Tuesday, April 29, 2008

My painting Dusk at Two Bit Bar will be showing at

The Central Fraser Valley Graphic Guild Show

“Going Places”

An exhibition of the members’ work

At

Mission Art Centre Gallery
MAGie

33529 1st Avenue, Mission, BC
(604)826-0029

April 30 – May 18, 2008
Wed. – Sun., 12:00 – 4:00pm

Opening reception:

Friday, May 2, 2008
7:00- 9:00pm
Artists will be in attendance
Refreshments

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Dusk at Two Bit Bar
16" x 20"
Soft Pastel on LaCarte paper



This painting is for an upcoming show with the Fraser Valley Graphic Guild which needs to finished and framed by next sunday. The show theme is travelling, and although I have many pictures from holidays with glorious sunsets I wanted to remind people that we also have beautiful sunsets here.

Two Bit Bar is on the Fraser River, BC
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Latest update on the paper strawberry. It finally has its little hat on, I needed a bit of a break from all that red. I've also put on many layers to even out the paint. Next weekend is the studio tour and I am hoping to have it done by then.
Nice thing about acrylic is the I don't have to worry about the framing.
 
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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

 


Oriental Solitude
Soft Pastel 16" x 20"

Another one of my Chinese Lanterns paintings. I find that the colors in this pastel version are much more vibrant then in the acrylic "Lit Up" version of chinese lanterns that I recently painted. I do find that it is much easier to get a nice range of values with the pastels.

Chinese Lantern Plant -common name for a herbaceous perennial (a plant that lives at least three years) grown in gardens for its showy fruit. It is native to southeastern Europe and Japan and can survive winter temperatures as low as -40° C (-40° F). In colder regions, it is grown as an annual (a plant that lives one growing season). It gets its name from the calyx, the balloon-like, papery, red covering over the fruit, which resembles a Chinese paper lantern. It is also called winter cherry, strawberry tomato, and alkekengi.
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Sunday, April 06, 2008

Art studio tour helps celebrate culture week
April 03, 2008






This piece, called Sensuous Beauty, was created by artist Melodie Douglas.

Abbotsford artists are opening their studios to the public on Saturday, April 26 as part of a new tour.
This Art Studio Tour – in celebration of BC Arts and Culture Week – is brought to the public by the Abbotsford Spirit of BC office which seeks to promote local artists, educate all who come, and make art accessible to everyone.
The Art Studio Tour will provide a rare opportunity for visitors to interact with the artists and see their artwork at the source – the artist’s own studio.
The event stats at Kariton Gallery at 11 a.m., and continues via a guided bus tour where art enthusiasts will be given a behind-the-scenes glimpse into artists’ creative worlds.
Tours include transportation, guided commentary and finally a reception to delight your senses provided by: Lotusland Vineyards, ChocolaTas, Tega Red Tea Infusion, Birchwood Dairy’s Inc. and Tanglebank Country Gardens.
Participating artists are: Gwen Gregorig, Stella Johnson, Irene Enns, Norm Williams, Robert Williams, Melodie Douglas, Christopher Friesen, Neil Lowen and Bente Hansen.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased by calling Sherry at the Abbotsford Spirit of B.C. office 604-850-7161. Seating for this event is limited.
Artists:
One of the nine artists involved in this tour is Melodie Douglas, a self taught artist born and raised in the Fraser Valley and currently residing in Abbotsford.
She started developing her artistic skills in 1995 when she was introduced to decorative art and tole painting. From there she went on to open up a painting studio/retail store, where she taught various techniques related to decorative art using acrylic paints painted on furniture, metals, canvas, glass and candles.
Wanting to develop her skills further she took various drawing classes at UCFV both in graphite and charcoal.
Her current medium of choice is soft pastels, which she first started in 2005. She immediately was hooked on the medium, both for the ease of use, beautiful vibrant colors and the ability to manipulate the paint with a simple swipe of color.
Also participating in the tour is valley artist Christopher Friesen.
Born in Chilliwack, Friesen now considers himself to be from Abbotsford.
He attended UCFV for a diploma in Visual Arts and says that he feels “in love with painting and photography but settled on painting.”
Friesen is now a painting professor in visual arts at UCFV.
“I believe that Abbotsford will in the future become a place of culture, it has been a long up hill battle with getting the arts in Abbotsford recognized but with new facilities and a new visual arts building that now offers a BFA degree, Abbotsford should start to see more artist start to stay instead of move away,” he stated.
As for his works, Friesen said in a written statement:
“Challenging the materials and conceptions is what art should be about. I do not set out to paint a pretty

Saturday, April 05, 2008



Blowing in the Wind or Strawberry Fields Forever??? WIP

24" x 36" Acrylic on canvas

I took some photos of these paper strawberries that decorated a booth at the annual Abbotsford Berry Festival last year, I loved how the light played on them as the wind gently blew them around. I debated between painting this in pastel or acrylic, I wanted to paint it using my yummy Terry Ludwig red pastels (they are my favorites) butI also knew that I wanted to do this as a large painting, so I opted to do it in acrylic as my paper size for La Carte pastel paper is limited to about 19" x 25". You never know I might just do a smaller version in Pastel. I thought about naming it "Comedy of Errors" as I struggled remembering all the ins and outs of using acrylics.
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Lit Up
8" x 10" Acrylic on canvas

My first attempt at acrylics in a number of years. I also tried a grisaille underpainting for the first time which was very interesting. The advantage of acrylics for me is not having to frame them, disavantage is washing all those brushes, I had forgotten that I like to use every brush I own when I paint grrrrrr ! Which is fine at the time but really sucks when it comes to wash up.
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