with this version....for now. Do you find paintings with a lot of green challenging? Do you have thoughts on how to overcome this problem, other than practice?

Spring Bloom

Melon and Berries

Original Oil on Linen 11 x 14 - SOLD

I recently participated in a workshop on traditional still life and wanted to reinforce the skills I learned, so I set up this composition and painted it from life. It took several sittings to complete, and I had to keep lifting the setting, which I'd made on top of a wooden pop crate, off of my dining room table and placing it elsewhere while we ate. The cantaloupe was wrapped and put back in the fridge several times. Because of this the folds in the fabric kept changing and the melon started shrinking and the berries were all wrinkled and dried up. Instead of hindering me, I realized that it aided me in painting from an emotional place and adding what I felt was needed for the picture making rather than being tied to the subject. I was able to concentrate on edges, and to adjust the shadows and highlights as I felt added to the painting.

I've mentioned a few times that I would like to loosen up my painting style and create more visible brushwork. Hmmm....It does look a little tight, but in real life it seems to fall somewhere in the middle. I'm thinking of entering it in an upcoming show. What are your thoughts?

Melon and Berries

Lemons and Light

SOLD


happy New Year everyone!! So here is the first painting question of the year. Why are lemons so difficult to paint? I find the shadows on lemons really hard. I wiped this one several times before settling on this final version. I kept saying paint what you see, but the darks looked SO dark and when I applied that colour, it just didn't seem to work for me. So now that I've posted this, I can see that I'm going to tweek it a bit.

I would like to thank all of you who have visited and commented over the past year. I never imagined when I started blogging, that I would be introduced to so many kind and giving individuals, who would make me feel a part of a strong supportive community of artists. I have learned so much from all of you, and grown from painting frequently, so one of my resolutions is to keep on blogging, and to do it more frequently. Thanks so much for following my work.

Lemons and Light

The Trestle Bridge

Original Oil Painting - Plein Air   9 x 12  $100 Free Shipping CAN & US

This is a plein air piece that I did this past weekend at the Selkirk Trestle. It's a very peaceful spot - with a lot of activity taking place. I just didn't include the activity. There's a boat launch to the left of this scene where rowers come to practice in their rowing sculls. There were many boats coming and going in the water, and a constant stream of cyclists and joggers on the trestle bridge. The bridge is part of the Galloping Goose Trail, which is a 60 kilometer trail open to cyclists, horses, inline skaters, and joggers. It's a much loved recreational area on Southern Vancouver Island. Because of the constantly changing water surface, I just blocked in the water and highlights, and took a photograph of the scene. Apart from waves created by the boaters, a breeze blew up, eliminating all the nice reflections.  When I got home I added the calm darks as seen in the photograph, to create a greater serenity and depth to the scene.

 

The Trestle Bridge

Flower Boxes

Original Oil Painting  8 x 10   $95 Free Shipping

The Saltspring Island Cheese Co. is on a beautiful farm with sheep, goats, donkeys, and some very friendly dogs. You can walk around the cheese making buildings and have a self guided tour to see how all the various cheeses are made. There is also a little store, with complimentary sampling, which means we go home with a LOT of cheese! It's a beautiful quaint spot with a perfect combination of French Country and funky Saltspring decor. This little window faces into the garden where you can enjoy a drink and a snack. Yum!

 

Flower Boxes

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.

En Provence

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

Lighthouse Point

Original Oil on Panel 8 x 10 SOLD
I travel frequently between Victoria and Vancouver on BC Ferries. Luckily you pass through some of the most spectacular scenery on the west coast. This lighthouse out on the point with small broken islands all around, is one of my favourite scenes as we cross, so it's only fitting that I paint it! I have no idea what the name of the island is, but it's a really pretty spot.

Lighthouse Point

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.

In the Garden

Waiting to Dock

Original Oil - Plein Air   8 x 10   $100+ s/h


This is another plein air painting from our recent trip to Vancouver. It's a view from Spanish Banks across toward the North Shore and Stanley Park. The bay is always dotted with freighters waiting for port entry. Spanish Banks has very warm waters for this neck of the woods, due to a big sand bar that keeps the water shallow for huge distances. You can spot people way out there and realize they are only up to their knees in water. I've always loved this view of beaching and boating with the mountains capped in snow. I found this painting difficult to do because I was sitting in the middle of blinding sunshine on the beach, without an umbrella but I really wanted to capture this scene, so I just kept going and I'm glad I did.

Waiting to Dock

Vancouver Skyline

Original Oil on Panel - Plein Air  8 x 10  $100 + s/h
Last week we were in my old home town of Vancouver. Gotta love the energy in that city! The first few days the weather was overcast and a bit cold but we had a heatwave later in the week. This is a plein air done on a cloudy with sunny periods day. A bit challenging. It's a view of the West End from Kitsilano, with those gorgeous North Shore mountains as a backdrop. We used to live just up the hill from this spot, and went here often, so I had to revisit and paint it.

Vancouver Skyline

Olé!

Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas  36 x 24  $600 + s/h


I had so much fun painting "Three Amigos", the post of July 9th, that I decided to take it to a large format. I added an extra bowl for height and a few things in the foreground because of the extra space in changing from a square to rectangular composition. All the objects are many times their life size, and seen in real life, the stack of bowls is quite impressive, like a feat of balance. So I called it Olé! Greatly enlarged objects are an interesting concept. Maybe something to consider in the future. I think I prefer Three Amigos, probably because the image was fresh for me, and it was so cute, it almost had it's own personality, but Ole has some power. Which do you prefer? Tell me what you think about this concept. This is the last of my Mexican theme.....for the moment.

Olé!

Ensalada

Ensalada Original Acrylic on Canvas 16 x 16  $350 
Please contact for shipping quote


Here's one more Mexican themed Still Life. My sister brought me this lovely plate from a trip to Mexico. I had a lot of fun with the composition, using the pattern in the tablecloth. The plate was very time consuming because of the light play on the fluted edge. This one is currently at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria for the Summer Small Works Show.

 

Ensalada

Island Living

Acrylic on Exhibition Canvas 20 x 16 SOLD

Here is a summer beach scene from Saltspring Island, one of several gorgeous Gulf Islands, between here and Vancouver. This is one of our favourite places for a quick getaway. Many of the beaches have rock shoals, as seen here, and feature beautiful Arbutus trees. Here's someone's little skiff, just waiting to go for a row and a cottage nestled in the trees in the distance. Of course I had to paint it! I'm pleased with the sparkling light that I managed to capture.

Island Living