Saturday, November 24, 2012

Spirit Land


Spirit Land
20x30"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Painting #96 - This painting was completed for an exhibition I'm organizing for teachers and students called, How Do the Arts Help Me Grow? Below is my narrative that will accompany my painting in our exhibition catalogue.

             I’m an artist, educator and a small art business owner. I consider these roles to be interrelated and equally dependent aspects of my creativity. I’ve been teaching art to preteen and teenagers for 15 years for the Calgary Board of Education.

            The arts support my cognitive and affective development. Given that my mind and senses are connected by the same bloodline, I know I must nourish both to support my growth. Painting provides a platform for me to reflect on what I know, to research what I need to know, and to create new knowledge. It engages my senses, emotions and imagination, and it refines my perceptions. Through the act of creating, I become more qualitatively intelligent.

            Spirit Land was created from a photograph taken while on a field trip to Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park. The soil is as important to the land, as arts education is to our students. The arts provide learners with the multiple forms of literacy that they require to participate in our culture and that do justice to their broad and exuberant minds. 

African Pulse

African Pulse
36x48"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Painting #95 - This was a commissioned piece, which was to represent strong women, dance and Africa. I'm happy to report my customers loved it. We still haven't "really" decided the name of the piece - so, its African Pulse for now.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Gentle Autumn Breeze

Gentle Autumn Breeze
12x36"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Painting #94 - I really enjoy playing with different media to create different effects in my foregrounds. They always seem to be my favourite part of the painting. I am always surprised by how hard deciduous trees are to paint. I used my new glazing technique, which helped me achieve more realism in the trees.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Blue Spruce

Blue Spruce
12x24"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Painting #93 - I've always thought that blue spruce trees are so pretty. That's my inspiration for this painting. I had a difficult time trying to achieve a variety of blues for the spruce trees. I love the foreground. Its fun and interesting.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Alberta Heat

Alberta Heat
12x36"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Painting # 92 - This was a fun painting to create. Again, I learned the value of glazing. I used yellows, magentas and purples to glaze my trees so that they won't all be the same colour.

This painting was recently selected for the Alberta Society of Artist's Celebrating Alberta Exhibition.

Still Waters

Still Waters
18x24"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Painting #91 - This painting was created from a photo I took while visiting my home town of Stratford, Ontario. Again, this was an abstract painting before it became a landscape. I applied mixed media and drips and drabs of paint before the landscape began to take form. I'm bewildered by how hard it is to paint trees. I like the little group of plants and reflections in the bottom right-hand corner.

Bucolic Birches

Bucolic Birches
8x8"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #90 - I painted this landscape from my imagination as I was tired of using photo references. I learned the value of glazing during this process. Glazing helped me achieve a variety of colours amongst the birches, which helped to create a more interesting painting.

Reflections on the Avon

Reflections on the Avon
8x8"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #89 - In my course I learned that a strong painting has an interesting focal point. Thus, mine is the reflection on the left-hand side. I dulled the reflection on the right-hand side of the painting so that they wouldn't compete with each other.

Inviting Pathways

Inviting Pathways
8x8"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #88 - I used the same picture for this painting as I did for my previous painting. I painted this one at my workshop. There is an abstract painting behind this landscape. Interesting process... I like it better than starting with a white canvas.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Shadows in the Park

Shadows in the Park
6x8"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #87 - I'm off to Red Deer College today for the week. I'll be taking a course called Seductive Surfaces. RDC provided me with this blank canvas and asked me to submit a painting to help raise scholarship funds for students. I used a picture that I took while on a walk in Stratford, Ontario. I had trouble capturing all the shadows but will try this painting again while at RDC. I'll use more colour and larger forms to capture all the shapes of the trees, grass and pathway.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Beneath the Birches

Beneath the Birches
18x24"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #86 - I had trouble unifying this painting. I wanted to do something different in the foreground - I'm not sure if this works or not.... however, I'm calling it quits and moving on to my next piece.

Tranquility

Tranquility
18x36"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #85 - I was actually quite tranquil as I painted this landscape. I was very relaxed on my yearly painting trip with my good friend and business partner Kristina Steinbring. Its a simple landscape - I like the feeling of depth in the centre. I feel like I can walk for miles into the background.

Alberta Adventure

Alberta Adventure
22x28"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #84 - This painting was an adventure all right!!! I had great difficulty uniting the foreground with the middle ground. I like the yellow sky with the blue trees and will use this colour combination in more landscapes.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Morning in the Rockies

Morning in the Rockies
24x36"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #83 - Well, I finished this painting quite a while ago but never had time to post it. I remember I had difficulty with the foreground. The yellow path helps to break up the space a bit and leads the eye to the middle ground. I'm happy with my birch trees and the coloured shadows on the trunks.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Spring's Spirit

Spring's Spirit
20x60"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #82 - This was a fun painting to create. I liked the challenge of trying to find the right shapes and colours for the land and the trees. Because the painting is so long, the viewer gets different points of entry depending on where he/she stands.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Spring Sparklers

Spring Sparklers
12x24"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #81 - I was curious to see how a forest of pine trees would look in a painting. My answer - very green!! I had to break the space up so I used some metallic inks to represent new growth within the forest. I'm surprised by how much layering I had to do to get the trees looking realistic.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Spring's Begun


Spring's Begun
12x24"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #80 - I really wanted to capture that time of spring when the buds first appear on the trees and then in the blink of an eye the trees are filled with lime green leaves. The yellow/green colour only seems to last about 24 hours but I absolutely love the look of the trees' leaves in this growing period.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Mining Copper, Silver, Gold - Triptic


Mining Copper, Silver, Gold - Triptic
36x48"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Painting #79 - Well, I completely changed these three individual paintings and made one. I liked my idea about a colour scheme - primarily secondary colours for each panel - green, orange and purple. And then I added the complimentary colour to each panel. I finished the panels off by adding the primary colours to all panels.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Precious Metals - Gold

Precious Metals - Gold
12x48"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Painting #78 - This painting may become a part of tryptic. My firsts panel is green, yellow and silver. The second panel is purple, blue and copper. This panel is red, orange and gold. This painting has sand and gold leaf in it. Today I may add black circles over all three panels to unite them. Stay tuned...

Precious Metals - Copper

Precious Metals - Copper
12x48"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Painting #77 - This painting may become a part of tryptic. My firsts panel is green, yellow and silver. This panel is purple, blue and copper. The final panel will be red, orange and gold. This painting has sand and copper leaf in it.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Sunday's Hike


Sunday's Hike
24x24"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #76 - Well, I'm finding that I want to continue exploring the landscape. I love the way the birch trees pop amongst the blue sky and the coloured trees. Next on my list is to paint a 20x60" fall landscape, which consists of birch trees.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Precious Metals - Silver

Precious Metals - Silver
12x48"
Mixed Media on Canvas
Painting #75 - This painting may become a part of tryptic. This panel is green, yellow and silver. The next will be purple, blue and copper. The final panel will be red, orange and gold. This painting has sand and silver leaf in it.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Moon Violet

Moon Violet
20x20"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #74 - My niece was visiting and wanted to paint an abstract painting after she saw Sun Up Blue. In a few hours we had each completed a painting. My colour palette was inspired by Katie. What a fun experience it was to paint with a young soul!!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Sun Up Blue


Sun Up Blue
40x40"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #73 - Still pushing myself with abstracts. The process for abstract painting is so different from painting realism. When I'm involved in abstract painting I feel like something that's truly me is at work. That piece of me that I'm speaking about has barely touched the surface. I'll let you know when she's arrived!!

Monday, January 23, 2012

The Weird and Wonderful

The Weird and Wonderful
16x20"
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting #72 - This is my third painting for the, "Love Lies Bleeding" Ballet competition. Apparently the song, Bennie and the Jets is about a popular style of dress in the 70's called, "Glam Rock". This style was defined by outrageous outfits and gaudy sunglasses and in the song, an extension of Elton's personality. I depicted the ballet dancers from the Alberta Ballet dancing to Bennie and the Jets. Since I'm painting an Elton song, I had to throw in a piano.