Early Morning Flower Series #6 and #7

Early Morning Flower Series #6

6" x 6" Oil on Board

I had received a gift certificate for an art store and searched high and low for a special treat...ta da...Caribean Blue (from Holland Classic). It is a very bold colour and it doesn't need much paint to add some zing. I am still going to have to be bolder with it in upcoming paintings, it is truly beautiful!!

Early Morning Flower Series #7

6" x 6" Oil on Board

Again, a new take on this one with very muted colours and a criss cross pattern for the leaves in the background. I painted the flower with hard edges as well.

Early Morning Flower Series #5

Morning Flower Series #5

6" x 6" Oil on board

Now you must be able to see how much fun I had with this one! I was really trying to change it up after I saw how much the last two looked similar. I am not stressing myself out trying to complete one in one early morning go and it seems so much more enjoyable now. I am really having fun with these!

Early Morning Flower Series #3 and #4

Morning Flower Series #3

6" x 6" Oil on board

This is the third early morning painting. As stated in the last blog, Helen inspired me with her early morning/before work small paintings. Well I tried and the half an hour goes by way to fast, I just want to keep going as I am not done! Alas, the work bell tolls and off I go. The good news is I can hardly wait to get home and finish the painting. I have not been able to work on any bigger pieces since I finished Ingrid's class, due to time constraints.

Morning Flower Series #4

6" x 6" Oil on board

I was surprised when I posted this, how similar the backgrounds are. I painted these and set them aside to dry and had not noticed the similarity until I photographed them. I really enjoy the looseness and not getting bogged down in details due to time constraints. It certainly is easy to pop out of bed early in the morning to paint.

Speed painting - Flower series

Flower series #1 6"x6" Oil on board

Helen inspired me with her quick paintings of faces. She got up early in the morning, set her timer for 1/2 an hour and that is the time she had to paint before getting ready to work. I loved her free and loose paintings, they had such energy! I decided to give it a try myself for 4 workdays a week. Instead of faces, my focus will be flowers. Again 1/2 an hour is the time limit (that goes by way to fast).

Flower series #2 6"x6" Oil on board

It is surprisingly easy to get out of bed early to paint, but hard to stop. It is particularily hard when I am not finished or satisfied with where I have stopped. I may go back into them at a later date. 

Last Winter Still Life and Figure Class

Oil on canvas panel 16" x 12"

This was the last winter 2012 still life and figure class. I learnt a lot and was really challenged with both subjects. This painting was painted over 2 classes. The first night I wiped off my painting 5 times, it was a tough night. Sometimes it flows and sometimes the challenges are huge stuggles within. I am happy with the final result and really enjoyed my last class. I am sorry to see them end. I will not be taking her spring classes but look forward to Fall classes with Ingrid.

oil on canvas board 12" x 9"

This was our warmup 20 minute excercise (speed painting is what I call it!). The goal was to capture the model's position and fill up the whole canvas without filling any details. It was both stressful and exhilarating! We lined up everyone's work and Ingrid critiqued them. The easels were in a horse shoe shape around the model so it was fun to see all the different views of the same pose.

Waiting For Spring - oil painting

Waiting for Spring

10.5" x 13" Oil on birch board

This little ceramic frog in the melting snow is from a gift calendar (April 2012) my friend Sue made for me of her artful photographs. I had so much fun painting this little guy as he seemed a little hopeful and tired at the same time, a true "end of winter" feeling. We often get a big snowfall in Calgary after our tulips have graced our gardens.

Still life lesson - seeing colour in white

This is a picture of my easel, paint and still life set up in Ingrid's "Still Life and Figure Class". The lesson here was to see colour in a white set up - white flowers, clear vase, white background. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Thank goodness Ingrid does a demo first so we can "see" what she "see's" The lights above help to add shadow to the shapes which help to show the subjects colour.

Oil on canvas board 12" x 16"

This is the final painting and I am really happy with it. I had no idea there were so many colours in white!The colours are not muted or subtle in my painting (couldn't do it if my life depended on it!) and I like the "alive" feeling of the flowers.

Figure Painting Warm Up

This was a 20 minute warm up with a live model in Ingrid's class. The theme was a model with flowers (in her hair). The purpose of this warm up was to get the basic shapes, placements and local colours blocked in. We worked on an unprimed canvas which made the paint hard to spread. I enjoyed this process and found the speed painting both invigorating and stressful. I wiped this warm up off before Ingrid suggested we keep them for a reference!

This is the second painting of the night (on top of the wiped out canvas). The model was reclining instead of sitting like the warm up. Again, it is not a finished painting, but I certainly learned a lot about painting a figure. I am happy that I captured her position, tones and basic body shape. This painting was also wiped off at the end of the night as I would not have a chance to finish it without a model to view.



Fun Still Life in Ingrid Christensen's class!!

This was a wonderful excercise done in Ingrid's class!This is a picture of my view of the still life and my easel.  We under painted our canvas randomly with the colours we were going to use. Some people used very muted colours evenly spread, and as you can see I chose bright fun colours! We were not to try to place any flower shapes and if we had, we were to move our canvas to the upside down position. I really enjoyed the randomness of this start and it was almost a relief to have the canvas covered with so many colours, it was no longer precious. I have started to add the red flowers.

Red Flower Still Life

Oil on canvas panel 12" x 9"

This is the end result. I really enjoyed this evening and it went by really fast. It was difficult for some of my classmates to start a painting like this and I think this is a love it or leave it way to start a painting. Again, the beautiful colours do not show well in this picture.

Fish Creek Park - 26 C

Fish Creek Park -26 C - SOLD

Oil on canvas 16" x 20" in a barn board frame

This painting was based on a photograph my friend Sue took on a very cold winter day last year. I loved the colours, the beautiful blue sky reflected in the snow, the crispnessness that can be felt in her photo as well as the location! The buyer recognized it as Fish Creek Park and wanted art representing Calgary for his new condo. My thanks to Sue and Vishnu!