My favourite in my current “and Marianne” series (Fire and Marianne, Shoes and Marianne, Loss and Marianne, Motion and Marianne…), Music and Marianne is featured in the current online-only exhibition of the Federation of Canadian Artists, here. The exhibit is themed as “Artist’s Choice” and while this is the painting I chose, I highly recommend checking out the rest of the exhibit to see the diverse range of choices of all those other Canadian artists!
On the Pond
We haven’t had ice yet this year, but looking through my files for something to paint for this year’s FCA “Scenes from Canada” exhibit, I decided there is nothing more Canadian than those first awkward moments on the ice before it all clicks in and the flying begins.
Happy in the Gap
This little painting is only eight inches square, just enough room to peer into… or out of.
Chelsey's Hair
My recent painting “Chelsey’s Hair” is included in the Shape and Form 2024 online exhibition of the Federation of Canadian Artists, available for viewing here. I feel like it’s an excellent example of how shape and form combine with verve and paint to preserve a very human moment.
Workshopped painting
Learning is not meant to ever stop. I’ve been taking an online course with masterful artist Steve Forster, emphasizing a more “painterly” approach to the portrait. This is right up my alley, and I’m finding it very inspiring! Stay tuned for the second piece later this month.
Great Rabbits Think Alike
Sometimes paintings just happen, that you never could have planned! This one evolved from two quite separate poses that nonetheless had something in common… a rabbit essence? I intended to let the figures speak for themselves, but in the end those dratted rabbits snuck right in!
In Perpetuum, detail
Here is a detail from a large multi-component work that references eternity. These hands could also stand alone, however, on their little 8 x6 inch panel. Enjoy!
Just Wait Here
As a preview of the grand series I’m working on, on the theme of waiting, here is the final in a line-up of six patiently (or not so) waiting women having been instructed to Just Wait Here. As the work evolved, the sterile setting I had first envisaged morphed into a richly patterned landscape, where each of the waiting women is enfolded in a colourful world of her own construction. The paintings are each 20 by 16 inches, and I am now enraptured with painting wallpaper. A new career may await…
The Shape of the Farm
So here’s something different… long ago and far away, from a photograph I took of farm buildings in Burgundy. It was the shape of the farm that caught my eye. and the way the warm light spanned the stone buildings.
To Seed
I know it’s a little early to be thinking about dandelions, at least where I live… But from here, any floating hint of summer is to be snatched at, and appreciated.
Float
The clever viewer will notice some similarities between this painting and the work featured in the previous post; coming and going, inside and out, older (last year) and newer (just last week)… the colour remains glorious, even as the direction changes.
Towards the Light
Turning towards the light, anticipating where it will arise, recognizing its sources, looking also with the internal eye.
Georgia
And now for something completely different… I just completed a set of three portraits of dogs, each with its own unique characteristics. It’s not normally my thing, but it was a fun project!
Ripples in Time
One of the things I appreciate about my ongoing involvement with the Federation of Canadian artists is being inspired by the themes of their upcoming exhibits to create work I might not otherwise have considered. Such was the case with the painting in this post, “Ripples in Time,” which was a response to the theme of the Federation’s “Water” show scheduled for later this fall. I was particularly interested to see if I could use the same sort of flowing, semi-transparent paint application I like to use in backgrounds, to represent the shallow shoreline ripples. The title was prompted by those ripples as well as the painting’s retrospective view of a long-since holiday.
Harvest Moon
As the gardening year drags on, amid the heat and mosquitos, it can be hard to stay enthusiastic…
Perspective
Here is a bit of a different painting. From time to time I revisit imagery I have tackled before, in this case in watercolour. I was intrigued to see how those beautiful light areas could be handled in oil. Coupled with the challenge of painting the two heads from such odd angles and having them still read well. I love paintings that couple two people, and this pairing is a beauty!
The Children
I feel like this is “almost a likeness” of each of these two children, but something feels true about the painting nonetheless.
Beware of Shark
The subject specifies that he himself is not a shark, he’s just letting people know.
So, thank you for that.
To Be There, Alone, to Be There
This week, as a contradiction to the seriously sub-zero weather, I painted a sunny dry hillside in Spain. What captivated me at the time, and what I sought to replicate here, was the “all over-ness” of the pattern of pines, shadows, rocks … endless variations on a theme. As my title suggests, a person could get lost, in this non-directional sense of nowhere but here.
Yesterday's Sunshine
Breaking a snowshoe trail up to my studio after our first big dump of the winter, it was a pleasant surprise to be greeted by my little oil sketch from yesterday’s outing, full of warmth and light. Yesterday’s sunshine indeed.