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.
I work on at least four paintings during every stint in the studio. This week I worked on ten.
It means that the most studio paintings are ‘works in progress’ so today I only have one ‘almost finished’ to show you. Continue reading
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
Step into my studio and let me show you an easy way to create a new painting using collage and paint. Text of the tutorial follows. Continue reading
I went back and forth about the overall theme of this painting series I’m working on. For a while I wanted to paint something connected to Ancient Egypt after revisiting the amazing display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. I borrowed books and tapes from the library and listened to podcasts. I still AM listening to an interesting one, Eric’s Guide to Ancient Egypt. However, I didn’t feel connected enough to the subject to paint it. Continue reading
I have 5 new paintings on the go and I’m eager to tell you about the one that is closest to completion. It’s temporary title is “Garden of Persistence”.
I once looked at a list of 50 invasive weed species in Nova Scotia and recognized most of them because they’re growing at our place! Yet, I see beauty and persistence in all of them. 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
