New work in progress

Hmmm...not sure if I can resue this or not. I'm really liking parts of it, other parts...not so much. I'll work on it for a while and do some de-constructing and see what I can build from the ashes.

So the kids are out of school and holiday mode has begun. It's a bit tougher to keep the same painting schedule on summer holidays but I'll make a valiant effort. Friday is Canada Day so Happy 144th Canada!!

Two pieces back from the framers - Japan

These are some pieces I did in March in response to the disaster in Japan. The news and subsequent footage was devastating and I began painting. My heart just went out to the country and its people. The pieces are shown in the order I painted them. I've linked each of them to the larger originals I first posted. The first series of paintings are: Fracture and flood, Night shock, and Aftermath. 

The second piece I left untitled. I've left it to the viewer to interpret as they will. The images can be seen closer here, here, and here.

These 6"x6" archival panels are mounted on a piece of laminated mat board with hooks on the back for hanging. From the bottom image it looks as if the hook is at a fixed 90˚. It isn't. They are the swinging hooks but they fell that way when I was photographing them. Each of these two pieces are priced at $300 and I will donate $50 from each to a charity helping the effort in Japan of the purchasers choice.

Just chillin' - SOLD

I like this little frog - like he's just chillin' on a leaf, taking time to smell the flies : ) 
6"x6" / oil on archival panel / $100 (includes free shipping worldwide)

Tiger lily - SOLD

A little tiger lily for you ; )
6" x 6" / oil on archival panel / SOLD

ART LOVE: The Chocolate Girl by Jean Etienne Liotard

The Chocolate Girl by Jean Etienne Liotard

1702-1789 / pastel on parchment

This is the first painting I have picked for "ART LOVE" because it was introduced to me around 1985 by a very special man (with the most wonderful family) Erich Herrmann who at the time lived in Dresden, East Germany. I was in art school and eager to absorb everything I could, and Erich who was well-cultured in the arts took me aside and wanted to show me his most favourite painting. I loved that he spoke to me so eloquently and passionately about this beautiful pastel and I was equally enamoured that this man had a favourite painting! It was kind of new to me that someone not working in the arts would have such a love of them. I've come to think of that as a bit of a European trait ; )
He later gave me a book as a souvenir called: Guide to the Old Masters Picture Gallery Dresden which showcases this painting. The book in part says:
Count Algarotti purchased it in Venice in 1745 for the Dresden collection. In a letter dated 1751 to his friend....he wrote: 

I have bought a pastel picture about three feet high by the celebrated Liotard. It shows a young German chamber-maid in profile, carrying a tray with a glass of water and a cup of chocolate. The picture is almost devoid of shadows, with a pale background, the light being furnished by two windows reflected in the glass. It is painted in half-tones with imperceptible graduations of light and with a perfect modelling...and although it is a European picture it could appeal to the Chinese who, as you know, are sworn enemies of shadows. With regard to the perfection of the work, it is a Holbein in pastel.

Algarotti wrote to Brühl in 1746 that all the Venetian painters, and even Rosalba Carriera herself, considered The Chocolate Girl to be "the most beautiful pastel ever seen". 

ART LOVE!

I am beginning a new feature on my blog (ART LOVE) where I do a weekly posting on art I admire. I am doing it to expand my horizons and learn more about other artists. It's not to say I won't do a posting on someone like vanGogh or Klimt because I will, but I really want to search out others who may be less known - to me anyway - and to look at more fine paintings. This year a couple of people have told me about artists they enjoy who were previously unknown to me (Caspar David Friedrich, David Alexander and John Hartman) and it felt so good to look up these artists and see their pictures. I too have waxed on about Canadian icons The Group of Seven, who are unknown to many outside of Canada. So without further ado, my first pick is "The Chocolate Girl" by Jean Etienne Liotard!

Summer light

I painted this piece last week, the same night I did Carson's field. It's like I had really absorbed the scene when I was painting Carson's field, and when I finished I had some time left and this piece just flowed. I was in a zone. I love it when that happens ; )

I just wanted to do a shout-out to fellow plein air painter (and all around nice guy ; ) Bruce Sherman. Thanks for the kind words on your blog Bruce! Happy painting to you my friend!

Summer light / acrylic / 12"x24"

Mount Nemo - finished

Mount Nemo, finished version

detail from Mount Nemo

original Mount Nemo, a work in progress

Okay, so this is the latest incarnation of Mount Nemo from last week. I was unhappy with the green strip along the bottom (above). I felt it didn't relate to the rest of the painting. Laurie, my instructor at last week's plein air workshop, suggested I paint it a brilliant orange, like the swaths I had painted just below mid-way. I took her advice and I love it! It's bold to be sure, but I really am loving how it works with the rest of the painting!

acrylic / 30" x 40"

Carson's field

detail, "Carson's field"

I painted this last night, loved every minute of the process and really liked how it turned out. I'm over my fear of fields! The setting was tranquil yet invigorating, the temperature was perfect, and there was even a good strong breeze to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Win, win, win : ) I think this is a 24" square but will properly measure it tomorrow. 

Sky, finished

I just got home from another plein air class I take so I will post from that class tomorrow. For now, I finished the re-working I wanted to do from last week's piece. Here it is!
acrylic, 16" x 20"

Plein air workshop day 3 - fields

detail from painting above

These are pics from day three of the plein air workshop I took with Laurie Wonfor Nolan. Fields often intimidate me but I learned a lot from our last session - and watching Laurie do a kick-ass painting of a field was very interesting, informative and inspiring. And I like what I came away with! Now I have to get out there and paint more fields before I get locked back into my old patterns ; )
acrylic, 16" x 20"

Another sky painting from the workshop - WIP

This is the last sky painting I did at the workshop with Laurie Wonfor Nolan. It is not finished yet - I've got some work to do on the top and right side. But I like where it's headed. This piece is acrylic, measuring 16"x20".

Workshop cont'd...

This is another cloud painting from yesterday's session (plein air workshop with Laurie Wonfor Nolan). While there are aspects I enjoy it feels shallow  to me - not enough volume. I guess another way to describe it is...too decorative! If you compare it to yesterday's post I think you'll be able to see what I mean. Still, there were valuable lessons in this piece.

Plein Air with Laurie Wonfor Nolan - Day 2

So yesterday we focused on water. Today was sky. Tomorrow is fields. I wish the workshop would continue another week - I'm going to go into withdrawal!
I painted three skies today. This was my second cloudscape but I liked this one the best that's why it gets top billing (wink). I'll post the other pieces over the next few days. This piece is 16"x20". With skies you have to move fast - get that initial sketch down and go - because those clouds can really travel. 

Plein air with Laurie Wonfor Nolan - Day 1

The sun was shining, the skies were blue - an awesome first day of my workshop with Laurie. It was a bit swampy where I decided to camp out (my socks were soggy on the drive home : ) but hey - all in the name of plein air!  

Laurie did a fabulous demo under the tent, we enjoyed some good art chat, and then: boot camp. You know when you go through stages when you're painting? First you're in a zone, then you feel like you've lost your painting, and then it keeps flipping back and forth? Laurie is excellent at helping you get back on track. I learned a cool tip from her. She keeps a clear sheet of mylar handy to place over her canvas for when you want to see how a change in colour/shape etc. would look. So you just paint over your existing work and voila - you can decide to go forth or not. At one point my painting had become very scattered and disjointed and Laurie whipped out her handy mylar and showed me what she thought might be the problem. It's a pretty useful tool! 

I still may have a few tweaks on this one - not sure - but I'm happy.

As for yesterday, sorry the post was so thin - I was wiped when I got home. Below I've expanded a bit:

Marilyn: Yes, interesting! Thanks for sharing.

Barbara: Thank you ; ) Yep - it's real. It's Mount Nemo in Burlington as seen from the Scouts camp.

Layne: I'm not sure where it's going! I liked it last night but now am having some issues with it. The foreground, yes. So I will keep you posted. 

Thanks very much for your comments Karin, Marcia and Sheryl. The size is 30x40 in.

What I worked on today

"Harlequin" frog painting by Canadian daily painter Kim Rempel - SOLD

You know sometimes you see people painting certain subjects and you wonder if they just gloriously "happen" or if there are struggles and wipe-outs along the way? Let me tell you about this morning: Frustration. Mess. Time-wasting. Last week I painted a blah frog that just wasn't good enought to post. This morning I spent an hour trying to get another frog down. In the end I wiped it off. Wish I had abandoned it before I'd invested all that time but I just kept thinking I could make a go of it. Nope. It felt better when I cleaned it off and began fresh. ~A clean slate. ~
So tomorrow through Friday I will be out of the studio plein air painting. Tomorrow is my normally scheduled class with Catherine Gibbon and Wednesday-Friday I am at a 3-day plein air workshop with Laurie Wonfor Nolan. The weather looks great + I'm all inspired from my gallery trips...can't wait to dig in! 
6" x 6" / oil on archival panel / $100 (includes free shipping worldwide)

Hangin' around - SOLD

Love this frog. What a bottom! Who wouldn't be proud of that? lol (thanks to my husband for the title)

6" x 6" / oil on archival panel / $100 (includes free shipping worldwide)

Art! Art! Art!

Valley Bleaching by David Alexander

acrylic on canvas

56.5 x 65.5 in.

$12000

available at Bau-Xi, Toronto

Well, there are a lot of worse ways to spend a day! This afternoon I had an infusion of art - NURTURING! Dare I say...arousing? ; ) Today - kind of spur of the moment - my daughter and I booked it to Toronto to catch the exhibit by David Alexander at the Bau-xi gallery. THANK YOU Catherine for introducing me to this artist. The paintings are vibrant, exciting...I just can't say enough! I just drank them in. 

Mark Rothko, No. 14, 1960
This piece was not at the AGO exhibit - I couldn't find a copy of the one I was looking for, but I quite liked this one too!


Much to our good fortune, the Art Gallery of Ontario was directly across the street! So we hopped over there to see Abstract Expressionist New York featuring works by Rothko, Motherwell, Pollock et al.  So many movning pieces. My favourite two quotes were:
Jackson Pollock:
New needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making their statements ... the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture.
Mark Rothko:
If you are only moved by colour relationships, then you miss the point. I'm interested in expressing the big emotions—tragedy, ecstasy, doom.

2nd Year Blogiversary! (+2 random winners!)

Okay, this is weird! I saved this post for tonight because I thought I began my blog June 9th 2009 but upon double-checking I realized I began the 8th - as in yesterday would have been two years! So, there you go...the marking is a day off. Anyway, Eat Drink Paint is now 2 years old! 
To mark this occasion I am giving away *TWO* paintings - yep, one for each year - to two random followers (thanks honey for suggesting that). I absolutely love painting, and I really love my blog, but it just wouldn't be any fun without *you*. It's your comments and encouragement that keep me going. And since many of you are artists yourselves I have the extra pleasure of sifting through all this vibrant work and learning how you solve problems/view the world. It's very nourishing ; )
So, adding up all my "followers" + my feed burner subscribers + my Eat Drink Paint FB peeps and my Networked Blog followers ...and with help from random.org, the two winners are:
D. Capizzano from Ancaster, ON 
~and~ 
D. & K. Breukelman from Grimsby, ON!
You can email me with the title of a daily painting of your choosing and I will send it out to you!
Thanks again everyone!

Scenes from a wedding!

I'm home! It was great getting away but it's always wonderful to come back : ) For those that missed my post last week, I went to B.C. to photograph a family wedding. It was a bit of a trek (2 planes, car and ferry) but completely spectacular - and it made for some awesome photos! The bride was beautiful of course, and game for all the poses I asked of her (which were substantial). Actually the whole wedding party were troopers - they tromped through the forest, navigated grassy hills and rocky shores and balanced on logs over water - thanks all!!

I wish I could share all the photos because they had a lot of neat touches (ceremony in a meadow, parasols, the coolest handmade donut tree etc...) but I will restrain myself. Here is a tiny sneak peek for the bride and groom who are on their honeymoon - but I think have internet access. Congratulations you two!! 

p.s. Did I mention the bride had *killer* shoes? Love!

p.p.s. heck - I mentioned the donut tree, and it was darn funky - I have to include a picture!

Fields of wishes - SOLD

I enjoyed the dandelions yesterday but wanted to try the same subject matter a little more abstractly. Just to see. Sometimes when I paint something unfamiliar I find I paint it with a lot of detail (well, for me...lol). But after I've kind of visually figured it out, and I go back to it, I can be freer. It's like I've spent time getting to know it and then I can just go. 
6" x 6" / oil on archival panel / $100 (includes free shipping worldwide)

"Dandelion fluff" by Canadian artist Kim Rempel

I know this will burn many people's eyes but hey - do you remember when you were a kid and they were kind of magical? I do : ) You just couldn't wait to pick them and *pouf* blow and make a wish. 
6" x 6" / oil on archival panel / $100 (includes free shipping worldwide)

"Pansy bed" by Canadian artist Kim Rempel - SOLD

 - SOLD

Every spring when I go to the garden center I look forward to the rows upon rows of cheery pansies. It's always a decision: do I go for the muted, water-coloured ones, do a yellow + deep purple theme, or stick with orange and peachy tones? What about the wine-coloured? Those are the fun kind of decisions! So in a couple of pots I crammed every colour I could (painted above) and in the pots by the door I did purple and yellow. A simple thing that makes me happy : )
6" x 6" / oil on archival panel / $100 (includes free shipping worldwide)

Glass of lilacs - SOLD

Umm... I wish you could inhale!

6" x 6" / oil on archival panel / $100 (includes free shipping worldwide)

Country lilacs

Before too long they're going to be finished. I will miss their scent!

On another note: I am heading out to British Columbia to photograph a wedding in the woods this coming weekend so I have painted a bit ahead and am trying advanced posting. I will be *truly* off the grid (even no cell phone reception!) so won't be able to comment/ship purchases until I get back in about a week. I'll share some photos when I return!

6" x 6" / oil on archival panel / $100 (includes free shipping worldwide)