Artistic Endeavors

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:05:00 +0000

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

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:23:00 +0000

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.

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:57:00 +0000

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

The Arts: Annual Artist Studio Tour August 22

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:13:00 +0000

The Arts: Annual Artist Studio Tour August 22

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:05:00 +0000

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

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:41:00 +0000

"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.

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:18:00 +0000

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

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:17:00 +0000

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?

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:19:00 +0000

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

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:23:00 +0000

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.

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:56:00 +0000

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.

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:24:00 +0000

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

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:41:00 +0000

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.

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:36:00 +0000

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.

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:56:00 +0000

I thought this would be a perfect painting to start off the month of October. I took this picture last October at the Apple Barn in Abbotsford. This little fellow looked so cute clambering over the pumpkins.

Pastel 7" x 10" approx

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:51:00 +0000

Wet Canvas Weekend drawing event hosted by Angie Rowe
This was done in my sketch book over two pages about 7" x 10"

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:08:00 +0000

This one has been one of those ones that took me ages to finish but finally it is off the easel. The original photo was taken during a short boat cruise in celebration of my good friends 25th anniversaryfrom Seattle Washington to Vancouver BC. It was early october and we were all sitting outside on the boat deck enjoying the sun, good company, and beer. The sun shining thru the beer and green bucket completely caught my eye and I knew I had to paint it.

Bucket of Beer
Soft Pastel 10" x 14"

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:00:00 +0000

Sorry for the delay in posting, I have been painting and drawing but haven't had anything worthwhile posting (or completed, the procrastination bug hit me).

I've had this idea in my head for quite some time now to do a series of paintings based on Martini names, this is No.1 of the series. This will also be one of the paintings I will be submitting in the upcoming FV Graphic Guild Show "Something Red" Hope you like it!

Candy Apple Martini
10" x 13" unframed

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 06:53:00 +0000

Batiking with pastels, I find that I don't spend enough time just playing and experimenting so i've decided to play more. This piece was done for the Weekend Drawing Event on Wetcanvas. I loved doing this technique and will play some more with it.

7" x 7" pastel on watercolor paper

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:49:00 +0000

I wasn't happy with the previous photo I took of my painting "Inferno", this one is truer to the actual colors used in the painting.

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:27:00 +0000

Another in my glass collection. It was interesting working with the two contrasting materials, the hardness of glass and the fluidness of the satin. You have the hard edges of the glass but the satin is all fluid and motion, it pools rather then stiffens. It was a good exercise in working with values.

Inferno
16" x 20" Pastel on LaCarte sanded paper (unframed size)

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:08:00 +0000

Eve of Seduction

This was so much fun to paint. It's hard to tell with this photo but the background is a dark green. I'm trying to ween myself off of black lol.

Framed 16" x 20"

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:16:00 +0000

Got started on the second shoe and worked a bit on refining the tissue paper.

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:20:00 +0000

Just a little update, the first shoe is complete.

melodiedouglas@gmail.com (Melodie) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:32:00 +0000

"Eve of Seduction" (WIP)
Back to RED again.....I can't help myself!!! For some reason red shoes seem so sexy, the perfect tool for seduction. I've never owned a pair and the pair I bought to do the photo shoot for this painting are 2 sizes to big lol.

Pastel 12" x 16"