Joan's Zebras

I am so lucky and grateful to have friends who share their travels with me in photographs I can paint and adapt any way I like. The picture below is my take on a photo Joan took when traveling to Africa with her family recently.

Of course the zebra's are black and white, just not in my painting world! I did not change the placement of the zebras, they were perfect just the way they were, however the stripes are not the same. I don't paint usually with black so the dark stripes have blue, red and brown and the light stripes are a mix of red, orange and yellow. Oh this girl, is having way to much fun!!!

"Joan's Zebras"

10 1/2" x 8 1/2" acrylic on watercolour paper

double matted in a dark wood 18" x 14 1/2" frame

Please check out my  website for paintings for sale.

Sunny Blue

"Sunny Blue"

Oil on board

8 1/2" x 6 1/2"

click on painting for a larger view

Once again, life got in the way and painting falls behind. These flowers just felt sunny, alive and inspiring, the perfect thing to get back to painting with. I think I am enamoured with the season's orange colour!

Halloween Fun!

We were going for a nice fall bike ride last weekend and I saw this pumpkin at a house we passed by. I just loved the fun look of it..funny shaped, happy and weathered. Now I have my own version to enjoy in the house.

"Orange You Happy"

Oil on board

10" x 8"

I have a website!!

I am still doing a happy dance!!! My sister Shannon helped me start a website for my art. We did an exchange...while I was sewing a quilt with her sky diving t-shirts, she was working on starting a website for me. I was power sewing and answering her questions (not easy using the right and left side of the brain at the same time). Shannon did a website as part of her Masters degree so she knew what she was doing.

The second best part was the funny things she had put on the website that I did not see until I went in to add pictures & information...under pet portraits, her dog Chi Chi was the star!

Chi Chi

Oil on canvas board 11" x 14" NFS

Under "about the artist" she had listed my family members as "a husband named after a vegetable" (Gord) and 2 kids that would rather fly than bike, walk etc (pilot and flight attendant). Loved all the tid bits I found as I was loading pictures etc. We both enjoy humour (sometimes very easily amused) and can tickle each others funny bone. Love that girl!!

If you get a chance to check it out, go to: www.KarenOliversFineArt.com  Oh yeah, happy dance!

Sonya's Bluebird Nest #3

This is the third painting I have completed from the picture Sonya sent when I had asked for pet pictures at work. She doesn't have a pet but does volunteer work, hiking to count bluebird nests, eggs and baby chicks. I had so much fun painting the first two, I wanted to do something even more textural in a mixed media format.

Sonya's Bluebird Nest #3

6" x 6"

Acrylic and mixed media on board

For this painting I used paper, twine, acrylic paint and medium to build up layers very similar to the nest itself. I used dried acrylic paint for the eggs and built up under and over them. It was a very messy but very fun experiment. I also used acrylic liquid metal paint so it really catches the light. Now what to do for a number 4.............

 

Theo - A Dog Portrait

"Theo" NFS

Acrylic on Board

11" x 13.5" in a silver metal frame
click on picture for a larger view

This precious pet belongs to Nicki. He had just been into some beet juice and was doing his best to not look guilty!!! Life with this dog is not dull!

This is the last of the pet portraits from work - 4 dogs and a bluebird nest was sent to me when I asked for pictures of pets to paint over the summer. Most of my summer was fixing up our summer cabin after a lake flood so I did not get much painting done. I need to paint things that have meaning to me, so while I was painting the pets, I could think of the owners and the stories that were supplied. This portrait of Theo will be happily gifted to Nicki

Sonya's Bluebird Nest #2

Sonya's Bluebird Nest #2

Acrylic on Board 6" x 6"

click on picture for larger view

I had so much fun painting the first painting of the Bluebird nest and eggs that Sonya sent me, I needed to play some more. This picture is very textural with layers of colourful paint. I really had fun with this one and let loose with the paint, weaving in some of the colours with dried pieces of acrylic paint.