a start today

30″x30″ oil on canvas 
I thought I’d be working at the shop today, but turned out I didn’t need to.   A surprise day off is always a treat, but I’ve been especially busy travelling, so i was a bit tired…really glad to have a little unexpected down time to myself! 
I’ve been wanting to start another ‘night [...]

art at Summerhill

On Monday evening I attended an artists reception held at Summerhill given by David Dodge (the Chancellor of Queens University) and his wife Chris Dodge.  Chris is a lover of the arts and decided to spruce up the walls of the stately period university dwelling with new art from the Agnes Etherington Art Rental Gallery…then they held a drinks and [...]

3rd strike lucky!

 This is the 3rd time starting a painting. I just couldn’t live with the first 2 compositions…so they got the old paint over!  I feel i am on the right track now with it. It has a special destination when done, it’s for my daughter Holly.(pictured below)  She loves frangipanis and so I wanted to paint them for [...]

yay for spring

The weather is getting nice again, and there is lots to do in the garden, so haven’t been spending as much time in the studio painting. I thought I’d post a spring plein air that i did last year in my front yard looking over the fence just to keep things seasonal.    Garden Fence [...]

Nova Scotia visit

Just got back from Nova Scotia, visiting my daughter Rachel. Just in case you cant guess from the picture we had a good time.  Rachel & Matt live on a lake north of Halifax, it’s the most beautiful setting. We didn’t mind the cold weather; we visited the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, went [...]

It’s launched!

Visit my new website : www.sallychupick.com  It’s launched today.

Building My New Website

I’m working on building my new artist website, which hopefully I will soon  finish and launch this week. I am using a software system for artists out of Texas called ‘fine art studio online’. I found out about it from an another artist who uses it.  It seems an easy to navigate template driven system [...]

2008 International Portrait Arts Festival “The Miracle of the Portrait”

Last week i attended ‘The Miracle of the Portrait in Toronto. It was an intensive 4 day conference including demonstrations by master portrait artists. It really charged my creative batteries learning from these pros, my hope is that I can retain some of what I learned which might help me along my path of discovery [...]

just a little something

‘Just A Little Something’ – oil on board – 9″ x 11″
Okay, well it was a bit of a diversion painting these 2 paintings. Not sure i’ll spend a lot more time on it. I’ve recently dug out a portrait of my daughter Holly that I’m trying to reserrect…completely scumbled all over the face, and have attempted [...]

inspired by another

‘One For Me & One For You’ -oil on board 12″ x 18″
I was browsing through artists blogs yesterday and absolutely fell in love with the work of Karen Appleton who paints presents!  It so excited me looking at her work, that i felt i wanted to try that subject myself. so……. i built a still life composition this [...]

$1000 Grand Prize!

I’m delighted that my portrait of ‘AEmilia the Brave’ was chosen as the grand prize winner this month for Canadian Brushstroke Magazine’s competition ‘All About Light’. I entered the competition as I felt my painting certainly fell into the category of ‘All About Light’, and well why not enter? They notified me to let [...]

great holiday!

We just returned from Australia celebrating our 30th anniversary.(i know i cant believe it’s 30 years!)We had a great time visiting beautiful Point Lonsdale (in winter!) and Melbourne (great galleries there)and catching up with our daughter again, as well as seeing some old friends and aquaintances too. I feel refreshed and invigorated(well as soon as [...]

in progress

here’s a picture of 2 of the 4 paintings I’m working on at the moment. Am taking my time and seeing what comes…i’m thinking of pattern and shapes as i’m working on these ones.

wheee!!!

Yep that’s me on my new bike!! I am having lots of fun trying out the bike trails not far from our house…I got my new bike on Saturday…so when I’m not in the studio or the garden guess where I am?? ha ha! wheeeeeee!!!!

good news today

Spring Run-Off – oil on canvas – 30″x40″
Today Lisa from Gallery Artplus called to say that they had sold my painting ‘Spring Run-Off’ from the gallery today. yay! That was good news to contemplate while in the studio this afternoon…I’m working on about 4 new paintings at the same time… I felt the urge to [...]

Susie’s House

Susie’s House – watercolour – 30″ x 18″
Click on the thumbnail if you want to see a larger view. My friend Susie wanted me to paint a watercolour of her house. It’s a grand house in the old English style, and has beautiful gardens all around it and a pool in the back too. The [...]

Little painting from Wales

Here’s a picture of the little painting I bought from a fellow blogger Rob Ijbema(see my blogroll at bottom of page). He had painted this little bluebell wood near his home, which he had posted on his blog…I really loved it as it triggered an emotional response in me due to the fact my mother [...]

Plodding along

Through the Landscape – oil on canvas – 30″ x 26″
A humble rural Ontario pastoral view. It’s not screaming a message or anything.

sunny cliff

Sunny Cliff – oil on canvas – 24″ x 28″
Recently artist & friend SN come to stay a few nights, and always enjoy her company. She is primarily working in fibre, and is excited about a different direction she is heading with her work… showing me many of her current works in progress. These new [...]

it’s summer.

the summer humidity has arrived…it makes it feel like summer holidays, even though technically it’s still spring. A quiet day in the studio today allowed me time to give some thought to the landscapes in oil that I’ve been working on intermitantly… i had some new ideas to take them a little further, so dived [...]