Local produce - SOLD

Raspberries from the market down the road. YUM!! Delicious.
6"x6" / oil on archival panel / SOLD

Plein Air

Yesterday was the second of five plein air sessions this summer at The Good Earth. The suffocating humidty broke overnight but it was still pretty hot. There were 9 painters who came out and painted up a storm. Awesome! I really have to get better with my shots though. I missed photos of 2 friends but had pictures of their paintings. Unfortunately the one directly below was under a red tent which cast a red hue over her piece - sorry! I tried to tone it down in Photoshop - it's a beauty in person : )

And we had...MALES! If you look closely at the second shot you'll see that Kelley MacDonald's jelly donut love has made it to Canada : )

Keeping cool in the shade

The days work. Congratulations everyone! Your work was great. There was a full range of painters: from never having held a brush to seasoned artists. I'm always impressed that people will be brave and come out. It's a lovely thing to be out in nature for a day, painting your surroundings, feeling the breeze around you. And of course, we were wined and dined by our hosts which fueled us for the afternoon. Thank you!

Interview!

June Pond, 16"x20", acrylic, 2011, $425

Daily Painter Originals recently interviewed me and the article is now posted. There were some interesting questions! They got me thinking about old board games ("Masterpiece" anyone?), paintings I love (with accompanying images) and advice I'd like to share. You can check it out here! Thanks DPO.

Daylilies + website news

Today I went out in the yard and painted from my patch of daylilies (stella d'oro). It's pretty humid but I was under a sizeable walnut tree that offered me shade, beautiful shade : ) I'd also like to mention that I have done a lot of work on my website including marking all sizes and PRICES! Yes! No more wondering - everything is labelled! My website showcases all my work except for my 6x6 daily paintings. There are landscapes, still life, abstracts, figure and more. If you're interested in purchasing or for any further information, just ask : )

Daylilies / acrylic on canvas / 10"x5" / $130

Still early days...

More work on the tree. It is in full leaf as you can tell by yesterdays post but I think I'll be painting it naked : ) I'm just so attracted to to branch structure.

progress on Comfort Maple

Show Opening!

I've been a bit of a blogging slacker this week. Gosh - it's been busy. Anyway, yesterday was the opening of a group show I was a part of at Gallery M in Cambridge. I am showing my abstracts as well as a few still life pieces + daily paintings. It was a lovely night and I was thrilled with the way the paintings were shown. I absolutely loved creating these pieces and look forward to continuing the process. Thanks to all my friends who came. Merryn hung a vibrant, colourful show with lots of interesting work. There was very good attendance, champagne and hors d'eouvres. And lots of laughter. And guess who showed up???

Barbara Muir!!! What a terrific surprise. Her lovely husband Steven came as well (and snapped this picture for us). In fact she even did a post on her blog today. If you've never met Barbara, I can tell you she's as vibrant and enthusiastic and dynamic as her paintings. Thanks for coming Barbara ; )

Another guest was Laurie Wonfor Nolan (another rock star to me). Laurie's taught me so much, it was fun catching up. 

It was nice meeting the other artists there that I hadn't yet met and visiting with friends Brenda, Cathy (one of the artsits), Victoria, Delia (and her artist son) and of course my mom and dad. Below are some pictures from the night. If you'd like to see all my abstracts at the show (with titles and dimensions) you can click here.

A sweater tree outside the gallery.

"Jewels", "Autumn" and a bit of "Blossoms". Photo courtesy: Gallery M

"Lovers", "Kites" and "Pond". Photo courtesy: Gallery M

Florals by fellow artist/friend Cathy Amos. A few of my small daily paintings in the middle.

Monday update

Thanks to all the people who entered the draw. I went to random.org to pick a winner and it is Charissa T! Congratulations Charissa. I will send "2 Flowers" out to you this week.
Other news...today I went to Gallery M to drop off my work for the show on Thursday. It is a funky gallery and will be filled with lots of exciting, colourful, fabulous art. I can't wait!
And because I can't do a post without a visual I leave you today with a painting I did another lovely day in June. This is "Peonies and Phlox" / 16"x20" / acrylic on masonite.

3rd Year Blogiversary!

Hey everyone! Today is my 3rd year blogiversary and to celebrate I thought I'd do a painting giveaway. So here's how it will work. Leave a comment on this post on my blog (no Facebook entries for this one) saying which of the four paintings you would like and Monday 7pm eastern I will pick a random winner from all comments! How's that? Easy peasy!
Blogging has been an absolute joy to me. I've met countless wonderful people and learned so much these past three years. THANK YOU
for following along, leaving comments, writing me, and yes, purchasing ; ) This blog has enriched my artistic life tenfold. And I've made some terrific friendships to boot. Cheers + many thanks!

 2 Flowers

 Power Up

 Chocolates

Fast Fuse HotWheel

Rose Garden

This is my newest abstract. I finally have titles for all my pieces. And good thing because they're going to be in a show! You are cordially invited to attend the opening at Gallery M in Cambridge, Thursday, June 14th, 4-9pm. My abstracts will be there along with a few other pieces and work from 4 other wonderful artists. 

Re: titles. I stared long and hard at the bunch of them and thought about what I was thinking/feeling when I painted them and then it was easy. The titles just flew into my head. So they're names like: Lovers, Kites, Snow, Pond, Suburbia. You get the idea ; )

Rose Garden, 8"x10". Below: detail

The Comfort Maple

Today I headed out to begin a painting of the glorious Comfort Maple. It is 530 years old with a tree circumference of 6 meters (20 feet). It is thought to be the oldest sugar maple in Canada. It may not look that impressive in the photo I snapped below but it really is incredible. And yes, the sketch is on the inside of a unfolded Kleenix box - 'cause that's what was handy ; )

 My canvas in the right corner. Below: the beginnings of my drawing. It doesn't look like much now but it will get there!

Picasso!

Yesterday we went to see the Picasso exhibit at the Art Gallery of Toronto. This is a benefit of living close to a major city: good exhibits come around. I thought I'd share my three favourite pieces.

This is a portrait of his Picasso's first wife, Olga Khokhlova. It is titled: Portrait of Olga in an armchair. 1918 The audio guide pointed out that although the figure was handled realistically, the chair background (or cloth) was painted in a flat style. And then it also mentioned how he cleaned his brush off on the sides; and talked about the beauty of the three patterns (the fan, the dress and the chair). I just found it completely mesmerizing.

The next piece I couldn't tear myself away from was Acrobat. 1930. The positive and negative shapes of this piece are so exciting. What a thing to see it in person. It is large: 162x130cm (64x51 inches) and commands quite a presence.

This is Études. 1920. I like this piece for personal reasons. The audio guide said this was a bit of a mystery. Picasso had painted a number of pieces or "studies" in this one work. Some he had painted a frame around, some were cubist, some representational. It was stated that Picasso worked in these styles simultaneously, not believing that one had to stick to one way of seeing things. I found this almost revolutionary ; ) I have battled a bit with the mix of wanting to investigate abstracts while also continuing representational plein air. Now I feel like I've been given permission.