Mirage (diptych)

Mirage    

diptych 8" x 16" (each panel 8"x8") acrylic & mixed media on canvas  $125

I seem to be on a roll with these small format abstracted landscapes painted across two or three canvases. In this latest diptych I used mostly acrylic paint, but also added some beautiful Japanese decorative washi papers and inks. I love how the design and the warm palette of reds, oranges, yellows and magenta came together. Cheers!

Regeneration

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Regeneration

24" x 30" - acrylic on canvas - SOLD

I am so happy with how this painting turned out. I love the palette, the brushstrokes and the abstraction of form. It's based on a photo I took a few years ago of 'some trees in a clearing', that was not particularly striking or unusual but did offer compositional possibilities. The painting went through several stages with some thinking time between. Regeneration, the process of renewal, restoration and growth. For all living things, including us.  
Sounds good to me.  

Highlands

Highlands   

(Diptych 12" x 24", each panel 12"x12")

acrylic on canvas - SOLD

I am REALLY having fun painting 'imagined abstracted landscapes' across several canvases and then presented as a diptych or triptych. They have provided some welcome relief while painting larger works, and I think (or at least hope) that the smaller works will inform my larger paintings in a positive way. Time will tell I suppose. The title is really in reference to the hill shapes, or 'high lands'.  I have been to Scotland but have only seen photos of the purple heather on those hills, so there is a little creative imagining here. There's lots of great colour (think spring -it's coming) on these two small canvases and textural marks that enliven the surface too. While I try my best to ensure the colour you see in the paintings here is accurate, the paintings are much better in life. For instance the vermillion/orange on the right panel is a touch deeper and really beautiful. Have a great day!

My Winter Needs Colour, What About Yours?

My Winter Needs Colour, What About Yours?

Triptych 24" x 10" (each panel 8"x10")          

 acrylic on canvas -  SOLD

I have made several attempts recently, to paint across three small canvases, with each canvas working as a single composition and when put together as a triptych, forming a larger work.  I worked both non-objectively and representationally though fairly abstracted. While I felt that many of these small paintings worked individually, it was a challenge to have all 3 canvases work together successfully.  However, the triptych above does work in this regard and I am very happy with the result. The landscape composition is 'imagined' and the intense palette is in reaction to the white of a northern winter. There is lots of variety in the treatment of the surface with flat opaque colour areas, transparent colour areas, scumbling, scraping, and ink marks. 

left

centre

right

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......

Hot Flash

Hot Flash

12" x 12" - acrylic on canvas - $65

This is the second panel of what I thought was going to be a landscape triptych, but is now a stand alone work. I settled on this composition and colour scheme quite quickly and really liked the mass of trees and tree canopy, suggested through lots of blacks lines, more easily seen in the detail below.... 

 And I have to add here that it was difficult adjust the reds, oranges and pinks in the photo of this painting. I did my best to get something that was accurate, but I have to say, that the actual painting in life, is much better!

Turning Up the Heat

Turning Up the Heat

12" x 12" - acrylic on canvas - SOLD

Last week I decided to work on a triptych and 'create' a landscape, rather than base it on any particular place. My initial loose and crazy drawing across all three panels was exciting as was the colour scheme - reds, pink, oranges and yellows. At different points, parts of each panel were great, but as I continued to paint (overpaint) one of them became more problematic. (Note that I am not even showing these panels!) Eventually, I saw that the three compositions did not work together, and one was a write-off. This is one of the two, now individual paintings, I completed and am pretty happy with.