Wait Up!

"Wait Up!"

11" x 14" Water colour

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I had so much fun with the last zebra painting, I had to do one more! This time with the wonderful trees that were in the background of Joan's photo.  This zebra was smaller and behind the other three and looked like it was trying hard to catch up in the heat.

Three's Company

"Three's Company"

11" x 14" Watercolour

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This was fun to paint, letting my imagination and love for colour loose. I based this painting on a photograph my friend Joan took on her vacation. Love it when friends share photos to paint as I please!! I would love to go to Africa but will have to use my imagination until then!

"Summer Escape"

"Summer Escape"

16" x 20" Oil on canvas

This painting was done in Rick Berg's class. He brought the photo in and Deb and I both worked on the same reference.Rick wanted us to paint with a black and white underpainting, then cover it all in red iron oxide before starting with colour. I wish I had taken a photo with that start. I found this a very interesting and different way to work. I really like the shadows and light in this painting.

 I wish I had a photo of Deb's finished painting. It is just like penmanship and signatures, each of ours is definitely painted individually.

"At Rest"

"At Rest"

Oil on canvas 12" x 16"

This painting is based on a photo my friend Sue took near Chase, B.C. I loved the softness of the mountains behind the dilapitated barn. It has a peaceful feeling, almost as if the work is done and it is now time to rest. The painting was almost to dull until Deb suggested I add the bold yellow/gold ground...just the pop I needed.

Kristen`s World

This is a  gift I painted for our daughter. She had changed jobs and just completed West Jet's rigorous Flight Attendant training. She has travelled quite extensively outside of work and would like to see a lot more of the world. This painting is based on seeing the world without borders, just as colourful continents.

I have painted the outside side edge of the canvas with the English words ``Travelling the world, growing and meeting many new friends that become one family``. These words are then repeated around the side edge in Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish, German, Italian and Swedish. These are languages from countries that she has yet to visit.

"Kristen's World"

Mixed media on canvas 32" x 24"

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This painting was hard to photograph as it has 2 layers of high gloss epoxy finish which is thick and shiny. I also put some glitter over the water areas within the first layer of epoxy to make the water sparkle. I am very happy with the way this came out and so was she.

Fall Memories - Encaustic Painting #5

"Fall Memories"

16" x 16" on cradled board with 1 1/2" sides

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This painting was done at an FCA encaustic painting workshop with Ken Bourassa. The great thing about a workshop is the variety of art everyone produces. Over the 2 day workshop I did 5 paintings, this one was the last. As you can tell I had fun with textures. As a reference, I used a picture of 3 flowers that had been frozen with the first frost in the fall. The shiny parts reflecting in the painting is gold and bronze paint.

This is a closer view of part of one flower head just to give you an idea of the texture.

"Winter Blooms" - Encaustic painting #4

"Winter Blooms"

16" x 12" encaustic painting on board

Some of the artists in the FCA Encaustic workshop with Ken Bourassa were doing very smooth layers for their painting but as you can see, I was really enjoying making and developing textures. The whole board was covered with coloured paper and ironed into the wax base. I negatively painted around the vase with various layers of colour. The flowers are made with cheesecloth, wax and paint with 1/2 circle glass beads for centres. The stems are made of string. I even had to carve my name into the wax layers as a signature (bottom left).

The picture above shows one of the blooms in better detail as well as the varied background. The painting below is a side view to give you an idea of the thickness of the flowers. The flowers also have bronze and gold highlights to match the vase.

Beach Games - Encaustic painting #3

"Beach Games"

12" x 16" Encaustic on board

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I took a FCA workshop with Ken Bourassa on Encaustic painting. I wasn't sure I would like to work and paint with heated wax, but really enjoyed myself. Painting this way felt like fun playing and made me think of the games we played in wet sand at the beach.
I layered the board with different colours of tinted wax, one colour at a time and then drew into it with wet wax and paint to get the tic tac toe lines. I added sea shells, sand and more layers until I had the texture and look that I was after. This painting itself was like a game and you guessed...I won!

"Stormy Okanagan Lake" - Encaustic painting #2

"Stormy Okanagan Lake"

12" x 16" Encaustic painting on board

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This is the second painting I did in the FCA Encaustic workshop with Ken Bourassa. I grew up in Kelowna B.C. and boating was a family pastime. The Okanagan Lake can become stormy very quickly and the waves get very large which made for a lot of fun playing in the water, but down right scary in the boat. We would try to get near the shore quickly as the waves would come over the front of the boat and up the windshield. The hills are very dry in the summer and I always loved the "dry & wet" contrast of that beautiful area.

"Natures Force" - Encaustic painting #1

"Nature's Force"

16" x 12"  Encaustic painting on board

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This was my first attempt at encaustic painting. I took a 2 day FCA workship with Ken Bourassa instructing.

Beeswax is mixed with a hardener and melted together with slow heat. A thin clear mixture is applied to the board. It is very strange using a brush and having the mixture harden on the brush before you can get it on the board! It is then ironed into the board to melt the wax mixture into all spaces of the board. It hardens into a milky colour. Next the beeswax mixture is added to pigment in small tin foil dishes and you use brushes to paint it on your picture. Between each layer it has to be sealed with a heat gun (or blow torch!). I prefered using a heat gun and had fun with moving some of the layers with it.

This painting was inspired by the ariel photographs our son has taken while working in the Arctic as a pilot for Kenn Borek Air. The yellow is the sun's reflection on the snow caps with the blue iceberg peaking through and the darker ground below.

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This is a closer look at part of the painting to get an idea of some of the colours. It has beautiful bronze highlights with touches of gold.