Painting in Victoria

All will agree that there is no shortage of beauty in Victoria, especially in the springtime. For a plein air painter it's bursting with locations and subjects. The first place I wanted to return to paint at was Beacon Hill Park. In my mind's eye this tree looked for all the world like those in Autumn Hillside painted by Group of Seven artist, Franklin Carmichael.  Maybe not! 

February 25th, 2016

It proved to be a much larger challenge than I imagined possible. At the end of the two hours (I painted between 10 and noon) the light had changed so significantly that the tree was completely in shadow. I simply had to quit. 

A week or so later, in our vacation rental and armed with a photo of the scene, I took it on again working it further ...

My Carmichael tree 12" x 16" -  remains still mostly unresolved!

It wasn't always nice enough outdoors (yes I can be a fair weather painter) so some days my good buddy Sharlene and I painted in her studio. Bless her for letting me move in and take over half or more of her space.

Here Sharlene is developing a massive background while I start a painting featuring a cherry tree

 Cherry tree with blossoms just beginning to unfold, close up and personal  oil 12" x 16"

There is a group of painters in Victoria called the Al Frescoes. Every Friday morning any number of them trundle off to a prearranged location. On February 26th many folks painted strictly the sea and the sky, but this former mountain gal had to find some rock to anchor my painting ...

I was overwhelmed by the number who came out (around 30 artists) to Saxe Point Park, Esquimalt. At noon they assemble for 'show and tell' ...

 

Ken Faulks and the masses at the Al Frescoes 'show and tell'

I was amazed that I finished this one on site - SAXE POINT  oil 9" x 12"  (and yes I've yet to sign it)

The following Friday, March 4th, the Al Frescoes painted in Chinatown. While others chose street scenes and buildings, I opted to paint the dragon outside of the Mountain Equipment Coop.

In two and a half hours all I was able to finish was this umber drawing, painted on with a brush in oil ...



The non-red dragon oil 12" x 16"

Someday, maybe, I'll finish the painting so that it will have the red I was so keen to paint!

That same afternoon, after freezing my legs and feet to my very bones by standing on cold pavement in Chinatown, we were still on some kind of painting high, so we retreated to Sharlene's studio ...

You can see that we hardly have any fun at all working together

Afternoon results, another half baked painting, a peony in acrylic this time



Sharlene and I had one more studio day at her place on March 11th. This time we painted parrot tulips from life. You ought to have heard the complaining about how the blossoms opened and changed so much while we were painting them! I mean how dare they?



For my tulip painting Sharlene gave me a canvas on which she had already painted the background. It may be signed but I'm not convinced that this one is finished either ...



OPENING  oil on an acrylic background 12" x 12"

On March 15th, Sharlene and I both went Gelli plate printing in Brentwood bay at Arlene's studio. I've worked with Win making Gelli prints, but it's always fascinating to observe how another artist works in the same medium. Sharlene hadn't Gelli printed before and grasped the process like an A-student. I have to confess that I wasn't on my game that day and yet it was still a most pleasurable time.

Arlene and Sharlene. You try keeping their names straight, I often can't!

Yours truly pulling a Gelli plate print

There was one final painting day, March 19th. This one with and in the studio of Sharlene's friend, Marcela. Everyone worked away on their own creation. It pleased me that Marcela allowed me to work from a painting she had done which employed a new-to-me technique.

Happy painters in Marcela's studio

Marcela surrounded by her colourful oil paintings

The wild and wonderful oil painting above, unfinished as it may be, vibrates with exciting energy. It was a fine way for me to wind up the painting part of our six week stay in Victoria. Huge thanks to my painter pals for indulging me and making me feel so welcome.

An Ascent of Exceptional Degrees

... was painted 31 years ago. Here is the history behind it.

The fictional Exceptional Pass was originally conceptualized by Jon Whyte and Karen McDiarmid to gather together contributions by local artists in a variety of media on the subject of a fantasy landscape. The Whyte Museum in Banff presented the first exhibition, Beyond Exceptional Pass, in 1978, before we returned to live in the Bow Valley. Included were fancifully documentation, fabricated journals, texts, maps and art depicting imaginary places. While I didn't submit to it or the second exhibition I did to the third. An Ascent of Exceptional Degrees was accepted to 1985 exhibition entitled The Myth of Exceptional Pass ... 





AN ASCENT OF EXCEPTIONAL DEGREES   1995 oil on canvas 40" x30"



With my classical art training I've have a fascination with Renaissance paintings of floating cherubs. It was on a visit to Niagara Falls I found myself mesmerized by an exquisite sculpture of cherubs which inspired me to paint my own. With the help of his mother the young son of our then neighbours was my model. All three babies are Ross Baradoy. 

This conceptual sketch was my submission to the juried Myth of Exceptional Pass 

The Myth of Exceptional Pass catalogue shows the  writings, descriptions and images of all that was exhibited by 30 participants in the show. The text accompanying the image of my painting reads "In the sky high above a snow capped Rocky Mountain peak, round, plump, heavenly cherubs are gently drifting and dissolving into the clouds creating a mystical atmosphere. The cherubs are born of the sky, fathered by the mountains and mothered by the mind and spirit of all who pass by."

The surreal approach of An Ascent of Exceptional Degrees challenged me. At the time it was the largest canvas I had ever painted. The mountain peak is Cascade Mountain, the Wood Lily a token of my passion for wildflowers.

It was an honour to have my painting featured (unfortunately in black and white) on the cover of the invitation card. Among the other particulars, it read: Dress: Exceptional, So I did, but I certainly wasn't the only one. Artists and guests alike came to the opening reception in costume. I made the laurel with lilies from my garden.

With ceramic artist, Pamela Nagley-Stevenson, June 28th, 1985  



With my model, Ross and his mother, Holly Baradoy, June 28th, 1985  

I participated in the fourth (and last) Exceptional Pass exhibition in 1992, but that's a story for another day. 

For many years An Ascent of Exceptional Degrees hung above our bed in our Canmore home ...

December 1992

We produced a limited edition of 10 canvas mounted photos of the painting at 20" x 16", one quarter the size of the original. Unlike other reproductions of my art, these took a long while to sell simply because the painting is either instantly loved or found to be completely unappealing. 

I've been an artist for decades, first as a student, then as a commercial artist and ultimately as a full time, fine art painter in (since 1972). In excess of a couple of thousand paintings have poured forth from the end of my brushes. More than anyone could possibly keep. When we left Canmore we hosted an art sale in which I offered up An Ascent of Exceptional Degrees.

2008 sale poster

It did not sell, but it wasn't long before it caught the attention of someone in Claresholm. An arrangement to purchase it in instalments was agreed upon and a substantial deposit was placed on the painting. After a couple of years, with the painting still in my possession and without any further payments, I approached the client. Long story short, in March of 2015, I refunded the deposit. Clearly destiny had something else in mind for the painting

Last week and for beautifully moving reasons, Jim enquired about acquiring it for his wife.  Esmé has loved and wanted the painting for a very long a long time. I was thrilled to bits when Jim offered to let me share in the gifting of his surprise. On February 11th, Bill. and I delivered the painting. We had no plan about the presentation but events unfolded splendidly, I was poised  to catch this photo as Esmé came out of their kitchen ...



The impact was oh so precious to watch

Happy faces all around, I love this photo

We have known these fine folks for years which makes it rich beyond measure to have An Ascent of Exceptional Degrees find their home as it's permanent residence. The bonus is that I have visitation rights. Many thanks Jim and Esmé.

Jim and Esmé have sent me a photo of the painting installed above the door beside which I am standing in the previous photo. It's is good company. The cherubs soar up high with Ed the Eagle in the entry way of their home.

  

    

Yellow Point Arbutus

There likely aren't many landscape painters who, having seen arbutus trees, are able to resist painting them. Certainly I cannot. The motivation behind this one was somewhat akin to, well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I am keen to get moved to Vancouver Island where these trees are plentiful. If the Universe insists on keeping us on the Alberta prairie I'll just paint the island landscape and consider it a form of visualization.

January 23rd, closing in on the finish of YELLOW POINT ARBUTUS in The Art Room at Linderman Law, Claresholm

        

It's been a few years (eight to be exact) since I've painted anything as large as this so it was time. In a most gentle fashion I worked on it for only a few hours in the afternoons for about three weeks. Here is the progression of my first painting of 2016 ...

Day one, I drew the arrangement of trees directly on the canvas using a brush and oils colours, burnt umber and burnt sienna 

Several days later it looked like this

I added the stick branch in the space on the right, but I didn't feel it enhanced the painting in any way so I removed it as well as the grasses in the bottom right ...

  

Only refinement to the foreground left to go



To me the beauty of this piece is in the intricate, dancing upper branches, the soft light of the leaves and gentle background. I could have happily stopped at painting just them but I felt the need to ground these exquisite trees which made the foreground necessary. It was this foreground that gave me the most grief, if I'm honest other paintings go this same route for me. It needed to remain in shadow, so as not to distract from the light above, and yet it had to have interest. Finally, exhausted from pushing paint around I had to say "Enough, it's finished!" ...

YELLOW POINT ARBUTUS   oil   24" x 36"

I have had opportunities to paint these trees en plein air as well as to portray them in other studio works. Many thanks to Tom and Mary for the time spent at their place on Yellow Point, a broad forested peninsula on Vancouver Island that juts out into the waters of Stuart Channel in the Strait of Georgia which is mostly undeveloped with some rural, country living. I scored the photographic reference for this painting while we were on a forest romp with them last February. You will find the photo here on this blogpost.

Ginger Bread House 2015

Before we get too far into 2016 I want to share with you the construction of our gingerbread houses from this past Christmas. We spent a good chunk of three days building three houses.

 

The family hard at it

 

Early in December, little Avery expressed to me, privately and politely, her disappointment at being little involved in the creating of last years gingerbread house. That's when I knew her mother and I had to stop hogging the show as we are prone to doing on these creative binges. Avery displayed great focus and did an exceptional job of decorating her own house and doesn't she look happy doing so? 

Seven years old and her sense of placement is already finely tuned

 

Avery's house

 

Although the image below (found on the Internet) is was what I would have done if I'd been making a gingerbread house of my own. This house is reminiscent of ones I found at The Gingerbread Museum in Prague ...

 

More Gingerbread Museum images can be seen here although you'll see mostly cookies, not houses

 

Denise designs and makes the house patterns and I get to put the icicles on everyone's finished masterpiece

All done, and on the buffet in the glory line up for the annual photo session 

 

Avery's house

 

Denise's Gaudi House.  Check out the amazing architectural genius of Gaudi here

 

Although Denise and I thought he should have had demerit points for using non traditional props and embellishments, Larry's house won hands down for having the most effective overall finish!

Larry's Tree House

Everett's Christmas Stocking

In order for me to get my last post of 2015 out before the year expires, I must give you a rare double header today.



Everett December 31st, 2015 at 3.5 months old

Our first grandson, Everett Marshall Koebel, arrived a week early, on September 18th, 2015  weighing in at a whopping 9lbs. 7oz.  Born in Columbia, Maryland makes him an US citizen which is why his stocking caricature wears stars and stripes ... he's our all American boy!

As I've done for every other family member I made him a stocking for his first Christmas. 

Once I've got the sketch drawn, I make a second one so that I can cut it up as pattern pieces which are used to cut out the coloured felt bits. I hand stitch these to the face of the stocking.

Pieces pinned in place ready to sew

Just when my fingers are weary of pushing the needle around, the hand work is done. Using the sewing machine, I sew the back to the front and add the cuff, thread the ribbon into it and attach the jingle bells.

The finished stocking

Below are the stockings I made for Everett's parents. Laura's for her first Christmas in 1978, Adam's after they had partnered up and his sister's when she was born four years ago. 

   

Unfortunately, Everett's stocking (which was in the parcel to Manila with Amira's birthday painting) was the only stocking at the Koebel's Christmas this year. Their shipment from Maryland had arrived in the Philippines but it didn't clear customs in time for Christmas, so Everett shared his stocking with his big sister.



Amira and Everett

Sadly, we were without these little folks, and their parents, here in Canada this Christmas. One day I hope that all the stockings will be hung together once again ...



Christmas 2011

Amira's Birthday Painting

                                       

Granddaughter Amira turned four on December 9th



As it was being mailed to Manila (with the Koebel family Christmas parcel) Amira's birthday painting needed to be light weight and smaller this year, but hey it was almost on time!

 

On our back deck on a warm day back in May 2013, Meg Nicks showed me and Win Dinn how she makes acrylic "pours". That tutorial, which I have since forgotten how to do, yielded the rich background below. Until November of this year I never knew exactly what I would do with it, but it proved to be perfect for "Butterflies". 

 

The richly coloured, very shiny surface of the first and only "pour" I've made

 

I went with Amira's mother's suggestion for the subject matter. Using a commercial stencil I applied the smaller mauve butterflies. Later I darkened some of the lower ones with thin washes of darker purple.  Without any particular plan I painted on the first butterfly ...

 

 

 

... and then the other two. Laura had suggested glitter, but I couldn't see how glitter would enhance the painting. With my favourite stencil and Ferro, a paste by Viva Décor which provides a lovely relief, l added the flourishes to the top left and bottom right corners.
 

I wasn't happy with the dull, slate colour of the flourishes

The graphite colour of the stenciled flourishes looked dead against all the pure colour so, with a fine brush, I painted over them with intense, purple alcohol ink, which absorbed beautifully.

  

The finished 12" x 12" acrylic painting  -  BUTTERFLIES   -  (unframed, with painted edges)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMIRA!

Avery's 7th Birthday Painting

In an effort to present Avery with a less childlike painting I chose the Prague skyline thinking that it's a pretty adult scene, yet it maintains the magical charm of a fairy tale which a seven year old girl could relate to. I was extra late in delivering this year. We were away on her birthday, October 16th, and I was not at all organised before leaving on September 28th. There are any number of excuses I can give for not getting at the painting promptly after our return (October 21st) but none of them really wash. Except that it was an epic subject to tackle and at times I wondered if I had lost my mind.  

PRAGUE SKYLINE   oil on canvas 12" x 24"

Once I had the drawing established, I added some dried bits of vegetation (using gloss gel medium) to create texture in the foreground trees. Thanks to Debie for the dried plant life. It's yarrow, I  think. The Flower Children can verify this for me ... 



In order to make the vegetation white, I gessoed over the bits taking care to apply the gesso much more thinly over the drawing so as not to obscure it entirely ...

As I often do, I began the painting using acrylics, thinking I'd finish it in that medium but the final coat on the sky was lack-lustre and disappointing so, as I have done so many times before, I turned to my oils. They never fail to give me the luminosity I'm after.



Early stages in acrylic

The oil brush stokes going every which way in the sky capture the light differently causing it to sparkle. As you can see, looking at the right side of the photo below, I powered out (in this session) before covering over the acrylic paint entirely ...

  

 Here, as above, the foreground tower is much too dark

Almost done ...

... but OH NO, this is when I noticed that so many towers and spires were leaning to the left! I corrected as much as I could but there comes a time in a painting when you have to say "It's enough. It's done. Sign it." And so I did. Please scroll back up to the top of the page to view the finished painting.

It was December 11th, the night of Avery's school Jubilee Concert, when I finally presented her with the painting ...

I do think she likes it

Studying the Prague Skyline