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
Nova Scotia
Paintings Hopping in May at the Lucky Rabbit Art House
Today my month long solo show “Courage My Love” opened at Lucky Rabbit’s Artist House Gallery in Annapolis Royal where 21 of my paintings are on display until May 28, on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10am till 4pm.
Inventing a Blue Flower While Breathing
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.
Continue readingNew Paintings, Soft Openings and the Love of Flowers – Sept 3 – Oct 13, 2020
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
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
Answering the Call of a Painting
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
Nurture and Nature Paintings – one more week only!
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.
Red as a Geranium ©Flora Doehler, 2014 Acrylic, 8″ x 10″ $125
In a Victorian Garden ©Flora Doehler, 2014 Acrylic, 8″ x 10″ $125
In the Cool Shade ©Flora Doehler, 2014 Acrylic, 8″ x 10″ $125
Salvia ©Flora Doehler, 2014 Acrylic, 8″ x 10″ $125
This is the World ©Flora Doehler, 2014 Acrylic, 8″ x 10″ $125
So Wild and Perfect ©Flora Doehler, 2014 Acrylic, 8″ x 10″ $125
A New Voice ©Flora Doehler, 2014 Acrylic, 8″ x 10″ $125
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.
Acrylic, 16″ x 20″
Sketching the Acadian House in Annapolis Royal
Not only do the Historic Gardens in Annapolis Royal recreate gardens from the past, they also give us a glimpse into the home life of the Acadians who lived here before the British arrived.
The first occupiers in this part of the world were the French in the 1600’s. Their settlers were innovative farmers who reclaimed salt marshland and transformed it into fertile growing lands. Their relationships with First Nation groups was more harmonious than the British would be. Eventually the British – French wars meant that Acadians were thrown off their lands by the British and shipped to various outposts including Louisiana where ‘Acadian’ became ‘Cajun’.
Many families were hidden by the Mi’kmaq and refused to leave their Nova Scotian homeland. Today there are still small communities of Acadians in Nova Scotia who work hard to keep their language and culture alive.
Here in the gardens, the tiny thatched house with hand-made glass windows is a visual reminder of some of that history.
Last week in the gardens I sat in front of the thatch-roofed cabin and sketched it, later adding watercolour paint at home.
The Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens Inspire me – again!
About 30 years ago some clever garden and community development innovators in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia had the brilliant idea to recreate the historical periods of the town with a 17 acre garden.
This August, like the past 5 summers, I have painted in the Historic Gardens during Paint the Town. This fall I finally bought a membership…only cost me $35 a year…and I’ve been visiting my favorite flowers when I go to Annapolis. It’s a 25 minute scenic drive from my home in Bear River.
The gardens in Annapolis are exquisite…from wild and generous, to deliberate and precise. I love the Victorian Garden with its sunny, happy flowers and it’s outrageously oversized exotic-looking plants that look like they belong in an antique glassed-in greenhouse in England.
Incredibly, all the flowers are annuals and this is what the gardens look like before planting time.
What a difference 5 months makes!
In the days ahead, I’ll show you some drawings and paintings I’ve created lately at the Gardens.
I’m working on a series of flower paintings for an upcoming show I’m having with fellow painter Susan Geddes…also in Annapolis Royal, so painting and drawing at the gardens is very inspiring right now and is my homework!
This little painting of mine was auctioned at Paint the Town this summer.
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