My Brothers

Everyone seems to have an affinity to one or more natural elements. Something that calls to them more than the other elements. I love the earth, rocks and the wilderness in the woods. My husband loves being on the water. While painting, I think allot about the characteristic of what I am painting, dwelling on all the attractive aspects of it while trying to imbue the painting with those emotions.

Two recent paintings brought my brothers to my mind. My brothers are not only great brothers,  but also great outdoors men. My older brother is drawn to the tops of mountain, that spot where earth ends and sky begins. He hikes and bikes to the rocky peaks in the summer and skis them in the winter. As I worked on the details of rock and snow on this painting....I often thought of Eric and his intense love of the mountains.

My younger brother is drawn to the water that runs in the rivers, pools in the lakes and waves in  the sea. An expert kayak-er, Robert  has taken me on some wonderful paddling trips. One such trip he shared the beautiful spot that is the inspiration for this painting.

 "Healing Waters" was one of the top 4 paintings in the Trout Unlimited Canada 2012 Art competition.

Shadows

For a painter, light and shadows are part of the fabric of the creation that we strive to make. They are what adds the final touch of life into painting. The light is what gives the artwork energy.The light reflected in an eye allows us to see its soul in the shadow.

Colour can give art passion but shadow gives it depth and form. Without passion artwork becomes reserved but without light and shadow it  never becomes.
I love a reserved work of art that has the mystery of shadows.  The depth of shadow shelters part of nature 's story that we need to see; the baby rabbits in their nest, the moose grazing in the night and firelight in the shadows of the cedars.
I think that you can tell what it is that I have been working on today in the studio.

"Seeking Solitude"

This painting is finished but what to call it?

Painting titles are important and too often they are chosen without enough thought or because of a hurry to meet a deadline. Not today, for this painting I wanted a name that reflected the nature of mountain goats. Something that addresses how they live and where you see them. They are an incredible beautiful animal that find the most remote and rocky crag to look out over the tree line. They are rock climbers and cloud watchers.

I was stuck, knowing what I wanted to say but not finding the words. So I contacted a good friend who spends months in the mountains seeking out these incredible animals and asked his advice.  With all his experience he was able to come up with the evocative title that I was struggling to find. His suggestion after studying my painting was " Seeking Solitude." 

Yes! thank you Mike, that fits.

Guy Combes at Wildstreak Art Workshop

Hello all, just a quick note to the artists out there. Wild Streak Art and Denise are hosting another workshop this year. It has been a couple of years since the last one. These are just outstanding workshops and not to be missed. This year's workshop will be April 26-30th and will be featuring Guy Combes. He is a wonderful artist and will be sharing his talent for wildlife art. Guy was born in Kenya and will be teaching about how to paint African animals.  It was a pleasure to meet Guy down in Wyoming this fall and to have the opportunity to discuss wildlife art with him while watching him paint.  So for anyone who is interested contact Denise Soule at http://www.wildstreakart.com/

75 year anniversary

Our Salmon Arm Art Gallery, SAGA is housed in a wonderful old heritage building that will be celebrating its 75th year in 2012. So the members art show theme  in January is 75. Now the gallery has allowed us lots of latitude in how we can interpret that 75 theme.

Still at first I was kind of stumped as to what I could or would paint for such a theme. I always like to have a strong nature or animal in my artwork and always try to present the theme in my own style. After thinking through a number of ideas....this is the one I have come up with.

When  building was first built in 1937 it was a post office, then it became a library and finally an art gallery. So my painting has a letter to represent the post office and two large books to represent the library. The title of the top book is "The 75 year Saga" with the dates 1937-2012 on it's spine. The bottom book is simply titled "Art History" to represent the Art Gallery life in this historic building.

On top of these antique books is an orange tabby cat.....our old Stanley cat.  I put in Stanley because....well I loved Stanley and he was a wonderful cat....but also because over the years many cats have been fed out of the back kitchen door at the gallery in the old cedars. Cats are interwoven into the history of the building and had to be my link between this theme and my animal paintings. This was a fun painting to tuck into December between all the busy-ness of the season.

A Special Place

Sometimes you find a special place. A place that connects with you and assures you that all is wonderful with the world. This is a painting of such a place. It is a wild and natural spot where the water pools deep and dark between high stone banks. This water is so pure and clear as it rushes over the rocks that glow in the warm light and heads down stream.

This painting is called "Healing Waters."  It is 30x36 inches and is painted with acrylic on canvas. Thank you to my brother, Robert for the great kayak trips each year that include visiting such wonderful places as this.

I'm Back!

Hello, it has been a while since I have blogged. Life interrupted the way it sometimes can, without taking into consideration what my plans are.
That's alright, work in the studio has resumed and I am happy to be well into a coyote painting. I love to paint animals that are really part of my daily life. Coyotes are one of  these. They are smart, illusive and so quick to adapt to what we do....like the spirit of the wilderness they ghost through my yard and sing loudly  to me in the night. This painting is like a cross between my Out of the Dark series and my full colour paintings. The back ground is dark with a full light foreground. It certainly gives it a punch of drama. I will be posting it shortly as it is coming close to being complete.