Blog
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.
