It's Been a While

My last solo show was in April three years ago.  WILD! featured paintings large and small, mostly new and some really early pieces from the 1960s to the 1980s.  These were to illustrate that my love for the big cats of the world was not a new thing.  What I am building up to here is this collection included the last large canvas (36" x 54") I was to paint for a while.

Today I celebrate finishing the largest canvas since then ...


Table Mountain and Beaver Mines Lake
(Southern Alberta Rockies)
oil on canvas 30" x 24" (day four)


Moving from Canmore to Claresholm, Alberta, in September 2008, heralded a semi-retirement mode for me.  I am now in a position to paint for the sheer pleasure of it, to experiment with mixed media, pottery, card making, book binding and whatever my little heart desires.  It feels good to be living the dream!

I have always leaned on having a purpose to propel me to paint.  The Alberta Society of Artists will showcase an exhibition called Peaks of the Canadian Rockies (in July and August).  This is what encouraged me to paint the scene; to enter it into the juried show.  Let's see if it is accepted.

When we went south, for the month of March, I left the painting on the easel at this stage; an acrylic wash.  I like to think of it as a colour map.  Often, but not always, I start an oil this way.

After day one

 

End of day two the canvas is now covered with oil



After day three


The painting was completed on day four ... see the image at the top of this post.