Right now my kitchen is filling with the smells of coconut butter, oatmeal, walnut cookies.
Continue readingWhen Cookies Baking in the Oven and Gallery-Opening-Time Coincide
artist
How I Learned to Promote my Artwork while Living in the Middle of Nowhere*
“Left a good Job in the City. Workin’ for the Man Every Night and Day…” Proud Mary, John Fogarty
Thirteen years ago, my husband and I ditched our jobs in the big city and moved to this sparsely populated province. Our dreams were all about creativity and community. I yearned for the luxury of having time to paint. I yearned for nature. And I hoped I would be able to find a market for my artwork. Continue reading
A Virtual Paint-In and Auction Happens this Weekend for Paint the Town, Aug 15, 16, 17, 2020
Paint the Town is THIS WEEKEND…. but with a Covid-19 twist.
Instead of hordes of artists and collectors congregating in Annapolis Royal for this annual arts festival, the event has been scaled down and will be online.
For me, this means I can paint at home in my studio and garden and post pictures of my progress online on Instagram and Facebook. So will a total of 25 artists. Continue reading
Earth, Air, Water and Fire
I belong to a Co-op Gallery that I co-founded with other Artists in this village in 2015.
This year, for the first time, The Bear River Artworks Gallery has invited artists across the province to join us for a special ‘Leap Year’ Exhibition. Continue reading
Weaving My Way into 2019
Let me squeeze under the wire and wish you a Happy New Year before this first month of 2019 ends!
I love that January feels like that reflective month when it’s OK to throw caution to the wind and change your mind, your direction and to question everything you’re doing. Continue reading
My Floral Paintings Hop to the Rabbit House
On Saturday March 31, I’ll be in a group show with potters Deb Kuzyk & Ray Mackie and painter Wayne Boucher. It’s another example of my dream-come-true in moving to Nova Scotia. This time, you’re invited! But let me start at the beginning.
Over 10 years ago, on my very first visit to the Annapolis Valley, I wandered into the Lucky Rabbit Pottery Store in Annapolis Royal. I was blown away.
© Lucky Rabbit Pottery
© Lucky Rabbit Pottery
© Lucky Rabbit Pottery
Gearing up for the Opening of the Art and Gardening Season in Bear River.
I’ve been enjoying the euphoric aftermath that comes from a successful art show – the result of a winter of intensive painting. The accomplishment of a completed project is a good feeling, don’t you think? Continue reading
The Tough Paint Job – Naming the Baby
My exhibition in Bear River opens in 6 days and I’m finishing up edges of paintings and varnishing and putting the wiring on the backs of the canvases. (Thank you Larry for that part.)
This part is fairly tedious compared to painting and I have to hold myself back from starting anything new.
And now, in my opinion, I am faced with the toughest job – finding titles for the paintings. Continue reading
The Journey and Process in Life and Painting
I paint because I’m in love with my subject and I am delighted by the process of applying colour to a blank surface.
In the book Art and Fear the writers suggest that the observers who admire the finished piece of work have no interest in the artist’s process:
MAKING ART AND VIEWING ART ARE DIFFERENT AT THEIR CORE. To all reviewers but yourself, what matters is the product: the finished artwork…In fact there’s generally no good reason why others should care about most of any one artist’s work. The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars. One of the basic and difficult lessons every artist must learn is that even the failed pieces are essential.
Blue Skies Inspire People and Paintings
It’s amazing what a little bit of sunshine and blue sky does to lift spirits at this time of year. Tomorrow we’re expecting 12 Celsius- positively heat wave weather! Although we will likely have at least one more winter storm, in the here and now, it feels and smells like spring. I love it! Continue reading
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Wherever You Go, There You Are is the title of a book by Jon Kabat-Zinn (son-in-law of activist Howard Zinn). The book is about practicing mindfulness through meditation.
Buddhism and cognitive therapists teach us that our interior dialogues are always present, chattering to us in every situation.
So what does this have to do with painting? Continue reading
Looking Through a Kaleidoscope
I have a little challenge for you. If you have an iPad, try out the kaleidoscope effect in Photo Booth.
Last week I borrowed a friend’s and got some enormous pleasure pointing it at plants and flowers.
Painting a Point of View
Acrylic, 30″ x 36″ $1400.
Iris are my favorite personal flowers. The iris in this painting came from blooms in my grandmother’s garden in Toronto over 60 years ago. I paint them every year and think of my mother and grandmother.
My paintings always reflect my state of mine. While I worked on this, I brooded about a problem in my non-painting life that turned this into a very purple and blue painting. But as the week wore on I changed my way of seeing my problem and that’s when I (coincidentally) changed the focal point in the painting to an optimistic yellow iris.
I actually do have some yellow iris like this one, but they didn’t bloom this year. Well, except for on my canvas. 😉
I started this painting outdoors in front of my ‘model’, the flower bed. I have a wonderful pop-up screened tent to protect me from vicious black flies, who are out in full force in spring. The orange curtain is clothes-pinned to reduce the glare from the direct sun.
I bring in the work to refine it in the studio…along with some flowers.
Here you can get a better sense of the size of the painting.
Painting in Acrylics – the Indispensable Guide
Sometimes luck and opportunity come knocking together.
Over a year ago I was invited to participate in a new comprehensive book–Painting in Acrylics – the Indispensable Guide. The publisher emailed to ask if they could feature a couple of images of paintings from my website to illustrate the chapter on sgraffito painting.
The artist-author Lorena Kloosterboer lived in Belgium and the editor in England. The book would be published in the UK and the US.
In return for my images I would be given credit in the book, my website would be mentioned and I would receive a copy of the finished book.
I have to admit that my 1st reaction was skepticism. Like many visual artists I’ve been invited to publish my work in the past–but at a cost of hundreds of dollars in ‘books’ that would only be distributed to the participating artists.
But this offer was and is bona fide. The publisher is Quarto in the UK and Firefly Books in the US.
So how did this opportunity come about? The author found my website in an internet search. I had tagged some of the paintings as sgraffito . She was looking for samples of that style.
So if you are an artist, let this blog post be a reminder to you to include detailed descriptions of your artwork and your methods on your website so that search engines–and publishers–can find you.
It has taken years for this book to go from concept to publication. 12 months ago I submitted many images of my paintings, my studio, and my painting setup to Quarto. I sent high resolution jpegs to the publisher through the free version of Dropbox. It is a server ‘in the cloud’. I uploaded the large images required for printing, shared the password, and Quarto downloaded them. I didn’t have to make a DVD or snail mail anything.
Just before Christmas I received my very own copy of Painting in Acrylics – the Indispensable Guide.
I am so thrilled that my paintings are part of this international book. There are many painters included whose work I admire.
This is the most comprehensive acrylic guide I have ever seen with extensive information about acrylic painting–styles, materials, color theory and so much more.
There are paintings from over 90 artists all over the world.
Artist – author Lorena Kloosterboer writes clearly and is generous with her step-by-step descriptions of her own high realism painting process.
I love experimenting with art materials and this book will show me new ways of working with this versatile medium. I highly recommend this book for artists at all levels. I know that for me, getting my hands on it is a great way to start 2015!
If you want to take a closer look at the book, click on this link to view it and my current favorite art-related books.
On the Road from Realism to Abstraction in Painting
There were years and years when I believed that all abstract work was bourgeois and decadent and wasn’t actually art. The shift in my thinking has been gradual and unexpected. All I can say for sure is that the more I paint, the more I feel drawn to the work of abstract artists. I notice this when I view art exhibitions or when I look at online works. The bold colorful paintings of abstract expressionists past and present excite and move me.
And yet what I paint still remains literal… That is, the viewer knows exactly what they’re looking at. Even when I try to paint in a non-representational way it gradually morphs into a flower painting or landscape. I can’t seem to help myself.
So I decided to create a series of works that would challenge my way of approaching a painting.
This series that I created for my October 2014 show in Annapolis Royal is my way of abstracting flowers. Instead of painting live flowers, I painted from sketches of mine of live flowers. The “big deal” for me was to use a previous drawing as a point of reference rather than the actual plant or flower.
The original drawings are ink and ink stick on watercolor paper. I cropped them that I would be forced to paint a larger-than-life version of the flower which is also not my usual way of painting.
20″ x 20″
The finished paintings are one painting removed from the original subject and have morphed into an abstracted painting that suggests a floral theme. I would like to experiment by cropping these paintings and developing new and changed versions of them.
It’s like playing “broken telephone” with the brush.
I’ve very excited to explore a new approach to a favorite subject and I can’t wait to hang these in a couple of days at my show in Annapolis Royal. Please come, if you have the chance!
The Birth of a Painting and the Coincidence
Today was the anniversary of my dear father’s birth (1910) and death (1996). I don’t know how he managed to enter and exit this existence on the same day, but I think there is something unique, even profound about it. And speaking of coincidences, I know that some of you believe in them and I want to tell you about one that happened to me today that is connected with my father.
When I was about 6 my father came home with a book of the Brothers Grimm Fairytales. It’s the only book my dad ever read to me and when he had time, I’d ask him for the same stories over and over again.
He wasn’t a perfect father and I certainly wasn’t a perfect daughter but we loved each other and I cherish those memories of being read to and still have that book in my collection.
Fast forward to February. There was a call for submissions to a community art show in Bear River called “Fairy Tales and Fables”. At the time I was organizing a retrospective and sale of my watercolors and had set aside lots of experimental paintings to use in collages.
As well this winter I was frightened by a couple of dogs one of whom had (in my mind) a wolf-like appearance. But did he really? Or was I creating my own fairytale?
I also took this photograph during the January thaw and I loved the perspective of peering into the woods to see people on a path.
I drew (pardon the pun) from all of these elements to form an idea for my submission to the art show.
I sketched and cut and pasted a mixed media collection that combined my dog experience with the Red Riding Hood tale.
In my version, the viewer of the painting watches the story from a very safe distance, and from the point of view of the predators, which is why I called it “The Ambush”. I had a nightmare as a child that there were 2 suns in the sky. It was terrifying because it presented a dystopia of an alien solar system. For this painting, I put several moons in the sky to ad a surreal feeling to the work.
Sometimes our fairytales are self-created. My father’s Canadian fairy tale was about the winter he spent living with his 2 German buddies in a log house they built on their homestead in Alberta in 1931. That experience was so rich for him that he told this story and the details many, many times over until I felt like I had been there.
When I was thinking this morning about my father and his brief experience in Alberta, the telephone rang.
“Hi Flora. I was wondering if you had sold that painting from the fairytales show. It was my favorite and I’d like to buy it.”
The caller is originally from out west. And do you know what else? I had forgotten that Red Riding Hood is in my Brothers Grimm fairytale book.
Happy Birthday to the man who taught me how to swim, how to tell time and how to imagine a fairy tale.
Mixed Media on canvas
24″ x 30″
The Patterns in the River
I am very excited about these images of the foam on the river as the tide came in today. There are so many patterns and variations.
I want to play with these in Photoshop and see what I can do with sandwiching the layers together to come up with a new interpretation.
I have spent the last few weeks immersed in colour after organizing for my art show in the village. After spending last weekend talking to friends and visitors about my colourful watercolours, it feels good this week to experience the absence of colour.
Yesterday I pulled out my watercolours and painted this remembered lake. The marks are created with epsom salts! It turns out to be the perfect type of salt to use for creating this effect.
It was exciting today to see this type of patterning repeated in the river.
You’re invited to Hearts and Flowers
This show is a thank-you to my community and admirers for your wonderful support of me and my paintings. I have never shown my watercolours in Nova Scotia and the vast majority of these paintings have never been exhibited. A few of the works are watercolour monoprints. (also one-of-a-kind) At this point in my career as a painter, it’s time to say goodbye to drawers of work to make way for new works. For this reason, the works are for sale this month only at “thank-you” prices from $20 to $175. Shipping is extra. Please email me if you have questions.
Here is a slide show of all the works. Where no ruler is shown, the pieces are about 11″ x 15″.
Here are photos from the show:
An Artist’s Toolbox Must Include Self-Promotion
What I love about January is that it always brings the promise of a fresh start.
It’s a chance to look back and to look ahead and to take stock of life. And this is true for artists too.
I spent 6 years on two continents at art schools in the 1970’s. I practiced weaving, printmaking, painting, life-drawing, sculpture, and pottery; but there was one subject that NEVER came up. That subject was Art Promotion which could include grant writing, approaching galleries, planning a show, finding venues for art and craft, pricing the work and more. It was all a big mystery and I now believe that many graduates abandoned hope and went into other fields. I hope art students today graduate with tools for promoting their work.
Fortunately we have the internet where there are many resources on the web to help artists learn marketing and promotional skills and today I want to tell you about 3 of my favorites.
THE marketing and organizing guru for artists is Alyson Stanfield. I used her ideas to good success from her book I’d rather be in the Studio when I organized my own pop-up art show a year ago. Alyson is very practical in her advice. She recommends a purposeful tracking of the previous year’s art income.
I did this recently and broke it down into income streams – galleries, online, markets, holiday shows, teaching. The results truly astonished me. I discovered that the galleries are doing the hard work of selling my paintings because even with their 35% – 40% commission, over 60% of my art income is from galleries. But also surprising is that 40% is self generated through sales at the studio, a self organized art show and to a very small degree, sales through markets and craft shows. I’ll use the data to strategize for this year.
My other planning method comes from British writer and artist Susannah Conway who shares a workbook to help artists plan their art direction in the coming year. The focus isn’t about income, it’s about what feeds the soul, the mind and the spirit so it’s a nice complement to Alyson’s suggestions. I wrote in my workbook yesterday and by the end of the afternoon, I had a clearer sense of my art path this year. There is a very cool exercise where you imagine the advice your future self will give your present self.
Another supporter of artists is painter Keesha Bruce who divides her time between Paris and New York. Her tweets are full of links with great articles about support for artists.
All three women also teach classes and seminars off and online. Their newletters are free and each of their websites have signup forms.
I think that anyone who is self-employed or is self-directed could benefit from these exercises. Are there January rituals that help you plan your new year? Please share.
PS: A shout out to artist and beekeeper Shirley Langpohl who let me know that my youtube video on monoprinting was mentioned in last October’s Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. What a lovely surprise that was! Sometimes promotion comes from unexpected places.
Painting Wild Asters
This last month my morning walk through the village and lanes is dotted with clumps of asters growing in the ditches. They are shades of lilac, purple and a few rare deep fuchsia blooms.With their happy yellow centers, they seem to burst out all over our field beyond the studio. I don’t remember seeing as many of them other years and I’m not sure what was different about our weather this year to encourage them.
I picked a big bouquet of these wild flowers and brought them into the studio to paint.
I started with a rough sketch of the flowers using a thick acrylic marker.
I am intrigued with the effects of clear acrylic mediums and paint on canvas. Some painters like to mix acrylic paint or inks into medium to create a transparency. I like to cover my canvas with medium and then paint into the wet surface and I usually use a thin matt medium to do this. But often that medium dries too fast. So, I’ve been using gel medium more and more which is thicker and takes longer to dry.It also lets the paint lie on top of the gel…but you must gently drag the paint brush across the canvas and try to just touch the surface once! Go in with confidence!
The thick gel has the added bonus of showing every brushstoke which is apparent in this painting.
Next, I painted in a yellow background. I liked the colour harmony of the yellow with the blues and violets.
At this point I felt that I needed to ground the painting so I added a subtle horizon line and slightly darkened the space underneath the line.
I haven’t used this much white paint for a very long time, and I like the results. It really illustrates the airiness and delicate nature of the wild asters that I’ve been enjoying for weeks.
The china plate at the top is a gift from my sister, Ellen, in England. The one on the bottom was left behind in this house when we bought it. I treasure them both and don’t they look perfect with this painting!
For now, this painting is available at my studio. Let me know if you are interested in purchasing it. I ship worldwide.
Painting by Flora Doehler
2013
18″ x 24″
$750
Update June 30, 2014
I decided the painting needed more depth so I applied a thin coat of transparent acrylic ink to parts of the painting to give it some depth and definition.
Visit Paint the Town in Annapolis Royal – Aug 17 & 18
Check out Paint the Town in Annapolis Royal this weekend. It is the largest annual gathering of open-air painters and artists in Nova Scotia!
6″ x 6″ Acrylic on canvas
I’ll be painting at the Historic Gardens on Saturday and near Catfish Moon on Sunday, where you can see a display of my paintings. Come and bid on 100’s of art pieces both days at the Legion and help to raise money for the Arts Council. See you there!
Here is a flashback to my Paint the Town experience in the Gardens two years ago.
http://floramary.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/flora-doehler-paints-the-town/
Watch me Paint at the Gallery, surrounded by more Paintings!
The opening for my painting exhibition was fantastic! Lots of people came to take a look, many having to travel through ice and snow to get there. It was a thrill to talk to people about my Nova Scotia work and wonderful to find new owners for some of the paintings.
The show will be up at The Rebekah Gallery for the next few days and closing at 4 pm on Sunday, Feb 3.
I’ll be there for 4 afternoons starting tomorrow, Thursday Jan 31, 2013. I have a gorgeous bouquet of flowers to paint and you can see how I work and what materials I use.
If you haven’t had a chance to visit the show yet, or if you would like to view it all again before the show ends, please join me.
@
The Rebekah Gallery
1890 Clementsvale Road
Bear River.
Please stop by on these afternoons:
Thursday January 31
Friday February 1
Saturday February 2
Sunday February 3
from 1 pm to 4 pm
Over 30 paintings are on display.
Here is a video to give you a better idea of the size of the paintings.
If you are interested in purchasing a painting, the prices range from $250 to $1300. Payment plans are available too. Email me at flora.doehler@gmail.com
You’re Invited
I have been immersed in the preparation for my upcoming art show in Bear River.
It seemed like a good idea at the time..to show paintings from the last 2 and 3 years here, but wow. What a lot of work to get everything ready to hang. I had forgotten that part. There were paintings that needed some touching up, edges of canvasses to finish, wire to attach, paintings to seal, photos to take, labels to make, artist statement to write. And very important…cookies to be baked!
I hope you can come. If you live close by and can’t come to the opening on Saturday afternoon, January 26, from 1pm to 4pm, then please try another afternoon. I’ll be in the gallery working on a painting and will be glad to talk to you about painting.
And if you live far away and can’t come, I’ll try to take a few little movies to share with you.
Here are some paintings that you’ll see next Saturday.
Foam mats on cement floors makes standing easier.
Getting ready to paint
Using a Gelli Plate for Monotypes
Monotype ‘Ghost’ print.
Monoprint with acrylics
Monoprint with 3 layers
Measuring out the vegetable beds.
My Winter’s Work
Painting detail
Monoprint with 2 layers
Painting detail
Show of Paintings – Jan / Feb 2013
Hi there! I’m thrilled to tell you that I’m having a showing of my paintings in Bear River at the end of January. This will be an opportunity for me to show large paintings from the last couple of years in one space.
I will work on a painting onsite during the show.
Saturday, January 26 – February 3: A BRUSH WITH LIFE: paintings by Flora Doehler
@ the Rebekah
downstairs location (1890 Clementsvale Rd.) in Bear River.
Gallery opening with refreshments on Sat Jan 26, 1 – 4 pm.
I will be at the gallery from 1 pm to 4 pm (or by appointment) on the following days:
• Sat. Jan. 26, Sun. Jan. 27
• Thur. Jan. 31, Fri. Feb. 1, Sat. Feb. 2, Sun. Feb. 3
I’ll be painting starting on Thur. Jan. 31. All welcome.
For more information, please email me at flora.doehler@gmail.com
Here is one of a series of short videos to show you some of the paintings that will be on display.
Painting Sumachs
It’s been raining here for a few days so it was wonderful to see the sun today. It is lovely to go outside again to capture this sumach scene in front of our house.
Just like painting other plant out of doors, the time to capture this brilliant display of colour is just a few short weeks.
I narrowed my pallet of Golden fluid acrylics down to yellow, green-gold, purple, pyrole red, and a cerulean blue mixed with white.
I can’t wait to work on this tomorrow and to finish another Sumach painting that I started ‘in season’ last fall and is waiting to be finished this week.
Blooming time for artist – Doehler works from life; channels nature with brush, paint and canvas
A very special Christmas surprise for me this year was opening the newspaper to read this article about my painting process. Thank you to Heather Killen and the Annapolis Spectator! Continue reading
Holiday Craft Shows
Larry and I are busy creating pieces for the upcoming craft shows in the area.
Our first stop, this coming Saturday, is the Holiday Spirit Craft Show at the Rebekah Hall in Bear River. (See poster below). Continue reading
Flora’s paintings in one place
I have created a website as a display for my large finished paintings. It is a ‘work in progress’ and I think you will like the feature that rearranges the images when you click on a tag at the top of the page. For instance, clicking on ‘landscape’ brings up all the landscape paintings. Continue reading
Scenes from the Garden – Paintings at the Mym Gallery
I am showing a selection of paintings of my garden at the ARTsPlace Gallery in Annapolis Royal starting today. It’s a great feeling to see my work on display in such a sun-filled space. Continue reading
New Paintings for the Gallery in Bear River
Hello again! Where does the time go? I’ve been busy in the studio finishing up canvases to take to the gallery at the Flight of Fancy here in Bear River as the tourism season approaches. It’s feels good to finish up these pieces and to make more space in the studio for new work. Continue reading
Lost and Found – Painting all Over
In my continuing attempt to deal with unfinished paintings, I came across one of an amarylis flower from last spring that lacked the energy that I found in that beautiful bloom. I loved the reds and I felt attached to the colours in the painting, but not the outcome. Continue reading
Cleaning up my Act – the Unfinished Paintings
It’s time to clean up my act…the procrastination act. Continue reading
Painting on a Snowy Day
Snow has been falling all Coinstar online day and all night. Fortunately, our commute to the studio is a shortcut through the barn and down a snowy path. Creativity calls!
Dyeing with Rust on Fabric
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| Rust on linen and photo transfer by Flora Doehler. |
I’ve been experimenting with dying rusty objects onto fabric. Fabric artist friend of mine, Marilyn Preus, used this technique in one of her beautiful wall–hangings and I had to try it out for myself!
The key ingredient for this is to find rusty objects and we still have quite a few of those in our barn. Thank goodness I didn’t throw everything out when we moved in last year.
Suddenly all those funny bits of nails and who–knows–what seemed like a pirate’s booty and I was so glad that we haven’t quite got to sorting things out in the barn. I was also glad that we saved so many of the handmade nails that came out of our house during renovation. They have all rusted at this point and could be used for my project.
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| Iron nails that are more than 100 years old. |
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| Rusty nails, hooks and buckles. |
Rust dyeing works best on natural fabrics so I used cotton canvas, linen, and silk for my experiment. I also tried dyeing a piece of polyester-cotton but the results were very poor.
After placing my pieces on the fabric, I squirted the entire pieces with vinegar until the cloth was saturated.
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| Rusted pieces laid out on poly cotton and silk. |
I slipped the plastic board that held the fabric into a large plastic bag and let everything sit for 48 hours.
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| Vinegar dissolves rust. |
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| My art room smelled like a fish and chips store for a few days! |
I wanted to use a ribbed pattern to dye the cotton canvas and I found just the thing in an old wood stove pipe that is resting in the backyard.
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| Thankfully this old stove of ours missed the dumpster. |
I brought the stove pipe into the house, and wrapped the cotton canvas around it. Then I poured vinegar all over it and place it in a bag where it sat for 48 hours.
I loved the result when I unwrapped the cloth but unfortunately I washed it before it had a chance to really set so I had to redo my steps again. I learned to rinse in cold water and then let the cloth dry and sit for another 2 days before attempting to wash with soapy water.
The shapes that the ribbing in the stove pipe made are reminiscent of a birds wing. I am now looking for donations of rusted rebar because I think that would be very cool.
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| Rust dyed canvas from rusted stove pipe.
Why this experimentation with rust dying? I am working on a piece for a show here called “Pirates and Outcasts”. This art show will be part of a Bear River Winter Carnival event. Both are wonderful opportunities to have fun in February.
I have been working with an image transfer as well. It’s an abstracted photo of young men sailing to this new world in the early 1930s. These men were in their 20s and are probably all dead now. One of them was my father although this isn’t a portrait of him per se. In the piece I create, I want to suggest the impermanence of all our situations as well as suggesting that immigrants are both casting out and are outcasts.
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I have ideas floating around in my head, but there are still the technical details to master!
This piece was on linen and although I liked the placement of the metal pieces, for some reason I had difficulty getting enough rust on the cloth.
After a couple of attempts I decided to roll up the cloth with those rusty pieces and spray the heck out of it and shove it in a bag for three days!
When it was finished it certainly had a lot of rust marks on it! The shapes weren’t as controlled as I would’ve liked them to be and in retrospect I wish now that the photo image transfer had been larger.
I also rusted a piece of silk and discovered that the most interesting results happened in rusting this piece. Look at the detail in this piece of fabric, especially where the spring was placed.
It is back to the drawing board for me or to the rust heap! I am also experimenting with the image of my young men with paint on a canvas which I may show you next… and there is also the landscapes that I continue to work on… plus I just dug out my weaving books and am considering threading the loom again…. so much to do–lucky me!
Painting sunflowers
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| This is my favorite small painting in my sunflowers series. |
Sunflowers are so cheerful looking and their energy truly radiates. I knew when we moved here that they would be part of my vegetable garden, but I wasn’t counting on the birds to do the planting for me!
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| I couldn’t get over the multiple seed-heads – neither could the birds 😉 |
This past summer was our second year of gardening in this location. (Read our other blog “Our Bear River Adventure” for the saga of moving to Bear River and finding our dream-come-true house.) Last spring as I was preparing the beds for planting, I noticed little sunflower seedlings sprouting up. I had left the previous year’s sunflowers standing in the ground so the birds could finish off the seeds.
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| Painting Detail. |
A few of those seeds wintered over and the resulting sunflowers were either 15 feet tall, or short and squat with multiple flowers on them….they didn’t look like the parent plants. Maybe some bird seed got into the mix too? When they were at their peak last summer, I brought some into the studio to paint.
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| Detail of Sunflower painting on canvas by Flora Doehler. |
I painted these on canvas using Golden fluid acrylics and matte medium. I paint with brushes and I use a scraping method called sgraffito.
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| “Reaching”. Acrylic on canvas by Flora Doehler. |
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| Painting by Flora Doehler. |
Intentions for 2011 at Green Willow Studio
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| Our Green Willow tree, Cordelia, has finally dropped her leaves. A Cherry tree stands to the right and produces tasty cherries that drip down your chin in the summertime. Mostly the birds get the bounty as the limbs are too high for us to reach. Our studio is the red building. The other two ‘public sides’ are painted periwinkle blue. We heat it with a wood stove and a small space heater. |
2010 was the ‘birthing’ year for our Green Willow Studio. We started with an uninsulated garage and transformed it into a warm, walled and electrified studio! It took us some time to get everything arranged so that a silversmith and a painter could work in the same space. Together, yet apart.
Most of the time it works. We listen to music or to podcasts. We break for tea or coffee and either talk about our work or we go for a walk around the garden to get a different perspective.
It is a thrill for us both to have the luxury of such a well lit room (there are windows on all four walls!) and to be surrounded by garden and a wild field where pheasants live.
As part of the Bear River working artists studio tour it was essential for us to have our studio ready for the beginning of the tourist season in May. We set up a display area in the studio where people can buy our work. We have met some wonderful people that way and have sold some pieces.
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| Tulips. Acrylic on canvas by Flora Doehler. SOLD |
My painting sales this year at the Flight of Fancy, at Paint the Town and in the studio were motivating and rewarding. A series of one-on-one art coaching and tutoring in painting has helped me to share my painting techniques and to practice teaching. Attending the Bear River Artists and Farmers Market nudged me to develop affordable art as well as gave people a chance to see my work.
Larry received jewellery commissions and is showing sculptural pieces at Art and Jules Gallery in Halifax.
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| “Growth Spurt” hammered copper vessel by Larry Knox, 2010. |
Now 2011 lies before us like a blank canvas or like a shiny sheet of copper waiting to be formed.
The possibilities are infinite; the ideas are many and there are decisions to be made about content, about intention, about the best way to express one’s creativity.
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| Blooming summer flowers were a constant inspiration. |
I will spend more time posting to this blog and sharing step-by-step, the creative discoveries and techniques that I am using in my work and that Larry is using in his work. Up until now my blogging focus has been on our day to day lives in our adopted village of Bear River. After three years there are over 100,000 hits on that Blog and it has even brought visitors to Bear River. It’s time for me to shift some of the energy spent in promoting Bear River into sharing our artistic life and promoting our work to the world!
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| Copper pieces. |
Larry and I are excited about these developments and we look forward to sharing our creative journey with you in this coming year. Thanks for your virtual visit!
Happy New Year and may you experience many creative moments in 2011 and may some of them be inspired by our creative journey.
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| Painting outside in the summer. |
Filming Green Willow Studio for Germany
At least once a day I intend to dash off a blog post because at least once a day something that merits sharing happens. The trouble is that things never seem to settle down long enough to write about it. It’s funny, really. I once worried whether life would be too quiet living in a little village that is 2 1/2 hours by car to the only city in this province, Halifax, with a population of less than 400,000. (Does that even qualify as a city?) Continue reading
Inspiration. Where does it come from?
Creative inspiration.
Where does it come from and where does it go to? Like all eternal questions the answers vary from person to person and the reasons are complex.
There are several ‘givens’ for me. My feelings have to kick in. I have to feel an inkling of an inner joy or excitement about looking at the object that I want to paint. I like to be well-rested so that I can focus on the task at hand. I feel especially inspired by nature, by colour, by visual things around me. Sometimes I am amazed by the sight of a flower grouping or a landscape or a cloud formation or even a colour and I want to stop everything and pull out the paints. I like to play music that accompanies my mood and my approach to the canvas.
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| Cloud in Bear River East |
Sometimes a life event will trigger the painting. My painting Exuberance that sold recently at the Flight of Fancy in Bear River may look like a flower painting, but it was really a celebration of a breakthrough in my painting style.
After painting exclusively with watercolours for years, I had discovered fluid acrylics and found them to be a logical extension of wet-in-wet watercolours. Fluid acrylics have both the translucency and brilliance of watercolours with the advantage of the flexibility of acrylic. I was so excited about this and I think that energy came through in the painting.
Recently I’ve been getting my inspiration from beautiful Bear River Blooms on Sissaboo Road. This flower growing farm is worked by the caring hands of Cheryl Stone. Her bouquets are loaded with blooms, they are fresh, cheerful, colourful and the ones I’ve been getting from her have a country-cottage feel to them. How could I not be inspired
I drew inspiration from a bouquet to develop my current painting.
For me, the painting process starts out as an exercise in getting to know the subject matter. I focus on the object so intensely that I don’t want to talk to anyone or to be interrupted. (My wonderful studio-mate and life-mate Larry is very respectful of this).
Next, I choose the colours that I will use. My objective is to narrow it down to 3 to 6 colours. It’s a tough discipline, but it means there will be more harmony in the painting.
I changed the colours of the blooms as I was in an “orange” mood.
The flowers emerge out of darkness and for me, this painting is about the joy I feel in finally being set up in a fabulous studio and having the chance to play with colour.
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| Into the Light (sold) |
It is interesting to me how much more I get out of the flowers knowing they were lovingly grown by someone I know. If you get a chance to go to the Annapolis Farmer’s Market, stop by Cheryl’s booth and buy some old-fashioned blooms that last forever.
Some of the music I listened to was Jane Ira Blooms’ Chasing Pollack. It’s quite jazzy and loose. You can sample it here.
I also listened to the Peat Bog Fairies and you can hear them in the background of this little video of me painting. They live on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, an extremely inspiring place if there ever was one!
The pasty looking gunk on the canvas is matt medium. It allows me to move the paint by scratching it and scraping it. It also dries clear. You can also see which colours I used for this piece.
