fire fly - moon dance (sold)

For me a summer night is especially evocative. I am not the only one. It is the stuff of songs, sayings, poems & plays.

What a marvellous night for a moon dance.

 Moon Dance

mixed media on panel

6x6in, 2011

  Fire Fly

mixed media on panel 

6x6in, 2011
sold

Summer (sold)

Love is to the heart what the summer is to the farmer's year - it brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of the soul.  

Author Unknown

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never to the, in a Book it lie -
True Poems flee.
Emily Dickinson

In June, as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them.  

Aldo Leopold

No price is set on the lavish summer;
June may be had by the poorest comer.

James Russell Lowell

Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit.  A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world.  

Ada Louise Huxtable

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language

Henry James, Jr. 

July

Niagara Escarpment

oil on canvas

36x36in, 2010

HAPPY SUMMER !

edge & field

Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.
Jean-Paul Sartre

I haven’t posted in awhile- crazy busy month! My plein air classes and workshops are in full swing, and a few large paintings are in progress.  

I do want to thank those of you that took the time to write your comments on my previous post. I haven't had time to respond or even barely visit your new work, but intend to do so soon-

*Bill a special thanks to you-your compliment sent me over the moon!

 I did manage to get out this evening for a quiet conversation with the field and rendered this wee acrylic painting. I finished just in time too- my neighbour came out with the tractor to cut down the area where I was working!

June, Remains of the Day

acrylic on canvas

6x14in, 2011

available

For me,  acrylic paint can be challenging when it comes to edges in landscape—soft and varied edges that is. It lends itself nicely to sharp edges, and, although I really like it in others, I’m not after  graphic or stylized contrast in my own work. I do  like acrylic for glazing and if used wet and/or with different mediums I am able to achieve a more varied approach to edges and application with the brush. It’s also convenient ie not having to worry about transporting a wet oil painting when hurriedly trudging through fields  -especially if one is being chased by a columbine.

Peacepoint production crew

* a bit of excitement -a documentary  was shot here all day yesterday and I played a small part-primarily as myself but hey, they still made me do 'take' after take-am exhausted! The show airs in January and will post more info then-

Peacepoint production crew

new June & plein air classes

'How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June…if it was only the other way! If it was I who were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old! For this—for this—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the world I would not give!'

Oscar Wilde

Below is a view from my studio and it is a snowball bush that has grown somewhat awry -which I quite like.

June

oil on canvas

18x24in, 2011

available

 (still a wee bit glare y, will re-shoot when dry)

I worked alla prima over an existing dark painting-played with  higher chroma and worked out some compositional divisions. I also worked on mixing new spring greys.

I have finally settled on a medium that works well (for me) when painting outdoors—  2 parts safflower oil, I part dammar varnish or Canadian balsam ( it’s expensive) and a few (use sparingly) drops of cobalt drier. I much prefer this drier  to alkyd additives and mediums like Liquin, which I have used on and off for many years. When I work outside in the warm sun I like the paint dripping wet so use lots of solvent /medium in the initial stages of laying in. As I build the painting with thicker passages, the sun and the medium tend to set up and become tactile-I love that ‘pull’ as the paint then has a beautiful plasticity.

 weekly  Plein air classes resume 

*Weekly classes in  Plein Air Painting  resume next Monday night, June 6. There are 2 openings left so if interested, please contact me. If you are new to art making this is an opportunity to engage in a nurturing,  encouraging and  informative environment. You will approach and develop techniques  including observation, composition, value, colour, brushwork and paint  handling. For practising artists, this is an opportunity to hone individual goals and push beyond your comfort level. 

A smorgasbord of inspiring subject matter is waiting for you:

gardens, vineyards, orchards, fields and amazing sky 

 

For more information about the series, click here or on the top right hand side of this blog.

**If you have registered and would like to pay online securely via paypal, click the link below. You do not need an account with paypal to complete the transaction.