Blog

My painting Vintage Cultivation 2 has been juried in to the Headwaters Arts exhibition Transformations. The Opening Reception will be on Saturday April 30th, 2016 1pm-4pm. You will be able to meet the artists and enjoy light refreshments.
In addition to the Headwaters Gallery, the Alton Mill Art Centre (in Alton, Ontario) is home to the Bartlett Gallery and numerous artists studios which are open to the public. There is a small cafe, boutique shops, historical artifacts of the Mill, a mill pond and hiking trail. A great outing for the family.

We are told that Progressions V exhibition has arrived at the McMichael Canadian Collection in Kleinberg. This year there will be a closing reception. The date is undetermined at this time. It is very exciting for me to again have the opportunity to have a painting in this well-known well-loved iconic Canadian gallery. This is a travelling exhibition which is a rare opportunity as well. The most recent stop at Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre in Oakville received wonderful and profuse feedback. It is always worth your while to visit the McMichael. So much to see and on beautiful grounds.

I've been thinking about this one for a little while now. It is rather sweet to reuse the composition and just change up the feel of the painting with the colours. Black, being the ultimate dark, creates a luminosity that I love. I find this funny considering I am not much into black in a personal way. That is, clothes, decorating- but what it does for the colour of paint --wow!

"Field of My Dreams" will be on the website gallery later in the week after I decide whether it needs anything more

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Here is the 2nd of the monochromatic paintings I have done this last while. It is 12"x36" Acrylic. This is not the photo that will go into the website gallery but it gives you the idea. I love the luminosity rendered by the black to the green crop. More black has been left in this painting than is my usual. Enjoy your Spring wherever you are!

We're waiting for sunny spring skies and for word of how much our client loves her new painting "Down in the Meadow". This week, I've been working on a spring painting of crop lines in the Mulmur and Caledon Hills. The picture, based loosely on a driveby view we saw in January (see Mild Winter Morning in the Hills), reimagines the view in spring. A monochromatic painting in rich spring greens. It's been fun to paint monochromatically-- not so many choices.

This time, more of the underpainting is left to create a luminosity with the spring greens. I am hoping this one will be an entry to the Etobicoke Art Group juried show in May. Time will tell. Sneak peek coming soon. Needs a few tweeks yet.

Spring is on its way. Can you feel the energy? It has been an unusually exciting winter for me, having had the solo exhibition Hills and Meadows at Dragonfly Arts on Broadway in Orangeville. I have just finished a commission that came out of that show. See below for the picture of Down in the Meadow. It is 24"x30". The travelling group exhibition Progressions V has hung at Queen Elizabeth Park Community Cultural Centre all winter. Eventually this exhibition will stop at the McMichael Canadian Collection in Kleinberg.

I love the blue in the bands of the sky. Hard to resist using it. "Any colour as long as it's blue" makes me smile. Why do some of us love blue so much? This spring, the meadow should burst into bloom (since the plants are 3 years old) and I will have some unique resource material-- Not that it will probably make much difference since in my imagination it is always billowing with beautiful colours. Technically this would be a fall painting since the poplars are yellow and the sumacs have turned red. Beautiful blue skies ahead make it all good!

My first solo exhibition is now hanging at Dragonfly Arts on Broadway in downtown Orangeville-- about an hour from Toronto. The "Meet the Artist" event was a success and we even received press coverage. Thank you to the Orangeville Citizen for the article. Two paintings "In Her Dreams" and "Meadow" were included in the print edition. "In Her Dreams" was included in the online newspaper. The article is on Arts and Entertainment page in good company with an article about Dan Needles and his father. Needles is the famed Canadian author and playwright of the Wingfield Farms series.

A Job well done at Dragonfly Arts on Broadway in beautiful downtown Orangeville:

Owner Joan Hope and I (mostly Joan :) hung my Feature Wall exhibition today. Joan teetered on the chair and ladder working the long metal rods that hold the clips that attach the wires. It looks fantastic and I hope that if you are anywhere nearby in the GTA you will drop by and take a look. My prices are still very reasonable ….and Joan has so many beautiful things in her shop in old Orangeville. The wall that my paintings are supported by is from 1900. It's truly a destination shop if you love lovely one of a kind artist made things. I will be there hosting a meet the artist from 1-4pm on Saturday February 6, 2016.

Progressions V opened today at Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre in Oakville. This is third time I have participated in a travelling exhibition. There are 29 12"x16" landscape paintings by 29 artists. The works, which were painted in the Pine Cottage at the McMichael Canadian Collection in Kleinberg, will be shown in 5 locations in Ontario including the McMichael .

John Leonard RCA organized this exhibition of work. Many of the participating artists have been mentored by John and we are grateful for his involvement.

My painting 'Burnt' abstractly considers the area in the Okanagan Lake valley which has been hit by devastating fires in recent years. The painting is an echo originating in my previous Okanagan Lake series, done in the manner of the current series with black textured underpainting.

I've combined the flattened shapes composition structure of the first series (Okanagan Lake series) with the surface/underpainting technique of the the second series (black textured underpainting) and come up with Okanagan Lake 7. Check out the negative spaces which I have also been playing with. It's ready for critique. comments?

( The sixth in the Okanagan Lake series is on the touring group exhibition at the moment so is not yet included in the GALLERY.)

Usually the texture is created in a random way but with the next work in progress, I have placed some texture intentionally. Just playing around. Stay posted. Okanagan Lake 7