Back in the Saddle

This autumn, Bill and I have enjoyed the company of some remarkable people in stellar locations from local haunts to NYC and the Appalachian Hills of Virginia and North Carolina, but, there comes a point when it is time to come home and hunker down for the winter. Back at the easel I'm focusing on marrying the adventure of working in mixed media with my fine art painting. I'm pleased to present my latest pieces ...

DANCING QUEEN   unframed 8" x 8" on a deep cradled wooden panel, acrylic and oil mixed media   SOLD 

My love affair with irises is no secret and so into the wet paint of the top right hand corner of Dancing Queen, I scribed "Oh iris, most exotic of flowers, how you dance!" For this background, I mixed sap green with a Daniel Smith luminescent acrylic called Duochrome Oceanic. The nondescript writing in the lower left is rubber stamped on. Knowing that I can achieve the luminosity I crave, I painted the flower with oil paint. When I was done I felt the top left was terribly blank looking so, with Golden moulding paste and a stencil, I added the scroll work. When that was dry I painted over it as I had the rest of the background.
  

CHICKADEE SONG   framed 8" x 8" acrylic mixed media on a MDF panel   $295.   SOLD 

Chickadee Song is worked entirely in acrylic over which I placed torn pieces of antique sheet music and pressed leaves.  The top leaves are from the autumn-turned willow tree next door and the Japanese maple leaves are from a tree Win's Creston, B.C. backyard. And, for those who will ask, to the best of my knowledge, the sheet music is Traumerei Op. 15 No. 7 by Robert Schumann and as I understand it, it's a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838.   

SKIMMERHORN GRAPES  unframed 6" x 6" acrylic mixed media on a deep gallery wrapped canvas   $150.

The background of Skimmerhorn Grapes (Creston, B.C. winery) was created using a rainbow of acrylic colours (some irredescent) painted over top of stretched and manipulated cheesecloth. When this was dry the peeling off of the cheesecloth left this magnificent patterning. For a long time I wondered what I would paint on it? I had an ah-ha moment when I found my photo of these grapes and thought "They'll be perfect!" the way that they echo that rainbow background.

CARDINAL   framed 5" x 7" acrylic on MDF panel   $150.

Taking art supplies out of the studio can be epic. Last week I was looking for a portable, clean and easy medium that I could take to the Claresholm Art Club's Create-In. I opted for a pan set of gouache paints and began this Cardinal there. At home, I sprayed it with a fixative so as not to disturb the water-soluble gouache colours when I painted over them with acrylic colours to further develop and enrich the bird.

Yesterday, I was thrilled to sell Dancing Queen at the Kinette Christmas Sale here in town! The other three pieces are available at Willowtree Designs, in Claresholm 403 625-4567