Lemons through Glass

Lemons through Glass    Oil     8 x 8

Here's another painting from my Glass Series. In this one I layered glassware and lemons, trying to find enough distortion to make it interesting but still seeing immediately what it is. I love the effect of glass and the colours found in the reflections. Although representational, there are many abstract passages when painting glass, which makes it a really fun and challenging subject. 

I'll be demonstrating painting the effect of glass at the TD Art Gallery Paint-In, coming up Saturday, June 15th. Let's all hope for sunshine and no wind! Large canvases turn into sails when the Island wind picks up.

Lemons through Glass

Still Life - April Afternoon

April Afternoon   16 x 20   Acrylic

This upcoming Sunday, August 10th is the Oak Bay Community Artists summer event, the Bowker Creek Artists' Brush-Up Show and Sale. It's a wonderful outdoor art event in Bowker Creek Park. There are 35 artists this year who will demonstrating their work in the lovely dappled light along the sides of the creek. Join the fun and participate in a piece of public art set for silent auction at the end of the show. As well there will be an art station for kids, some environmental groups helping us understand how to keep our community green, and a gourmet hamburger BBQ presented by The Oaks Restaurant. If you are in the area, please do drop by and say hi! 

Still Life - April Afternoon

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

 Lemons and Lace  Oil  16 x 16 SOLD

This is the largest oil painting I've ever done. I'm still learning how to paint with oils and the larger the canvas the more intimidating it seems. I was very systematic with blocking in the entire painting and slowly building the layers and in the end I though "Well that wasn't so scarey after all". It's funny how we psych ourselves out isn't it? The vase and pedestal plate are two new finds from a local consignment store. I absolutely love them, so I'm sure they will show up in many more paintings. 

This is a very high tone painting for me. I usually go for more colour saturation and I frame all my paintings in black front loading floater frames. This one called for a silver frame and because it was on a deep canvas the selection was limited and very expensive, forcing the price of the painting up. So I did something else I've never done before and this was REALLY scarey. I took it off the deep stretchers and restretched  it onto narrow stretchers thereby increasing my selection of framing. I just lined the stretcher bars up along the creases that were alreadyin the canvas from the deep stretchers. I put one staple in the center of each side, working to opposite sides, and then worked my way out to the corners, putting in one or two staples on each side before switching to the opposite side.  The corners were already creased in the folds, so they came together very smoothly.   I do a lot of fabric stretching in my work and have done reupholstery but this was very nerve wracking and I had to do it when no one else was home so I could give it my full attention. I was thrilled it went smoothly without any horrible moments. The custom frame is going to be ready this Saturday and I can hardly wait to see how it looks framed.

This painting will be featured in the upcoming Oak Bay Artists' Spring Studio Tour on April 20 & 21. If you're in the area feel free to drop by and bring your friends! For a tour brochure, click here, the tour map link is at the bottom of the page. The link is compliments of Elizabeth Anderson who helped me with the link address. I was having trouble with links on my last post because I was using the permalinks in the side bar instead of the link on the top menu and I couldn't get it to work. Thanks Elizabeth!

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

Oops!

 Silk & Things  Oil on Linen  11 x 14  

On exhibit at the FCA Spring Exhibition at Goward House

....a little mistake. Well you know how sometimes a message gets passed along and by the time it arrives to you the info isn't quite right? Well that's what happened with the message about which of my paintings was accepted into the Federation of Canadian Artists Spring Exhibition. The one in my last post was not accepted, but this painting, Silk and Things was! If you're in the area, the show is on at Goward House, 2495 Arbutus Rd until March 28th.

And if you like the painting below please "LIKE" it! This painting is in this months BoldBrush Competition, and you can vote by clicking here and when the voting page opens, click the "Like" button below the image. Thank you!

ACRYLIC PAINTING CLASSES

Coming up on March 20th is a new set of Acrylic Painting classes that I'm teaching. This set is about painting reflective surfaces. If you are in Victoria and would like to join us, we have lots of fun while learning! The classes are at Monterey Center in Oak Bay, Tuesdays Mar20 - April 24, 6:30 - 9pm,  6/$75

Register by phone @ 250 370-7300 Reg#103003

My new website has a newsletter that comes out every 4 - 6 weeks. Apart from my classes and shows, I also include an educational section covering an art topic to appeal to both art lovers and collectors alike. If you are interested in receiving this email newsletter, please click here and to view my website click here.

Oops!

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

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. :-)

Any Title Ideas?

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