Contemporary Still Life Site

Just the other day my work was added to Contemporary Still Life. I feel hugely honored and somewhat out of my element. This site is produced by several artists from the Netherlands and they have some fabulous work there. The artists deeply revere the still life and make no apologies for it. I visited many an artist's website and am feeling pretty darned humbled and a lot inspired.

Anticipation

Red Pears With Silver
16 x 20
Oil on Canvas
Sold

This is the last of the year's commissions. Commissions are always interesting things. Made to order paintings that are a wonderful challenge yet are fraught with the inevitable worries that the painting may not be what the collector had in mind.

On the flip side of that are the studies that I've been doing which are done purely to examine, explore and practice. Whether it turns out good or bad isn’t such a concern. In painting mileage counts, the more you paint the better you are bound to get if you are willing to explore and try new things that will inevitably bring about failure. Happily our successes are built upon our failures and improvement is inevitable.

Red Pears With Silver is a quiet and more formal painting than the recent studies and I'm glad to say it looks better in real life. The photo somehow sucks the life out of it and I can't quite figure out what I've done wrong. As I carry on with the studies I wonder what my painting will look like a year from now.

And speaking of years, here we are, another one gone. Elections, political upheaval, economic disaster, strife of all kinds around the world and yet I feel incredibly hopeful and full of anticipation. As I sit in my studio today watching the snow fall I realize that the cycle of life just keeps on keeping on. What is happening in our world today has always happened in one way or another yet new lives are created while other lives end, joys continue to be had and sorrows too.

I feel incredibly blessed to live the life I lead and thank you all for following and sharing my art. My wish for you all is continued awareness and enjoyment of the beauty in life. How lucky we are!

Happy New Year.

Reflecting Light - Oil Painting Study

Reflections on White

Another quick two hour study. Normally I try to make my color and values as accurate as possible, only emphasizing them when I think an area needs enhancing or toning them down where required. I keep my brushstrokes quite controlled and not overtly visible but as I do more of these studies I see how making the the marks big and bold is simply another measure of control as is manipulating the color. Brushstroke placement, thickness and direction are even more important when they're large and bold because they are so very visible. One ill placed mark and you've got a bulls eye on your painting. I'd love to do one of these every day but illustration and commissions have to have their share of the time too.

Interview with Oranges & Sardines

I recently had an interesting interview with Dini Menendez of the Oranges & Sardines blog who interviews poets and artists. Answering the questions for interviews always makes me think about my art in a way that I don't always do. After all we're busy making it and we sometimes we go along not really paying attention to what, why and how we make our art. Things like this really makes you a bit more aware of your artistic self.

Pomegranate Study

Pomegranate Study
11 x 14

I'm loving these studies. They're such a great opportunity to practice, experiment and take chances that I might not otherwise do for a commission or a painting destined for a gallery.

Studies in Oil

Pear and Bottle Study
11 x 14
Oil/Canvas

The little studies have been so much fun but then so are the bigger ones, this one is only 11 x 14 but I recently did a bigger one about 26 x 26. I'm finding that the bigger I go the bolder and freer I get. Big brushes and lots of paint, done in 2 hours or less. A great exercise initially given to me by Doug Swinton (www.dougswinton.com), an excellent artist in Calgary from whom I get occasional instruction. He's good for me because his work is the exact opposite of mine.

The recent studies have been very fun and liberating in that they've been quite experimental without my usual carefully planned set up of lighting, backgrounds and foregrounds. In fact some of them have been done from two separate photos. I know, I know, I usually say how important it is to paint from life as much as possible but sometimes I find that I get overly careful and maybe a bit afraid to take chances, after all this is my living and I want the paintings to turn out well, but there is something about putting two separate pictures into one painting, making up the background and shadows that is incredibly exciting and causes me to exaggerate colours, values and brushstrokes more than I normally would. Add to this recipe a time restraint and things get happening! I love it.

Miniature Studies in Oil

Small Autumn Squash
Oil/Canvas
3 x 3

Yup, you read that right 3 x 3 inches. A miniature painting like this is great fun to do especially with a bigger brush. I'd been doing tiny little 2 x 3 inch oil studies in my sketchbook then remembered a lilliputian canvas that seemed so right for the pint sized gourd. You can see that I'm really in the mood for red lately.

Still Life in Reds and Greens - Oil Painting

Red Green
Oil/Canvas
8 x 10

I'm still painting tomatoes and am trying to get my last licks in while there are still a few ripening tomatoes left to paint. I'm down to a remaining few and will soon have to resort to store bought specimens which can't hope to compare for shape, variety of sizes, colour, personality, but most of all - taste and smell.

Many, many thanks to the hundreds of art lovers that showed up on Oct. 5 for the opening night of the Alberta Oil Painter's annual fall exhibition. Nine artists put up their best works for a total of over 100 paintings. The gallery was hung salon style and was lush with colour and a variety of subject matter. I love seeing all those personalities represented in paint.

Fall Bounty - Another Autumn Inspired Oil Painting

Fall Bounty
Oil on Canvas
5 x 7
Sold

Another painting inspired by the produce of my garden. The red and orange autumn colours in this painting are a homage to fall and bring out the green in this stout little squash. In my front yard I have a scarecrow overlooking an old wheelbarrow full of squash and pumpkins that were recently picked from my garden. Of course I want to paint it all! This painting will be in the upcoming fall show on Thursday.

Autumn Crisp-Fall Show Painting

Autumn Crisp
Oil on Canvas
8 x 10
Sold

A friend gave me a big bag of fresh apples, the smell was incredible and their colouring was so delicate, I had to paint them. They will be in the Alberta Oil Painters 3rd Annual Fall Exhibition being held this Thursday on Oct. 2, 2008 at Johnson Gallery, 7711-85 St. Edmonton, Alberta. We'll have over 80 paintings and about 15 will be mine. The next few days are a flurry of activity as I get ready for the show, one activity being picking eesny teensy flies out of the varnish and fixing those spots. Who knew flies would like varnish so much?