Cameras and Wildlife Art

As a wildlife artist, I live for the encounters with the creatures in the woods, birds in the sky and mice under the logs. Each encounter brings me a thrill of pleasure and the exciting thought of trying to bring that meeting to the canvas or paper to share.

As you know a camera is an amazing tool to get you the visual information that you might be able to use in future paintings. I am fairly happy with the set up of these 3 cameras that I have right now. While I am not a fantastic photographer  these cameras have been a great help to me.  As people often ask me what cameras I use..... here they are.

I have a small camera for throwing into my purse or pocket when walking. It is a little Lumix 20 Zoom.....takes a great clear photo and has a good zoom. This is just a lovely little camera that takes away any reason you have for not carrying a camera as it is smaller than my wallet.

Cannon Powershot SX50hs for my mid size camera.......and if I can name drop here.....Robert Bateman recommend this one to me.  It is a good light weight mid size camera with a great zoom.
If you only want one camera, this would be the one of these three I would suggest...mid size, takes a great long distance shot.

Then for my big Camera I have a Cannon Rebel XTI with various lens that takes some great shots also but needs a higher skill level then I have at times. It is an awesome camera...but one down side is that it is heavy and of course you need to have the right lens on at the right time.


Here is an example of the PowerShot zoom....(by the way not advertising for Cannon)....just sharing a great tool that I enjoy. Two photos with same camera...first one no zoom...second one full zoom.

Wish it was a beautiful sunny day but it is an overcast grey day so this is not a stellar photo but will give you an example of this camera's zoom. Here is the view from my studio... and yes those two horses on in the nearest field are ours....they are a delightful fellows.  Now if you look in the center of the top photo in the distance you will see a peak of a building.  Here below is the powershot zoomed inn on that peak....not bad eh?

Painting flowers

Every spring and summer when the flowers start to bloom I am totally distracted from whatever I planned to paint by the beauty of the flowers. There is something so amazing about the grace and colour of a rose, the vitality of a sunflower, the strength of a dandelion that makes me rush to the easel. Here are a few of the paintings that have come from summertime. Hope they help to make you feel a bit warmer on this winter day.  

Spring apple blossoms in Salmon Arm

African Tulip flower in Mexico

White Lilies in Butchart Gardens

Sun flowers in Kelowna

Paintings available

Graphite Grey Portraits

In the last year I ventured away from just painting animals and nature.  It was my year to challenge myself and try something new.... PEOPLE.

I have always admired artists who could represent people in an accurate and attractive manner....I have started using a minimalist approach with a white background and soft graphite gray as my tone. Here are a few of examples of portraits of friends and family. This has been an interesting exercise and I look forward to continuing to experiment with portraits.  What do you think?

Mt Revelstoke Park

The National Park of Mt Revelstoke is an inspiring place of beautiful nature. This summer I was invited up to stay in the small cabin at the top of the mt...to seek that inspiration and create three paintings. Here is one of the three  paintings. Here is the combination of elements that come to my mind when I think of the Park; peaks of barren rock crowding up into the sky, skinny alpine trees, a small clear lake ( I think this one is call Heather Lake ) reflecting the clear blue sky and of course the alpine flowers in full bloom.

Painting Inspiration

Inspiration can come from so many things and ideas. Sometimes the ideas come rushing in, tumbling over each other and tripping in their hurry to arrive. Other times they hover just outside my mental door taking a long time before entering.

I can feel the idea but just need more time to let it grow fully into an inspiration and then I take out the paints, find the right size canvas and jump into the planning and creating. Sometimes it needs a thumbnail drawing to start,  just to clarify where I am going and other days I just want to fly at it and wing it. Now when I wing it sometimes I end up somewhere other than were I thought it was going to go....in some paintings that is good...others not so much. But no matter where I end up I learn something about creating and painting; hopefully something good.

Mice Art or eeeEEEK

There is something about mice....some of us are attracted to the little beggars and find them cute, almost cuddly and generally like them as long as they stay out of the house and our cereal boxes....then there are those of us who are totally afraid of them....jumping on chairs and working on a vendetta to eradicate them. In my family we have both types of these people.

It probably doesn't surprise any of you to discover that I am one of the ones that likes them and have had them for pets. Not long ago as a break from a large project that I am working on I had a mouse visit my studio. I made a lovely little glass home for him in my aquarium and spent the afternoon chatting with him while I sketched and photographed him.  Here are a couple of the quick studies that came from that meeting.

Now while I would have like to kept him for a few days...he did not seem to really be settling in as some of them do....so I took him out to our barn and released him with a feed of oats.
Psst...don't tell Neil that we seem to have quite a few of them in the barn.

Art on the top of Mt Revelstoke

Just home from a great artist residency on the top of Mt Revelstoke. It was amazing...4 days in a small rustic cabin without electricity or running water in one of the most beautiful parks in BC with 2 other visual artists. When the gates closed in the early evening through to when they opened in the morning...the mountain was ours alone.

The days were full of visitors of all nationalities coming to hike and admire this mountain...but when we hiked out on the trails, the mountain soon adsorbed all those visitors into the quiet beauty. Flowers of all colours bloomed in the meadows under skinny alpine trees and high rocky peaks and well maintained trails led us to even more lovely destinations.

We three artists ( myself, Caroline Scagel and Wendy Mould) were  invited into the park to explore and be inspired. This year is the 100 anniversary of Mt Revelstoke Park and the artwork that we will create from this experience will be used to celebrate the importance and beauty of this park.  Each of our days was full of inspiration with hours of hiking, sketching and painting in a small naturally lit studio. It was a great studio space to share our art and hide from the ample diversity of bug life....many visitors stop by to see what we were up to and stayed for the great conversation and peace from the never ending mosquito hum. Other than the bugs -  other wildlife sighting of pika, marmots, chipmunks, owls, ravens and whiskey jacks were enjoyed. Some of my Park paintings will reflect those meetings.

Our days were full and later in the quiet evenings a full super moon lit the night as brightly as day and invited us out in the early am hours to wander in the moonlight. When the gates opened in the morning the first intrepid hikers would meet in the top parking lot and quickly disappear into the woods. The Park officials were friendly, helpful and full of information on the history of the park, the flora and animals and generously shared bug spray and water with whoever needed it. It was an excellent experience and I look forward to creating art that reflects that.
Happy 100th Anniversary Mt Revelstoke National Park!

 

                 A beautiful view from the top of Mt Revelstoke looking down at the lake.

Me sketching by Balsam Lake 

Just hiked in 7km to Lake Eva with Caroline and Wendy

                           A rocky ridge of stone across the valley from Mt Revelstoke Summit.