Christmas Show

Home to Roose

I've just dropped off these three pieces at a Art on Kent co-op gallery  http://theartsdepartment.ca/. Check it out  if you're in the area. The name of the show is 'Affordability'--speaks for itself I think!

Dancing Sky

The works are inspired by the countryside around our place and are painted with encaustic wax on birch panel. The artists' wax can be used to create very representational work but I love how is frees me up to be more expressive. The medium is warm and flowing and smells wonderful. I tried to capture the way this time of year feels--gray, mild and still. I think of a favourite poem by Canadian Archibald Lampman called In November . You can read it here;
 http://poemhunter.com/poem/in-november-1/ or listen to another version that inspired Canadian Loreena McKennitt . The links jumped to the bottom of the post for some strange reason. Just scroll down if you're interested :)

Bottom of the Field

http://www.quinlanroad.com/audio/wintergarden/snow.mp3. The lyrics are
 posted there and move me every time I read them.  http://www.quinlanroad.com/explorethemusic/wintergarden.asp?id=100

A Dose of Summer

A Dose of Summer

I love painting glass as much as I love painting flowers. The little blue 'Milk of Magnesia Bottle' is from my husbands antique bottle collection and the flower came from our garden.We've just had our first possible snowfall predicted here today. My annuals have succumbed finally to the frost and I found this little painting I did recently. Thought we could use a dose of summer as we face the cold months ahead.

Sign of the Dove

I haven't posted in awhile. Spring has brought many home reno projects and repairs which are taking up a lot of creative energy. Amongst them, I am also trying to sort through all the photos that we have taken on recent trips. In the process I came across this one. It was taken in Italy almost exactly 2 years ago now. The dove flew into my photo unexpectedly that day and I was happily surprised to see it there later. Today is Pentecost Sunday on the Christian calendar and marks the permanent arrival of the Divine Spirit, becoming available to everyone. It seemed appropriate for me to post it and in doing so, inspire me to begin completing some of the pieces that I've been planning in my head while my hands have been busy digging, scraping, painting around home!

Still Standing

Still Standing

A friend is getting married. She is so happy and the future is so bright. She asked me to paint this for her a few years ago when things were not so certain in her life. This tree stood near her home and when she decided to move asked me to paint it for her as a souvenir. I pointed out that it had been hit by lightning and instead of painting out the damage, I would leave it in as inspiration. The tree had recovered and kept on growing a beautiful crown heading for the blue sky above. I don't paint landscapes but trees 'get to me' for some reason and I think of them more as portrait pieces. I think she may have put the painting into a back corner somewhere but the image still carries the memory and the meaning of growing through the storms.

Late Spring

The 'Remember' Tree

Another week of rain. A psychologist on CBC radio today is talking about the weather and how adversely it can affect 'us Canadians'. I've been so looking forward to seeing some colour that I've given up on blue and green and decided to feast my eyes on ochre and sepia and burnt sienna and how they glow against blue grey skies and sepia tree skeletons. It's painted in encaustic (wax) and includes a photo of an elm.This tree is one I pass by very often and feel is quite beautiful in relief against the sky. Maybe the rain is getting to me after all...

Happy Easter!

This is the piece as it appeared on Easter morning. Hope you are celebrating the rebirth of hope where ever you are.

Good Friday

This is a piece I created a couple of years ago for the period of Lent, preceding Easter in the Christian calendar. It was commissioned by a local church and hung above the altar. It's constructed of rolled aluminum sheeting, cut by hand (by me). I used a rivet gun to place the pieces on the circular frame before painting.  The styrofoam nail was painted and attached and wrapped with red and black ribbon. It was no small feat to suspend it from the ceiling but once there it served as a reminder of the perfect sacrifice made for each one of us by the King of Kings.

Reflections on Nesting

I recently painted this and put it in a local show near where I live. I didn't offer it for sale as it's one of those pieces that I can't let go of just yet. I found this little nest, egg included, at the end of the fall last year and it got me thinking about how fast life goes. My sons, aged 20 and 22 are testing their wings and flying further away each time so 'my nest' is nearly empty. That little egg never got to hatch and served as a reminder that our hopes and dreams are sometimes like that. My sons have begun in earnest, the process of redefining or setting aside some old dreams and dreaming some new ones. You never know which ones will hatch so you can't limit yourself to just one. That's a comfort to me now at this stage of my life. There's still some dreams incubating that promise to open at just the right time.

My muse

Great Grand Muse

Being Different

This is something I started before I had learned about anatomy, or oil painting. I picked this big canvas when I had never done anything like that before and I made lots of mistakes but boy did I have fun! I have this teeny tiny picture of my great grandfather, J.N.Sprague. It's the only one I have and he lived in England painted  watercolour paintings  in the early part of the 20th century. The few stories I was told about him were all about how much he was loved by his grandchildren. I have one of his paintings, very old and faded but it inspires me to  'keep it in the family' for the next generation. I've learned a lot since but can't bring myself to finish this or start another one...just yet.

The second little painting is about being 'different'. The most colourful ones always are.

More Water Under the Bridge

Fall Fashions

Bowl of Encouragement

These paintings represent the beginning of my change to oils. 'Fall Fashions' is painted on watercolour canvas and 'Bowl of Encouragement' is painted on paper but with the influence of all those academic drawing classes I realized that I wanted to see the vibrancy and detail that could be had more easily with oil paint. This was the last watercolour I did before taking the plunge into oils.

Early Days

Hydrangea Leaf

Bottles of  'Sunshine'

Rainbow Catchers

Here's a few older pieces. I started out painting in watercolour. I've been told that it's the most difficult medium but if I hadn't of fallen in love with the work of artist Nancy Woodall and then been fortunate enough to take lessons with her, I don't know if I'd still be doing this today. I learned a lot about how to really 'see', not just the object, but the light surrounding it. I'll spend the rest of my life learning about how to translate what I see into 2 dimensions but will never tire of  'looking' at things through new eyes. If you would like to see some of Nancy Woodall's work, I have included this link. http://www.quinteartscouncil.

More Academic Stuff

Just another example of academic training and yes it's another Prud'hon. If you have a knitting needle, some paper, charcoal and about 100 hours of time, you too can make your own copy :) The strange thing about this is that the colour has changed completely . It is done on a blue paper which gives the effect of moonlight on the figure. I'm likin' the colour here but just amazed how it has changed. So much to learn still about photographing work....

A Bit of History

I have been trying out a new camera in the hopes of improving my photos of work so have practiced on some old pieces. This piece was done some years back when I had the opportunity to learn from a classically trained artist. Academic training requires copying master drawings. This trains the eye and improves the ability to render what you learn to see. The drawing is a copy of a master work by Pierre Paul Prud'hon. It is done in charcoal on paper. I altered it a bit to have the 'buddy' sitting on a log instead of a big jar. My husband is a forester and he always told people that he had modeled for me...:)

Drawing on the Past

This is a drawing done in pastel on paper that is taken from an old photo. It shows my mom as a teenager, standing in the field at her home farm holding what I think is a kitten. The photo is old, black and white and small so was quite a challenge to try and interpret. I like it tho' as the whole process of doing it was like a meditation on a part of a parents life that a child can never really know--their youth. The way she's holding this little creature made me think of how much it symbolized the final grasp of innocence before circumstances in life threaten to grab it out of our hands. So hang on tight!

Life's A Journey

I had a request to post this picture in a larger format. It's the one I use for my profile photo.  It is a self-portrait, done in oils, on 3ft x 4ft canvas. I still have not done the final varnish so colour, albeit very grey, may show more interest once that gets done. I painted it ( last winter) because it was an image that just get rolling over in my mind... so  had to get it out and onto canvas. The picture seems a little squeezed. Something to do with the formatting process and digital camera operator (me!).

Isn't She Lovely

I painted this a few years ago when I was making the switch to oils from watercolour. A great way to learn is to try and copy an artist you admire. Well, Breughel lived in the 1300's and painted everyday life and people around him as semi-caricatures. I love this woman's face and the reactions I get are often based on the fact that she is not 'pretty' but I see that her face is being transformed by something or someone she's just seen. She's looking up and I think she's been filled with surprise and wonder and in that unguarded moment you catch a glimpse of the beauty within. And that's what art does for me--reveals the God-given beauty in the unnoticed faces and objects in the everyday stuff.