Fall in Chase

This oil painting is my interpretation of a beautiful fall day taken by Sue Bingham in Chase, B.C. Her photographs are often an inspiration for me and she willingly shares her talents. I love pictures I feel invited into!

I was painting this in the Robert Wood's class and Deb suggested that I paint the sky in the background instead of the brown hill. Robert helped with the colour and he added the blue on the ground and tree trunks for me. It was amazing to see it brighten up further. It was such a bold use of a colour that was not in the picture! I really did not like it until it was added to the trees. This photo does not show the colours in the painting well.

Oil on canvas 16" x 20" 1/2" deep with painted sides, no frame required

Bronte, a pet dog portrait

My good friend Joan sent me a picture of Bronte with her Xmas bow tie on when I requested one to use as a resource to try and paint another dog. I changed the colour of the tie and did not paint the Christmas tree in the background. I really enjoyed painting Bronte as she is so expressive, a really loving, pet me, pet me, tail wagging friendly spirit. I painted her with acrylic on birch board. I have this portrait framed in a metal frame and have her up on our coffee room wall at work (for a little while)...fitting as she likes people so much!!

"Bronte" Acrylic on Birch board approx. 13" x 15"

Finished oil painting

I had a hard time trying to get the background hills/mountains the right value, but am really happy with the finished picture. It evokes the feeling of calm and warmth to me. Again the photo is more muted than the painting.

Oil on canvas 16" x 20" 1/2" deep with painted sides, no frame required.

End of figure unit

Our figure unit ended with me missing the last class (out of town). It was very quick, fast paced and fun. We worked from a model program, magazines and pictures. The work was once again very impressive and some people worked very hard and very large (not me). We drew stick people, 2 minute studies, working our way up to adding "tin man" style figures to full body poses. I unfortunately missed the portrait class! This is a watercolour of a girl in the cold lake. I again painted vibrantly, having difficulty painting with muted colours! I am beginning to think that is a personal trait, as muted colours are not my thing (obviously). This excercise was to get shapes, body, face, hair but not in detail, we were to make a painting not a photograph.

"Cold Water" Water colour on 140lb paper. 5" x 6.5"

Calgary sky, winter 2011

This is an oil painting of a beautiful winter sky in Calgary. It was taken from the parking lot at work. I painted it on birch panel in oil. I had Robert E. Wood's suggestions and help during the oil painting class, I and 3 of my Creative Path Artists are currently enjoying. This is such a different medium for me, lots to learn but fun creating with it. Again, the colours are much more vibrant in the real painting! I haven't quite figured out why the colours look so bland once transferred to this blog! Anyone with any ideas?

"Calgary Winter Sky" oil on birch panel 12"x15.5"

First Animal Portrait - a heartfelt gift

"Buddy" Water colour on 140lb paper 10.5" x 14"

I watched and did a "paint-a-long" to Pat Weaver's "Animal portraits in watermedia" of my Mom's dog "Buddy". I was really happy with the way this water colour pet portrait turned out. I brought it to my class for background ideas as I had a pale yellow-orange background and was not happy with it. I pulled and added the same colour from the collar into the background which gave the dog more definition. Buddy is a wonderful friend to my Mom and really the whole family. I have matted this picture to 16 x 20 and will deliver it the next time I go to B.C. Love you Mom!

MRU mural panel celebration

Mount Royal University had a showing and celebration of the panels that are completed for the centennial mural so far. This is a picture of Curtis' panel. It is the view from a cockpit of one of the planes, a fun pilot view, not a fun passenger view (note the prairie and river). Curtis had to miss the celebration as he was in an evening class.

This is me with my panel. There were approx. 100 of the 180 panels on display. I now have a new panel to complete with the old Mount Royal College logo as the theme. Ideas have already started to flow! The panels were on display for the day and then there was a celebratory evening with music, food and wine.  There was one that had knitted and felting on it, one done solely in beads, and lots with different textures so it was really fun to see the artists and the panels up close.

Sunrise at Duck Lake

I have started taking an oil painting class from Robert E. Wood. My Creative Path Artist friends (Suzanne, Joan, Deb and myself) signed up together to make up a class of 10. I painted this one at home after watching his demo. I have painted this one before in water colour as a thank you gift for our friends we stayed with but it sold before I could give it away. I painted it again and gave it to it's rightful owners and now have enjoyed creating it again in oil. I am still learning how to take pictures for this blog as the painting is really quite bright and this picture shows it quite dull in comparison. Again, painting it brought back fun memories of a wonderful weekend with friends. I have it framed in a silver metal frame 13x10 3/4".

I am currently working on this Vietnam picture in oil. I am hoping to finish it tonight (might be too optimistic). Robert is very helpful and encouraging. We paint on whatever we want individually and he goes around the room to help and make suggestions. It really is inspiring to watch different pictures with different painting styles come to fruition. 

Last still life in class

This was started in our last class. These beautiful treasures are Leila's and we both worked from them. I used sepia ink for the first time to paint the underpainting. The underpainting was painted with a decrepid oriental brush that had bristles going every direction! It is painted in acrylic on water colour paper 7 1/2 x 10 1/2

This is my second painting using the same still life, but with my camera as the resource. I really enjoyed this one as well. After the class critique, I added more colour into the white flowers as well as a transparent wash on the dark background. The background looks flat in this picture, but it has reds, blues and purples in the actual painting.

Still Life - completed paintings

We have been working on Still Life in my art class. These pictures are ones that I did at home. I just used 2 items, a metal ladybug (a gift) and a small vase. I played with these items mainly to look at their shadow shapes and the variety of colours in the shadows (who knew?). They are all painted in acylic and roughly 8" x 8" unframed. I am going to frame 1 (or all 3) if I can't decide which one I like best and put them in my office. I also use the lunch room as a gallery so they might end up in there together for a fun trio.The blue one also had a shadow of a wooden flower that I just had to add in! It was fun to play with different angles and colours with the same subject.

 

 

 

This last one was a completed painting, but when I peeled off the dried paint on my pallette, I loved the design and colours so I incorporated it right into the painting! I love the textural effect when you look up close!