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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Deb's Lily Pads - layered with epoxy



Deb's Lily Pad
12`` x 16` Oil on canvas with half inch black painted sides.
click on picture for a larger view

Yes, you may have seen this one before in another posting. I took a workshop with the FCA and learnt how to apply epoxy to paintings. At first I applied it only to the water but it made the leaves look dull. I let that dry and then coated the whole painting and added a few metallic flecks in the water that catch the light. I absolutely love it, the colours really popped with the epoxy coating. It was too reflective to take a photograph of the final painting. I have it up temporarily in our lunch room at work and it is fun to watch people get right up close to have a better look and touch it.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas with a Canadian winter scene


"Dancing Shadows"
Water colour on paper
6 1/2" x 10" double matted in a 8" x 15 1/2" metal frame


Merry Christmas everyone!
 This painting was done from a photograph taken while out cross country skiing. The shadow looked like it was dancing as I was moving past the dead tree stump making it look very lively as well as striking my funny bone.

I hope celebrations are in the order today with friends, loved ones and celebrating relationships we have enjoyed throughout the year.

 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Newton - A commissioned dog portrait

``Newton`` - NFS (Comissioned)
12`` x 16`` Acrylic on canvas

This dog portrait is a Christmas gift for Shelly`s hubby. Newton was posed at the table during some family fun. He looks like he is in the middle of a serious discussion with you and with a cold drink in paw, ready to hear you out. Painting a dog pretty much all one colour was a fun challenge. I thought the old fashioned yellowy-green pop glass fitted the picture better.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Christmas Party Fund Raiser


This framed water colour painting was put in my work Christmas party silent auction. Unfortunately there is a shadow in the upper right!

 Every year we have a silent auction of items coworkers bring in and sell 50/50 tickets with the proceeds going to a different charity. This year was to a charity that provides Christmas presents to youth and teens, a forgotten group at Christmas time. I also put in 2 sets of blank gift cards of some of the pets that I have painted. I figured the cards would sell well as the pets belonged to my co-workers. It was fun to celebrate each other, bid and be outbid for different items all the while adding to a worthy charity.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Deb's Lily Pads


My friend Deb and I took a weekend workshop with Rick Berg through the FCA. I couldn't decide on what to paint so Deb offered me her photographs. I loved this one with all the different shapes and it was perfect for a workshop as I had no idea how to start it! I changed some of the shapes and started with a black gesso thin underpainting to get the shapes down. I then worked on the dark tones, the light tints then the highlights as Rick had done in his demo. Rick helped me with the edges of some of the leaves to help separate and show the leaf folds.



Deb's Lily Pad
12`` x 16` Oil on canvas with half inch black painted sides.
click on picture for a larger view

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Happy Tulips


"Happy Tulips"
Oil on canvas 24" x 30 1/2"
click on painting for a larger view

This painting basically started painting itself. I used it to clean my brushes off with all the colours from a  previous painting. I don't usually tone my canvas that way but it was staring at me almost daring me to start a new "large" painting. When I came back to my studio, I could see the tulip shapes on the canvas.

I was quite happy to start painting without having to come up with the idea, design, colours etc, they were already basically there. I have some texture on it as well, but it doesn't show up in my photos. I painted the sides so it can be hung without a frame. A large, nice happy, and bright cheery painting.

Paintings for sale can be found on my website.