New Instructional Magazines

I just published this new instructional magazine, and I am really happy with the way it came out.
  I have been teaching classes and doing demonstrations based on the concepts in this book for a year now.
SPLAT!!! makes me really happy because it incorporates careful planning with fresh playful brush technique.

The magazine is affordable and easy to understand.  I really hope my students and past students pick up a copy.


I published "Tools for Painting Landscapes last spring.  It is based on class noted I took during a William Reese Workshop I attended in 1994.

The next magazines, (coming Soon) will be on creating color harmony, perspective, and values and light.
  I'll keep you posted.

Evening Fire

 An October Trip to Prince Edward Island became the inspiration for these two most recent paintings. I spent a good part of December working on them when I should have been preparing to have a houseful of family for the holidays. I managed to cobble together a reasonable facsimile of Christmas, and everyone seemed happy with the results. But the pay off was that I took the time I needed to paint.

 

Evening Fire 30" x 40" acrylic on canvas

I've been working on creating mood in my landscape paintings, exploring elements in each painting that evoke the essence of mood, and how I can  use these elements to improve my next piece.  I brought these two painting into my classes this week and asked my students about the feeling or mood that they experienced when viewing them side by side. The discussion revolved around the aspects of the paintings seemed to evoke mood. I was pleased that the consensus of the students matched my goals.

   

In "Evening Fire", it is the end of a day and the end of a season. The day is shutting down, the temperature is cooling off. Everything is going quiet. The muted dark colors, soft edges and lone figure imply quiet introspection. I started this painting with cooler grays and harder edges, and the feeling was depressing and morose. When I softened the grasses and warmed the colors, the feeling of the painting became warmer as well.
I loved the fiery glow of the last ray of sun as it slid down the far bank of trees, and reflected in the buildings on the distant shore.

 

 

Canoe Cove Tide Change 30" x 40" acrylic on canvas

In "Canoe Cove", I was trying to recreate the feeling I had when first viewing the scene. It was a feeling of peaceful anticipation...of a day yet to be experienced....sun, sand and an empty beach...sand bars just exposed and ready for exploration. The complimentary colors and gentle diagonal movements in the clouds and sand seem to create a subtle energy.

 

 I am always searching for ways to improve my paintings.  It is sometimes a slow road, but I keep working.  The work itself is a reward.  I love the moments when I close the door on the studio, squeeze out the paints, ready my brushes and realize with joy that this could very well take all day. Christmas won't wait, but sometimes inspiration won't wait either.

 

Bird Notes

Bird Notes

All of the paintings in this series started with a question...What would happen if ...? Each painting is an experiment with paints, mediums, collage items, textures, and techniques based on my original question.

I decided to base the imagery (birds, plants animals and object) on things I observe on my daily walks around my neighbourhood. This gives me a chance to wrap my ideas around something concrete while my creativity and imagination go off to play.

I discovered that as each question gets explored, three more pop up. I don’t know if I’ll ever find an end point to the Bird Notes Series. It’s Too Fun

 

 

 

 

Most of these pieces are showing at the Cole Gallery in Edmonds WA through Christmas.

View all the paintings in this series.

Two Weeks In Oakville

The last two weeks in October were spent teaching workshops in Oakville, Ontario.  I love all the wonderful painters who attended the classes.  Here are some photos of them and their work.  The studio was situated in an amazing garden right next to lake Ontario.

 

 

 

 

Island Time-Canada Style

North Rustico Lighthouse  20" x 16" Acrylic




"Spire"  36" x 24" acrylic

"Off Broadway" 24" x 20" acrylic



"Last Nice Day of Summer" 8" x 8" acrylic



"Power Pull"  20" x 24" acrylic

 

Tomorrow I head back to Prince Edward Island...a place I have loved for over a dozen years. This time it will be seriously fall.  It's hard to believe I've never been there in the fall.  I've visited in Spring when the wildflowers are rolling up every hill, and in Summer when the beaches and sidewalks and open air restaurants are lively with people enjoying the sun.

 I'll be teaching a short workshop as well, so my week there will seem very short.  Prince Edward Island almost demands that you spend time, park the car, explore on foot, window shop, laugh and linger with friends, ramble along the beaches...get sand in your shoes. I'm eager to dive into Autumn.

After my week in Charlottetwon, I'm off the the Toronto area to teach two five day workshops.  This is such a lovely opportunity to experience another town and more wonderful Canadian aritsts. I'll report back....

Click for more paintings of Prince Edward Island

Workshop Demo

Roses on the Ruins 36" x 24" Acrylic on Masonite

This weekend I taught another workshop at the Winslow Arts Center. This painting was a demonstration on using a limited palette.  It was completed in a little over an hour of furious painting.  I did it during the lunch break because I wanted my students to get back to their own work.
It was amazing to see the progress they all made in two short days.

Friday Workshop

Last Friday I taught a one day workshop at the Winslow Arts Center on Bainbridge Island.  It was so much fun.  There were some really great painters there, and everyone stepped out of their comfort zone.  Here are photos of a few of the participants work.  I will be teaching another workshop there on October 6th and 7th.

Off to Winslow

In Quiet Water 18" x 14" acrylic on masonite

   This Painting was the product of my stay on Bainbridge Island in August  where I taught a three day plein air workshop.  I go there again tomorrow to teach another workshop.  It's been a busy month with my classes starting, exhibitions going up and others coming down, meetings (blah...blah...blah..).  My commute time from my home on a little island is about an hour and a half each way.  Sometimes I feel like I'm just rushing from one minute to the next.
     Then there's painting.  It seems to suspend time...or better, time seems to stretch sideways.  And there is the added benefit of slowing down, standing for hours very quietly in front of something that inspires me...trying to observe every nuance.  The act of painting is very personal to me and frames everything else with meaning and purpose.