Last Winter Still Life and Figure Class

Oil on canvas panel 16" x 12"

This was the last winter 2012 still life and figure class. I learnt a lot and was really challenged with both subjects. This painting was painted over 2 classes. The first night I wiped off my painting 5 times, it was a tough night. Sometimes it flows and sometimes the challenges are huge stuggles within. I am happy with the final result and really enjoyed my last class. I am sorry to see them end. I will not be taking her spring classes but look forward to Fall classes with Ingrid.

oil on canvas board 12" x 9"

This was our warmup 20 minute excercise (speed painting is what I call it!). The goal was to capture the model's position and fill up the whole canvas without filling any details. It was both stressful and exhilarating! We lined up everyone's work and Ingrid critiqued them. The easels were in a horse shoe shape around the model so it was fun to see all the different views of the same pose.

Waiting For Spring - oil painting

Waiting for Spring

10.5" x 13" Oil on birch board

This little ceramic frog in the melting snow is from a gift calendar (April 2012) my friend Sue made for me of her artful photographs. I had so much fun painting this little guy as he seemed a little hopeful and tired at the same time, a true "end of winter" feeling. We often get a big snowfall in Calgary after our tulips have graced our gardens.

Still life lesson - seeing colour in white

This is a picture of my easel, paint and still life set up in Ingrid's "Still Life and Figure Class". The lesson here was to see colour in a white set up - white flowers, clear vase, white background. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Thank goodness Ingrid does a demo first so we can "see" what she "see's" The lights above help to add shadow to the shapes which help to show the subjects colour.

Oil on canvas board 12" x 16"

This is the final painting and I am really happy with it. I had no idea there were so many colours in white!The colours are not muted or subtle in my painting (couldn't do it if my life depended on it!) and I like the "alive" feeling of the flowers.

Figure Painting Warm Up

This was a 20 minute warm up with a live model in Ingrid's class. The theme was a model with flowers (in her hair). The purpose of this warm up was to get the basic shapes, placements and local colours blocked in. We worked on an unprimed canvas which made the paint hard to spread. I enjoyed this process and found the speed painting both invigorating and stressful. I wiped this warm up off before Ingrid suggested we keep them for a reference!

This is the second painting of the night (on top of the wiped out canvas). The model was reclining instead of sitting like the warm up. Again, it is not a finished painting, but I certainly learned a lot about painting a figure. I am happy that I captured her position, tones and basic body shape. This painting was also wiped off at the end of the night as I would not have a chance to finish it without a model to view.



Fun Still Life in Ingrid Christensen's class!!

This was a wonderful excercise done in Ingrid's class!This is a picture of my view of the still life and my easel.  We under painted our canvas randomly with the colours we were going to use. Some people used very muted colours evenly spread, and as you can see I chose bright fun colours! We were not to try to place any flower shapes and if we had, we were to move our canvas to the upside down position. I really enjoyed the randomness of this start and it was almost a relief to have the canvas covered with so many colours, it was no longer precious. I have started to add the red flowers.

Red Flower Still Life

Oil on canvas panel 12" x 9"

This is the end result. I really enjoyed this evening and it went by really fast. It was difficult for some of my classmates to start a painting like this and I think this is a love it or leave it way to start a painting. Again, the beautiful colours do not show well in this picture.

Fish Creek Park - 26 C

Fish Creek Park -26 C - SOLD

Oil on canvas 16" x 20" in a barn board frame

This painting was based on a photograph my friend Sue took on a very cold winter day last year. I loved the colours, the beautiful blue sky reflected in the snow, the crispnessness that can be felt in her photo as well as the location! The buyer recognized it as Fish Creek Park and wanted art representing Calgary for his new condo. My thanks to Sue and Vishnu!