Here's why I love acrylics. This big painting wasn't working for quite a while and I wasn't sure what to do to fix it. Along came my sister- artist extraordinaire, Suzanne Northcott and she said "you might want to lose that tree on the right." After much deliberation, I decided she was right. Out came the tree and I think I got a better painting. "Sundancers" 30 x 40" acrylic

I finally got around to painting the beautiful sunset from the Port Alberni trip. I hope I did it justice- painting sunsets is a risky thing to do- right up there with paintings of kittens and clowns... chocolate box paintings, as my spouse Alan calls them. Anyway you can be the judge on whether I crossed the line. For the record, Alan says he likes the painting. I like it too.

I have been away teaching quite a bit lately. In between, I have been fighting with a couple of large complex paintings. Neither of them are where I want them to be. Last weekend I started this little [ 12 x 16"] painting as a demo for one of my classes. I decided to play with it today and see what I could make of it. I'm pretty happy with it now and it has restored my faith a bit. I titled it "breaking Through" which is hopefully what will happen with the other paintings.

I managed to get a copy of the finished 65 Roses piece. Copies of this poster will be for sale for $65.00 to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis society. Information available through the Federation of Canadian Artists.

65 red roses

Last weekend I was at the reception for the unveiling of the collaborative painting "65 Red Roses". This piece was composed from sixty five 8 x 10 panels all done by individual artists from the Federation of Canadian Artists. The finished piece will be auctioned off by Maynards in Vancouver as a fund raiser for Cystic Fibrosis. 400 guests were at the opening - artists media, and many members of the CF society. It was very exciting to be a part of it all. Here you can see Angela Au Hemphill, Michael King and my guy, Alan in my studio assembling all the little paintings. I've also included my rose painting. If you want to see the finished piece, go to www.Web.me.com/angela.au.hemphill/Paintings_65_Red_Roses/Welcome.html. or google "Painting 65 Red Roses".

It's amazing to me how challenging some paintings can be. This one was a fight the whole way. I changed everything over and over until I finally felt I had given it my best shot. The myriad changes were to make it warmer, cooler, more colorful, more neutral, more detail, less detail, trees in, trees out, clouds out, clouds in. The final result: Desolation Isle 24 x 36" acrylic- I need to go lie down for a while!.