The Gang from Painters

Here we have our group of friends heading home from another great weekend at Painter's lodge. From left to right are: Linda Lando, Kiff Holland, Carole Rayer, Diane McDiarmid, Rick McDiarmid, Bettie Heighton, Brent Heighton, Alan Wylie, Suzanne Northcott, me, and Cathy Miller.

I did a demo at Painters this year for the first time. it was a bit intimidating, with about 300 people in the room but it went well and I enjoyed it. I will post the finished painting on the blog in a day or two.

The best part of the weekend was talking to all the people there and hanging out with so many other great artists. It was over all too fast. Thank you to everyone that took the time to talk to me.

Back in the Saddle

"Rush" 16 x 20"

"One More Dance"  24 x 36"

I finished these two pieces yesterday. The river one was started as a demo in my last workshop. I thought the arbutus one was finished but there was something about it that bothered me. After seeing the Masters paintings in galleries in NewYork, I realized that there was too much color. The paintings that I admired in the Met and the Frick museums were mostly quite de-saturated colors with beautiful values.

I ended up repainting the sky in a lighter and much more neutral shade of blue. I also toned down the yellows in the foreground. To my eye, the painting is much stronger now.

I'm really interested in learning more about color. A lot of artists nowadays rely on bright color to make their paintings interesting. I have done this to a certain extent, although I don't feel color is my forte. I'm not saying bright color is wrong but I don't think it's where I want to go. I am so drawn to beautiful neutrals and powerful values.

One of our current day artists that I really admire is Renato Muccillo. His colors are so compelling and they give his work an old world, timeless quality. Check out his website if you've never seen his work.

New York trip

I just returned from a wonderful week in New York with painting buddies, Liz Wiltzen, Sarah Kidner and Jean Pederson. Highlights for me were the Hispanic Society museum, where they have the huge Sorolla murals and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we saw the Sargent paintings. The top picture is Sarah and Jean, in front of the Sorolla murals and the bottom one is Liz and Sarah with one of John Singer Sargent's portraits.

I was so inspired by this exposure to amazing art and can't wait to get painting again.

"Clearing" 20 x 30" oil

Skies have always been my nemesis. I envy those that paint them easily. Sometimes I can get them right and sometimes not. As I do more oils, I think that I will enjoy doing skies more. This one was done using transparent earth red- what a delicious color- as underpainting and working wet-in-wet for most of the painting.
I am learning to wait for things to dry. After my years of acrylics that's hard. I want instant gratification and really like to keep going once I start. Patience is the lesson of the day.

Plein Air at Van Dusen Gardens

Here are my brave band of students from the workshop I did on Saturday. We had rain off and on and not one person complained. Thank you, Alfonso for finding us a couple of tents- you saved the day.

Like me, most of the folks are just getting started at plien air. My tips, for them and anyone else that is new to outdoor painting, are to keep it very simple, look for good value above color and start with a thumbnail sketch to plan your composition.

It was very fun to spend the day painting with the group. Van Dusen Gardens put on 4 Saturday workshops each spring, as part of the Cherry Blossom Festival. There's a different instructor each week. Mine was the final one for this year.

Next weekend it's "Rocks, Trees and Water in acrylics" in West Vancouver. Details on my website.

Great Blue

I started this painting at the demo for my show last weekend. It's my first attempt at a heron. It was really fun to do- came together pretty easily. Nice when that happens.

Now I want to do more bird paintings. First nice day, I'm going to head out to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary with my camera.

This painting is slated for the big Painters at Painters event at Campbell River in late May.

"Great Blue" 20 x 30" acrylic

My Vancouver Show

Here's a couple of shots from my show opening yesterday at Granville Fine Arts. I was painting in the gallery and actually got quite a bit of painting done, in between chatting to people. Thanks to everyone that took some time on a beautiful sunny day to come and see the show.

The paintings will hang until next Friday, April 20th.