winter cabin oil painting Petawawa

Winter Cabin – oil on board – 12″ x 9″    Petawawa was home to our family three separate times in Daves military career, so when he asked if I wanted to go (he had to go up for a few days for work) I thought I’d tag along.  It was fun to see how much  the village has grown, but the nature of the place hasn’t changed,  with ‘deep woods’ surrounding it.  They definately have more snow.  No lake effects winter there. 

On the drive home yesterday i was enjoying listening to an audio book, ‘The Last Wife of Henry the VIII’ , a book i’ve wanted to read for a while but never seemed to find the time for.  Yay for the library! It’s got a great collection of audio books.  If you haven’t tried audio books while driving, i highly recommend this form of entertainment.  I’m a lover of historically based fiction, so this one was right up my alley.  At the same time that I was immersed in the 1500′s, i was paying particular attention to what parts of the landscape passing along the way drew my eye…shapes of rocky outcrops, drifting snow, shadows shapes and colours…I was amused to discover that it was also nearly always some little dwelling or another.

Distillery Coffee Break oil painting

 ‘Distillery – Coffee Break’ oil on linen board, 10″x10″

When you sit and enjoy a coffee from this old fashioned coffee bar in the heart of the distillery districtToronto, it’s easy to breathe in nostalgia and imagine the steam whistle’s blowing, workers hustling and the lives that were the lifeblood of this district 100 years ago. The cobblestone streets, aged red brick industrial buildings,warehouses  and platforms are now home to heaps of art galleries, boutiques & artisan foodie joints. This all to say it’s one of my favourite spots when i visit the city.

Profile Kingston magazine artist profile

Yesterday the January issue of Profile Kingston came out. Yours truly got the cover profile!…Thank you so much to Christine Decarie, and Bernard Clark for their writing and wonderful photos, (you both did a great job!) The editor of Profile Kingston asked if they could use the oil painting ‘Sunday Afternoon Skate’ to illustrate the cover because she felt it summed up the mood of January in Kingston. I was happy to oblige. 

I’ve always enjoyed reading about folks from our little city in this magazine.  And I’m very happy to be included.  Thanks to all involved.  If you want a gak, here’s the link which will take you to a preview of the article.

Distillery district early morning oil painting

 ‘Distillery Morning’ oil on linen board, 10″X10″

I’m experimenting on some Raymar linen boards at the moment. Thought they were going to be my new fabourite thing, but having second thoughts. I dont like the way the brush drags on them.  I prefer the slickness of a hard board surface for gestural brushwork, or the smooth spring of stretched linen canvas. I do have 3 small distillery themed pieces on the go at the moment using the linen boards…so I’ll perservere, and post them when finished. 

 

Portrait Society of Canada members show opens today

  

‘In His Element’ and ‘Jane, One Morning’    Both of these two portraits are in the show ‘The Art of Canadian Portraiture’ which opens today in Toronto a the John B. Aird Gallery, 900 Bay St. This is a members show for the Portrait Society of Canada. It runs Jan 10 – Feb 3.  There is an opening reception on Thursday Jan 13 evening, but unfortunately i’m not able to go to that.  There are about 40 other paintings in the show.   After delivering the works to the gallery on Sunday, i had the pleasure of enjoying: Chagall and the russian avante-garde exhibition at the AGO. It was crowded! …the last weekend for the show, so I expect many had the same idea as me and flocked to see it before it leaves.  I love Chagall’s dedication to painting from his soul. That’s what struck me th most about these paintings, and the other works from the russian group. It was interesting to see their experimenting with the current art movements of their day, but the really knock your socks off pieces came from the soul… the fact that they were huge confirmed it more.  I took a few photos without my flash, before a guard told me not to take pictures.  ooops! Naughty Sally!  One of my favourite pieces was a small  watercolour gouache titled ‘The Dancers’, I’m guessing it was probably a working sketch for a larger work?…you can see it in the thumbnail to the right.

After all the art stuff, I had the pleasure of meeting up with my sweet daughter Jane, and she showed me her tiny new apartment which she has finally got her furniture into now and then we went for a bite to eat at a restaurant in the beaches.  We had a nice time, …i love time with her…listening to what’s going on with her and what she thinks about stuff.  She’s settling into life in Toronto now, and enjoys working for CBC.  Here’s us at dinner.

houses in snow winter Fredericton oil painting

 ’Hey, It’s Snowing’ -oil on board – 9″x12″ …okay,  i might have exaggerated a little. 

But I did see these houses on a street in Fredericton.

Fredericton snow morning oil painting

 Snow Morning -oil on canvas 16″ x 8″ On our way to Nova Scotia for Christmas, we stopped overnight in Fredericton.  In the morning when we woke up it was snowing heavily…a magic start to the holiday!  About 30 years ago we used to live near Fredericton; but we had forgoten how pretty it is with all it’s heritage homes. Blanketed in the fresh snow it felt like we were in the middle of a 1940′s Christmas movie set or something.  It left an impression that stayed with me…even after our hair-raising winter drive all the rest of the way on the snow covered highway to Halifax.  The happy ending is we arrived safely; my Dave is a darn good winter driver.

Plan A and B and Barcelona Catalonia vinyard paintings

The oil paint wasn’t dry yet on the two little ‘starts’ I began yesterday; I guess I was working with fairly thick paint.  So…I had to leave them alone today instead of working into them more, which is what i had wanted to get on with.  darn!  Regroup. 

Plan B was to have a look at all the other resource stuff I’ve been thinking about doing something with, and get doing something!  heh. heh.  In the end three more little ‘starts’ were begun and I’m beginning to feel I’m getting the ball rolling. 

No new art to post, so in the meantime i thought i’d post my Rain in Spain group which I recently framed in a nutbrown hardwood.  I’ve heard of a dyptich and a triptich, but I’m not sure if there’s a word (quadtich?) to describe a foursome the same way.  

‘Possibilities’ finds a home

 Tonight I will say goodbye to ‘Possibilities’. ha ha. no really… that is the name of this painting.  It’s one I did earlier in the year. I have just sold it and it goes to it’s  new home tonight.  Something I love about nasturtiums and their growth habit… wandering, climbing, turning this way and that; they are like a metaphore for all sorts of possibilities that unfold in life.

I’m taking a hiatus from the blog for the next week or so, as Nova Scotia calls us for Christmas. woohoo. exciting.

Possibilities – oil on canvas – 20″ x 26″

old holiday sketch diaries, watercolour

  This evening I was working on an oil commission and got the initial block-in done; so far so good.  I wont post it until i finish it, so instead i began thumbing through my old watercolour holiday sketch diaries.  It’s something I spent heaps of time doing when we used to live in Australia, because we often took many trips to different areas.  Funny how it takes going to another country to make the time to go exploring, and to record it!  One of the things i loved to do to really get the feeling of the places was to spend about an hour doing little watercolour sketches in my watercolour diary.  For me it was such a great way to absorb the atmosphere of the place and remember it.  I thought you might enjoy seeing a few…Above are the some kangaroos in the shade (near the You Yangs) and an unfinished harbour inlet from the Whitsundays.  Below is Fiji, Christmas 1999, and Australia’s national symbol the emu’s in a Victorian park.  
When i look at these holiday sketches, i am taken right back to the day i was there.  I must make a new years resolution to sketch some more diaries like this…  I like the stories they tell me.

the time between

 Having completed the Gift Giving Show this past weekend at Fort Henry, it was time yesterday to take all of my recent Kingston themed paintings to Frameworks gallery.  Sixteen altogether. I will be showing them there for the next month or so.  I’m happy for the exposure; Frameworks has a big picture window, and located centrally on Princess street downtown; who knows…maybe one or two might sell.  fingers crossed. that would be a nice Xmas present.

I’m a little out of steam at the moment…haven’t actually painted for almost a week…so many other things going on at this time of year.  But the time between isn’t wasted. Perculating new ideas and directions  is a part of the whole process, needing to be done.  I have come to realize this.  So i am enjoying the twinkling lights on the fireplace, and pouring myself another spiked eggnog…and thinking about the next bunch of paintings.  I love this time of year.

folk art

 Lilliput? no. Just a little folk art in my pointsetta. heh. heh.

connections of past and present

 Summer Town Past and Present - oil on linen – 18″ x 14″   something currently on the easle.

gallery blog shop launched

 Today I’m announcing the launch of my Gallery at the Porch Door blog shop!  It’s a blog with a different goal; a blog where i can show selected art from my gallery(paintings and other items) making them available for sale online.  Using the service of PayPal seems a simple online option for keeping things secure.  I plan to feature a few selected items at a time in the blog shop, but will change them frequently so the site remains fresh and interesting.  Please stop on by and have a look, oh, and… if you’re in the mood, i’d love your feedback…..thanks!

A girls best friend

 ‘Thelma’ – oil on board – 7 x 9″ Life isn’t fair. We all know it, but even as adults we sometimes have a hard time believing it. A dear friend recently suffered catastrophic events in her life; unbearable loss really…it left us all so humbled.  Not knowing how to help ease her pain, i decided to paint a portrait of her best friend.  I hope she’ll recognize her.

one of a kind day out

 The weather outside was frightful, but the artisans inside delightful! Today I whipped down to the one of a kind Xmas show in Toronto.  I’ve always heard a lot about this show, but never actually gone to see it. It sure didn’t dissappoint. One of the first artists we chatted with when we entered the show was Peter Chung who painted this painting which i loved.  His work was full of symbolism and simplicity but energy too.  I loved them. Here is a picture of Peter with one of his works below.   My friend bought one of his paintings.  We had lunch, then did the circuit of the room(huge) stopping to oogle a myriad of creative samplings. Between us we purchased some lovely knitted accessories and silver earrings and some delish artisan food products too.  By the time we emerged from the epic one-of-a-kind show, the weather which had been snowing full on when we entered, had dried up and the sun was shining brightly. Yay!  I love sunshine, especially when driving on the 401. We stopped in the distillery district for a satisfying Balzac’s coffee for 1/2 hour before hitting the road home again.  Great day out!
 

nuggets of insight on master paintings

 ’Bajo el Toldo’ – Joaquin Sorolla   I felt connected this morning when reading a response by Barry John Raybould to one of the twice-weekly Robert Genn letters. Barry’s observance and analogy of what makes a master painting really got to the essence of the matter.  You can read the full comment here.  Basically what he said was that the ‘idea’  of a painting is it’s poetry, and the ‘abstract design’ of a painting is it’s music.  I thought …what a perfect analogy!  Often when creating,  the poetry gets lost in the music, or vice versa. Finding the perfect balance of the two is when the magic happens.

Gallery display – keeping things current and new, even in the off-season

 The gallery got a good old sort out this morning as I was packing my paintings that are going to the Fort Henry show.  I’m not taking my larger rural paintings, so I did a little re-arrangement of them to tidy up a bit.  To the left are two from my Rural Rhythmns body of work, a body currently in a state of flux.  Below is another one, Filtering Through, it hangs suspended from the large window frame, and commands a look as you enter the gallery.  There is less ‘stuff ‘ in the gallery at the moment, …as it should be, as the gallery is closed for the season; but I like to keep it fresh and cheerful, as it also serves as an entrance to the house, it’s folks first impressions to my little gallery space, and even if it’s closed it’s important to me that it looks good.  One of my watercolours in the corner with the baskets, and a shelf devoted to artist Barbara Muir’s work (she kindly loaned me these three little sweeties for the winter months) , sings a happy howdy doody. 
        

Recent thoughts about Juried Art Shows

Night Falls  At any juried art show the jurors need to define to themselves what their criteria is when looking at the work, to select ’winners’.  A few evenings ago i was chatting with a fellow artist and juror, and she identified that for her the main criteria is always ‘new’…that is the artwork must be something until then unexplored…something that knocks the socks off, and makes you remember it.   This becomes exceedingly difficult when a local artist is asked to jury a show that is local.  Usually that juror is already familiar with various artists within the art community and knows their work, which makes if very hard to look at something with fresh eyes, as another juror from outside the local artists community is able to.  As a matter of fact it doesn’t just make it hard it makes it downright impossible.  

I used to think entering juried art shows was a great opportunity to show work locally, and with a varied milieu of mediums.  Now, I think it’s worthwhile only when the jurors are chosen from outside the local artist’s community, and when the show runs long enough to give the community time to go see it.

reworking and other things

 ‘Ice Cream To Go’-oil on linen-12″x12″ It took a while to work this one out. At various stages it had more people, a bicycle, a green car, a yellow VW and well, now this is the final version!! Sometimes it just takes WAY more time. At least that’s the way i work.  Of course i have been playing with other things that have kept me amused and away from the blog too. Holly & Jeff, Dave & I zoomed down to Niagara Falls on a warm weekend a few weeks ago to tour the wineries and enjoy the sights.  It was a welcome diversion. While in Niagara on the Lake we stopped in at this cute little fabric shop, which lured me into sewing some little partridges & french hens, which i posted below. tra-la-la…fun!