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

Everett's 2nd Birthday Painting

The Royal Hudson and The Three Sisters (Canmore) 2017 acrylic on cradled panel 13" x 18"

He's all over trains these days, so for Everett's second birthday painting Laura suggested a train and mountains. The Royal Hudson immediately came to mind as I recalled the only time I've seen this train. It was in the interior of B.C., on our way home from the west coast. It was the morning after we'd sprung the clocks forward. Laura was exactly three months old. The time change had the effect of making me think the babe and I had slept through the night, but had we really?  I look so tired because I was!

Yours truly with the baby Laura, April 1st, 1978

The Royal Hudson train when we saw it, April 1st, 1978

The drawing

At work, September 30th, 2017

Day two

If this painting has the feel of a watercolour it's because I used the acrylics transparently and very thinly. In my time, I've painted many mountain landscapes, a good deal of them in watercolour. I didn't expect to have any trouble with the mountain but I did wonder how I'd manage the train. Miraculously it fell easily off the end of my brush and the painting went from drawing to being finished in just three days.

I scored a Canadian stamp image from the Internet and was rather pleased with myself for changing its denomination to 2, for the little man's birthday, which is September 18th. It was Bill's suggestion to paint the track running right through the stamp which helped the stamp to become a part of the painting. Adding the stamp and the railway crossing sign makes it a bit of a mixed media piece.

Day three and The Royal Hudson and The Three Sisters (Canmore) is complete 

Initially all of us were bummed that the Manila parcel, with all their birthday and Christmas gifts, arrived after Christmas but as it turned out it was a good thing. They are 14 or 15 hours ahead of us so we would never have been able to watch them opening their gifts Christmas morning. On January 3rd, the family got a second Christmas and we able to view it all via FaceTime.

Everett opens his painting in Manila, January 3rd, 2018

Cutest little man with his painting, January 23rd, 2018

Avery's 9th Birthday Painting

The Night a Dragon Hatched Under Northern Lights  oil on panel  12" x 16" 

Avery turned nine October 16th. That evening, we came bearing gifts but no painting. I hadn't even started hers yet because, first, I had to create a painting each for the Manila kids so they could be wrapped and ready to ship before my hip replacement. Bill dropped the parcel (filled with birthday and Christmas gifts for the entire Koebel family) at Forex, Calgary on October 19th. Sadly it didn't arrive in time for Christmas making the birthday paintings for Amira (six on December 9th) and Everett (two on September 18th) late as well. I made a clean sweep of tardiness last year. The three birthday paintings were the sum total of paintings I created in 2017. 

Avery was gracious when I apologized for being late. Later that birthday evening she made this precious announcement "I'm into dragons and Northern Lights, just some thoughts for my birthday painting." 

As I researched dragons online it came to me that, as fascinating as they are, a painting of an adult, fire breathing dragon, in Avery's darkened bedroom would have the potential to give her nightmares. And so I decided to depict a hatchling because, well, aren't all babies adorable and basically non-threatening? 

The drawing.  I textured the cave walls using a palette knife and heavy gel medium.

The acrylic underpainting 

The garishness of the painting, as it was in the stage above, bothered me. Blending acrylics has always been incredibly difficult for me. I haven't invested in the "open" slower drying acrylics. I knew I would need to switch to oils to get the look I was after.

Thinly applied oil on the sky

Using Super Sparkle Lustre Pigment (from Papertrail, Waterloo, ON) I sprinkled the milky way onto the wet oil paint. I was too heavy handed with the powder and I considered it a fail which necessitated painting over the sky. The second time around I was a great deal more cautious in sprinkling the milky way ...

The auroras repainted with the new milky way.  Here, the dragon and nest are still acrylic.

I further blended, refined the borealis and painted the dragon in oil. You'll notice I opted to paint the trees out, thinking that they didn't really add to the overall composition. 

Here the dragon has a coat of oil paint

The brightness of the dragon's upper right arm and chest required darkening plus the scales of the chest needed to be realigned in a better curve ...

All finished - The Night a Dragon Hatched Under Northern Lights  oil on panel  12" x 16"

At the beginning of December, the Scammells a came for a weekend providing me with the opportunity to gift the painting. It gives me great pleasure that Avery likes her dragon, whom she has named Winksey.

December 3rd, 2017

December 3rd, 2017, I'm that Avery is happy!

Up next, once they are received, will be Amira's and Everett's birthday paintings.

Birthday Paintings for the Manila Kids 2016

Everett's 1st birthday painting, Super Grandson and his Jeepney acrylic 12" x 16"

My grandkid birthday paintings are decidedly labours of love. Often I'll invite our daughters to have input regarding the subject matter. When Laura requested a Jeepney for Everett I had absolutely no idea what a Jeepney was. She sent images and I went into heart failure. What a complicated subject. 

I had to give myself the pep talk. The same one I give myself whenever I'm asked to paint something outrageous. In this talk I repeat things like "You can paint anything, you just have to want to paint this." "It's simply another challenge, now go and convince yourself that you want to paint it."

A painting that definitely required the pep talk is here.

A line of Jeepneys (Internet image)

Jeepneys are the most popular means of public transportation in the Philippines. They are known for their crowded bench seating and kitsch decorations. Jeepneys were originally made from U.S. military jeeps left over from WWII.

The sketch 

Day one of adding colour

With little boys and their attraction to super heroes I decided Everett ought to be portrayed as Superman. Originally I thought I wanted the body of the Jeepney to be metallic silver, but paintings like this one morph of their own volition. The vehicle asked to be turquoise. The rural background didn't feel right so I let it become urban. I had fun texturing the wall.

With a rural background 

More colour and the urban background

As is often the case this painting was late, but his sister's painting was almost on time. This is because their birthday and Christmas gifts get lumped together into one shipping box going to Manila (in October to arrive in December). Everett's birthday is September 18th and Amira's is December 9th.

Amira is old enough to have and express her opinions. When I asked her what she'd like for her 5th birthday painting she said "I like owls and bats." That had me heave a massive sigh of relief. With the shipping deadline looming, I rolled straight from the jeepney to the owl. After the intensity of working on the mechanical it was a pleasure to paint the organic and natural form of the owl. It flowed off my brush with ease.

The iridescent fusible fibres add a mystical quality to the full moon background

Oh wait, it needs bats!

Amira's 5th birthday painting is acrylic/mixed media 12" x 12" with the owl painted in oil 

It's not to say that Amira has only had easy paintings. For her 2nd birthday I gifted her with Mermaid Two. For her 3rd birthday I gave her Shoe Dreams. Both of these paintings were incredibly complex and in spite of the time they took, they were decidedly gratifying.

Everett and Amira checking out his Jeepney painting

Amira with her owl

I haven't created a single painting this year, which isn't much of a surprise given the year I've had. All three of our grandchildren have fall/winter birthdays, Avery's is October 16th. I may be even later than usual with their 2017 paintings, but I know everyone will understand. 

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Before I sign off ... there is medical good news. On September 6th, at my appointment with orthopaedic surgeon Dr. MacKenzie, he deemed me an urgent case. He will give me a total left hip replacement on October 17th.

  

Playing in Creston / Alice-in-Wonderland

Time to get back to posting about art and the fun times in 2016.  

With our R-Pod, Bill and I arrived in Creston, from Claresholm, on July 10th for a three night stay at Scottie's RV Park. As well, Meg and Paul rolled in from Canmore to stay at the Valley View Motel, but ultimately we all end up here ...

... on the Dinn's remarkable deck for libations, great food and one another's company

As per usual we gals hit the studio during the daytime abandoning the men, who are more than capable of entertaining themselves. We spread our play things out all over every horizontal space, then we dive into making art. Any kind of art. Here, anything goes.

Meg and Win in Win's gorgeous studio

Playing in Win's studio brings out the creative juices

Writing this post eight months after the fact, I'm not really sure what possessed me to start the painting I did. I'm going with how very inspired and dazzled I was by a piece Win had recently created, in collaboration with Bart Bjorkman, of Puffin Design - the 47" diameter Impossible Clock. But how my piece morphed into Alice in Wonderland remains a mystery.

       

                                            

Meg usually has several pieces on the go, this time was no exception

Win got into folding books

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When we six reassemble good times are guaranteed. We enjoy having a delectable lunch on the Skimmerhorn Winery's awesome deck, our end of day happy hours, evening feasting and shenanigans. 

You can count on great food, and wine, on the Skimmerorn Winery deck

Win and John 

Paul and Meg

Bill and yours truly.  Doesn't everyone know about maple tree "keys" and how they'll stick on your nose, when they're fresh?

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Back to Alice painting Alice. For the background, I splattered and blotted favoured colours, quinacridone orange gold, Indian yellow, aztec gold (how dare Daniel Smith discontinue their acrylic line which included this magnificent colour?). Some burnt umber was needed to darken the top. I went wild with gear and time piece stencils, some I applied with texture, some not. Then, I employed commercial rubber stamps until I was satisfied with all the nuances these toys created. 

As the background was so dark I had to paint Alice in a ghost-like white to be assured the colours would be clean and bright when I coloured her in.


                                                    

The finished Alice in Wonderland 
24" x 12" acrylic mixed media on canvas

At home I completed the piece by painting on the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter. I took great pleasure in the adding of embellishments, the small and miniature playing cards (thanks Win) the gears, the key and the clock button. Here are some close ups ...

Mixed media artist extraordinaire and our good friend, Win Dinn, has been teaching her acquired techniques in workshops for years. She conceived and facilitated a fabulous exhibition of her student's (plus her own) work. All students were invited to submit up to five pieces to Students. Teacher. Play. The show was beautifully presented by the folks at Centre 64 in Kimberley, BC, and was on display for the month of September, 2016. It was my good fortune to have Alice in Wonderland placed front and centre at the entrance to the show.

September 3rd, with Win at the exhibition's opening reception

When our granddaughter, Avery, turned eight last October I gifted Alice to as her annual birthday painting. 

Here are a  couple of other new pieces created specifically for Student. Teacher. Play.  ...

Drifting and Grounded  12" x 9" mixed media on cradled panel

Peacock Paradise 10" x 8" mixed media on cradled panel

Plus two other pieces which met the criteria of being created within the past two years ...

Flying Time 9" x 12" mixed media on board

Hip Replacement 9" x 8.25" acrylic mixed media, recycled child's board book.  The story and contents are here