2016 Self Portrait - "My Painting Face"

Well I got a lot of flack about this one, mainly from family. I worked on it again this morning but in a wonderful sun lit room and the feeling is not as ominous. Yesterday was unusually overcast and gray.

I started painting at 6:15 a.m. when my hubbie got up to get ready for work. I thought I would try and paint early as I was finding my days were filled with other things and painting just didn't get high on the list. 

A scary view at 6:15 a.m.! With a mirror on my easel, my critical brain kept reacting to what I was seeing but I just kept painting anyways. When my stomach rumbled it was time to be done. The printing on the side reads "I put on my painting face...It can take the internal and external criticism."

My 2015 self portrait is here and 2014 selfie.

"My Painting Face"

10" x 8" Oil on canvas panel

#20029416  Not For Sale

Antacrtic Series #2 - "Patagonia"

I painted the first of this series earlier on, you can see it here. The reference for this one was a photo taken by our son on his journey to Antarctica. This is a view from his plane of the Patagonia mountain range. Cerro Torre is the peak on the left with Mt. Fitz Roy on the right. This was a very challenging view as it did not have a foreground, middle ground and back ground. One of Doug Swinton's suggestions was changing the colour of the sky to make it recede into the background and that solved the visual perspective problem. This was challenging as I had never painted anything quite like this top of the mountain view. I really love how this turned out!

"Patagonia"

Oil on canvas 16" x 20"

#20010316

5. Nature's Path

"Nature's Path"

20" x 16"

Oil on canvas framed

#20025216

$350

This was a challenge for me as I wanted the flowers and grass to be loose but not look like I had 2 separate paintings with the mountains behind. With Doug Swinton's help I feel like everything is well balanced and interesting. I am really happy with this one!

"Girls Who Do Lunch" - Liana Bennett FCA workshop

"Girls Who Do Lunch"

20" x 16" Acrylic on Canvas

#20021316  $300 unframed

Can't you just feel the fun in this one?! Again "Abstracting The Figure" was the workshop so I wasn't going for a realistic rendering but rather the figures gesture and attitude. Love, love, love this one. I hope to do more in a similar style.

Liana Bennett FCA workshop - "The Last Show"

I have read artists "story lines" for their art and always wonder how they come up with such descriptive ideas behind their art. I usually paint what inspires me. At Liana's "Abstracting The Figure" workshop, I had the experience of a full story in a painting develop before me. We were to paint a blank canvas using words, colours, designs, really anything that inspired us.

I started with a very colourful background (no surprise there) and printed the word "GRATITUDE" in capital letters across it, knowing full well it would probably be covered up. It looked like a funky graffiti wall. We were told to carve out a figure and the story began. The figure started to look like someone in period costume and it made me think of my Aunt Lynn that recently passed away. She was very involved in theater and as I saw this progress everything fit, the last dress up, last story delivered, last performance and with gratitude!





"The Last Show"
Acrylic on canvas board 20" x 16"
#20020316

"New Moon Dance" Liana Bennett FCA workshop

What fun this 3 day workshop was!! It was called "Abstracting The Figure" and taught by Liana Bennett for the Calgary Chapter of the FCA. We worked on painting similar to Mark Rothko which did not interest me very much until I started painting and realized the layers and edges were a lot more intriguing to paint than to look at in a projected view. I really enjoyed the process. I also worked on two under-paintings. Next we took paper and drew a figure with conte and then cut it out, applied it to our "Rothko" and then decorated around and on top with acrylic paint. I think this one reflected how I was feeling and my enjoyment of this workshop. The dark marks at the top are the clips holding it to my board, it has the same coloured border all around.

"New Moon Dance"

Mixed media

24" x 18" on canvas

#20019316

"Quiet Time" - FCA Richard McDiarmid Workshop

I had the wonderful opportunity of taking a Federation of Canadian Artist, Calgary Chapter "Experimental Techniques in Watermedia" with Richard McDiarmid. I found the techniques we worked with as well as working in acrylics very interesting in my own work and Richard's demo's. After each demo we worked on our pieces with words of advice as Richard walked around the room. This painting is very textural and used a variety of methods taught in the workshop. I love how both my pieces turned out and how different they were! The first piece was "Shared Wisdom".

"Quiet Time"

Acrylic Mixed Media 

11" x 15" on canvas 

Richard McDiarmid's photo reference

#20003416