Garden Party

Garden Party

10.5" x 14" - acrylic, collage, pastel on paper - $75

I have recently been thinking about painting flowers, something I used to paint quite a lot in the past.  I decided to start with a wildly abstracted version of a flower garden, inspired by the bounty of colourful flowers that have bloomed all summer long. 

I love the colours of fall in Ontario, but it's sad to see the end of the summer colour. So why not have a Garden Party 

on your walls all year long?!

Sweet Spot IV

Sweet Spot IV

7"x7" - acrylic on paper - $30

The last of four paintings done at the same time.

Now, just need to scale up - and that's when it gets scary, as in scary fun, lol.

Sweet Spot II

Sweet Spot II

7" x 7" - acrylic on paper - $30

This is the second of the four small paintings created at one go, on one piece of paper divided into four sections. No subject here - just intuitive painting.

Sweet Spot I

Sweet Spot I

7" x 7" - acrylic on paper - $30

A few days ago I masked off four more or less equal sections of a large piece of paper designed for acrylic paint, thinking I would paint four small works, at once. I didn't have any particular idea or subject in mind, I just wanted to play with composition, colour and marks and thus painted intuitively as much as possible. 

Below is what the larger paper looked like when done. 

I wanted to stick to 'the less is more' mantra, and believe I stopped at the right moment. I have to say that I love the resulting four small paintings, the first of which is above. 

Lotus Land - another diptych

Lotus Land

Diptych 12" x 24" - acrylic & collage papers on canvas - $125

I think the title and the highly expressive 'candy colour' palette together suggest an imagined place "where people need only think about enjoying themselves, not about work or achieving anything". 

I admit that I did not start out with this title or visual idea. As with the previous diptychs I had no photo or specific place but simply began by drawing horizontal abstract shapes and lines across the two canvases with the highest line becoming the defacto horizon. I then added some beautiful mottled turquoise blue collage paper, and the blue-green-yellow analogous colour palette was then established, to which I eventually added pink. 

The landform shapes and planes resolved themselves slowly, and for a time I worried that there was not enough value contrast, but decided that was fine in view of the varied textural painting surface. There is lots to look at in these two little canvases, and from a distance the colour palette is not one that can be ignored.

Heart Strings

Heart Strings 

24" x 18" - acrylic on canvas - $150

Following my recent experience with painting in a 'non-representational' way, I wanted to try to work larger. This is the final result after many weeks of going back and forth and trying not to stress about where it was going or how I felt. I started by just drawing lines and shapes with a black paint marker and then adding colour and then letting it sit, and thinking about what to do with the bits I didn't like. I am glad that I kept going because I love the finished painting, and love looking at it. Though it doesn't look like what I 'normally' paint I think that is just fine. I truly believe in the need to grow, experiment, change and take risks in art making, despite the set-backs that may arise. It's so much more fun that way. Cheers!

Below are some process pics......

30 in 30 - Day 18 - Olive Blues

Olive Blues

10" x 10" - acrylic on canvas - SOLD

When in doubt, paint olive trees, my current go-to subject of choice. It used to be pears, and before that it was tulips. Then there were the sheep......

Anyway, another day, another painting, the 18th to be exact in the Challenge!

Goult Topiary Trees Abstracted

Goult Topiary Trees

10.5" x 13"  - acrylic on Canson canva paper

On the final painting day of my two week sojourn at Les Bassacs in September, we went to the village of Goult. There are probably many views one could paint there, but once again I returned to the cemetery because of the fantastic topiary trees that are scattered throughout. See for yourself below - how could anyone resist painting them?

The third photo(above) shows the view I chose to paint. I knew right away I wanted to really simplify and push the forms of the trees to their geometric limits so that's how I began, but I also allowed the contour lines of the shapes to extend and overlap and intersect with the shapes next to them, and these lines then created an interesting overall composition of geometric shapes. 

Then I began to paint using a blue, green, yellow palette.

It was another great day of plein air painting, and a great end to a very rewarding and creatively re-juvenating two weeks. I flew home on September 25th, and since have been enjoying re-living my painting experiences there. Of course I have been painting since then, and will write about that tomorrow! Cheers.