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...:)