Well, it seems I wasn't finished this painting after all. The rock in the right foreground was bugging me- I needed to change it. I changed the shape and lost the edges on the top. Then I laid in some glazes to make the colours of the water a little richer. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?

After a great deal of tweaking and fiddling, I think I'm done on this one. "Solace II"  40 x 30" acrylic. I plan to submit this to the Painters at Painters event catalogue. Painters at Painters is an annual event that happens at Painter's Lodge in the end of May. Over 30 artists in residence, discussion groups, demos and other presentations- it's a really fun weekend event for artists.

Great Blue

                                             Great Blue  24 x 36" acrylic

This is the second painting I've done from this photo. I did a 20 x 30" version last fall and then clients from one of my galleries wanted a bigger version. They also wanted more detail and a bit different colours. I was a little more restrained with the colours than in the first version and spent more time polishing details. Coming off of the pine tree painting, it was a pretty easy transition and I enjoyed painting this guy.

It's been an interesting few days in the studio. I'm still working on several pieces at once. In my quest for more subtle colour, I decided to repaint the sky in a finished piece that hadn't left the studio. Sad to report that I have now made the painting much worse. I will leave it for a few days and then have another go. Sigh........

The biggest of the current pieces is a 40 x 30" river piece. I am very excited about it and happy with the way it's coming along. However, I'm not out of the woods yet so hopefully will not go sideways on this one too. I'll post it in a few days.

Lonely Pine

Lonely Pine 30 x 30" oil

I seem to be in a phase of starting things and not finishing them. I've been working on this piece, plus a figurative one, a landscape and one of two crows on the beach. As soon as I got bogged down on one, I would go to another. I don't know if this is a good thing- I really like finishing paintings so it left me feeling kind of scattered. However, it did enable me to hang in with each piece and try different ways of working them.

This painting started as an acrylic and I tried to make it work. However I really wanted a seamless flowing background and oils are so much better for that. I started with a transparent glaze and worked the creamy passages into it, wet in wet. I am thinking of doing a series of tree portraits as I had a lot of fun doing this one.

This painting was started at my West Van workshop as a demo and I finally finished it yesterday. I am paying a lot of attention to edges right now and I think this piece has a softer look because of that. The colours were challenging- I originally had a lot more colour variation in the trees and the painting looked too busy. I also had to repaint the sky because it was much too turquoise for the palette in the rest of the painting.

West Van Workshop

Here's my wonderful gang from last weekend's acrylic workshop in West Vancouver. Some beautiful paintings were born in the course of 2 days. I had a lot of fun with everyone- thanks to all for coming ! There will another West Van workshop in May- details on that and other classes on my website.

This is the demo from the weekend. It's a 24 x 36" piece. I will post the finished version on the blog in a few days.

Mexico

These are the three paintings I finished last week in San Jose, Mexico. They are all small- the one with the white sand is the biggest at 16 x 20". I struggled a lot, painting in Mexico, and made several attempts that didn't succeed. Not sure why: maybe a landscape that I don't have emotional ties to or maybe the pressure to try to produce work in a limited window of time. Anyway, I did the best I could and will see how things unfold now that I'm back on familiar turf. Looking forward to getting back in my studio and starting something new.
In the meantime, there are lots of workshops coming up for me in the next couple of months- all listed on my website if you're looking to take a class.