Back to normal

Or at least, to what passes for normal around here most days, after taking 14 paintings to Ottawa for a fundraising art show/silent auction last weekend.

It was great fun seeing some of the paintings from the last couple of months all hanging together in a public space, and even more talking to so many people who had nice things to say about them. The paintings will continue to hang until the end of this week, and hopefully many will be hanging in new homes after that. When I left on Monday afternoon, several had been spoken for already. It's a bit of an odd feeling looking at some of the paintings that felt so much a part of our lives this last little while, hanging on our walls, and knowing they won't be coming back - of course, empty spots on the walls are rare around here, and can be a great motivator for getting something new started.

It was such a scramble these last few weeks trying to get the last paintings finished and everything framed that I haven't added them all to this blog - so here are the last two that were finished just before the show:

Bantam Rooster

acrylic, 11" by 14"

The companion piece to the little mille fleur hen, a portrait of my favorite of the roosters that live next door. A tough little guy that will take on anything on two legs or four, he's not a bird to turn your back on. He reminds me a lot of a rooster I had years ago who was the scourge of the farm, putting humans, dogs and horses to flight with equal determination. Four pounds of bad temper and utter fearlessness, clothed in the most glorious feathers - that's a bantam rooster.

Reading on the Rocks
acrylic, 11" by 14"

This is the larger version of the small "Summertime reading" study I did a little while ago. It was a lot of fun to do, I really enjoyed working with the shapes and colors of the rocks, and the strong contrasts. And of course with winter pretty much here - we had the first major snowfall of the year today - remembering the last summer, and looking forward to the next, makes the short, dark days seem a little less gloomy.

Fall Colors

October Woods

acrylic, 8" by 10"

Rain Over the Blue Mountains

acrylic, 8" by 10"

The last few days have simply been too glorious to sit in the studio, so I've been taking my paints outside to do some plein air landscapes. While there isn't time to meticulously reproduce every detail of the scene , there is something about the immediacy of plein air painting, and the feeling of being part of the scene, that is a refreshing change from studio work. The fact that the light changes drastically within a few hours means that it's important to focus on the essentials of the painting first, and get the lighting right from the start. Being forced to think about the essentials first, instead of getting bogged down in the details, is always good discipline.

"October Woods" was started in our beech woods and finished in the studio - afterwards, I wished I had just left it as it was when I left the woods instead of fiddling with it. So when I painted "Rain over the Blue Mountains" yesterday - I made myself sign it before packing up and heading home. No more fiddling!

I have the use of the car again today, so I'm off along the side roads to see what I can find. Hopefully there'll be another painting to post tomorrow.

A change of plans

Mille Fleur Bantam Hen

acrylic, 11" by 14"

That's what is definitely called for at this point - having spent the better part of the last two weeks too sick to do anything with some annoying virus, I am now staring the deadline for the upcoming show in Ottawa in the whites of the eyes, so to speak. I'm going to have to discontinue the small daily paintings for the time being and really focus on getting the remaining paintings I need for the Ottawa show done and framed. Hopefully I can get back to the small dailies after November 5; I did enjoy doing them, but they are simply taking too much of my time right now.

Today I finished another chicken painting that is destined for the Ottawa show - at 11" by 14" it is still considered small format art, but is about the maximum size I will take with me, as I am limited on the amount of space to hang things. This is another pic of the neighbour's mille fleur bantam hen - a painting of her mate is on my easel right now. After that I think I'll take a break from chickens and do something else.

Mille Fleur Bantam Hen (detail)

The feathers on this bird were definitely challenging, but I'm pretty pleased with the overall effect, and I think I've got her haughty expression pretty much dead on. She is a bird with a lot of personality!

Yellow Water Lily

Water Lily Reflection

acrylic, 6" by 8"

During our recent trip to Algonquin Park I took a lot of reference pictures of waterlilies. Most were the commonly seen white ones that seem to cover large areas of just about every lake in the park. However, one small lake had a ring of yellow water lilies along the entire shore line.

Usually I'm attracted to flowers because of the color, but this particular flower and its reflection captured my interest because of its sculptural quality. The totally still water made for a crystal clear reflection, so the swooping lines of the petals were equally visible from two different angles.

I've been itching to paint it since we returned, it was a lot of fun, and I may revisit this one in a larger size somewhere in the future.

Summer Coleus

Sunlit Coleus

acrylic, 4" by 5"

Bright coleus and a geranium, struck by the sun, on a shelf hung from a dark garden shed - what an eye catcher, and what fun to paint! Sadly, with summer almost over, it's probably not too long until the plants either have to come inside, or else succumb to the frost. I'm glad I happened upon them before that happens.

Poison Dart Frog

Yellow Dart Frog

acrylic, 4" by 5"

Frogs are always fun to paint - their beautiful eyes, the interesting colors and textures of their skin, and the amazing poses they can get those long legs into, make them enjoyable to watch and to draw. Of them all, the poison dart frogs of South America have some of the most incredible colors and patterns to be found on a vertebrate. This one caught my eye on a recent visit to a zoo.

Much as I like looking at them, I must admit I'm glad they don't live around here. Hard to believe something so small could be so deadly! I'm glad our local frogs, while not so spectacularly colored, are non toxic.

No daily painting today....

"I See You"

acrylics, 9" by 12"

...but finished another for the show I have coming up in November.

Although some of my friends insist on telling me chipmunks are just "rats with stripes", I never get tired of watching their antics. Whether they are climbing the sumac tree outside our kitchen window to gather seeds, or darting in the patio door to grab some of the spilled food around the parrot cage, they are always entertaining. This one posed for a bunch of photos when I was out early one morning while staying at friend's place this summer. It made a point of letting me know it knew exactly where I was, but seemed in no hurry to get further than a couple of arm's lengths away. We shared the pile of mossy rocks quite comfortably for half an hour or so.

Reader on the Rocks

Summertime Reading

watercolor, 5" by 7"

From our recent Algonquin camping trip, showing older son's resourcefulness in dealing with cruel and unusual punishment (also known as having to wait around while Mom takes pictures). Faced with the torture of having to stay relatively still in one place, for as much as several minutes at a time, he took to carrying pamphlets about the trail we were hiking that day. Saved by the printed word! All things are bearable as long as there is reading material. Guess he is his parents' son after all.

Mille Fleur Bantam Hen

Mille Fleur Hen

acrylic, 6" by 6"

Bantams - chickens with attitude! I'm fortunate to have a neighbour's small flock of heritage chickens to serve as willing models - and they work cheaply, a bit of stale bread or some vegetable peelings and they are all yours. At least until he food runs out.

The mille fleur colour pattern with its black and white tipped feathers scattered throughout the plumage has to be one of the prettiest, if challenging to paint.

Trouble in the Poplars

Trouble

acrylic, 4" by 5"

We're the only people I know of who can go off to buy a puppy and come home with a raccoon (well, the puppy came home as well, of course).

It happened on a sunny summer day 15 years ago - we went to a well respected breeder's kennel to pick up our anxiously awaited puppy, whom we had reserved about 8 months earlier. In the sunlit backyard, a litter of puppies was contentedly dozing on a huge blanket - and there, in the middle of the pile o' puppies was a little grey head with button eyes and a nose twitching inquisitively in our direction.

Turns out the little orphan had been raised by the puppies' mom along with the canine litter - but unfortunately, the rest of the dogs on the property didn't share her hormonally induced love for little gray masked bandits, and the little raccoon was in grave danger of getting killed as it began to wander further afield and get into the adult dogs' yards. "I don't know what to do with her - she really should be released in the woods somewhere , but around here she will keep coming back to the house, and the dogs will eventually get her.", the breeder said.

Hubby and I took one look at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and said in unison "We'll take her!" Of course, being a raccoon, Trouble was the only name that suggested itself, and she proceeded to live up to it for the next few months, until in late fall she gradually stayed in the woods longer and longer. Between January and the end of March she never showed up at all, and we thought she had either gone totally wild, or come to grief.

But then one day towards the end of March, there she was on the deck, demanding food. When she stood up on her hind legs to reach for the bowl of kibble we brought her, her swollen nipples were obvious - our little girl had a family of her own!

She followed that pattern for several years, appearing for a few short weeks in the spring, to get extra groceries for her family when the pickings were still slim in the woods. She's been gone for years, but I like to think that some of the raccoons chirping in the trees around the house in the spring are Trouble's descendants.

Flower Market

Flower Market

acrylic, 6" by 8"

Every time I visit family in Germany, I inevitably return with another bunch of reference photos taken at the local flower market. Whether it's the bright reds and yellows of tulips and daffodils in the spring, or the soft pinks and whites of heather in the winter, any time of year there is something to delight the eye and make the hand twitch for a paintbrush.

This particular one is a late summer/ early fall scene. Even though it was a grey, overcast day, the colors in the marketplace made it feel like the sun was out. It's a rather grey fall day here today too, so it was fun to play with bright colors and forget about winter just around the corner for a bit.

Bellflowers

Bellflowers

acrylic, 4" by 8"

One of the wildflowers known for colonizing disturbed ground. I don't think I ever saw a bellflower in our woods until a year or two after we built the house, when several clumps suddenly appeared along the new driveway. They are definitely a welcome addition to the local flora.

The butterfly is an American Lady, this year was the first I saw some of these, but when they appeared, they appeared en masse. Suddenly it semed like you couldn't go for a walk without seeing one or two. Then just as suddenly they were gone. Hopefully they'll be back for an encore next year.

Algonquin Sunrise

Algonquin Sunrise

acrylics, 5" by 7"

Hopefully the first of many studies and paintings to result from a recent camping trip to Algonquin Park, Ontario. Heaven knows I brought back plenty of reference material in the form of photos and sketches.

This one features one of my two sons, both of whom seem to be badly bitten by the fishing bug, in spite of the fact that they rarely catch anything. It's a great thing though that they have finally found a hobby of their own that keeps them more or less stationary - makes it much easier for me to sketch without trying their limited patience!

Peanut Cactus

Peanut Cactus

acrylic on canvas, 6" by 8"

About a year ago, a good friend presented me with a peanut cactus in full bloom. I'm a sucker for cactus plants of all kinds anyhow, but even in a family of plants where extravagant blooms seem to be the rule rather than the exception, the colours of the blooms on this plant were just spectacular. I knew I'd paint them some day.

Today was the day, and here they are!

Puppy Love

Puppy Love

acrylic, 5" by 7"

A quick little study exploring a limited palette of transparent acrylics. There are only three colors in this little painting ( transparent burned sienna, ultramarine blue, and quinacridone red), plus white. I like being able to use acrylics much like watercolors, and yet still be able to paint light over dark in spots.

I'm reasonably happy with this one, which is nice, because yesterday was one of those days where you paint for hours and end up with nothing worth while to show for it. Oh well, sometimes we learn more from our failures than our successes.

At least I hope so.

Sunny Day Fuchsia

Fuchsia Flowers

acrylic, 4" by 5"

Some days are just too nice to sit in the studio hunched over a drafting table and a bunch of photographs. Today was like that - just a perfect late summer day, the hummingbirds buzzing around the feeder, the crickets chirping, and the sun bouncing off the fuchsias. So I spent the afternoon painting fuchsias from life . Here's hoping for lots more sunny days before the cold weather moves in to stay.

Summer on the Rhine

Summer Vinyards
acrylic, 6" by 8"

A trip down the Rhine river on a summer day has to be one of the best ways to while away an afternoon - especially when you end it at one of the small towns along the river to sample the wine.

Though it has been a few years since I had the chance to do that, it was fun looking at the pictures and reliving the memories while painting this. Well, there's always next year!

Garden Stars

Daylilies

acrylic, 5" by 7"

We're not in the greatest spot for growing any kind of garden. The soil here is almost pure sand, and there is lots of shade from the trees all around. So daylilies are a treasure - dozens of bright, showy flowers for minimal effort, not much watering needed, and if the grasshoppers take a huge chunk out of a bloom - well, tomorrow another will open.

Today's painting features just one of several varieties we enjoy all summer long.

A Painting a Day

Toad in the Leaves

acrylic, 4" by 5"

white

That's what a growing number of artists aspire to. The idea being, by turning out one painting a day, every day, you are forced to focus on essentials instead of fussing endlessly with details, you get in the habit of working regularly instead of sitting around waiting for a bolt of inspiration to strike you from the clear blue sky, and best of all - you keep your brushes wetSo - here goes my attempt at "a painting a day" - well, at least a painting every weekday. Have to save some days for the horses, after all.

Here is the first installment of this new project - I love the way toads blend into their surroundings, their slightly supercilious expression, and most of all their spectacular eyes.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird

acrylic, 8" by 10"

And while I'm here, here's another I finished yesterday after several weeks of puttering when the mood struck me. Another of my favourite critters, as close as it gets to a flying jewel.

That's it for today - time to go get those brushes wet again!.