Blog moving

Hello all,

I'm happy to announce that I have a revamped website up now and it includes a blog page. This will be the last post on this site.If you'd like to checkout the new site and future blog postings, go to www.janicerobertson.ca

all the best
Janice

More Flowers

I'm working my way up to some larger loose florals. The white one is 24 x 30 and the yellow one is 24 x 36. I tried a 36 x 36 floral - worked really hard on it and could not make it work. Right now I'm getting about 50% success. It's a new approach in that I'm letting go of control in a way that I never have before. Exciting and nerve wracking at the same time.

I'd like to incorporate more of this approach in my landscapes.Will see where that leads. Right now I'm longing for colour so the florals are chance to indulge that.

Flowers

These two 16 x 16" paintings are my most recent. I'm in a phase of wanting to work with no restriction and so they were mostly painted out of my head. I'm enjoying the colours and the brushwork and letting the paint do much of the work. I have had several other pieces that I couldn't resolve- that's the danger of working intuitively. It's ok and I'm learning more with each piece. There's a bigger one on the easel now, which may or may not work. Fingers crossed!

Family pictures

This 12 x 16" acrylic is of my daughter, Laura. It was challenging because I was trying for a likeness Happy to say, I think it looks just like her. Painting people in acrylics is nerve-wracking- the slightest error and the person looks grotesque. I have learned to just keep plugging away with each little area until I get it right. Usually I would choose to use oils for a figurative piece, because blending is easier,  but this one worked out ok in acrylics.

Italian scene

Rock of Ages, Italia

24 x 30" acrylic

This painting was close to finished for a week and I lost momentum on it. It just didn't feel compelling to me. I usually paint landscapes of familiar places and this image was from a trip to Italy that I took about 5 years ago.

In the photo, the foreground was very dark and I lightened it up considerably. Yesterday, I got the notion to glaze the foreground with black and let the light sit in the sky and distant fields.Then I glazed the clouds with very dilute layers of quin red and hansa yellow. It made a huge difference and suddenly I'm happy with the painting.

pet portrait

This is  20 x 18" acrylic of my beloved dog, Havi. I haven't done many dog portraits but it was really fun to do. Right now there are several artists that I know who have taken the pet portrait to a whole new level- great brushwork and innovative approaches, with backgrounds and colour. I'm inspired to paint more dogs.

Painting Big

                                   

This place is about 7 minutes from my house. I spent a beautiful afternoon painting plien air there a week ago. I took a few shots with my phone and one photo led to this 36 x 48" painting. I love painting big- have resolved to do a few more large scale pieces soon. It feels like being there when I'm working on a big piece.

This will be the final major painting that I'm taking to Calgary for the Stampede Art show. I might get a few more little ones done before I go. I'm getting excited, looking forward to being there again. The camaraderie with the other artists and the chance to talk to people about my work are my favourite things about the experience. It does feel like a marathon at times and the days are very long, but I feel blessed to be able to go.

How now purple cow?

This little 12 x 16" painting is bound for the Western Art show at the Calgary Stampede. It's acrylic on panel and uses a combination of textural techniques with small brushwork and many layers on the cow. Don't have a title yet but maybe "Purple Cow".

Purple Sky

"Purple Sky" 30 x 40" oil

I haven't posted for quite a while so thought I would share a recent large piece. I combined two reference photos for this one- one for the sky and one for the landscape. The challenge was to make the colours harmonious.
This painting will go with me to the Calgary Stampede Western Art show in July.

Aspen grove

Golden Grove 24 x 36" acrylic

This painting is another one on hardboard panel. I painted most of it with a lot of drippy, wet, textural techniques. Scraping occurred for some of the grasses. Then I used more controlled brush strokes where needed for the negative shapes, tree trunks and foliage.

It was the light and pattern of the image that made me want to paint it. Right now we are so starved for sunshine. Nice to experience it in a painting, if not real life....

Mural assistant

Alan and I are busy working on a mural for the BC Farm Museum here in Fort Langley. This is panel #3. When I go to work on it alone, Havi comes along to keep me company. So far I'm really enjoying working on this scale and figuring out how to handle each image. Alan is the mural expert, so it's good to have his guidance. We're doing six 4 x 8 foot panels and they will be revealed on June 17th.

Studio Dog

Years ago I read on Bob Genn's newsletter that he recommended artists get a dog to keep them company in the studio. Bob was very attached to his dog and took her almost everywhere. I lost my beloved australian shepherd, Blue, back in May of this year. I never thought I would find another dog that I could connect to like Blue, but 6 weeks ago, Havoc came into my life.

Havoc belonged to my youngest sister, Barb, who died tragically in a car accident almost 2 months ago. Barb left behind 4 border collies- Havoc was the only male and was the daddy dog to several litters of puppies.

I didn't think I could handle a border collie- we live in a townhouse and I have seen how ramped up border collies can be from my years competing in dog agility. However, I knew that Barb would be so  happy if I gave one of her dogs a home, so I decided to try. Havoc came into our house and has brought nothing but joy. He is kind, loving, calm, sensitive and very, very smart. He is also fun and a bit of a goof. He makes me get outside every day,  take time to play and is always ready with a hug if I need one. He has helped immeasurably in my grief around losing my sister.

The postscript to this story is that all four dogs have found wonderful homes. My artist sister, Suzanne, took Truly- the baby mama to Havoc's puppies. Suzanne and her husband, David, have found Truly to be every bit as special as Havoc. We get the dogs together regularly and they are always delighted to see each other.

So the studio has a comfy dog bed in it and I am never working alone anymore. I feel very blessed...

What to leave out

"Forest Giants"   24 x 30" acrylic

This is the latest one off the easel. It was painted on panel and my goal was to stay as loose as possible. A lot of the mark making was done with the chewed up brushes that I created with an exacto knife. I spent a lot of time on some areas and painted other areas in minutes. Of course the areas that I painted quickly are the ones I like best.

I'm finding this technique somewhat hit or miss. Maybe that's the risk of painting loose and fast- either you make a mess or you do something exciting.

Edge of the Meadow 30 x 40" acrylic

This painting just won 3rd place at the Federation of Canadian Artists 75th Anniversary show. I was very honoured for my piece to be recognized amongst an amazing collection of paintings. The show finishes on Sunday, Oct 2nd but can be seen online at www.artists.ca.

Plein Air

We spent Friday and Saturday painting with a group of invited artists on Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver. The event is called "Painting on the Mountain".

The weather was glorious and we really enjoyed the experience. I did four paintings- my three favourites are here .The top two are 11 x 14 and the bottom one is 8 x 10.  Plein Air seems to be the latest craze around here lately- more and more events are springing up. I want to do more of it- I think it's the best skill sharpening tool around.  Not to mention the fun of painting with others in a beautiful setting.

The paintings from the weekend will be on display through the Harmony Arts festival this week- in a tent near the Ferry Building Gallery.

Quarry Rock Hike

Woodland Falls

16 x 16" acrylic

Yesterday I hiked to Quarry Rock in Deep Cove with a group of friends. There was a lot of uphill climbing involved, but we came out to one of the most spectacular vistas that I have ever seen in the city. The photo for this little painting was taken on the hike.

I'm trying some new approaches to brushwork lately. Have taken several of my old brushes and mutilated them with an exacto knife. They make very cool marks for texture and foliage. I like the looser look.

Hold your Horses

  "Coming Home"

24 x 30" acrylic

I'm back to acrylics for this painting. I considered painting oils over the acrylics to finish it but it didn't seem necessary. There were lots of layers and  I love the fast drying of the acrylics for those kinds of techniques. I found painting the horses challenging- partly because the drawing has to be so accurate  and also because the horses were mostly in shadow, which made for very subtle value changes.

Tweaking

Its amazing what shows up when you photograph your painting. I thought this one was done when I did the top photo. A few things jumped right out when I looked at the photo- the shadows from the middle group of trees were way too symmetrical, and the shadows in the right foreground were too black. Ten minutes spent and the painting looks quite a bit better.

"The Path Beckons"  24 x 30" oil

Long Beach sky

 

Here's one of my recent paintings that came from my trip to Tofino a few weeks ago. I worked really hard on the sky and then painted the sand part very quickly.  The sun came out for a window of about 3 minutes and then all the light was gone. Timing is everything when it comes to good reference photos.

Painting by Committee

I finished this painting abut a week ago. The reference photo I used had a flat white sky with no light, so I painted that part out of my imagination. This is challenging for me- I mostly lean on my powers of observation, rather than make stuff up. Changing the sky colours changed every other colour decision in the painting so there was a lot of back and forth-ing before I got something that looked ok. During the process I showed the panting to my husband, sister, and two groups of workshop students. Everyone had something to say and a lot of it was very helpful. I ended up taking a lot of colour out of the rocks, so that the sky could be the star of the show.

"Tofino Sunset"  24 x 36" oil