Acceptance!

I'm thrilled to announce that I have just been accepted to the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, July 4-6th at Nathan Phillips Square! I will be showing my abstract paintings. As the date comes closer I will forward more information. So happy to be part of this show!

Yay!

So I'm renewing work on a children's book I began 20 years ago. Yep. Before many of you were even born : ) Feels great to illustrate again! I'm really moving along. I hope to bring some illustrations to colour by the end of the week!

Babe in the Woods

Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas / 20"x20"x1.75"

So this is my nature: now I'm dying to get out there and paint trees! It seems I must keep going back and forth, back and forth.... For further details see Saatchi.

Peonies and Phlox

I'm almost finished my latest abstract but not quite, so I thought I'd post this painting I did a few years back. Where I live it is still cold and I am feeling rather desperate for spring. Looking at flowers helps : ) This is acrylic on masonite and is framed in a clean and classic polished black wood frame.
16"x20" / $450

Peacock

Hello folks! So at last I have finished this painting. Some "fall off the brush" and some are a battle. This was the latter. But that's okay : ) Below is a detail and lastly is a photo shown for scale.

Work in Progress

This is what I've been working on lately. As always, some parts are working, others not yet. It's a long push and pull. Keeping my fingers crossed! I'd love your feedback!
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
~Scott Adams

Sunny Side of the Street (SOLD) + a great meme

This is Sunny Side of the Street. It is 48"x36" on gallery wrapped canvas (edges painted black). I had posted this some time back but the more I stared at it, the more I thought I wanted to add. Ah, this happens! But now it is up on Saatchi and it is finished. No more alterations. It just really makes me feel good and warm when I rest my eyes on it. And happy. It reminds me of the warm sun that bathes you when you have a chill, and of outdoor cafés. I wonder what it calls to mind for you!
Details for this painting are here. You can also click a grey button that says "View original in a room" and immediately see the scale of it against furniture.
If you receive this post through your email, you may not know that I now have a Facebook page. There you will find my art posts but also memes I come across, links to other artists I am enjoying etc...  This was something I came across the other day and I fell in love with it. Do you feel this way about art? I most certainly do! I've always said you can walk by a piece of art and stop. And something triggers you, and it takes you to another place...

Also, a reminder that you are invited to attend the opening of On the Rock, Merging Art & Ecology Friday night at the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas, Ontario. I had a sneak preview and it's going to be a wonderful show!

Show Invitation to On the Rock: Merging Art & Ecology

You are invited to the opening of On The Rock: Merging Art & Ecology, Friday March 7, 7-9:30pm at the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas, ON. Free entry, wine and cheese! I will be showing with Barry Coombs, Kristen Brittain, Floyd Elzinga, Guennadi Kalinine, Ralph Heather, Janusz Wrobel, Lorraine Roy, Aleda O'Connor and Diana Schlotens.

This show is in partnership with A Rocha, Environmental Stewardship. I will have three landscape paintings at the show: Climb, Sanctuary, and Reaching.

From Diana Scholtens on the A Rocha website:
On the Rock: Merging Art and Ecology is an exhibition pulling together 10 artists and their reflections on a particular property, Cedar Haven Farm. Each artist was asked to take inspiration for their art works from this property and share what they discovered. Each artist has brought to our attention various aspects of the property in their own style and medium. It has been a great pleasure to take part in this exhibition, both as part of A Rocha and as an artist, sharing in the experience of each other’s merging perspectives. 

Climb, 36"x36", acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

Sanctuary, 24"x36", acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

Reaching, 24"x30", acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

From the Vault: Hills in May

"From the vault" is something new I'm starting. Occasionally I will post an older painting from my studio that is available. Then on days when I'm home with sick children (cough cough) or am working on larger paintings, I can still post and keep in touch!

Hills in May / acrylic on canvas / 18" x 24" / $550 (framed)

"Replenished" by Kim Rempel

Hey there! This is "Replenished", my latest painting. It is a large piece: 30"x40" and is painted on gallery wrapped canvas (the thick, deep sides). If you'd like to see it in a room, Saatchi has a button that lets you do that! Simply follow this link and then click the button that says "View Original in a Room". It's pretty cool!

Reckless Blooms

Hi everyone : ) This is my newest painting: Reckless Blooms. Last year I read the most beautiful quote that stayed with me. And that was how I chose the title.

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, 

there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night. 

~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

Last week was a rough one in the studio! Lots of painting and quiet swearing but nothing finished up to where I was ready to post. This week is feeling better, like I've got a bit of my mojo back.
Listening to: CBC Radio One (Yep. Talk, talk, talk :)
Drinking: Coffee (but only one cup on that I nursed for a couple of hours)
Watching: House of Cards. Not while I'm painting, but this is my new tv fix. Oh, Francis and Clarie. The diabolical things you dream up...
For purchasing information please see Saatchi Art.
20"x20"x1.75" / acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

The Great Upheaval at the Art Gallery of Ontario

On the weekend we went to see The Great Upheaval: Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Collection, 1910-1918 at the Art Gallery of Ontario. A very good show. I find going through with the audio support quite enriching as they impart bits of info they don't write on the wall descriptors. I have shared my three favourites below with links back to the Guggenheim site if you want to read a little further.

Do you get to galleries often? The more I go, the stronger the pull. You know how runners talk about "runners high"? I think "art gallery-goers high" is a condition as well ; ) What was the most memorable show you ever saw? Mine was Van Gogh: Up Close at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in summer 2012. I actually had the experience of tearing up in front of a painting. That moving. The whole show blew me away. I wrote about it here. Anyway, without further ado, here were my picks this weekend:

Marc Chagall / Paris Through the Window, 1913

Vasily Kandinsky / Pastorale, February 1911. 

Franz Marc / Yellow Cow, 1911. 

Everlasting

My latest painting: Everlasting. And here it is to show scale:

This painting is 30"x36"x1.75" (gallery wrapped canvas) and is $1200.
For purchasing information: see Saatchi Art. I've been asked a couple of times if I do layaway plans, and yes, absolutely! Cheers.

Shenanigans

Hi everyone! Okay, here's my latest work: Shenanigans. A great burst of joy and colour for a white, cold February day. And here it is on my easel:

Shenanigans / 30"x30" / acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas / $1050

Also, I am thrilled to say that my painting "Autumn" has been included in a Saatchi Collection this week. Awesome + a big thanks to Saatchi. You can see it here.

WIP + a handy tip

So this is a detail from a new painting I have started (the abstract from Sunday's post was on the sideline today). I was unsure where to go with the colour behind the branches. So out came my trusty acetate. I learned this tip from fellow artist Laurie Wonfor Nolan. When you are faced with indecision tape a piece of clear acetate or mylar on your painting and paint away. Stand back and check it out. Remove the acetate and wash it off for the next time. Up top you can see me lifting the corner of the film. Below are a couple other colours I tried.

Presto. I made my decision and have started working into the background of the painting below.

On the easel now

What I'm working on now. Need to think about where to take this one...
Hope you're all having a good day wherever this finds you. Peace : )

Gelato - SOLD

My latest painting fresh off the easel: Gelato. Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas.
Feeling happy.

"Reaching"

So now it's complete! Memories of fall, windy days and glorious colour.
24"x30" / acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas / $750

Stage 2: work in progress

The next stage. I took this at night, under bad lighting with a flash, so the colour is a little off. Funny thing is, I like it better than what it really looks like. I may need to make some adjustments! : )

Work in progress

Work in progress. This is the beginning of the third landscape painting for the March show. Feeling loose and free!

"Sanctuary"

Done! This piece has been painted for a show called On the Rock - Merging Art and Ecology taking place in March at the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas, Ontario.
It is 24"x36" on gallery wrapped canvas and is acrylic.

Work in progress

At the outset you may not see a lot of changes from the last post but I've added a bunch of background branches and twigs as well as a bunch of texture on the forest floor. Next steps: refining tree trunks (value/colour/texture), defining branches on the ground and then working with the sky. I'm pretty happy with the way it's coming together!

The next step...

Here's the progress shot on the painting I posted last Thursday. Getting there. Much to do on the forest floor.
Gosh, it's been cold today. School buses were cancelled on account of severe cold weather. Brr. Hope wherever this finds you you're somewhere comfortable : )

New work, a new year!

After yesterday's lengthy post I will keep this short and sweet. Here's what's on my easel now: the very early beginnings of a painting of the woods.

Best of 2013 + hang in there!

**Get a cup of tea. This is a long one**
Well, it is that time of year again. Time for recaps, review and my annual "Favourite Paintings" list. How are all of you? Do you find yourselves making lists? I am a list person, and last year began a list of all the books I could remember reading. I wish I would have started it when I was younger, but it is still an immensely satisfying thing for me to do! Last year my New Years Resolutions were to get more physical activity and to read more novels. It took me till September to get moving, but I am happy to report that I read 18 books! And I can even tell you the titles because I made a list! haha

As for painting, I went through a real rough patch this year, and I seriously considered chucking it all and re-training for another career. But when I looked through all the options the only thing that made sense (and felt exciting) was painting. My issue was finding buyers for my work. Believe me, I know that income does not equal self-worth, but on some level my thought process was this: I go to my studio and paint every day, and work really hard, and if it's only to finish canvasses that just pile up in my studio, what's the point? You can start to feel defeated. I know a lot of people who read my blog are artists, and I know most everyone can relate to that at some point in their career. So anyway,  I decided to give myself one calendar year and see what happens. The months that have followed have been my best ever and things have started to snowball. I like to think that somewhere, somehow I was being told "HANG IN THERE!" 
So to all of you who are going through something similar or find yourself in that position this coming year, I will echo it loud and clear, HANG IN THERE! 

~~~

Now, back to the lists. Here is the list of my personal favourite paintings of 2013 (abstract, daily paintings and landscape). If you don't see a painting you bought here, please don't feel bad! My faves are often not what others would pick, or even what sells. Fascinating really : ) 
Top Abstract Paintings

 The Brave Romantics / SOLD

Life's a Beach / available here

 The Breath Thief / available here

 The Narrative of Love / available here

Alien Picnic / available here

Top Daily Paintings (small works, oil)

Shiny Candy, available here

 To Inspire / SOLD

 Lemon Pie / available here

The Wild One

Ready to Leap / SOLD

Top Landscape

 (presently untitled)

 Hopewell Cape - available here

 Thaw on the Niagara Escarpment / SOLD

Bella Lake, Muskoka / SOLD

My most sincere wishes to all of you for a year of warmth, peace goodwill and laughter!

~~~

Of course I hope you will have good luck on your side, but also I hope you will not wait for luck. You can make your own luck by hard work and the use of common sense.

~1919, "Confectioners Journal"