Painting in the California desert

I joined some local artists at Whitewater Preserve. This is Terry Masters, a terrific desert artist.

 Sunnylands, a West Coast 'Camp David', invited artists to paint one day when it was closed to the public. This is an agave painting that I did there.

 Another small painting of some friends on the beautiful South Course of Ironwood.

A small desertscape (colours too bright in the photo I think) The desert colours are warm and very muted. So different from our BC Coast palette.

My outdoor studio under the orange tree. Delightful except when a large orange fell on the palette and sounded like a gun shot! 

I did some larger starts and will use my photos to complete them in the next few months. 

Fall Travels and great art viewings!

We were lucky to visit London and Paris this fall, and we saw some exceptional exhibitions. Our favourite was the show on Georges Braque at the Grand Palais in Paris. He started as a fauvist around the turn of the last century, then he started cubism with this beautiful painting.

He then experimented with collage, and the show displayed a letter from Picasso saying that he was trying some of Braque's collage techniques. Braque was a real leader in so many areas of 20th century art.

We also saw a Roy Lichtenstein show at the Pompidou Centre, and we were delighted with his inventiveness and versatility. In the 60s/70s I didn't realize how talented he was, dismissing him as solely a comic style artist. 

In London we attended the Frieze Modern and the Frieze Masters, huge art shows in Regent's Park. At the Masters we were intrigued by this Breughal ('The Census at Bethlehem") that had just sold for £6 million. It was the first time it had been seen publicly as the owners had the original receipt from Breughel (400 years old)! We were puzzled as we (my husband and I) thought we recognized the painting from our art history courses, but the gallery owner explained that the painting we knew was by Breughal the elder, and his son had painted about 14 variations, of which this was one.  You can see Mary in the foreground on the mule, but what has always intrigued and delighted me is that it looks more like Belgium than Bethlehem. 

 We also visited the Courtauld Gallery in London to see some Impressionist favourites. Manet's large painting "Bar at the  Folies Bergères" is riveting.  See him on the right in the mirror? And the trapeze artist on the top left? There's so much to look at in this painting.

Lastly, the National Portrait Gallery. Fabulous portraits by many artists, but my favourite this time was Jonathan Yeo, a self-taught British artist in his forties. He is able to persuade prominent subjects to sit for him, and here are two of them.

Kevin Spacey as Richard III

Rob Lowe

Whistler Demo and the Federation of Canadian Artists Plein Air Week

In September I spent a day at the Whistler Farmer's Market  demo-ing painting ski kids. I love painting these groupings of chunky and colourful kids with all their paraphernalia. They provide endless fun compositions with their unselfconscious gestures. It was a very pleasant warm fall day and lots of people stopped for a chat.

Then it was the FCA Plein Air week of painting in Whistler, with about 90 artists (students, teachers and signature artists). Michael Reardon showed us how he painted with watercolour in the village, the inimitable Brent Lynch used oils at Green Lake, Utah artist Michael Workman inspired us on the top of Whistler, and renowned colourist Camille Predzowski gave us a lesson in impressionism at North Arm Farm. It was a fabulous week, ending with a banquet and art sale at the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre. Here are a few images of the week...
Brent Lynch (TERRIFIC artist and instructor) at Green Lake

Me trying to paint in a more 'Lynchy' way

Camille the colourist .. an exciting and different approach

My friend Sue on top of Whistler. Painters at every level would love this week next year. It is a beautiful setting, everyone is most encouraging and collegial, and it's all very inspiring.

"Oh the difficulties of mountain art for too little genius." (J. E. H. MacDonald)

What a timely and apt quote from Robert Genn's blog today! Along with some great advice for painting in the mountains... wish I had seen that before my Purcell trip!
That said, it was a spectacular trip to the Purcell Mountain Lodge.  What a gorgeous spot to be out of touch with the world... at 7200 ft.
The impressive mountains here are the Selkirk Range .. Mount Sir Donald being particularly photogenic with its striking glaciers.There is a whole octave of cirques (#2below) that I loved as well but I haven't figured out how to paint them as they are so repetitious. Maybe best as a photo.
My plein air painting (3rd) is in the shade so appears very dark.. I left it at the lodge along with 2 16x20s that I did ahead of time from photo references kindly given to me by Linda Wilder, another Mountain Galleries artist who has been there before and who is my idol in landscape painting.

There was a slight smoke odor is the area because of some forest fires smouldering nearby, and one night we had a group of firemen join us at the lodge as they'd  been setting backfires to prevent our Bald Range burning and carrying the fire over to the Spillimacheen Valley on the other side.

Took hundreds of photos to work on in the studio over the fall and winter. Thanks again to Mountain Galleries and the Purcell Mountain Lodge for giving me such a wonderful opportunity!

The Lodge with Sir Donald and Uto Peak looming behind

Sir Donald and the Selkirk Range

Cirques de Selkirk and a glimpse of the Illecillewaet Glacier

Hippie Heads 

The Cirque

Purcell mountain Lodge Artist in Residence Aug 12-16!!

I'm very excited and honoured to be going to the Purcell Mountain Lodge as artist in Residence on behalf of Mountain Galleries next week! I'll be painting non-stop for 5 days so hope to complete a number of plein air landscapes... and get lots of great photo references.  Big thanks to Wendy Wacko for giving me this opportunity!  http://purcellmountainlodge.com

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

I completed this painting and renamed it Eye on the Prize because of the intent predatory gaze. Thanks Brian for your suggestions .. I think there is more of a feeling of motion in the wings now. I tried a greater gradation in the background but didn't come up with anything that worked for me.. will try again on my next eagle painting.. I have tons of great images.
I think oyster catchers are going to be featured soon as well with their brilliant translucent red bills.
I've painted 5 or more hours every day for 2 weeks and have loads of 3/4 finished work lying around. I LOVE the starts but agonize over the finishes. Reminds me of when I was 8 or 9 and my parents would tell me "You're a good starter but a lousy finisher" .. referring to various projects or chores I'd undertaken.  Finishing without overworking ... hmm.

Memo to self .. Put Down the Brush.

Today I lost a sale because I overworked a desert painting and it lost its fresh look. The earlier version that the buyer wanted is on this blog. For some reason I fiddled with it.  It is so easy to kill a promising piece this way and I'm hereby resolving to stop sooner!
The eagle painting below (Eagle Dance) is one that I stopped working on a few weeks ago while I think about how to do the water background. How to gradate it colour and value wise. As the light is coming from the right, it would make sense for the water to be lighter and perhaps a bit golder/warmer on the right .. gradating to a slightly darker more muted semi-neutral greenish gray on the left..  haven't  figured it out yet. Advice/opinions welcomed.  We have a lot of eagles living near us on the coast!

AFCA Signature Status

I was extremely flattered and delighted to receive signature status from the FCA jury this week and I'd like to thank the jurors for dedicating their time to reviewing the submissions from many artists. It feels great to have that recognition and support from such an accomplished group of professionals! Now the really hard work begins in order to take it up a notch.

Exciting news! Today Jim and I delivered 8 paintings to Mountain Galleries  who are going to represent me for the next year or so .. we'll see how it goes. I'm very honoured to have my art in such a beautiful and popular gallery, one that we visit and admire frequently.  Liz Ash is the manager, you may call them at 604-935-1862 if you wish to purchase or inquire .. but my art won't be on their website until later this month.