New work for the Saugeen Artists' Guild Christmas Gallery

These four new paintings from my easel are on the wall in the Saugeen Artists' Guild Art Store that opens November 1 2018.  I hope many of you will take the opportunity to visit sometime before Christmas!  It will feel like a lovely gallery to peruse, not just a place to purchase something.  All 29 artists want to share their talents with you, hoping you enjoy seeing their latest work.  

Autumn Medley
acrylic and collage
12 x 16
(This piece and the one below also have real leaves collaged on them!)

Plump Sparrow
acrylic and collage
11 x 14

Sheep Dreams
acrylic
12 x 16

Three Birches
acrylic
11 x 14

The Saugeen Artists' Guild Christmas Store is opening again!

The members of our art group are busy this week getting our new location ready for this year's store.  It will be open for business on Thursday, November 1, with the Grand Opening on Saturday, November 3.   The members all take turns being on duty, so I hope to see many of you there before Christmas!  The store is right beside the Hanover Post Office, where a gift shop used to be.  Here is more information:

A Wet and Wild Paint Week

I spent the week of August 20 to 25 at a painting course given by my good friend and fellow artist Cheryl O, in London.  The title of the course, " Wet and Wild and Collage", will give you a good idea of what the week was like!  Eleven of us could be found at various times during the week squatting in the grass over a plastic tub, pouring fluid acrylic paint down the canvas, spattering water and other colours, and watching the paint mix and flow in amazing ways.  Some of the results could be called "chance", but there is certainly a huge amount of skill involved in knowing how the paint and water will mix, and run.  For instance, too much Phthalo blue can be a disaster!  And mixing complementary colours produces lovely mud.  Here are some photos of the week.  As I continue to work on the ten paintings I began that week, I will post some of the best results.  

My first attempts.

Ready to spray with water.

Cheryl is demonstrating what to do with a poured painting next, after it dries.

I'm holding two paintings (bottom left)
that I think are finished.......

A video of a successful day for the Saugeen Artists Guild

Thanks to Olga Peregood for this excellent video of our recent day's art show at the Hanover Sights and Sounds Weekend, July 28, 2018.

Sights and Sounds is coming up!

Every year our art group is involved in the Hanover Sights and Sounds event on the last weekend of July.  For the second year we will be setting up in St. Matthew's Church, just off main street where all the action will be all weekend.  Our event will be Saturday, July 28, from 9:30 to 4:30.  This year some of us will be demonstrating our craft in a tent just outside the building.  I will have my acrylics there (along with potter Maggie!) from 11:00 to 12:00.  It would be wonderful to see some of you there!  

My Upcoming Summer Art Show

There's nothing like a deadline to spur some creativity!  I was so honoured to be invited to be part of a show at the L. E. Shore Library in Thornbury for the months of July and August this year.  I've been working hard to produce a suitable body of work since March, and this week it travels to Thornbury for the show hanging.  There are four other artists involved, with a variety of work from abstracts to 3D.  Click on the photo to the right to see who is also in the show.  It will be up for all of July and August, with an official reception on July 7, from 2:00 to 4:00.  I'll be there, and hopefully will see some of you there too.  Here are some samples of my work that will be on the walls of this lovely gallery, which is part of the library.  The most interesting aspect of this venue is that it is beside the school where I taught for 13 years before I retired.  I walked over to storytime at the library on Friday afternoons with several classes of young students over the years.  It's a privilege to be showing my paintings there!

"Barnyard Gaggle"
acrylic
30 x 36
$700

"I Spy Pies"
acrylic
11 x 14
$140

"Profusion"
acrylic
18 x 48
$650

"Spotlight on Geraniums"
acrylic
11 x 14
$140

"Spring's Promise"
acrylic
20 x 20
$400

If you live near Owen Sound...........

...............you will likely be familiar with the Owen Sound Artists' Co-op.  For the month of June, my art group (now called the Saugeen Artists' Guild) has a show of our members' work in the Legacy Room there.  If you click on the photo on the right, you will see information about that show, and my own painting is on that page!  Their home page can be found here.  The Co-op is full of all kinds of beautiful art pieces, not just paintings.   In particular I have enjoyed the extensive and unique displays of pottery.  One of my favourite things to shop for!

What a fun group of painters!

My latest acrylic class had the theme of water and boats, on May 15.  Everyone had a  successful day!  Here we are:

Our second painting was a technique called "tonking".  After applying paint, by spreading colours on top of  lots of white, we placed saran wrap on the canvas and pressed down with our fingers in order to spread out the colours.  When we pulled up the saran, there was a beautiful abstract piece, ready to have some details added to create a landscape!  Here are some of our beginnings:

The next class will be July 3.  Watch my Classes page to see what the theme will be.  

A tribute to Toronto heritage......

This painting is from a photo I have taken repeatedly when I  visit the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) in Toronto.  I love the long line of beautiful old homes across from the gallery.  I did another painting a few years ago of the house with the purple trim.  But I wanted to show it with its neighbours this time, and with a modern biker as a contrast.  It would be easy to ride past these regal homes with a familiarity that could make us blind to their history.  Many of them have been turned into retail buildings, including a couple of art galleries and restaurants.  I love painting buildings, with all the angles and posts and shapes.  It's a challenge!  I changed the perspective a bit to make the homes look like they are very tall and we are looking way up at them.  The biker really was there too, but further along the road.  I moved him/her where I wanted!

"Riding Past Royalty"
acrylic
24 X 18

A painting that will hang outside!

I was pleased to be accepted again this year in the Owen Sound Banner Project.  My painting "The Family Farm" will be on one of the banners somewhere near the harbour or on the main street.  The banners should be going up by mid-June.  Then my job will be to find mine!  All of the banners can be viewed at owensoundartbanner.ca and most of them are available for purchase, to be picked up after they come down in the fall.

"The Family Farm"
SOLD
and living in Medicine Hat!

Something to dream about...........

On April 14, a freezing rain warning and a new layer of snow.  Yikes!!  What a great time to post a new painting with a scene that we would all like to jump into!  This beach venue is from a photo I took some years ago at a church camp called Mishewah, which is connected to my church.  It brings back wonderful memories of swimming, sailing, games, children laughing and splashing, and adults lined up along the shore in lawn chairs carried down from the cabins beyond.  I tried to capture the feel of the hot sun and the deep shadows, and of course the towels thrown over the railings after the swimming lesson of the day.  I think everyone has just headed over to the Tuck Shop for an ice cream cone.  A scene we can only dream about today! 

Gone for Ice Cream
acrylic
16 X 20

Ready for the Storm

It seems like the right day to publish a new painting of mine.  It's snowing and blowing outside on April 4th!  Here is a farm scene that is actually only a short distance from my home.  I love the way it is nestled behind the snowy hill, far from the road.  This picturesque farm calls to me to paint it as I drive by, any season of the year.  I tried a slightly different style here, using short, deliberate strokes, trying not to overdo them.  I think it gets across the idea of the sky during an evening, just before a storm, when all of the farm's occupants are safe and warm inside.  

Ready for the Storm
acrylic
12 x 30

Returning to Thornbury for a summer show!

The beautiful L. E. Shore Llibrary in  Thornbury has a stunning gallery, that I have displayed my paintings in more than once in the past few years.  I was thrilled to be invited to join with several other artists in a show coming up in July and August of this year, 2018.  I've been working hard to build up a new inventory to show there.  You will see most of these beforehand, right on this blog!  

Here is the first finished piece.  I wanted to do it early, while I was still enthused about a scene with snow.....

Under a Warm Winter Blanket
acrylic
22 x 28