Still life - studies in colour

These are studies that I did in my class. The goal was to look at the shadow shape and the colours in the shadow. I worked in acrylic again and really enjoyed working on these without trying to design a picture.

The one below is my favorite. I spilled my coffee on it and it made the perfect design. I couldn't of made up that design if I was trying. It looks like a table cloth to me. It is titled "Coffee break" as it did give me a break from painting and I realized I was done with it when I stepped away.

Still life in black and white

These 8" x 8" pictures were live studies painted in black and white acrylic. The pepper and small pear are done on watercolour paper with the under painting a bright red. The idea was to  cover the whole picture using only black and white values. I enjoyed how the bright red still added to the overall tone of the painting without seeing it.

This study was done with a bright green undercoating. It really makes you study an object when you don't have colour to describe it.

Early morning lilies

Painting inspiration comes from everywhere! There are day lilies on our shower curtain and I look at them every morning thinking one day I am going to paint them. Of course there is no window behind them and I really had fun with the shadows. This is painted in acrylic and roughly 11 x 14. I was really pleased with how this turned out. The background of our shower curtain is cream with sand coloured squares.

Ingrid Christensen workshop

This is an oil painting I did at Ingrid Christensen's one day workshop at Calgary School of Art. It was a really fun day and I was happy with the results. Ingrid set up 2 flower still lifes and we could choose which one we wanted to paint. There were 5 students and with 3 of us doing the same still life and 2 doing the other. It was incredible how different they all looked. Ingrid did a demo and showed us how to do an underpainting with a rough painted sketch. I hadn't worked in oil so it was a very interesting, fun and frustrating. It was like knowing how to play the piano and then picking up a trombone and trying to play! I wasn't used to paint that wasn't dry and kept picking up everything underneath where I wanted to paint!

Ingrid's teaching style was to enjoy, have fun, and learn in an encouraging environment. I would highly recommend taking a class from her! Her blog is: http://ingridpainter.blogspot.com/  I put the painting up in our lunch room at work (my gallery) and have already had an offer to buy it. I am not ready to let it go yet though.

Mount Royal University 100 year mural celebration

This is Curtis' artistic panel. The unfinished mural can be seen at http://mtroyal.ca/100/mural100.htm Click on any of the small panel pictures to see a larger view, the artist and artist comments. He did his panel based on his MRU Aviation Program. Curtis will graduate from that program in April with a Commercial Pilot Diploma.

The panel (#116) he had to work with is below:

I am really excited we both were able to be part of this artistic MRU historical celebration.

Hiking memories

Acrylic 10 1/2" x 14 1/2"

This (hiking) picture is painted with a bright orange underpainting. I was inspired after watching a painting DVD by Hugh Greer. The picture below is my take on a painting he did on his DVD. It was fun and relaxing. I also used my hiking photo (close up) as inspiration as well.

Acrylic 14 1/2" x 10 1/2"

Acrylic challenge

This was one of the last challenges in my art class. The challenge was to work on a painting from a photograph that I did not know how to paint. We were to break it down to what we were interested in and make the other "stuff" secondary. The other challenge was to paint it completely differently than we were used to doing. This is the final picture.

The "painting it differently' for me was to paint the underpainting in Cad Red Medium and Quin. Crimson. I chose these colours as they were far from reality. Here is a close up of what some of my underpainting looked like:

This is the complicated and challenging picture I was working from. I had taken this picture on a hike and was influenced by the "Y" in the water and the variety of colours. It was so busy I had no idea of where and how to even start this one!

Mount Royal University Panel completed

The story of Mount Royal University told through art.

"The Centennial Mural Mosaic Project is a permanent showcase of the most significant people and stories in Mount Royal's 100 year history. 180 panels created by numerous Alberta artists will make up the mural. Each panel celebrates those who created today's premier undergraduate university. Informative and engaging, this project is an artistic legacy that will bring Mount Royal's rich history to life."

The panel (#48) is shown below as it was given to me.

I chose to celebrate the Commercial Aviation program at MRU as my son Curtis will be graduating in April with his Commercial Pilot's License. Below is my finished panel. You can check out the panels that are posted so far at http://mtroyal.ca/100/mural100.htm  Click on a panel and it will increase in size and the artist's comments are shown plus the original panel.

My finished panel is of a MRU plane with the Springbank airport in the background.

Two paintings sold

Two paintings sold at the Chinook Learning Services Christmas student celebration. Art from classes taken, instrument playing, singing etc are highlighted in the adult student exhibition. The picture above is a water colour painted on site at the Leighton Center just outside of Calgary. I was really happy with it and the day spent with painting friends. It was matted to fit a 11 x 14 frame.

The second picture was a water colour of an Italian scene that I painted from a photo reference taken when I was in Italy. It was a lesson for me as I did not take a picture and now do not have a record of it! Art is all about learning. The photo above was taken indoors as a quick reference. I certainly need to improve my picture taking of art now that I am posting in this blog!

More fun with acrylic paint

It has been really hard to take pictures out doors (natural light is the best light to show painted colours). with going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. I have to try to remember to take the pictures on the weekend and then post, hence two different paintings and excercises at once. I wish I had time and energy to paint and post 2 pictures each week!

This is a painting based on a picture from our back country ski weekend last year. We skiied (8 of us) across this lake and had lunch on the other side. The excercise was to paint again with translucent, transparent and opaque paint. I enjoyed the color triad I used on this one, getting away from "reality" but still reading and viewing the painting knowing what the subject still is.

This is a second painting of the same subject matter. Again, another different "unrealistic" color pallete with an underpainting in orange. Being able to cover up the underpainting with opaque and transparent washes was really foreign to me. A chance to play with acrylic versus water colour paints. Both pictures have really different feels, one cool and one warm. I am not sure which one I prefer.