I don’t want to jinx it, but I’m thrilled with the paintings I’ve been working on these past few weeks.
Thrilled—because all winter, my desire to paint had vanished. I stopped seeing the world through a painter’s eyes. Artists, photographers, creators are observers, endlessly noticing color, shapes, shadows, and hidden vignettes in the ordinary. I love seeing the world that way.
But last winter, that lens went dark. Scenes that once begged to be painted left me numb. It was unsettling, like losing a sense. On top of that, shingles and COVID drained my energy, locking me further away from my easel.
Yet creativity is stubborn. It lingers in the subconscious, waiting. Like muscle memory, it can flicker back to life with patience and practice. And now, here I am: grateful for time to nurture my garden into a living palette, to lose myself in brushstrokes again.
My only other commitment? Muddy Duck Yoga twice a week—a wonderful ritual that fuels both my body and my art.
After months of drought, I’m finding my rhythm again. And it feels fantastic.
It started with surrender. Letting go of expectations and feeing lupin joy again.
Bear River Artworks season opening on Saturday, June 1, 2024 marks the tenth year since a group of local artists opened a cooperative gallery in Bear River, Nova Scotia.
I attended the very first meeting back in 2015 and joined without hesitation. I was eager to find a venue for my paintings and to help develop a member-directed community project. I also wanted to meet the wonderful people who bought my paintings and who created their own bonds with a piece of my art.
New Paintings
But even after ten wonderful years, I still worry at the beginning of May that I won’t have finished enough paintings in the autumn and winter to hang. But, surprise, every year when it comes time to varnish and name the babies, I find that I even have a few extra!
This year’s crop of paintings is almost entirely flowers.
The one exception a the huge double painting of sumach trees.
It is a thrill to paint live flowers, but I am severely limited in the winter to forced tulips, forced forsythia branches from our enormous bush and potted geraniums. All of these made their way into some of these new paintings.
The remaining paintings were developed from a group of floral paintings that had been neglected until this winter and spring when I finally finished them.
Every artist has her own unique approach to painting. Bringing my easel inside from the centre of a living, moving garden and surroundings is a difficult transition at first. Painting from memory, from sketches and from my photos is a completely different way to work.
I must shift my concentration away from the living world and the outside elements to a static one. So, I use the opportunity to focus on learning more about the mediums (oils vs. acrylics vs. sketching) and color theory.
When I’m not able to get inspiration from Nature, I look for it in the work of other artists. I revisit and add to my collections of artists’ paintings on Pinterest. In this way I ‘discover’ so many new living artists along with new-to-me works from long-gone artists. I learn a lot about what I like in a painting and am able to step back and to take a critical view of my unfinished paintings that got ‘stuck’ and, hopefully, inject life into them.
The greatest way to learn is by doing, and there is a lot to learn. I am very fortunate to be able to paint in this beautiful corner of the world. And I’m grateful to be a part of a group gallery with supportive colleagues. It is truly wonderful to be part of a small gallery where I can exhibit my paintings to people who are interested in what I do and to those who have helped me pursue my passion by buying my artwork.
Bear River Artworks Gallery is open in June from Thursday to Sunday, 10-4pm. We plan to extend the week by 1 day for July, August and September. Hours will be posted on our social media.
All the artists take turns managing the gallery and while there is a schedule, there is no set day that I work. I will be there June 1, 7, 15, 21, and 30th from 10am until 4pm. If you would like to visit me in the Gallery or in my home studio, please contact me.
The other artists are jewellers Larry Knox and Laurel Strachan, painter Crystal Pyne and photographer Gary Fraser. They would love to meet you too!
Gary FraserLarry KnoxLarry KnoxCrystal PyneCrystal PyneGary FraserFlora DoehlerLaurel Strachan
Standing outdoors in autumn at the edge of a tangled sumac grove is a reminder that some things remain constant even as the world around us transforms. Birds fly overhead, branches sigh in the wind. Falling leaves add their fragrance to the damp earth. These earth and sky sensory gifts are all abundant in Bear River.
I feel a magical otherworldliness in places of unmanaged overgrowth. They return me to childhood fairy tales filled with mysterious forests and magical beings. Anything and everything can and will happen.
The Enchanted Sumac Grove
Our little sumac grove is one of my favourite painting locations.
Sumac trees have an unmatched fall presence with their red leaves, dark twisted limbs, and the sweep of their branches. But their crimson leaves are brief. They drop to the ground with the first hard autumn rainfall.
Much of my painting is inspired by the rush of joy I feel when an object or a colour moves me in a scene. I can’t anticipate it and it comes unbidden. The impulse is so strong that I follow it when I can and before it disappears. The experience of painting outdoors lifts my spirit. Indeed, the entire act of painting is my medicine.
My setup. The canvasses are protected from wind gusts by 2 cinder blocks.
Setting up My Outside Studio
These sumac trees are in an out-of-the-way spot end of the house where I don’t usually walk. Half the leaves had already turned from green to red when I noticed them. The arching trees and wild growth in this chaotic, private setting just added to the drama.
I rushed to the studio and dragged my heavy wooden, Italian double easel out to the spot. I felt I needed a huge canvas to capture the expansive beauty of the scene. The wheelbarrow transported my easel, brushes, water, charcoal, paint, rags.
There was a problem with a 4 feet x 6 feet canvas. Size matters but can be a problem. In the past I have depended on the help of friends with trucks to transport large paintings from our house to a gallery, because my car can’t handle anything wider than 40”. My work-around was to tie 2 canvases, each 3 feet x 4 feet together at the back. I also wheelbarrowed concrete bricks to anchor the easel so that the wind wouldn’t turn my canvases into sails!
There is an additional excitement in battling the elements this way. It definitely combines physical exercise with problem-solving.
Painting from the Heart
Once the palette and canvas was set up, the hard part begins. How could I translate my feelings of excitement and joy about the scene onto a blank canvas?
I loosely sketched the large shapes onto the canvases with quick charcoal marks. I wanted to capture the shape and the movement of the grove of sumac as a mass but also to show a few individual trees.
Working out the layout with charcoal.
The beginning of the painting took place over a series of chilly, blustery days. It is never my goal to reproduce exactly what I see. Instead, I want to suggest a feeling, movement and to follow the curve of the landscape and then to edit what I am seeing. Eventually the painting takes precedence over the actual scene and leads the way. I become present in the environment and feel like I could step through the canvas into another world. Everything melts away except an awareness of colour, paint, trees, wind and sky.
A couple of days later, a wind and rain storm blew in and overnight the red leaves lay shrivelled on the ground in spirals of deep maroon. That was the fall of 2021.
Drying leaves are ready to blow away.
Refining the Painting Inside the Warm Studio
I stored the canvasses until the sumac leaves turned red again. The painting waited. I missed the window in 2022. This past fall in 2023, I returned to the scene.
This time when the leaves fell, I continued to paint it in the studio. The shapes and colours of the painting needed refining. At this point it’s not as much about feeling and intuition as about tweaking colour and adjusting the overall design and composition. I rarely paint from photos because I love being IN the nature. Having something real, three dimensional and living inspires me. But now I needed to closely examine those signature twisted trunks of the sumac.
When I looked at the panels separately, I saw that the left panel had more interest. The right hand panel needed a variety of elements so that it could also work as a strong stand-alone painting like the other panel. It needed contrast; a focal point; defined large and small areas and a variety of marks and brushstrokes.
The Enchanted Sumac Grove – left panel of diptych The Enchanted Sumac Grove – right panel of diptych
Painting is a call and response process and each additional stroke of colour affects what’s already there and influences what is still to come. It’s a constant dance with the brush and the colours. I put down some marks, I step back and look, I walk over to pick up some colour on my brush from the palette, apply it and then step back again and assess. Painting is a journey of a thousand marks and the end for me is always unknown until it’s done.
The Painting’s Debut in Bear River
I was very excited to debut this painting during February at Sissiboo Coffee Bar and Gallery in Bear River and now at Sissiboo Coffee in Annapolis Royal until mid April. The day after we hung the show, I sipped a divine cup of coffee and sat and stared at the painting and thought about all the steps it took to bring it to completion. Because it’s a diptych, I designed it so that it can be hung as one large painting or hung as 2 separate ones, depending on wall space.
The other 2 artists in the show at Sissiboo Coffee are Crystal Pyne (painter) and Gary Fraser (Photographer). We all depict Nature in this show. We are artists at Bear River Artworks Gallery during the Summer months. We love this opportunity to show our works during the off-season at our favorite coffee shops run by friends who are community minded.
The exhibition continues at Sissiboo Coffee in Annapolis Royal until April 14, 2024. Open daily until 4pm.
I wanted to let you know that Bear River Artworks Gallery which I am part, is opening for the season on Saturday, May 28. On this first weekend, all the artists decided to be there to hang out with whoever drops by and to enjoy the fruits of our labour.
If you love flowers, you’ll know that actual blue flowers are rare. Horticulturalists try to develop true blue blooms, and sometimes they come up with a purple and call it blue. And even though some flowers are blue, like a Cornflower, a Delphinium or a Forget-me-not, you can’t find a blue Zinnia or Daisy.
Except if you are a painter, and you can imagine it. You can paint the flowers any colour you want to.
Do you also feel the unsettling psychological impact of the threat of Covid-19 and of the isolation from others? Even though the rate of infection is almost nonexistent in my little province – we haven’t had a single case in our village. – it is that imaginary threatening future that always hangs in the air.
I had a lovely time last week with the small, but enthusiastic art friends who came out to see my new paintings at Sissiboo Cafe in Bear River.
I will be in the cafe gallery again this afternoon, Friday September 11, from 2 – 4pm and would love to meet you for coffee and to share my painting stories with you. Continue reading →
I am so pleased to invite you to my exhibition of new paintings at Sissiboo Coffee Bar and Gallery in Bear River.
The 16 paintings celebrate the beauty of living flowers and gardens. All the scenes were created in my garden and studio in Bear River, Nova Scotia Continue reading →
I am so happy to be able to show you my newest paintings that will grace the walls of Sissiboo Coffee Bar and Gallery for 6 weeks.This summer we didn’t physically open our artists’ Gallery, Bear River Artworks. We just had a virtual presence. It never seemed like the right time to open as we waited for life to go back to ‘normal. Continue reading →
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 →
Do you still need a little art for the holidays? I have 5 little acrylic paintings of flowers in my studio that will add a touch of summer to someone’s home. $150 each.
These original small watercolours of mine are made to fit in a standard sized frame. They will remind you of summer days at the water. image size is 5.5 x 7.
$25 each.
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If you live out of town, and if it’s too late to arrive by Tuesday, I can email you a digital copy and description to ‘gift’ and post you the original.
Let me know! flora@floradoehler.ca
And thank you for your feedback about posting. I have read your comments and am working on some new posts and videos for the new year.
It’s touching to hear how much you enjoy getting my posts.
Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas to you and your friends, pets and family. xo
My art studio is buzzing these days. I have quite a few paintings on the go as well as new ideas for future paintings. It’s feast or famine in the art area. And as with any passion, the more time you can set aside for it, the more you want to set aside time. It’s a wheel that keeps on turning.
Currently, I do not have painter’s block, but I do have writers block. Every morning I think “this is the day I’ll send out a newsletter or a blog post. But first I’ll walk out to the studio for inspiration.” Continue reading →
This new painting is special to me for several reasons. For starters, I really like it! I always enjoy the process of painting and trying to solve the design problem, but sometimes the end result falls short of what I am trying to achieve. Ironically I believe this is a motivating factor to paint and to try it again. But this time I am happy with the look and feel of this painting; the spontaneity and lightness. Continue reading →
I picked a big bouquet of flowers and set them up outside, where I prefer to paint. Fortunately there were two essential ingredients on that hot, humid day. The first was the shade of a cherry tree to cool the air, and the second was a breeze to discourage the mosquitoes. Continue reading →
My exhibition will include new, luscious flower paintings.
When I returned From Brier Island, I was delighted to see the gladiolus and zinnias in full bloom. It took my breath away as both are new additions to the garden.
I dragged one of my biggest canvases outside and set to work. Continue reading →
What’s in a painting?
Each viewer reads a different story into an image and comes to see more as they live with the painting.
It wasn’t until I finished “The Garden Party” that I saw something that made me smile. Continue reading →
I love every single flower that blooms in my garden. They make me happy and grateful to live in a place where I can grow them. The awareness that their time in the garden is fleeting makes them even more precious.
This painting, Heat Rising on Brier Island, was painted at the farthest western tip of the island where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Bay of Fundy.
It was mid August which usually brings moderate temperatures, but this summer’s heat has been intense all over the world, even here. Continue reading →
I have painted Pond Cove many times. It’s my happy place on Brier Island. When we moved here from Ontario 11 years ago, on our very first summer we were invited to join an ever-changing Bear River group who had camped here for over 20 years. Since that summer, we’ve spent a few days annually with others camping at the end of Gull Rock Road. Continue reading →
Brier island is truly a painters paradise. I recently spent a week there in intensive painting mode.
Like past artist-created painting retreats I’ve attended, each artist was assigned one night to cook which meant that we were free to paint all day every day, but one.Continue reading →
There is nothing so representative of this province in June as wild lupin flowers! They grow everywhere here – in ditches and in fields. Continue reading →
I am thrilled to present my Spring 2018 collection of flower paintings named after women, including a few ancestors. Many of these little gems will be hung in the Bear River Artworks Gallery, opening May 18, 2018 Continue reading →
The countdown is on….the Floribunda third floor exhibit is ready, featuring floral themed paintings by stellar artists Wayne Boucher and Flora Doehler, plus some classic Lucky Rabbit, aka Deb Kuzyk and Ray Mackie.
The artists will be in attendance at the opening reception this Saturday, March 31. The Artists’ House is open 10-4, but come and have some cake and coffee with the artists 11-2 ish. Live music. Live flowers. — with Flora Doehler and Wayne Boucher.
Did you ever give yourself a personal challenge and then 3 months later wonder why?Last fall I innocently challenged myself to paint a series involving people. I was inspired by my drawings that date back to my student days. I used to do a lot of people sketching then with charcoal and pencil. Continue reading →
Images and stories of flowers from my exhibition of paintings at Bear River Artworks Gallery, 1913 Clementsvale Road, Bear River NS.
April 15 – 23, 2017. Daily 1 – 4pm
Paintings can be shipped. Interest-free payment plans available. No HST. Continue reading →
Here are images of my current exhibition of paintings at Bear River Artworks Gallery, 1913 Clementsvale Road, Bear River NS.
April 15 – 23, 2017. Daily 1 – 4pm
Paintings can be shipped. Interest-free payment plans available. No HST.
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I painted this from the shadows of the vegetable garden. I was startled by the strong light cast on the distant lawn and how it silhouetted the tree. Continue reading →
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 →
I usually carry my camera with me wherever I go.
It is my visual assistant, my organizer and my memory.
I can’t stress enough the importance of organizing your photos. Otherwise it’s like throwing thousands of photos into a big cardboard box and rummaging through it every time you need to find one. Continue reading →
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.
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 →
As I prepare for a solo painting show in Bear River April 15 – 23, my 1st step is to create a colour archive of all my acrylics.
There are so many ways to approach creating a body of work for an exhibition. I have to tell you that my head space up until late December was far away from painting. Our elderly cat was very sick. She’s quite a bit better, but time is catching up with her. She is such a sweet kitty, it’s hard to see her age. And, like the rest of you, I was and am still distracted and distressed by the political scene south of the border. Continue reading →
I’ve been reading and thinking about ‘creativity’ and where it comes from. Years ago I purchased Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, about accessing your inner creativity. I didn’t get around to reading it until we moved here to Bear River 9 years ago. I was so busy working in a library office that my limited ‘free’ time was spent painting, not reading about it. The book was a reminder of my frustration about my lack of creating time. I never imagined that I would be living in a gorgeous little village with years ahead of me to make art. Continue reading →
Earlier this year I was invited to paint a door for a fundraiser for the Yarmouth, Nova Scotia branch of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
At the time I was swamped with painting my musician series and I almost turned down this opportunity. I thought I could be practical and adapt one of my photographs or an existing painting or drawing for the project. That would save time, right? Easy and fast, right? #famouslastwords Continue reading →
I’m very excited to be 1/2 of a two-person show in Bear River at the new Sissiboo Coffee Bar and Gallery. The show opens this weekend on Sunday, May 22 at 2pm and displays until the end of June. My good friends Jon and Erin asked me if I would like to be the first artist to show in their beautiful space. I am touched to be asked and very happy to celebrate with them. I asked artist Wayne Boucher to join me and he agreed! His large paintings are gorgeous and luminous. I think our work will look great together. Yeah! Continue reading →
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.
Next weekend over 80 artists, mostly painters, will meet in Annapolis Royal to paint their little hearts out for 2 solid days all over the town.
I’ve painted live at this event for at least 5 years now and it is one of the highlights of my summer. Continue reading →
“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” – Claude Monet
I just came back from a painting journey to Brier Island. The ocean and meadows were fabulous to experience.. and to paint. Still I couldn’t wait to come home to enjoy the rest of the iris and lupin season. Continue reading →
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.
Right now, I’m headed outside to paint iris and lupins. Here is a repost of a blog I made in 2010 about painting at this time of year. I will try today to express the emotional connection I feel for iris as I did in this painting.
There were gorgeous, large bearded irises in my grandmother’s garden over 50 years ago. My mother transplanted some to her garden and eventually I had them in my garden. They moved ½ way across the continent with us when we came to Nova Scotia and are blooming like never before.
Bearded Iris from my grandmother.
I know my mom and my grandmother would have loved the yellow variety that I’ve added to the ancestral iris. And I know they would have loved the wild purple, pink and white lupins that grow like weeds here and especially at our place.
Lupins ring our land and the colour is often deep purple.
I want to show you how I painted and drew these flowers using fluid acrylics over a base of wet matt medium and I’ve made a tutorial for you about this. Enjoy!
I paint from life and in early June, the lupins and iris are in bloom here in Nova Scotia. I brought some into the studio and placed them in wine bottles so that I could have good close-up examples of the lupin in the distance. Although I prefer to paint on location, at this time of year the black flies are biting, so I paint inside.
There are lupins growing in the distance.
I started this painting applying watered-down acrylic on a primed canvas. I wanted to achieve a soft, wet in wet watercolour effect.
When that dried, I applied a thick coating of matt medium over the entire canvas and then painted into it with my fluid acrylic paints. I keep them in sealed plastic containers in a muffin tin. That way they are always ready to use.
I try to limit my palette to five colours or fewer because it creates a better colour harmony in the painting. I paint with nylon brushes and I also use a rubber-tipped scraper to draw shapes into the painting.
I dip the scraper into my paint and draw with it much like dipping a pen into ink. I like the calligraphy effects that I can get by pushing the paint away and creating a line and a texture.
If the medium gets too tacky, I moisten it with a spray of water. The water also makes the paint run which adds an interesting softening effect to the work.
Golden fluid acrylics are transparent and have a high level of pigment.
As long as the medium is moist, the painting can be worked on and the scraping will reveal the colours underneath.
I love iris and I deliberately choose purple and yellow because they are complementary colours and they make the painting vibrate.
Although I have an easel, I painted this on the floor because otherwise the entire painting would drip and run if I placed it upright. That’s because I have a coating of wet matt medium on the canvas and that is the tip or secret that I am sharing with you.
Painting on the floor.
I came across this quite by accident and now I almost always paint with acrylic this way. For one, it delays the drying period, which I like; but the biggest advantage is that I can create all kinds of textures and linear marks in the painting by pushing away the colour with a scraping tool and revealing the layer of colour or canvas underneath.
I bought a gorgeous yellow iris at a plant sale this spring and I wanted to make it the focal point in this painting. Unfortunately, by the time I painted this, it had finished blooming, but I used my huge purple bearded iris as reference. That’s the beauty of being the painter. You can change the colours of anything in your painting to suit your mood!
Airing out the painting. (sold)
Check list for this painting:
Golden fluid acrylics
Rubber tipped scraper
Matt medium
Spray water bottle
Ancestral flowers
Painting detail. The purple bearded Ontario iris transforms into a yellow Nova Scotian flower.
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.
Even the studio was shown, along with a shot of my set up at Paint-the-town.
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.
It is a wonderful feeling to see the fruits of my labour on display in a gorgeous gallery. Sharing the experience with a fellow painter is better still!
Susan Geddes and I hung our paintings and hoped that people would come out to see them. The place was hopping during our opening and it was wonderful for both of us to share our visual view of the world with old and new friends. Thank you for being part of it – in person at the gallery or right now, virtually.
You can still see the paintings daily in Annapolis Royal (closed Mondays)until November 23rd at ArtsPlace at 396 St. George Street. I’ll be there on Saturday Nov 15th from 1-3 pm.
Tulips are a favorite flower (are they ALL my favorites??) This oil painting went through quite a few versions until I arrived at this final one. You can see my progress here.
As attached as I am to that tulip painting, in this moment “Earthly Delights” (below) is my favorite of the show. I think it has an under-water quality and has a depth to it that I don’t usually use.
I started it in the spring using poured acrylic inks in the background. When the lilies bloomed in summer, I added them and in the fall the last ‘poser’ was a brilliant orange Chinese lantern. So really, I painted all the flowers in the bouquet as they bloomed. It represents, to me, the entire flowering cycle, hence the title.
My next favorite paintings are these three and I described in this post about where my inspiration came from to abstract my Bee Balm garden flowers on the canvas.
I can’t help myself. I keep planting lilies and I keep painting them too. I was a little inventive with the colours “In a Field of Lilies”. I WISH there was a blue lily. This painting inspired me to plant a new, deep maroon lily this fall. I think they are one of the happiest flowers in the garden. With their heads in the air they are true optimists.
These are 8″ x 10″ paintings I started at the Historic Gardens in Annapolis and finished in my studio. I got to make full use of the sgraffito style that I like to play with.
I also painted lilies and other flowers using acrylic inks and paint on paper and then adhered it all to boards. These are 12″ x 12″ and are another reminder of summer. I enjoyed combining drawing and painting here.
My artist – friend Susan Geddes flew in from Victoria BC to share this show with me. I love her use of colour and texture. Her paintings have a dreamy, ethereal quality to them as well.
Stop in this week and see her work — and mine. Details about the show are at the bottom of this post.
I do and I want to share with you two of my favorite websites that are always playing my music.
If I don’t have specific music in mind, but just a rough idea of “electronic mood music with no lyrics” or “introspective” or “hypnotic ocean waves” or “drinking at a dive bar” 😉 , then I select the website songza.com
All the music is “made by an expert team of music critics, DJs, musicians, and musicologists” and includes over 2 thousand playlists.
Painting a series of musical events from the Rebekah in Bear River.
When I am concentrating on my subject; especially in the beginning of the work, I prefer instrumental music because I find lyrics too distracting. There is a certain amount of tension about getting to a place where there is only color and texture and a creative flow. Sometimes, the music can help me get to that place faster.
Starting with a feeling of colour.
I work with fluid acrylics in plastic, lidded containers in muffin tins. And LOTS of medium. This is a tulip series that I finished and delivered this week to Catfish Moon in Annapolis Royal.
If I have a specific band in mind, then I go tojango.com Like Songza, they bundle playlists and match your chosen musician with similar music.
The work of Marconi Union is ethereal and moody and it really helps me to get in the ‘zone’. If there is a musician reading this perhaps you have the vocabulary or understanding to tell me why this is. All I know is that their music helps me enter a creative space where nothing exists but my close observation of the subject and the moving of the paint on the canvas or paper.
My daughter Emily introduced me to this group several years ago. The kids are good for that. 😉
Drawing into wet watercolour paper with charcoal and watercolour crayons.
Sometimes even music is too distracting. Thats when I open the window and listen to the birds or the frogs/peepers.
I started this large painting outside last summer and am working on it this week.
You like what you like. There is no scientific formula that tells us why a person is drawn to a piece of art. But when I finished painting this cyclamen while a snowstorm raged outside the studio, I liked it so much that it became my favorite — almost replacing the previous two favorites. 🙂
I like the contrast, the composition, the texture and the colours.
But more importantly, the real fun is in making the painting because there is a mystery in the process. I make the decisions about colour and method and technique, but as soon as I pick up the brush, the painting takes on a life of its own and evolves and shows me where to go next. Every painting is like solving a puzzle and it is embarking on an adventure.
It helped this week that snow swirled out the studio window while crows dug into the compost for any scraps they could find , (including eggshells). It made the studio time even sweeter with soothing music and coffee and a crackling wood stove.
How I approached this painting
I started by flooding the canvas with gel medium. It’s like spreading a clear custard. While the medium is still wet, I brushed in the shapes of the cyclamen flowers with white acrylic paint.
Then I got out my Liquitex inks that are intensely pigmented and transparent. I squirted the ink into strategic areas of the wet canvas and gently brushed it into the gel.
Next, I drew the flowers and various other marks and lines on the canvas with my rubber tipped colour-shaper.
You can see that the gel is still wet which is a great advantage to me because it will display the brush strokes and textures.
I added some texture by ‘lifting’ some of the ink with bubble wrap and a scraper.
I continued adding detail. I let the painting dry.
The following day I added some gentle blue tones to the flowers to give them more dimension.
Bay of Fundy Acrylic Painting by Flora Doehler 24″ x 30″ $800.
Imagine sitting on an island in the Bay of Fundy, perched high on a rocky cliff. Below you waves crash against rocks, eroding the edge of the island just a little more.
I sat there in the summer of 2012 with my painting gear and looked out to see a still strip of water, calm and illuminated in all that commotion. That is where this painting was born.
The ocean was ever changing that day. First misty-foggy, then cloudy and then for a brief interval, a few clouds parted and the ocean became smooth like glass in one spot. A reflection appeared like a mirage. And then it was gone.
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.
Asters have been with us for thousands of years.
I picked a big bouquet of these wild flowers and brought them into the studio to paint.
This vase was made for these asters.
I started with a rough sketch of the flowers using a thick acrylic marker.
Some yellow will peek through my finished painting.
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!
Drawing into the wet gel medium and paint with a rubber tipped tool.
The thick gel has the added bonus of showing every brushstoke which is apparent in this painting.
painting detail
Next, I painted in a yellow background. I liked the colour harmony of the yellow with the blues and violets.
Almost finished.
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.
Acrylic painting by Flora Doehler, 2013 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.
Wild Asters 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.
I love to try out new materials. I just discovered Liquitex’s Paint Markers and I am so excited to try them out. They contain high quality acrylic paint in a fluid form AND the containers are refillable. After trying out this yellow marker, I’ve ordered a variety of colours in the two different sizes they come in.
I wanted to create a painting of my gorgeous Turk’s Cap lilies using a limited colour range and with a softness that fits with a breezy summer’s day. These beauties grow on stalks that reach 6 feet high and they sway beautifully in the breeze.
Using the paint marker, I sketched the flowers onto my canvas which is 16″ x 16″.
I drew with the markers as loosely as I could to create movement. I was mindful of the swaying nature of the stalks and avoided painting them in straight lines or painting them parallel to the edge of the painting. This makes the painting less static.
After the marker dried, I applied a coating of gel and matt mediums. This makes the paint slide and prolongs the drying period. I worked flat on a table. I added a touch of turquoise blue to my medium and gently filled in the background for the sky. Here I was mindful of laying down intentional brushstrokes that emphasized the negative spaces and created a light and dark pattern in the blue which also added movement.
The use of medium also creates a transparency of colour and allows me to scrape into the painting with a rubber tipped colour shaper.I also dip my shaper into my paint and use it to draw into the painting as you can see in this next photo and in the final painting.
I am thrilled with the outcome of this painting for these reasons:
It has the softness and the movement that I hoped for
it has the essence of the tiger lily that is a Turk’s Cap
the addition of the Joe Pye Weed in the background helps to pick up the patterning in the grasses and in the petals
using the paint markers created a lovely yellow tone in the scraping
it makes me smile
Dance of the Lilies acrylic painting by Flora Doehler 16″ x 16″, $375
Recently during an unusual heat wave here on the East Coast of Canada, I painted this small painting that is just 8″ x 10″. I love this little jug – a handmade pottery piece that my father gave my mother over 40 years ago. The flowers were from my garden.
Painting by Flora Doehler. 8″ x 10″
I am finishing up a series of small works and most of them are on their way to the Art Sales and Rental Galleryof the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax. I have so enjoyed working on these flower portraits and they have given me lots of ideas for a larger painting that I am eager to start working on.
Two weeks ago I was interviewed for the Halifax newspaper “Chronicle Herald”. They ran a piece on Bear Riverfocused on the culture and small town revival in Nova Scotia.
photo by Ryan Taplin of the Chronicle Herald.
The painting on my easel that day was this one of lupins. They are still blooming on the edges of our property and their arrival every year is stunning.
I love the shapes of the pods and the intensity of the purple colour. Although I usually paint outside in front of my subject, this canvas was so large and it was more practical to work in the studio with samples of lupins posing in empty wine bottles.
The article in the newspaper had wonderful quotes from friends who live here and are very happy to have the opportunity to explore their cultural side in a beautiful corner of Canada.
We’ve had several days of rain here in Bear River and everything is lush. The leaves are still that pale green that spring brings.
I sat in the studio today and listened to a wonderful CBC podcast interview with composer Philip Glass while I painted this scene out of the window. There were many examples he gave about his musical experiences that I could relate to in terms of painting.
The Falling Blossoms by Flora Doehler. 12″ x 12″ Acrylic on canvas. $350.
It was an afternoon of bliss to paint this scene and to hear Glass talk about how he too is inspired by Nova Scotia landscape.
Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing this painting.
February was a month of amazing opportunities and discoveries — especially with regard to my art career. I had a solo art show in Bear River. The collection of recent works looked strong and I heard some moving, positive feedback about it from visitors. I’m a shy person when it comes to talking about my artwork so it was great practice to talk to people about it and to hear their thoughts. In some cases the paintings evoked strong, emotional stories for individual viewers. I felt so honoured to hear their personal memories and it reaffirmed in me the universality of all of our human experiences. We are all connected.
The Happy Flowers by Flora Doehler. (sold)
Pop-Up Painting Show – DIY
My show was a “pop-up art show”. That’s when the artist rents a venue such as an empty storefront, and organizes the entire show herself. This includes creating labels for the paintings, writing and printing publicity materials, handling the invitations, marketing, hanging the work, planning an opening event, handling sales, delivering paintings, and staffing the show.
It sounds like a lot and it is. In lots of ways creating the work is easier– at least it feels more natural to me. What really helped me to pull this off was:
allowing a good chunk of time to get everything done
online research about tips for self-hosting a show
writing up a list of tasks and organizing it
working through a methodical to-do list
having the support and help of a few good people
making the final decisions myself
My main support, as always, was Larry. He wired up all my canvasses, delivered the work to the gallery, and served people during the opening. He put the show up, took it down, and offered lots of moral support and positive feedback. He did way more than his share of the domestic chores so that I could stay focused on my tasks.
Fortune shone down on me when Rob Buckland-Nicks, owner of the Flight of Fancy Gallery and store in Bear River offered to hang the show with Larry. Because of this the display was professional. The owners of the gallery space at the Rebekah Hall, Jonathan Welch and Erin Schopfer, were very accommodating––In fact their repeated urgings that I hold a show were the push I needed.
My other “invisible” helper was someone whose blog I have read for a number of years. Alyson Stanfield is a guru in the world of art marketing and her book “I’d Rather be in the Studio” is a practical guide that shows ways to use social media for self-promotion. Alyson is big on using the power of an e-newsletter to build excitement and momentum about an upcoming event. Using Mailchimp (free), I sent out several newsletters leading up to the show containing new paintings, instructional videos or other visuals about what people might see if they came. These newsletters served as value-added reminders. I highly recommend subscribing to her blog.
Waving Nicotiana by Flora Doehler. (sold)
Measuring Success
When you come right down to it, the show forced me to get my act together. I finished paintings. I looked at my work with a critical eye. The show gave me goals and motivation. All of the many steps I had to take to get there reminded me that I haven’t lost my ability to organize even though I’ve been out of a formal workplace for over 5 years. I discovered how much I enjoyed having a solo show because it was relatively stress-free. I could make all the final decisions each step of the way and not have to negotiate or compromise. And the viewers weren’t the only ones who had never seen all my art presented together. I had never pulled those 30 canvases out and hung them neatly on the wall lined up with each other either. So the show gave me a good sense of where I have been going these past 5 years and how my work has developed. It was a gift to myself and to my creativity.
And just between you and me, I’m thinking about another pop-up art show–on my birthday. I’m thinking of small pieces–mostly watercolors and mono prints. If you would like to hear more about it, please subscribe to my newsletter. The form is at the bottom of this website.
January Garden by Flora Doehler. (sold)
There have been spin offs too from having this show and I’ll get into that in the next post.
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.
January Garden (sold)
Waving Nicotiana by Flora Doehler. (sold)
I Watched Sumach Dance
Pangean Landscape
Bear River Hills # 1
Bear River Hills # 2
Bear River Hills # 3
Life on the Edge
Winter Fantasy
Red and Green
The Blue Melt
Along the Line of Smoky Hills the Crimson Forest Stands
Pond Cove
Brier Island Afternoon (sold)
Down the Path
Brier Island Summer (sold)
Bear River Wilderness
Bear River Jungle
Cure for the Blues (sold)
Brier Island Heat (sold)
Summer in my Heart (sold)
Tulips
Feeling Sentimental
Pink and Red (sold)
End of Summer
While Bees Buzzed
Just for You
The Happy Flowers by Flora Doehler. (sold)
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
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 had an epiphany. I was listening to a woman singing. Her voice was lovely and so was the music. She obviously had great technique. But, something was missing. After watching her for a while, I wanted to send her this thought:
I need to sing like I mean it. I need to let the emotion that led me to write this song come out and be expressed.
Perhaps through fatigue or shyness, she was just going through the motions that evening.
And then it occurred to me that the same is true with painting or with any creative pursuit. It must be injected with some confidence, some passion and some Raison d’être.
Do I paint like I mean it?
Painting by Flora Doehler. c2010
I certainly try to. When I paint it is because I get a feeling of inspiration when I view a particular thing or scene. It sends me to my art materials and I have to work on it right away. Sometimes it all goes wrong, and in my opinion the work falls flat. But unlike a musician, a painter can revisit her work and overlay it with more of the energy and feeling of the initial encounter.
What makes a great painting or a memorable song is more than technique. It’s an expression of a deep energy and feeling. So embrace that passion that inspired you in the first place and use it as the seed of a new creation.
And please, if you can, join me in a celebration of my recent paintings. I would like to share my inspiration with you.
Summer on Brier Island, by Flora Doehler, c. 2012.
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.
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.
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.
The reds, oranges and greens are stunning.
Just like painting other plant out of doors, the time to capture this brilliant display of colour is just a few short weeks.
I start the drawing on canvas with watercolour crayons.
Next, I fix the drawing with matt medium.
My set-up was on-the-fly so I sat on the ground and leaned my canvas against a tree stump. That way, I was ‘in’ the sumachs. I felt a bit like Alice (in Wonderland).
Painting detail showing my sgraffito marks.
I like the dark patterning that goes through the painting. When this is dry, I’ll have a better idea about how much of the original crayon colour is showing. Then, I’ll make my final changes. Painting by Flora Doehler, 2012. acrylic. 36″ x 36″
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.
I just spend a fabulous week painting on Brier Island, Nova Scotia where the Bay of Fundy meets the Atlantic Ocean. I went there with other artists and you can read more about it here.
I want to show you another way of working with acrylic and watercolour sticks.
Brier Island painting by Flora Doehler, 2012
On Brier Island, looking towards Meteghan.
During the trip I noticed one of the other artists creating beautiful little watercolors with her watercolor sticks. Another artist was using a underpainting in a complementary color to the main color of her painting. I have used both of those methods/materials but it got me thinking; what if I used my watercolor sticks as the underpainting and chose colors that would be complimentary to the local paint color? In other words, what if I used a red crayon underneath where I would be painting a green tree and allowed some of that red to show through?
Summer on Brier Island, by Flora Doehler, c. 2012.
Pond Cove
Brier Island Afternoon (sold)
Westport on Brier Island. Ink drawing by Flora Doehler, 2012.
I had someDerwent watercolor artbars. I love their triangular shape because it’s possible to mark the canvas with broad strokes.
Drawing on canvas with watercolour sticks.
I drew my back ground using the complementary colors. This was a good exercise in reading the landscape as a series of shapes — although I must admit I deviated from the plan a little when it came time to painting.
Fixing the watercolour crayon by brushing matt medium over the canvas.
In order to ‘fix’ my drawing and to prevent it from dissolving into the paints, I brushed matte medium over the watercolor crayon and something very exciting happened. The medium dissolved and activated the crayon drawing making it blurry but also making the color of it spread into intense colour.
The intensity of the colour was brought out by the matt medium.
After the medium dried, I added more medium to the surface and then painted using my fluid acrylics. This is so that I can scratch into it and reveal the crayon colour underneath.
Briar Island painting by Flora Doehler. 16″ x 16″
I’m looking forward to developing new work using this method. And it just goes to show you the benefit from working with other artists and from having a good chunk of uninterrupted painting time.
This summer we’ve had very hot weather which made painting difficult. Acrylic paintings I worked on dried faster than I wanted them to. So, I’ve been using gel mediums that are formulated to slow down the drying time of acrylic paint. This allows me a longer time to apply the paint and to draw into my work revealing the canvas underneath.
Let me show you the steps I take.
Brilliant yellow golden globe flowers were one of the inspirations for this painting.
First I paint the medium on the entire canvas. I used a combination of a pouring medium from Golden Acrylics and a thicker one from Liquitex. For the background colour I dripped Liquitex inks into the medium.
Canvas with wet gel and ink.
Then I blended the ink into the gel with a brush. This will be the background and will help to unify the painting.
Canvas with wet gel and ink.
Next, I studied my reference materials…in this case flowers from my garden that have bravely weathered this summer’s drought!
Then, using broad strokes, I painted a suggestion of flowers onto the canvas.
Painting detail.
I try to lay in the colour with single strokes. This way, the gel allows every brushstroke to show. I like the freshness of painting this way.
Painting in broad strokes.
Sometimes I put two colours on the brush to add to the surprise and spontaneity of the brush stroke. I mostly paint with Golden Fluid Acrylics and I keep them in small plastic containers.
I use lots of brushes and rubber-tipped shapers.
Finally, I draw the scene using a rubber tipped shaper. This technique is called sgraffito. I add a few more colours and at this point it is a push and pull effort. I try to keep the freshness of the colours as well as building up a contrast and creating a pattern of colour that goes through the entire painting.
Acrylic painting by Flora Doehler. 2012. 16″ x 16″
I can only get this effect by using gels and the slower drying mediums/gels allow me to work for several hours on the painting.
I am happy with my result. It totally reflects the joy I felt in looking at my garden flowers on a hot day in August.
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 →
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 →
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 →
This past weekend I painted up a storm in the Historic Gardens in Annapolis Royal. The event, Paint the Town, is an annual fundraiser for the Annapolis Regional Community Arts Council (ARCAC). The resulting silent auction of hundreds of paintings, sculpture and blacksmithing that are created also benefits the 75 participating artists. Continue reading →
This is my newest painting which is living at the Flight of Fancy gallery right now. I love the cerulean blue in it, especially in combination with the orange. All of the flowers in this bouquet were grown in my garden. I am so happy to see their smiling faces every day and I hope this painting shows that joy. Continue reading →
I have a strong need to paint from life so wintertime here is a real challenge for me! It is a great feeling to be present with a living flower and to sense the life force of it. Sometimes I paint from photographs I’ve taken, but it’s not as satisfying an experience. Continue reading →
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 →
Occasionally I’ll read an article about some old Masters painting that was x-rayed to reveal another painting underneath. The writer will seem amazed and surprised by this. Oh, if those writers only knew how common this is for painters! Continue reading →
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 →
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!
It’s absolutely gorgeous outside right now. There is a thick blanket of snow covering the fields, and the hills. With all the leaves gone it is really easy to see through the trees to the hills on the other side of the river. What I see is long stripes of trees that border fields, slashed diagonally by roads that wind their way down the hills.
Looking from the Annapolis side towards Riverview Road.
The colors now are so muted that it is a challenge for a color-loving painter like me to actually paint that scene in a monochromatic way. in fact it would be easier for me to use brilliant colors to depict the snow scenes around me–but I want to try an abstracted approach using muted colors.
Acrylic on canvas.
I start with charcoal drawings to get a sense of the shapes in the distance.
Charcoal sketch of snow scene.
Larry is immersed in creating a pendant and is listening with me to a podcast from This American Life about the fictitiousness of money, starring the Federal Reserve.
I discovered, quite by accident, that if I put my paper on top of the hot wood stove, and draw on it with crayon that the wax melts instantly and leaves a very dramatic line.This must be what encaustic painters experience!
Melted crayon on paper and charcoal.
I chose for my palette:
anthraquinone (blue )
burnt sienna (rust)
raw umber (brown)
titanium white
carbon black
These canvases are 16″ x 16″. I’m using fluid acrylics mixed with matt medium. This one was my favorite as far as the intensity of colour.
I rarely use burnt umber and I never use black. In fact I hardly ever use white either. So all of these choices amount to a complete departure for me. But I was determined to give it a try.
This was my favorite of the 3 canvases as far as paint texture goes.
I will work on them tomorrow with the objective to create a more harmonious look and feel to the 3 canvasses. Although I really like the intensity of the colour, it is more than I intended. But, a reduced colour seems to go against my very nature. I may try to mute things anyway. Stay tuned!
Canvases drying on my new cushioned mats. (I stand when I paint).
This is a good exercise to work on while winter is upon us!
The studio is like a giant playroom for Larry and me.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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!
Commissioned copper and silver bracelet by Larry Knox.
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.
In the Begonia Garden by Flora Doehler, 2010. 8″ x 8″
This past weekend I joined over 70 artists to ‘Paint the Town’ in Annapolis Royal. This annual fundraiser for the local Arts Council is a great opportunity for artists to show and sell their work and for collectors to watch artists at work and to buy art at reasonable prices.
The Annapolis Region Community Arts Council (ARCAC) has sponsored the event for years and the weekend runs like a well-oiled machine. Artists arrive from all over Nova Scotia…over 7o painters this year. The artists set up all over town.
If you are curious about the contents of my painting kit, click on the photo and read the notes at Flickr.
Volunteer ‘runners’ circulate and pick up the finished pieces in pizza boxes and take them back to the gallery at the Legion where they hang for sale all day with a ‘gallery’ price determined by the artist. At 5 o’clock the unsold work is auctioned by silent auction. The Arts Council gets 50% of the amount and thousands of dollars are raised this way every year.
The Artist entry fee is $12.
I was thrilled to be able to set up my paints at the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens.This park is an oasis of flower garden beds organized around the centuries of the town.
The first morning I scouted around the park with its ancient trees.
I set up in a great spot with dappled light under towering trees. The begonias were a riot of colour and were nicely contrasted by blue salvia flowers. I pulled out all my gear and promptly dropped my piece of German Plum Cake upside-down on the grass. Not to be discouraged, I brushed it off and enjoyed it with my coffee while I studied the flowers and thought about my painterly approach to them. Meanwhile birds hopped around and sang and it was wonderful to be there.
Surrounded by happy flowers.
Wonderful until I realized that I’d forgotten to bring containers for my paint water!! I finished my treat and headed for the recyling bin where I found plastic juice containers! My sharp knife soon transformed them into water jars and it was smooth sailing after that.
Here are the works I painted in the Begonia garden on Saturday. (Click on the images to enlarge them.)
The next day, Sunday, I spent the early morning in the Victorian Garden while there was still some shade to work in.
The colours were vivid and the zinnias were taller than me. At one point a butterfly was brought out and released to much fanfare.
This was my largest painting. I used up all my matt medium on it.
My Sunday problem was that I ran out of matt medium! It’s an essential part of my kit because I use it to get the scratching-in effect in my paintings. I searched out other artists in the park and was given some by artist Shannon Bell and when that ran out, a bottle of the stuff from Louise Baker, an artist with a love of colour who lives in Halifax. Thank you Louise and Shannon!!!
Here are the paintings I did in the Victorian Garden until the sun drove me away. (Click on the images to enlarge them.)
After the heat of the flowers and the sun, I decided to seek out a cool, shady, quiet spot. I found this at the Lily pad pond.
The mosquitos thought it was a pretty nice spot too, in spite of my liberal spraying of citronella. In fact a couple wandered by while I was painting and asked me if I could tell them which flower was giving off that scent. I told them that I was the flower and we had a good laugh over that.
The challenge here was to edit the elements down to make sense of the scene in a painting.
They were visiting from Montreal and I told them about the silent auction. They later lost out on the bids for 2 of my pieces, but found their way to our studio the next day where they bought 2 paintings that I had been working on in my garden. Here is one of them:
Nicotiana in garden chez moi.
It was truly wonderful to connect with some of the people who bought my works. Over half of the purchasers and bidders had watched me paint in the park. They connected with my interpretation and they also connected with the setting. I think it was nice for them to see the process (well, not the dropped plum cake part). Oh, did I mention that all 12 paintings and sketches that I did over the weekend sold? It’s three days later and I’m still flying high about it.
These were my paintings at the lily pond. (Click on the images to enlarge).
At the end of the day I sketched the scene for myself with marker and brush on damp paper. A charming woman from New York walked by to admire it. She thought it would make a gorgeous wallpaper. I told her that it was my souvenir of the weekend and she suggested that I offer it at the silent auction so that she could bid on it.
Well I did and it sold for $50. Here it is for you to see:
The Pond sketch on 9″ x 12″ watercolour paper. ( The paper is actually white)
Acrylic paint brushed into damp paper.
It was an exciting weekend on many levels – wonderful to meet painters, wonderful to have such a positive response to my work, wonderful to create in such an inspiring setting. And, wonderful to earn some money too which was just as well because our house water situation was failing while I painted.
See you next year at Paint the Town!
photo courtesy of Trish Fry, Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens.
Bringing flowers into the studio and onto the canvas.
The lupins and iris are blooming and there is a riot of colour outside. I wait every year for this short time – the three week window when iris are in bloom so that I can paint them. Since moving to our house in Nova Scotia a year ago, I am now blessed with hundreds of lupin that ring our garden and our yard and bloom at the very same time as the iris. I am spending each day with my brushes painting these beauties with fluid acrylics.
click photos for larger image. The Gathering, acrylic on canvas, 24″ x 30″. Painting by Flora Doehler, 2010.
I am approaching them using more realism than I usually do. I want to really learn and feel the shapes of the petals so that I can know how a Siberian iris is shaped. How a Siberian iris feels. In the past, I grew bearded iris, but last summer, a friend gave me several dozen clumps of iris that are now blooming all over our property!
One year ago, I planted all these iris clumps everywhere!
Their grape colour is delightful and I am using dioxazine purple, ultramarine blue, gold green, hansa yellow medium and a touch of quinacridone violet in these paintings. The paint is Golden fluid acrylics. They are my favorites because of the intense colours and ease of use.
Painting detail.
Painting available at Green Willow Studio.
I am also working on some small canvasses to prep for the Farmer’s and Artist’s Market that is starting up this Sunday in Bear River.
I wrote about how difficult it was for me to motivate myself to paint after setting it aside for months. In order to get back there, I had to remind myself about what I had done in the past to jump-start my creativity when I’d had a ‘fallow’ time.
I turned this unfinished watercolour sideways to use as a background for a portrait of some tulips I bought.
Lupines grow all over the Annapolis Valley, especially along the roadsides.
With my shoulders and legs sore from rototilling the garden, I headed for the studio at the end of last week to paint some of the fabulous purple lupines that grow wild around our house. I also wanted to capture the beauty of some masses of Siberian Iris that my friend Pamela gave me from among the hundreds that grow in her flower gardens. Continue reading →
This winter I’ve been printmaking using easy-peasy materials. I enjoy the high contrast and the textures that printmaking presents, and I wanted to bring that same feel to my next painting.
Inspiration comes from different places all the time. In the case of this painting the color, the tulips, the pears, the spring season, and the friendship behind the vase all combined to inspire me. Continue reading →
I like to paint from life, which means painting on location or with the thing that’s being painted actually present. Painting from photos just isn’t nearly as satisfying for me because I can’t get as close to my subject as I would like to. You see, not only do I like what happens when paint goes on a surface – the explosion of color and movement of the brush over the canvas or paper and the mixing of colors, I very much enjoy looking at my subject and really, meditating on it.
This Peony is stunning and so is the shadow. The scent is also out-of-this-world!
If I’m outside I can listen to the sounds around me of birds singing or the sound of the wind rustling leaves or grasses blowing in the wind. I enjoy the smell of the air and the fragrances of the earth and plants.
These 12′ tall hollyhocks were so inspiring and called out to be painted.
I like to watch shadows flit across a field when clouds move across the sun. I enjoy the many shades of green in the landscape. Painting becomes a truly sensual experience.
The painting is 3 feet high and was started on location and finished in the studio.
If I can’t go outside because of cold weather or rain, I can still set up a still life and paint indoors. In that case I am often examining flowers close-up and checking out the petals and the shapes of the blooms. When I lived in the city it was possible to buy fresh flowers, even in the winter, for a very low price. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case for me here in Bear River. Fresh flowers are very expensive and the choices are quite limited.
Last summer I had a flower subscription with Cheryl Stone of Bear River Blooms. Every week Cheryl would deliver a fabulous bouquet to the studio complete with vase. Cheryl grows the flowers herself and will cut for you a totally custom-made bouquet.
Flowers by Bear River Blooms
Cheryl would call me in advance to find out what my colour choices were and ask what type of flower I preferred. Talk about being pampered! I wasn’t able to paint all the beautiful bouquets she delivered but I did take photos and now I am printing some of them out to use as inspiration for my new paintings. It’s certainly not like working from the original bouquet but because I staged the photos in the first place with a painterly composition in mind, it’s the next best thing.
This was one of my favorite bouquets last summer.
I love peonies, in part, because they remind me of my dear mother and my grandmother – two wonderful, clever and witty women who passed on their love of flowers and of gardening to me. What I also like about this photo are the colours. The contrast of the lime green in the lupines with the dark pink of the peony are very appealing. Red and green are complementary colors which I like to use in my paintings. I decided to use that pale lime green as the ground or the background for the canvas.
Here is a video of my first approach to painting this bouquet. It morphed quite a bit until I felt OK with the results.
When I work on a new painting, I do so as long as it gives me pleasure. If I start feeling like I don’t know where to go next or I feel a sense of frustration, I stop. It is possible to look at the same piece of work on different days and feel different levels of satisfaction with it. Sometimes the only way to know the next step with a painting is to put it away and to work on something else.
This week I returned to the painting and was so excited about working on it, that I thought of different ways to express “peony” and started 2 more paintings!
I’m very happy with the painting. I like the textures and the colours and the feel of it. However, the real thrill was in the making of it and now that it’s over, I can’t wait to move on to the next.
Last Summer”. 30″ x 36″, acrylic (sold)
This painting, inspired by Cheryl’s flowers has inspired more paintings from me. And inspired is a wonderful state to be in.
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.
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.
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.
