Small Works 2

Small Works 1

Reflections in Red

Women of Influence

My mother recently celebrated her 80th birthday and looking back on pictures of her she always has a look of strength and independence about her. I wonder if she would like this painting.

Route 11, PEI, Canada

Here is a second painting I did for the August Virtual Paintout. Again, using my new Golden Open Acrylics. This time I had more gesso on the canvas first so the paint "stuck" a little more which made for a less watercolour-like effect.

Here's a link to my inspiration: Route 11, Lot 15, PEI

New Zealand Rd, PEI, Canada

9" x 12"

Open acrylics on canvas board

New Zealand Rd.

PEI, Canada

Here is my submission to the August, 2010 Virtual Paintout challenge which is PEI, Canada. I just bought a set of Golden Open acrylics and this was my first try at using them. The set is a "traditional palette" and the colours are all very transparent, so the look I achieved was very watercolour-like. This isn't what I would call my normal style of painting but I'm interested in doing more plein-air painting to enhance my skills, so I wanted to paint this very directly in a limited timeframe.

Virtual Paintout is an online art challenge that uses Google Street View as a source of inspiration. Here is the link to my inspiration for this painting.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=206+New+Zealand+Rd,+Lot+44,+Kings+County,+Prince+Edward+Island+C0A+2B0&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=48.835041,135.087891&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FcN_wwIdI41J_A&split=0&hq=&hnear=206+New+Zealand+Rd,+Lot+44,+Kings+County,+Prince+Edward+Island+C0A+2B0&ll=46.36983,-62.288607&spn=0,0.01649&z=17&layer=c&cbll=46.366637,-62.288605&panoid=L-1QdN1vkeZe3pLzU_yBFA&cbp=12,136.72,,0,-4.08

Old International

"Old International"

Pastel pencil and Nupastel on black sanded paper

9.75" X 8.5"

I fell in love with a junk yard last weekend at the 2nd annual "Brush With the Highlands" Plein-Air Art Festival in Wilberforce, Ontario. There were lots of amazing spots to paint but I spent hours at the old farm/junk yard location. Here is my rendition of an old International dump truck rusting in the yard. I took hundreds of photos too, some of which I'll post on my photography blog.

The festival was attended by some amazing artists such as David Sharpe (http://www.davidsharpepaintings.com/) whoo was last year's juror's choice and Patricia Savoie and Charles Spratt and many others.

Now, here is where the hard core plein-air painters probably thought I was a bit of a whacko. I took rubbings off lots of walls and old rusty parts with the intention of combining them in some other mixed media work but some of them are little works of art in themselves.

Let The Sun Shine In

11" x 14"

acrylic on cradled wood panel

This is my submission for the May Virtual Paintout where the destination for May is the Czech Republic. It's my first submission to this monthly challenge. I did it over top of an old painting which added a lot of texture and variety of color in the wall.

For Brianna

A few years ago someone I know bought a painting of an iris from me and apparently her daughter kept "stealing" it from her room. So, with her daughter's 17th birthday coming up, she asked me to paint another iris for her, only this time with purple and green to match her daughter's room. Here is the result (which she loves).

Too Pretty to Eat!

Here is a little drawing I just did in the spirit of the upcoming holiday, but they're too pretty to eat...

3.5" x 3.5", pencil and ink on paper

It's feels like forever since I posted anything. Being the mom of a competitive athlete is wonderful but very time consuming! I have been making some time for my art in the last little while though with a number of projects on the go. Here is something I did in response to a monthly painting challenge but I was too late so I didn't submit it.

8x8, acrylic on cradled wood

Year-end Challenge

Here is my piece for the Different Strokes From Different Folks year-end portrait challenge. It's done with pastel pencils on black sanded paper. The most challenging parts were the eyes (looking up and away) and the lack of definition and contrast above the lips in the photo . I could have used a few more color options in my pastel pencils too...good thing I got that art supply store gift certificate for Christmas. The last month has been crazy busy so a little more time would have been nice but I didn't want to disappoint Karin the other artist!