Lacing Up

I'm nearly finished my still life painting. At the end of the day, I couldn't resist starting this new ballerina piece. Had a great day of painting today- the time just flew. Good thing because I just realized how little time I have left to get paintings done for my Vancouver show , opening April 14th. More details about that later.

still life start

I started this painting this afternoon. The first picture is after drawing it in -that took me about 30 minutes. The second picture is after a couple of hours spent painting. I like to try to avoid detail for as long as possible in my work. My hope is to save the energy of these early stages and just put in the amount of detail and polishing that is needed. I never know what the finished image will look like- that's part of the fun and the challenge.

Criss Cross 18 x 36 " acrylic

Here's the finished river piece. I love the colors- lots of warmth in the water. I never get tired of the beauty of rocks and water- it probably started with my childhood home along the edge of the river in West Vancouver. My river paintings take me right back there.

Beginning new river painting

I've had the uncropped version of the photo for this painting for a couple of years. I was browsing through my files, looking for something new to paint when I found it and started playing around with cropping. What a difference. I really love this image now- the criss cross of the logs and the way the river twists under them. This is the painting just a few hours in, but I'm excited about it so far. The dimensions are 18 x 36.

Tomorrow we go to the annual Board of Governors meeting at the Federation of Canadian Artists . We will be jurying applicants for signature membership. All the applicants have worked hard to get through the pre-application requirements- I wish the best of luck to them all. There will a show at the Federation Gallery opening next week, featuring the successful artists. Check it out if you get the chance.

I brought this painting to my Vancouver classes yesterday- it was about half way along. I promised to post it on the blog when finished so here it is. I had a big push to finish it today because I want to deliver it to Granville Fine Arts tomorrow.

"Kanaka Stream" 20 x 24" acrylic

Artists in Residence- Four Seaso

Here I am doing my "Artists in Residence" thing at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver, and here's the resulting painting. Even though I look pretty lonely in the photo, I talked to lots of interesting people- I just had to wait for a quiet time to ask one of the hotel staff to photograph me. Everyone at the hotel was very kind and I was given a beautiful room for the Saturday night. Alan came and met me for dinner and stayed over till Sunday morning.

My new painting doesn't have a name yet but it's an acrylic- 24 x 36". The hotel paintings will remain up in the lobby until next Friday, March 9th.

This weekend

This coming weekend I will be the artist in residence at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver. I will be painting in the lobby of the hotel on Saturday and Sunday, from 10:00 to 5:00. I will also be showing 10 recent paintings there. The paintings will remain up until the following Friday, when a new artist will take my place.

Please come and say hi if you are in the area.