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.

Grizzly Valley Hike

At the top of Rogers Pass in BC at the beginning of Balu Pass trail is a warning poster about bears in the area. The trail heads straight up in to a dark cool forest of huge hemlocks hung with lichen and roots that bulge the trail with interesting lumps and tripping bumps. It is steep  and doesn't level out till it breaks out into the avalanche slope several kilometers above.  Here in the open valley the trail is on a steady but comfortable rise...climbing through lush greenery and fern as we alternate sides of the rushing streams that are being fed by the quickly dwindling snow pack. It is simply amazing to look up pass the new lush growth to snow, talus slopes and rocky peaks far above.

The incline kept growing and the scenery just kept becoming more beautiful as we hiked.  Hot, sweaty and feeling my legs now...We crossed one avalanche and numerous snow packs before reaching the mountain top to be rewarded with the most amazing views in every direction.  Massive rock peaks, old glaciers and rich green valleys dotted with flowers made it delightful. Hiking boots have done their job, feet are tired but not sore.

Totally worth the energy to get to such a spot but at that point we had only seen several marmots, granted they were impressively large and a few chipmunks. Butterflies and bugs were plentiful but for a wildllife artist I was hoping for more. It is definitely sheep country but a detailed scan of the mountains failed to reveal even one.

Now I was expecting to see some bears. The trail we hiked was called Balu Pass...Indian for bear. The mts that I was looking up at are Ursus Major and Ursus Minor (latin for bear) or Grizzly mts. At the top of Balu Pass is a grizzly reserve.  So not to be pushing my luck but I was definitely hoping for a bear sighting.

The return trip was beautiful and allot quicker with standing slides down some of the snowy slopes and allot less energy needed for climbing. It was one Km from the bottom into the hemlock forest when I heard the movement to my right.....there about 50 yards from me was a beautiful young grizzly female with two cubs.  Her fur was rich and plush, one cub was dark like mom and the other was light colored. She watched calmly and intently as we walked on past before she proceeded to lead her cubs up the hill.

Have to say it was a pleasure to see the namesake of the valley before leaving. Wish I had a great photo but just have to share it with words. The opportunity to see her and her cubs made the trip perfect.

By the way, on the subject of bears.......
My grizzly painting "Down by the River" is one of three finalists for Artist of Year for BC Wildlife Federation.  Go to their webpage and the public can vote for their favourite.
http://www.bcwf.bc.ca

Geese, Art and my Reticular Activating System

The Reticular Activation System is part of a human brain that takes care of many important jobs but the one that pertains to this post is it job as an information filter, sorting through the mass of data and information that comes at us through our senses. 

When you have a new interest it is due to this RAS system that you suddenly seem to see more of that new subject around you. If you purchase a red car...all of a sudden you see red cars everywhere....it makes sense that they were there before but you were not activated to see them. 

Well long story short....my new interest is geese....Canadian geese. I am working on a project that features Canadian geese and this spring I find I am surrounded by them. If I turn on the TV there is a documentary on them. If I go for a walk they are there in the pond and or flying over head. If I grab a wildlife book it pops open to the page that features them. I love this. And it was all wonderfully topped off by 4 Canadian geese moving in to live on our property for a month this spring. First time in 30 years that any geese have lived here with us.

Every morning we were awoken by the hooking of geese....( that may have been carrying this RAS thing way too far) and our morning barn visits were overseen by 2 or more geese either on top of the shed or waddling ahead of us to the corral. In the last week or so the mornings have been quiet and I imagine that is was time for the geese to move onto larger water than available here. But what a great thing to have my inspiration right here for even a short time. Here are a few photos of our feathered visitors. 

Damaged brushes make the best textures.

It is true, your oldest ugliest and most abused brushes make the best textures in a painting.  But those wonderful old brushes are on their last legs and then suddenly just done. So sometimes you just have to help a few less than desirable brushes along to that wonderful state. So by twisting, cutting, pruning and plucking...I will try to recreate that wonderful old random texture that will help me to form rocks, bark, and soil textures on my painting. This photo shows two brushes that I have helped along to a ragged state with my favourite sponge.

Today as an experiment I took a new foam roller and had a fun time plucking out some the foam to see if I could replicate a sandy beach texture...it did not really work, some of my ideas just don't pan out. The wild patterns of a natural sponge are much better.

 So still working with my old or newly damaged brushes, sometimes a crumpled rag to lift off some of the newly laid paint and most often my finger tips to smudge and blur the paint. (Just learning to protect fingers from too much paint with either a full glove or just a finger cut off a glove.) For me the answer to creating good natural texture is first to study it for form, color and pattern....and then find the tool that will best recreate it....most often for me it is the combination of one of my tortured brushes and natural sponge.

Raccoon Painting

The animals that manage to live right next door to us, right on the edge of our yards and the edges of our towns are the some of the most clever and most adaptable animals. These are the coyotes, rabbits, marmots, raccoons, mice and squirrels: not generally admired, they really do deserve recognition for cohabiting with us.

These animals have found their ways to live with us in spite of the dangers that we as humans present. I have to say I admire their adaptability and this painting celebrates a particular favourite of mine.

Here is an acrylic painting on board of a young raccoon delicately washing up in the creek.

 This is a painting that explores visual textures... Rocks, fur and water.......hard, soft and liquid. 

I took this as my demo painting to Opus Art Store and shared part of my process in creating textures with the artists that attended.