"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

Sasquatch

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.

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