Last Small Works of 2014

As 2014 quickly slips away I want to say that I hope you had a joyful holiday season, to wish each of you a happy and fulfilling 2015 and to also extend my thanks for continuing to read and support my artistic endeavours.



PEACH SPLENDOR   6" x 6" x 2" cradled panel, mixed media, rose painted in oil   SOLD

There are other painters who incorporate sheet music in their work, but I was particularly inspired by this painting ...  

Vicki Ross' WHITE ROSE  Encaustic on paper  7" x 7" 

You can see more of Vicki's art here. 

Just up the highway from us, a town called Nanton boasts an antique walk. There, in one of the many shops, Bill found an abundance of old sheet music. I was delighted to find that the larger sheets are big enough to completely wrap a 6" x 6" x 2" deep cradled panel. Fixing the sheets to panels with Golden gloss gel medium, I then tint and colour them using acrylic paints. Unable to resist the luminosity that I can achieve with oils, they are what I use to paint the focal points.   

ROSE FLAME   5" x 7" framed panel, mixed media, rose painted in oil    $150.   SOLD 

CHICKADEE SONG II   6" x 6" framed panel, mixed media, bird painted in oil   $150.   SOLD

Thirty years later, I thought I'd bring back for a repeat engagement the same chickadee I painted in 1984. The original oil painting is in the private collection of Ron and Pennie Casey of Canmore, Alberta. From it (back in the 80s) we created a limited edition of 200 photo lithograph prints. The edition has long since been sold out but we do have 4 of the 7 artist's proofs available for sale ($250. each, unframed).

    

 

A couple more of my classic favourites ...

SWEET ANGEL   5" x 7" framed acrylic painted birch panel, iris in oil  $150.  

LAVENDER LOVELY   acrylic 12" x 6" x 2" cradled panel   $275  SOLD

The above is a perfect addition to complete a trio along with these two painted this past summer on panels of the same dimensions ...

The above paintings are available at Sunny Raven Gallery, Canmore

And that folks wraps up the art I produced in 2014!

To enquire about the Chickadee prints or any of the paintings shown here, please contact me at alice@artbysaltiel.com

Shoe Dreams

SHOE DREAMS   acrylic mixed media 16" x 20" x 2" cradled panel 

At three years old, little Amira has an above average attraction to high heeled shoes.

 

Amira, shoe shopping, the day before she turned three, December 8th, 2014

When I spied an amazing golden shoe painting online, I wanted to buy it, but it was already sold. The image inspired the concept for Amira's third birthday painting. Initially I thought I'd paint a collage of different shoes in equal-sized squares, quilt like. When I saw a decorator piece of art of panels of irregular sizes interspersed with wide ribbons of scroll patterns, I knew this would create an even more interesting format. 

After explaining my plan to and telling Marcela Strasdas about how her painting had inspired me, I asked her if I could use it in my arrangement. She graciously sent me her reference photo.

 

The drawing for SHOE DREAMS

I intended to incorporate a lot more of Amira's favourite colour - purple - but the painting began to take on a life of its own and in the end there is only one purple shoe (top left).  

The backgrounds were masked and painted separately. The mottled effect created by spritzing water on wet paint and waiting a minute or three before gently laying down a piece of paper towel to blot and lift the paint where the water drops were. I stenciled the borders with iridescent light gold on metallic gold. 



The removed pieces of contact paper, used to mask out the shoes, begged to be photographed

Marcela's gorgeous shoe took me 4.5 hours to paint

The peacock shoe has the heart of a real peacock feather imbedded in it

This shoe has real lace affixed to it

The purple shoe has rhinestones attached



It was wonderful to be able to gift the painting, in person, on the eve of her birthday ...

I do believe she likes it!

Showing Mom and Pappa Shoe Dreams

A Mermaid Called Emily

As is my tradition, I make our granddaughters paintings for their birthdays. When I showed our daughter this mermaid painting, which I'd created for her niece, Denise asked me not to show it to Avery for she would be sure to want it. Although, I had months to consider how to approach the second mermaid painting, I was coming up blank. How could I make this one completely different? Finally, the inspiration came when I saw the Mucha poster girls in Prague.



EMILY FROM THE SEA   acrylic on cradled panel 24" x 18" x 1"





Just as I had struggled over a concept, once it was finished I fussed about a title for this mermaid. While remembering Avery's last weekend stay with us, a smile came to my face as a light went on in my head. I had taught Avery about my painting name. How to say it. How to spell it. It was then that I asked her what she'd like to use for a painting name? Without hesitation she responded "Emily." Quickly followed by "I wish my name was Emily."

I've learned (the hard way) that a well planned drawing is critical for this type of project

Day one of adding colour

Colouring her in was great fun for the first day or so, after that it became tedious. I kept going out of the lines, which meant I needed to paint the lines back in! 

Day two

And then there was the hiccup of repairing an accident. Somehow, I managed to drag my sleeve across my palette and from said sleeve I deposited tomato red over the soft blue sky. When I noticed what I had done, I hollered No!, NO!, NO! so loudly that Bill came rushing downstairs to see what was the matter.

Day three

Portions of the painting are opaquely painted. There are also transparent, watercolour-like areas, such as the background, the sky and parts of the water. The tail and bra are transparent as well with a wash of interference violet-green over them, to create a fishscale-like shimmer. 
    

Day four

The rich fulfillment came in the gifting. On November 27th, after Avery's "Jubilee" school concert (at the Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary) I presented her with Emily ...

Avery with her Dad and Mom

By gosh, I think she likes it!

 Now that Avery is six, and in grade one, she can sound out the painting title

I love this shot!