New Work

Night Owls   unframed acrylic/mixed media on canvas 1.25” deep 12” x 12”
$395. available at Sunny Raven Gallery, Canmore

Last summer, on a visit to Win Dinn in Creston, I took the above canvas no further than misting on the intense gradation of blues to purples, using her Dylusions spray inks. In March, while Meg was visiting, I borrowed her stencil for the texture to which I added some of her iridescent, turquoise foil. Meg further shared her super sparkle lustre pigment, a pearly, fine powder which I sprinkled on the centre area (made wet with clear water). This created the milky way like effect. The swath of turquoise is a torn piece of hand painted paper with nondescript script commercially stamped on it. I coloured only the glowing eyes of the small owl, which was also created using a commercial stamp. He was originally on a stack of books, but I opted to cover them over with more painted paper to create the stump. The feature great horned owl is painted in oils. The ghost feathers were stamped on a semi transparent paper (with flecks of silver) before being adhered plus there is the one real feather embellishment.

  

March 10th, Meg shared her supplies, knowledge of mixed media and innovative ideas with Judy, her granddaughter Jackie, and me.
Here the background for Night Owls is upside down

In all the years I've painted (50 by now) I've never painted an owl, nor a butterfly.  I was in the mood for both ...

  

On The Move   unframed butterfly in oil on acrylic background on a cradled wooden panel, 1” deep  4” x 4”
$100. available at Sunny Raven Gallery, Canmore                  

In contrast I have painted dozens of irises. To me, even the most common varieties are exquisite, the exotic ones resplendent.

Latin Lovely   framed oil on MDF board 5” x 7”    $150. available at Sunny Raven Gallery, Canmore

For Heart of Gold I employed my favourite scroll stencil and molding paste to create the relief in the the upper right as well as the magical combination of sap green and Daniel Smith's Duochrome Oceanic luminescent acrylic for the background.

Heart of Gold   framed iris in oil on acrylic background on canvas 10” x 8”
$295. available at Sunny Raven Gallery, Canmore        

One of my painting students is an accredited equine photographer who knows how to capture magnificent images of considerably more than only horses. The painting below was inspired by one of Judy's somewhat enhanced photographs of an early spring melt in her yard ...

Electric Meltdown   framed oil painting on MDF board 12” x 16”   $1000. available at Sunny Raven Gallery, Canmore

Along with me, Judy and Irene took on the same image. Everyone was spent after four afternoons at work on it. I signed mine and the ladies took theirs home to complete. I sure hope that they've done their homework and have finished their paintings!

With Judy and Irene the day we began our Electric Meltdown paintings, March 31st

With Judy and Irene Day, working on our Electric Meltdown paintings on day three, April 9th

And because Judy's painting is hidden from view (by me) in both of the studio photos ...

 Judy blocking in her painting on day one 

The ladies were brave souls. They both did a remarkable job of a very complex image with all those wretched branches, and their reflections! My wish for them is that they have learned new and exciting ways to mix colours. I may even have infected them with the desire to own some of the exotic tubes of oil colours that I keep in my paintbox!