Divas

Divas

3' x 5' - acrylic on canvas - $800

I have had two 3'x 5' canvases for several years but never found a subject and composition that excited me until recently. My idea was to create two different but related paintings of abstracted tulips. I used to paint a lot of tulips and loved how expressive they became as they aged. The first tulip painting is not finished because while working on it I realized how I wanted the second one to look and I couldn’t wait to get going.  I love how it turned out and I am excited to push some of these visual ideas further using similar subject matter. As for the first painting I am re-thinking it. 

Some details...

On the Road in New Zealand

Well, it has been a very long time since my last post in mid December and so much has happened since then! That's probably an understatement.

My year began with a wonderful two month trip travelling through New Zealand in both a camper van and then by car. I think we drove on every road exploring both the North and the South Islands and had great fun, met wonderful people, ate and drank superb food and wine, and were constantly blown away by the spectacular scenery. My 3000+ photos really don't do justice to the beauty of that country. I didn't really have much opportunity to paint while travelling but everyone in a while I got out my watercolour paints and some paper and did what I could . Better than nothing but oh how I missed my studio! 

Below are a few small works, studies and fun pieces done while away. 

Living in the Moment I and II

Living in the Moment I

16" x 16" - acrylic & pastel on paper - $95

Living in the Moment II

16" x 16" - acrylic & pastel on paper - $95

I recently listened to a podcast by UK artist Louise Fletcher in which she discussed the importance of experimenting and allowing yourself studio time to explore and discover where that leads your art making, without worrying about producing a finished painting at the end of the day and what others thought. I felt like she was speaking to me! Over the last year I have been experimenting more and more with abstraction and non-objective painting that relies more on intuition and the elements of art and design and less on specific recognizable subject matter. Believe me, the latter is far easier than the former. It's not that I don't want to paint (even abstracted) landscapes etc., it's just that I felt in need of a change in direction or re-examination of how and why I paint and make art. A re-boot. Perhaps the older I get the more I need to feast my eyes on beautiful arrangements of colour, line and shape rather than recognize a place or thing. I also wanted to scale up and work on larger surfaces which should not be daunting but it is.

With Louise's words in mind last weekend I set out to not worry about making a good painting, but to just enjoy the process and accept whatever happened. So I painted like crazy for many hours over two days and had the best time!!!

I started with 2 large 18"x18" pieces of made-for-acrylic-paint-paper taped side by side on a board set up on my easel then drew lines and some shapes with pastel, working across the two surfaces, treating them like one. Then I applied transparent and opaque layers of acrylic paint wherever it felt right. Didn't worry. I alternated between drawing and painting building up the surface using brushes, knives, scrapers, and then wiping some of it out, and repeating. Tried not to worry.

Here are some of the progress shots.....

In retrospect I am not sure why I worked on two surfaces rather than one larger one. I didn't necessarily intend to create a diptych. The masking tape separating the papers became covered with paint quite quickly and I began to see the two much more as one surface not two. This was interesting because a lot was happening in the middle of the composition (in terms of value) despite turning the board around and around trying to see each paper and the two together, from different perspectives.  

When I got to this point I decided it was time to stop because I really liked it! In looking at the one surface/composition I saw a central dark shape that seems to 'anchor' and 'hold up' the warmer, lighter, colourful shapes spreading out to the left and right. 

When I removed the tape and separated the two, naturally the single composition split in two and suddenly it was quite different from the way I had seen it and created it. I was a little disappointed with this loss but the advantage, was that I could turn each piece and look at it in whatever way I liked. They connect through colour and line etc. but are independent of each other too. 

I have now (temporarily) framed them as 'squares' and stood them on a table where I continue to enjoy them as well as turn them just to see different perspectives.  They are for sale, singly or together. 

It was a great painting experience and a process that I will continue to explore, but hopefully larger. Have a great weekend.

Sweet Spot III

Sweet Spot III

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

Number three of four small paintings done together.

Summer Sizzle

Summer Sizzle

12"x12" - acrylic on canvas - $45

     This one is all about line, shape and colour - and you can probably tell what is what in this little stylized landscape. 

    Hope wherever you are, your summer is turning out to 

be a good one.

Deep Dark Woods

Deed Dark Woods
8" x 9" - acrylic on heavy wc paper - $45
The last of the 6 small paintings done in a day, about a week ago. I can't find or even recall the photo which inspired this scene but I do like the freshness, brush strokes, colour palette and intimacy of the space.  Stay tuned for some larger canvas paintings that took me many, many days to complete!
Have a good one.

Letting in the Light

Letting In the Light

18" x 24" - acrylic on canvas - $350

    I have been painting a lot in the last few weeks, but not posting anything, anywhere. I usually work on a couple of paintings at a time, for a bunch of reasons, and eventually they all seem to 'get done' about the same time. Then I need to live with them in order to see if they need more work or are really 'done'. So now it's time to post and show off all the good stuff.

    This work was actually one that I painted years ago after a trip to Scotland several years ago. 2015? You can see the earlier version below. Recently I realized how I could take it further. It seemed to be waiting for me to develop a more abstract vision, which I have been working at over the last few months. So it's not so much a 'redo' as a 'continuation'. The earlier version featured lots of wet paint and drips, which was fun to do. The new work is structurally and compositionally tighter (grids and lines sort of do that automatically) but there is lots of scumbling and areas of colour graduation and variety. The colour shapes and 'lines are only suggested. Love this one, it really does have a special light quality!

Inner Garden

Inner Garden

24" x 24" - acrylic on canvas - $375

This painting was inspired by the photo below, which apparently I took on June 4th 2017, while in France - though the view could certainly be anywhere in Canada, in June! I liked the arrangement of lights and darks in the photo and wanted to paint a really abstracted view of the scene. 

A couple of process shots follow. By the last photo I decided the light/white area at the right had to go, in spite of the photo. So it did, and I finished the painting. I loved working on this painting and the ultimate freedom it allowed me to move away from reality. Can't wait to start another and see what happens!

detail from finished painting

Going Up

 

Going Up   $125

16" x 12" - mixed media: acrylic and collage papers on canvas 

Another imagined landscape, created through layers of paint and beautiful washi textured collage papers.  I love the rich warm palette in this one and the varied surface texture suggested by the papers that seem to be woven in and out of the paint.  

Tropical Vibe on the South Shore

Tropical Vibe on the South Shore

24" x 36" - acrylic on canvas - $450

Like most painters,  I constantly use a variety of brushes -  small and large ones, square shaped and round ones, all in various sizes. In some recent paintings I have been experimenting with building up layers of colour and form with squarish brush strokes using a 'bright' brush. I like the overall chunky look of these strokes and the way they contribute to abstract quality of the composition. 

This composition is a riff on an earlier one, but using a very different, colourful, high key palette. Lots of intense colour, colour galore in fact!

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.

Big Idea

Big Idea

10" x 8" - acrylic on canvas - $45 (includes shipping)

The last of six small 'no-subject' abstracts. They have been challenging and fun. The next challenge will be to increase canvas size and scale up, but I will have to do this in stages I think.  

Night Falls

Night Falls

17.5" x 14" - acrylic on paper - $50

If you saw my previous post you might notice a relation between that recent painting called Day Breaks and this one. Night Falls grew out of the other but is much darker, smaller and was done using a palette knife. I wanted to try to suggest the idea of 'night falling on land', using a dark sky with some mysterious lighter areas. In the beginning I worked with a brush, and added more inktense coloured pencils, but eventually used a palette knife to stop myself from making it all too tight. I think it worked and though it is dark, I quite like the overall effect. 

Shaping Up

Shaping Up

8" x 10" -  acrylic on archival paper - $30

A Walk on the Wild Side

A Walk on the Wild Side

15" x 18" - acrylic & Pastel on archival paper - $70

30 in 30 - Day 28 - Farther Afield II

Farther Afield II

16" x 20" - acrylic on canvas - $125

I am always experimenting with different brushstrokes, especially when I have new brushes, and they helped me work a little looser in this landscape. I also started with a black ground, which you can see in places and I think that added some depth to the colour. It's day 28 in the Challenge - yahoo!

30 in 30 - Day 15 - Landscape Shapes

Landscape Shapes

11" x 11" - acrylic on paper - SOLD

This was a fun one to paint. It started out in a fairly basic way, inspired by one of my photos, and then it looked too boring, so I began to work intuitively, adding and extending lines and shapes, breaking areas down into smaller shapes, flattening perspective, eliminating reality, and pushing expressive colour. Maybe I will try a larger one like this sometime. 

It's Day 15 in the 30 in 30 challenge, half way there! 

Near La Gacilly, Brittany

Near La Gacilly, Brittany

24" x 30" - acrylic on canvas - $450

While travelling in Brittany last May, we drove through and stayed in an area near the small 'commune' (think village with a population of 3000+) of La Gacilly. One of our stops to stretch our legs was near this small creek, and I took a number of photos, liking the contrast between the various horizontal 'bands' (of water/reflections, shoreline, land and sky) and the verticals/diagonals of the trees cutting through the space. As the painting evolved the lily pads and reflections in the water became the focus. Below are some of the stages as the work progressed. Good memories and good fun.

Ochre Quarry Abstracts

Abstract Ochre I

14" x 15" - acrylic on canvas paper - $35

Abstract Ochre II

14" x 17" - acrylic on canvas paper - $35

These are plein air works, inspired by the visual sensation of being surrounded by a forest of trees in an abandoned ochre quarry, (situated in the Luberon Valley in Provence) in June. I have painted there before and have done studio paintings based on some of my photos. This, however was the first time I really threw the paint, and tried to interpret what I saw in a less literal fashion. I was pleasantly surprised with the results and hope to bring some of this new found energy into future work.
Here are a few photos to give you an idea of what I saw.....unfortunately the light that morning was quite flat, so the ochre colour was a little on the dull side.

Roadside Attraction I - Autumn Foliage

Roadside Attraction I

16.5" x 22"  - acrylic on canvas paper  - $150

Lately I have become enamoured with 'mark making' while I paint, and have become more experimental in making a wider variety of them in my work. Painting with a brush is still a joy, but recently I have been using a palette knife as well. In this painting I began with the brush, but as paint layers were built up, the knife work created such wonderful texture, suggesting foliage, that I left it more intact than usual. 

The composition (and hence title), and even the colour palette was inspired by a photo I took last October when the autumn colours were at their most intense. It was a beautiful season.