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

 

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"

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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)

 

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"

 

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

 

Just a little update, the first shoe is complete.

 

"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"

 

"Green Glass & Ornaments"
I'm calling this finished, but it will sit on my easel for a few days, I often find that as time passes I will see little things that need adjustments, so I prefer to wait a bit before framing.

 

I'm just about finished with this one, I have a few finishing touches and need to anchor it down with some shadows. I wanted to post it at this point to show how important the shadows are and why we need to put them in. It's the last little touches that bring a painting to life!

 

A bit more done, hopefully I will finish it off tomorrow. I still need to figure out a name for it.

 

A little more done on the first bottle and the ornament. For some reason when I take my reference photos in to be developed regardless how I crop or resize them the bottoms seem to be cut off, which is what I am dealing with in this painting. My plan is to download the image onto my laptop once I am to that point and paint from there.

 

SNEEK PEEK

This is what i'm currently working on. I've been collecting some bluey/green bottles of various shapes with the intention of doing a painting, included is a small greenish leaded glass oranament and a large fabric ornament. I love the challenge of painting glass with objects showing thru from the back.

16" x 20" Pastel on sanded paper

 

Dakota Art Supplies Visit
Yahoooooooo New Toys!!!! Last week I ordered the new set of Great American half stick pastels and the Unison set of 8 shadow colors from Dakota Art Supplies. The Mt. Vernon store shipped them down to the Bellingham store and I picked them up yesterday. There was about a 1/2 hour wait to cross the border heading into the states which isn't to bad when compared to the 2 to 3 weeks I have to wait when it is coming via the postal system. To have them shipped will usually cost around 30 to 40 dollars, which more then covered the cost of the gas to go down. So i'm a happy camper!!! The Bellingham store had a small sellection of open stock pastels and pastel pencils, both the La Carte and Wallis papers, plus some other papers and miscellaneous pastel art items. After picking up the pastels we wandered around the downtown area hit the Saturday Farmers Market where I took loads of pictures for future paintings, then drove over to the Fairhaven district, if you haven't been there its a lovely area with lots of nice shops and some interesting history.

 

Paper Strawberry
24" x 36" acrylic

Burnt the midnight oil on this one trying to finish it up for the Annual Mikelson's Art Show. 1 o'clock Friday morning I was putting on a final coat of varnish.

 

Chaos
16" x 20" Acrylic on canvas.

Little Glass Bottle 11" x 14" soft pastels
Ilove painting glass or anything with reflective qualities. The challenge on this one was the yellow glass reflecting onto the fabric.

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

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

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.