An Orange Frog, A Wild Cat And Inspiration

Jeremiah, 12x12, Oil on Canvas

Tangerine Reverie, 18x18, Oil on Canvas

Inspiration. It's everywhere and is filtered through other things that resonate with us. Jeremiah, the orange frog was an idea that came to me after a trip to the greenhouse where I saw a huge 4 foot tall green resin frog nestled among the water plants. Ok, so Jeremiah is not green but I'd just painted the orange wild cat/cheetah/leopard hybrid Tangerine Reverie which was partly inspired by my petunias and was still in the mood to paint orange. And more spots, stripes, flowers and pillows, motifs that I explore again and again in various ways. When I paint realism my subject matter is usually still life and here it appears as the setting for Tangerine Reverie. You'll see piles of pillows in Maybe Later and The Art of Resting about 6 posts down from January 2015 and March 2013 which also show up in Jeremiah. It's a lovely organic melding of past ideas that I'm not finished exploring. 

Autumn Inspired Still Life

Indian Summer Songs
18x18
Sold

This painting was inspired during a walk through the forest to feed my chickens. The autumn light was a mellow gold that seemed to guild everything with the same dusty amber colour. I just stood there and smelled the fall air and enjoyed that gorgeous light, the mellow air, and the sound of aspen leaves flickering. It was a sublime moment which inspired a few golden toned paintings. It seemed right to include the cheeky blackbirds that visit our backyard pond in this painting of light and sunflowers. It's interesting that even though I'm not painting from life now light still influences my work.

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.

Pear Series - Oil painting

Illumine
Oil on Canvas
36 x 24



Lavishly Red
Oil on Canvas
36 x 24

2 of a series of 3 large paintings. The topic appears to be pears but the underlying theme is space and seeing how the mood and intimacy of a painting changes when you place your subject near the top of the canvas or place it close to the bottom - and of course light. I also played around with colour, Illumine has an analogous colour scheme, the colours being in the yellow/red-orange family while Lavishly Red is based on the complementary colours of red and a very subtle dark green/grey.

These have been shipped off to Vancouver to be part of an opening exhibit for The Bay as they celebrate their national campaign ‘Artful Living’

Fashionista

18 x 18
Oil on Canvas

Can't get enough of that leopard print! I think pattern as subject matter is something that I'll return to again and again. Not only do I enjoy the whimical spots but I'm finding that it's a very useful exercise to explore the same thing numerous times in different ways. This time I experimented with the palette knife making some nice thick textures in the foreground.

Peach Luster on Leopard

18 x18
Oil on Canvas

Pairing this vintage Peach Luster tea cup with a leopard print fabric was just sheer fun! Patterns and interesting prints have long been part of my illustraton work but I have yet to use them as frequently in my oil paintings. Pattern as subject matter has been on my mind for a while and as I'd recently finished the wild cat print boot I was in the mood for more of the same. I'd been wanting to paint this teacup's fascinating, shimmery surface ever since I bought it and wanted to do the leopard print too so it seemed a good time to get them together.

The reflections in this tea cup kind of reminds me of Neil Hollingsworth paintings in which he paints reflected surfaces so admirably. I bow to you Neil.