A Clownish Fellow

Created for +FigurativeArtFriday

7" x 5" Acrylic on canvas board

One of the many things I am involved with online is  on Google+.  I co-sponsor this group along with +Maude McDonald

Every Friday artists from around the world come together and post their figurative art pieces.  These pieces range from Fine Art paintings, drawings, photography, sculptures, illustration, photo manipulation, as well as some others genres I am sure I am missing.  The participating artists range from beginners, to students, to professional artists, we welcome everyone!


The Daily Fine Art Themes on Google+ allow us to peek into the studios of other artists so to speak.  The artists are always happy to share tips and talk about their art.  As an artist it is always encouraging and inspiring to see what other artists are creating.  


With a different theme for every day of the week, through the +Daily Fine Art Themes  we have the pleasure of viewing a wide variety of art.

Painting & Music go together like PB & Jelly!

It is wet and dreary here today, a perfect day to crank the tunes for a little added motivation to paint.

I love the action and movement in my painting Mystic Melody, just as the music flows, loud and strong, or soft and gentle so to does the paintbrush.  Strong bold brushstrokes verses small, barely there whispers of color in tune with the mystic melody swirling, moving over and through the painting

Mystic Melody

 (Colin James in concert)

Soft Pastel

Shipping not included.

Framing Optional

Framed $500.00 CAD Unframed $400.00 CAD Option 3 $0.00 CAD

The Manarola Painting Project

Manarola - (Cinque Terre, Italy)

24" x 20" Acrylic on canvas

Photo reference by Elia Locardi

http://blamethemonkey.com/italy-cinque-terre-manarola-moonrise

A collaborative project between Google + artists  +Maude McDonald , +Terrill Welch , +Ardith Goodwin and myself +Melodie Douglas , with photographers +Elia Locardi  ,  +Marisa Williams  , and +Mike Brzozowski 

Back in September 2011 after seeing a beautiful image of Manarola Italy the above group of artists decided that it would be fun to all create paintings from a selection of images of Manarola.  This would showcase how different our styles, techniques and interpretations would be. 

To see the photographic references and my fellow artists paintings, follow this link Manarola Paintings & Photographs

Terill requested permission from the select group of photographers Elia, Marisa, and Mike, who so graciously allowed us to use their copyrighted images as our reference photos.  

My initial intention was to do my painting in a surrealistic approach, but the brush took over and chose to go it's own way.  

The majority of my paintings, both in acrylic, and pastel usually start off with a very detailed drawing which I transfer onto the substrate.  In the case of Manarola I instead chose to do a very loose drawing, done with a liner brush and watered down burnt umber straight onto the canvas.   

The sky was done with long sweeping brush strokes, with tiny value changes, each stroke closely laid against the last.

"As the brush swishes across the canvas, stroke against stroke, layer upon layer, a calmness descends, i'm in the zone, it just me and the painting! Bliss!"

The ocean was done with the same sweeping brushstrokes but I had to be a little more cautious and use even strokes to allow the water to be calm and quiet. Thin glazes of color were applied on top of the brushstrokes to achieve various depth and light.

There was a wonderful sense of freedom to just go for it, allowing the painting to paint itself and not being caught up in the details.

A Special thank you +Elia Locardi for allowing me to use your wonderful photograph.  

Morning Mist

16" x 20" acrylic on canvas

Pepper - Alla Prima life study

6" x 6" acrylic on cradled panel

Blue Bottle and Chinese Lanterns 

- Alla Prima life study.

5" x 7" Canvas Panel

Red Grapes on Rock Alla Prima Study
6" x 6" Acrylic on cradled panel

Resurrecting Blogger - 2012

In 2010 I stopped using blogger and started using my blog attached to my my web site

I liked the idea of having everything under one roof so to speak but never liked the blog aspect there, I found it time consuming to use and very limited in how I could set it up. Pictures had to be resized outside of the program before importing as there was no resizing tool within the blog itself.  So here I am back on blogger, if you want to see what I've been doing in the last two years you can still check it out on my web blog

"Her Majesty"
6" x 6" Acrylic
on canvas
#3 of 52

You would think that smaller paintings would be faster to do, but the reality is that for me it takes just as long. The same amount of work takes place regardless of the size.

This was done on canvas which I had covered with acrylic ground for pastels, the texture was quite different from what I normally work on, and at times it seemed almost spongy. I love how the final piece looks.

Black & Blue
11" x 14"
Acrylic on Canvas

My fascination with using this black and white patterned material as a back-drop continues on in "Black & Blue.

The Gosling
Soft Pastel 11" x 9"

Mill Lake, a pond in the center of the City of Abbotsford is home to a very large population of Canada Geese. This little fellow is painted from one of the hundreds of images I have taken of the geese and their goslings. I'm looking forward to spring and capturing more images of these adorable babies.

Canada Geese Facts:
Although they are named after Canada as well as inhabiting most of Canada, they are also found in Alaska, and the northern United States, sometimes they also go as far as Greenland.

Next to humans they are the most talkative creature, with the babies talking to their parents while still in the shell.

They are family orientated and mate for life, although if one mate dies the other will re-mate.

Both parents take an active role in parenting.

Seaside Treasures
12" x 12" Kunamokst Mural Panel
Acrylic

Kunamokst means "together" in Chinook. This mural is comprised of 231 12" x 12" wooden panels painted by artists from all over the country coming "together" to create one large mural. The unveiling of the finished mural will be on Galiano Island, BC. In the mean time you can check out the paintings as they are posted to the online grid at http://www.muralmosaic.com/kunamokst.html I am number 47.

The creation of the mural starts with a master image created by Lewis Lavoie, then panels are designated to each artist. We are given a theme, in this case West Coast/ Sea life a few guidelines and a panel with some general shapes on it. We have no idea what the master image is, which makes it all the more amazing when the finished pieces are put together. Make sure you check out the other Murals.
I love going to the ocean and spending hours looking for treasures, there are so many interesting, beautiful items to be found waiting to be photographed and painted. Just like the surprises I find at the ocean I also had a surprise while doing this painting. The baby seal was originally a rock, but at one point I stepped back to view the painting and there he was, looking out at me, a happy surprise

Moonlight Symphony




20" x 16" Pastel on Canvas
$400

I finished this one just in time for the Studio tour. Experimenting with soft pastel on canvas.

Thank you Kariton Gallery for using my painting to
grace your poster!

The Arts: Annual Artist Studio Tour August 22

The Arts: Annual Artist Studio Tour August 22

2009 Historic Downtown Abbotsford Art Walk

April 18 - May 2, 2009

To see my wonderful creations,

Just follow the Yellow footprints to ......

Gabby's / Plouteo's at 2575 Montrose

"Fat Free"
Soft Pastel

 

I felt like doing something fun with lots of colour, what better then candy! Trying to achieve the translucentness (is this such a word?) in the area where the sun was shinning through the jujubes created a bit of a challenge. It's always such a thrill when you finally get down the exact colours and it works.

This will be part of the upcoming Abbotsford Downtown Art Walk. My art will be shown at Gabby's on Montrose Ave. More details on the show to follow.

"Stories I've Been Told"
Opening Night
Friday March 20, 2009

The Sasquatch is for an upcoming show with a theme of "Stories I Have Been Told" Not quite my usual style but I believe that it's always good for me to step outside of my comfort zone. As is quite normal for me i'm finishing this at the last minute and have to get it dropped off today.

The Sasquatch
20" x 16" acrylic on canvas

The Sasquatch


Growing up in the village of Harrison Hot Springs surrounded by vast mountains and deep dense forests we were often told stories of the Sasquatch.

A large hairy beast described as being twice as big as the average man, with very long arms, a nose that was spread across his face, and a body that was covered by hair much like an animal.

Over the years there have been many sightings of the Sasquatch. The following is one account of a Sasquatch sighting.

A man was fishing from his canoe on Morris Creek, a tributary of the Harrison when a rock struck the water so close to his canoe that he was drenched by the splash. Looking up he saw a huge hairy man on the bank above him, he watched as the beast threw another rock at him. This also barely missed the canoe; he paddled away with great speed.

An interesting side note to this story is that Morris Creek was known as Saskakau when the white man first arrived, and is so called on old maps. In this region it is said that there were two large bands of Sasquatch which fought a long time ago until both were brought almost to extinction.

As you walk in the forest do you sometimes feel that someone or something is watching you?

Does the Sasquatch still exist or was it just a mythical creature?

I find the naming of my paintings is much more of a struggle then the actual painting. I'm still intriqued by this black and white fabric, I love the different patterns created when the sun lays across it and the challenge of painting it. Eventually i'll have to try doing one of these black and white ones in pastel. It would be a real challenge trying to keep the black and white separate but the bold rich colors of the pastels on black and white would be stunning.

16" x 16" Acrylic

 

Happy New Year
This is my first painting for 2009, as we are only into 2009 by a couple of days i'm hoping this means i'm going to have a productive painting year. This is another from the WetCanvas weekend drawing event. This week was hosted and all reference photos are by Chaos.

Air Plant Sculpture
16" x 20" Acrylic on canvas.

It's not to often you will see me doing a landscape as I seem to have a fear of them but I actually had fun doing this one it flowed so easily. Maybe i've just been so inspired by all the glorious colors this fall, plus the reference photo for this was stunning in itself.

Ref photo supplied by Cyndi for the October 24, 2008 WDE

Aspen Gold
11" x 18" Pastels on sanded paper.

 

One from the October 17, 2008 WDE hosted by Gail aka (RubyRedDog2)
Painting in this Pop Art style reminded me of doing paint by numbers when I was a child, I loved doing them. I'm certainly having lots of fun trying out these different styles and mediums.

Riding With the Windows Down
8" x 10" Acrylic

 

Turtle & Koi
2nd stage
The second stage is the scary stage as I will soak the painting in water and scrub off the gum arabic. I really like it at this point and would hate to ruin it. After I wash it, the painting will need to dry for a couple of days.

 

Turtle & Koi
1st stage
Batiking with Pastels on watercolor paper 30" x 22.5"

 

Turtle & Koi came about from the Weekend Drawing Event on Wet Canvas hosted by EP. Every weekend on Wet Canvas the host person posts 16 pictures, we then have 30 mins to select an image then 2 hours to sketch, paint, digitize or basically do what ever we want to the picture then post it at the two hour mark. It's a time to just relax and have fun and sometimes to push yourself to try something different.