"Study with Green" and "Study with Orange``

An afternoon last spring was spent with mixing Sap Green into every colour put on this painting. The idea was to make the painting uniform using quite a few colours. Rick Berg brought in one of his paintings and we followed his direction to paint our own version.

"Study with Sap Green"

12" x 12" Oil on canvas

The painting below was another interesting afternoon with artist Rick Berg. He brought in a painting that we looked at and then painted our own version. The interesting part of this study was that every colour used also had a touch of orange in it. This helped to keep the painting uniform with all the colours. I also found it a challenge to paint something back lit.

"Study with Orange"
12" x 12" oil on board

Rick Berg Workshop

Rick Berg brought in a painting that he had done with reds and oranges and variations of both. He had the class mix all their colours one at a time with Alizarin Crimson on a board or paper to see all the relationships and variety. It was quite eye opening. Rick did a short demo based on the finished painting and then we did our versions. Of course in a 3 hour time frame, most did not get theirs completed (mine included). Finally finished my version today.  I have never used Alizarin Crimson with so many colours before!

Below is Rick's under painting and then his original framed painting. It is quite a large painting and will be for sale at the 2014 Calgary Stampede.

Encaustic Workshop with Ken Bourassa

Wow, I surpassed all expectations for today's painting challenge! I spent a very productive day at an encaustic (painting with beeswax and hardener) workshop with master encaustic painter Ken Bourassa. I had so many ideas and had to work quickly and through lunch to get some of them down. This medium is very different to work with as the paint hardens on the brush right away. It has to be heated and ironed to seal it which of course can melt the wax right down to the board (I'm good at that). The first painting actually has paint, material, paper and gold flecks embedded into it.

"Autumn Changes"
12" x 8" Encaustic on board

There is actually more tree than this picture shows. When I get a chance I will take another photo. There is also gold fleck on the tree and sun that doesn't show up.

"Come Along For The Ride"
Encaustic 8" x 12" on board

This one inspired me as our friends Laurianne and Chris just signed up for the 2 day MS bike ride. They invited their friends to join them. I put the biker high on the hill to represent the distance they have to do.

"Flooded Bike Path"

12" x 8" Encaustic on board

My brain was working in very different directions today. When Calgary was flooded last year we went on a bike ride only to find the bike path completely washed away...I guess that view has stayed with me.

"Experiment Not Finished"

8" x 12" Encaustic on board

This one is not finished and has a variety of layers that the camera does not capture. I plan on carving more into it when I have time...just ran out of day.

"Which Button?"

12" x 8" Encaustic on board

I love this one! It has 5 homemade beads going down on the top right and 3 going up from the bottom left. These bead were made in honor of the 10 years (last September) my ladies hiking group have been hiking together. Sue and I had made dog tags and beads for each year each hiker had been able to go on our yearly hike to use as a pull tab on their back pack. The beautiful and fun colours made me think of them! :)