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A few days ago I shipped "Red Jade" to her new home in Colorado Springs. I built a box using high density foam insulation, secured the ends with packing tape and glued the ends with a glue gun. I placed the plastic wrapped painting in the box and wrapped it up in cardboard. I used the "4 day guaranteed" postage through Canada Post, believing that the less time it is in transit the safer it is. It got there safe and sound and within the 4 days.

Here we are Anne Miller, Richard Wong, Linda Baker and myself at Goward House for the month of October. The show looks fantastic and there is something for everyone. Goward House is a fabulous venue for an art show and I understand the original owners were artists so what a wonderful legacy.

On Saturday several of us, artists and friends hired a van and driver and took to the back roads of Saanich sampling wine, cider and gin. Needless to say we did not have one sober person at the end of the day.

What a fun day at the TD Moss Street Paint-in. Over a hundred artists were invited to participate in this very popular annual event. Moss Street becomes a pedestrian only street for the day and thousands of people enjoy talking to the artists, viewing the art and even perhaps taking home a new painting. The day started out cold and windy but by noon it had warmed up. Thank you all for coming out and visiting, I really enjoyed seeing you.

Here I am on a very windy day, easels and paintings setting sail across the harbour. Had a lot of fun with other Scattered Artists also challenged by the wind. Found creative ways of tying down the work.

Yesterday Shelby and I installed our paintings in the Bacchus Room at the Muse Winery on Chalet Road. We had fun arranging the placement of paintings and are very happy with the results. The tasting room, gift shop and vineyard sits on a gorgeous acreage in north Saanich. Our wonderful host Jane was very helpful and welcoming and we spent a lovely afternoon sampling their delicious lunch menu and setting up the show which runs July and August. We will be on site painting several afternoons during the two months.

We had a fabulous weekend for which I was grateful as I displayed my paintings in the garden. We had a huge turnout and it was wonderful to see so many friends and fellow artists. Visitors were mesmerized by the racoons, deer and ducks that were sunning themselves on the lawn.

Recently I mailed a 18 x 36 inch painting to Toronto. I made some changes to the packing material I used this time and was very happy with the results. I used 1 inch high density insulation foam, bought at Home Depot and used a glue gun to make a very snug box. I cut the pieces I needed with a break off knife, two large ones for top and bottom and 4 smaller ones for the sides. I put the painting in a large plastic bag, popped on the lid of the box and wrapped it in thin cardboard. The whole package weighed less than 6 pounds, 2.8 kg to be exact.

I thought I would try something new with painting flowers. I started off with a wash of the color I wanted to show through the the succeeding layers. In this case a rich coppery color had red and brown as the over riding color in this flower. I added alizerin crimson and and cobalt violet over a quinacridone nickel azo gold wash. This created the coppery color with subtle changes in hue for the tonal values. The background was a hard decision as I didn't want anything too refined but I needed a bit of drama and contrast. I used burnt umber and payne's grey and white to create the background.

One of my favorite hiking spots is along the Cowichan River, especially in wild flower season. I did a painting of this photo taken by my friend Don Fleming. Inspiration comes from many sources, and this photo reminded me of a day I hiked along the river identifying shooting stars, satin flowers, twin flowers, tiarella, aquilegia, meadow rue, lewisia and other flowers that are so prolific in this area. I especially like the beautiful ferns, the maidenhair fern in particular. It has been said that a painting that evokes a memory or feeling is a successful painting. I feel that this photo captures the beauty of the area and represents so well our west coast rain forest.