Avery's Birthday Painting

Avery is of an age now that she can request the imagery for her birthday paintings. I'm challenged by the topics she selects but because I can paint whatever is asked of me I honour her wishes. I maintain that any artist can paint anything, they just have to want to!

Avery turned 10 on October 16th. The painting presentation happened December 22nd, the day the family arrived for Christmas

Rather than a traditional landscape background, I thought an abstracted, fun, turquoise and copper backdrop would create more magical sensation. The shinny textured bits were made using a commercial stencil and copper foil. I textured the grass with Golden Heavy Gel medium. To preserve the white areas of the horse I cut out a piece of frosted (semi clear) Mac-Tac in the horse's shape to use as a mask ...

The Mac-Tac mask removed from the painting makes for an interesting piece on its own

The background with the area of the horse preserved as white

"Avery's Unicorn" mixed media background, horse painted in oil, 16" x 12" on cradled panel

Ah yes, I think she likes it!

Definitely, a satisfied granddaughter!

Out of Art Hibernation

Canmore, Flora and Fauna, 12" x 24" cradled panel with images painted in oil on a vintage topographical map from 1980

Canmore's Mountain Avens Gallery, as The Avens Gallery was initially called, represented my art from the time Arlene Curry opened it in June 1986, through two subsequent owners, for twenty-four years. Almost a decade after leaving the gallery, when we returned, last year,  to Canmore (from Claresholm) it was both an honour and a terrific boost to my ego when the current gallery manager, Betti Irwin, invited me back.

December 16th, 2017, The Avens, staff, owners and some of their gallery artists. Betti Irwin is second from right

It isn't likely that I'll resume painting sizeable, traditional landscapes which did and would again work so perfectly in the Avens. Much has changed with me. After considerable soul searching I met with Betti to explain what I wanted to do. I had asked Cheryl Baxter, owner of Elevation Gallery and The Hive, if she would represent me. Betti is a compassionate and understanding individual who wished me well. Cheryl accepts that I may be sporadic in suppling art. She asked for my alternative works, on cradled panels, and could I deliver five to seven of them for Labour Day?

Credit must be given where it's due. It was Win Dinn who inspired me to incorporate mixed media elements and techniques into making art. It was Patti Dyment who conceived the notion that we could paint on topographical maps ... 

Covering cradled panels with topo maps and other assorted, fun, commercial papers, March 4th, 2018

Without a proper studio in our Canmore townhouse, I paint at our kitchen table where the light pours in from the window above the sink and the east facing patio doors. In January, I invited myself to paint with Patti in her ample, open concept kitchen/living/dining rooms. Thinking it would be a one day play date, imagine my delight at being invited back on a regular basis. While painting is a solitary act even when we are together, just being in the same space with another artist doubles the energy. We share ideas, help each other in exploring potential ways to resolve painting problems and we explode in laughter frequently.  

Working on 'Bighorn Range' at Patti's, March 5th, 2018

Being a real last-minute-Jenny I was truly under the gun when Patti welcomed me to her place for and a three-day painting binge, August 25th, 26th and 27th. These dates were sandwiched by two days of painting at home where I both started new and completed unfinished paintings. 

August 25th, 2018, while Patti worked on two large canvases I furiously painted small pieces for Elevation Gallery 

On August 31st, I delivered eight new paintings and two older works ...

Bronze Beauty - iris painting in oil on a commercially printed paper background 12" x 12" $700.

Canmore Flora and Fauna - oil vignettes on a vintage topographical map (from 1980) 12" x 24" $1260.

Chickadee Song - oil on vintage sheet music (Oh Mother of Mine) 8" x 8" $560.

Bighorn Range - oil on a vintage topographical map (from 1980) 10" x 10" $700.

Mule Deer and Aspens - oil on a vintage topographical map (from 1980) 12" x 12" $840.

Swan Elegance - oil on commercially printed paper background 12" x 12" $840.

Great Horned Owl Stare - oil on a hand marbled Italian paper background 12" x 12" $840.

"Red" the Bobcat - oil on commercially printed paper background 8" x 8" $560.

Etherial Beauties
oil irises on an acrylic background 12" x 6" $630.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
oil day lilies on an acrylic background 12" x 6" $630.

Cheryl and I shake on our new association

Had to show you both of these photos

Please stop in to see my new works. You'll find some in the street level Elevation Gallery as well as The Hive upstairs. Do visit The Avens Gallery while you are in town as well.    

Painting With Patti

February 5th, 2018

When we moved back to Canmore, in August 2017, we secured a sweet townhouse in the complex of my dreams, but here I don't have a proper studio. Although I've painted at our kitchen table, I was pleased when Patti Dyment responded favourably to my request for a painting date at her place. Three days a week her large, well lit, open concept kitchen, dining, living room becomes her studio. We had such a good time we've turned these dates into regular events. 

Working on The Towers at Mount Asiniboine, January 22nd

Patti at work on her Towers, January 22nd

Mostly it's pretty serious business, but there is always time for laughter ...

January 22nd

Sometimes we work on the same subject. Such was the case on this day when we both painted Anastasia, from an image off an online paint-the-model photo website ...

February 12th

February 12th

That day I came home and worked on her too-small head, and more, for a further four hours.

She still isn't finished!

With the cradled panels we'd covered, using pretty scrapbooking papers, we launched into the following ...

February 26th, Patti at work on a portrait

Patti's gorgeous portrait

My iris

Patti had the brilliant idea to cover panels with old typographical maps. She brought some from home and since then Bill has coughed up several duplicate maps and donated them to our cause.

March 4th in our Dungeon - the perfect place for this kind of panel preparation

The very next day we were on a roll, both of us finished one painting, so we started another, on the papered panels ...

Patti's magnificent raven, March 5th

My bobcat, March 5th

Next, we both painted a bighorn ram portrait. Neither of us finished the second painting.

March 5th

March 5th

My bighorn

When Bill and I returned, from our month in the Philippines, Patti and I resumed our painting dates. Here we both worked on Bow Lake ...

April 22nd

April 22nd

Although the first paintings weren't finished, we moved on to begin another and worked on different images. By this time of day the sun had moved around to where it was pouring its brilliance in through the skylight. Here we are shifting around the room to escape being directly in the spotlight ...

Patti working on Ha Ling  

I opted to paint Quarry Lake

Now our task is to finish all these starts!

Amira's 6th Birthday Painting

Where Fairies Play  2017 oil on canvas 12" x 16"

Sometimes our daughters give me direction, sometimes the children do and sometimes there is no direction at all. I don't recall asking Amira for input nor do I remember her giving me any feedback, so I was on my own to come up with something a six year old girl would like.

The start

I was pretty excited about how the powdered (pan) pastels looked when I used them over my 12" x 12" commercial tree stencil - on paper.  However, when I used the stencil and the pastel pigments on a prepared canvas they simply wouldn't take.  Not at all.

Laying in colour with acrylic on the canvas

   

There was to be no shortcut, I had to paint the tree. The castle is borrowed from the internet.  I flipped it because I had placed the tree on the left ...

Internet image of the Disney castle, Anaheim, CA

All coloured in in acrylic - now what?

Once again I was not satisfied with the look of the painting, in acrylic paint, so I switched to oil. You might say I retreated to my comfort zone ...

With a coat of oil paint

Here I extended the bank of trees, to the left, and refined the castle a bit more ...

... and added a couple more fairies

The tree was a challenge. I had difficulty convincing myself that it looked authentic. As the painting dragged on, for eight days, I eventually had to tell myself that it was a fantasy piece, how authentic did that tree have to be after all? 

The final touch was adding the row of blue cornflowers, from where the fairy on the left had plucked her flower. I chose to leave Tinker Bell out of the painting.

Where Fairies Play  2017 oil  on canvas 12" x 16"

The parcel, with this painting, her brother's painting and the entire Manila family's birthday and Christmas gifts did not make it in time for Christmas. It's arrival, in January, seemed a disappointment at first but it was actually bit of a blessing in that the family had a second Christmas while Bill and I, here in Canmore, were able to witness the gift opening in a FaceTime call.

January 3rd, 2018, next to momma Laura, Amira opens her birthday painting 

The lovely Amira with her painting, February 2nd, 2018

Happy sixth birthday Amira!

Amira's official 6th birthday photo shoot. Her actual birthday is December 9th