landscapes

Friday 16th January 2009 - Taos Truck

A day in the gallery and I finished off the truck painting that I started plein aire on Tuesday. I was interested to see it side by side with the painting I did with the same composition at the same time of year 2 years ago, to have a sense of how my painting has changed in that time. Please feel free to post your comments...




Taos Truck - 20 x 20" - oil on canvas - $1,200

Tuesday 13th January 2009 - truck!

I painted a similar painting nearly 2 years ago and people are still asking me about it. The original sold at the bank show in April 2008. I'm interested to see the difference that 2 years of intensive study and experience will look like.

Taos Truck - 20 x 20" - oil on canvas - unfinished

Thursday 8th January 2009 - Ray Vinella's class

Not a bad start to the new year. I started this painting with Shari last week, we had lunch together for a catch up and then took a walk in the snow by this stream at a trailhead just outside of town. We were looking for a good spot to paint in, a good view with some sunshine on us to keep us warm but didn't find one - the good spots were all in the shade or on precarious looking ice. We took photographs and went back to my house, printed the photos up and worked in my warm studio instead.



At the end of the session I felt sure the painting could be better and took it to Ray's class yesterday to work on it some more. he made some good suggestions and I was much happier with it when I finished. Ray mostly encourages me to use brighter, stronger colour.



That lunch with Shari was at the sushi place north of town and I took a photograph of the teepee behind it on that bright sunny day with a recent fall of thick snow. I used that photograph to make this painting in Ray's session too. I think the feeling of light works well in this one.

Ice Bridge - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas - $750
Shelter from the Snow - 10 x 20" - oil on canvas - $795

4 - 6th August - Dorothy Lampl's Workshop

I attended Dorothy's Still Life Workshop last Summer and learned a lot, so I was excited about doing it again this year. As well as being one of my favourite painters, Dorothy is one of my favourite people too!



We started off with a single piece of fruit or vegetable and worked up to arrangements of objects.



Practising still life painting is a wonderful way of improving painting technique for all other kinds of painting.



I really wanted to improve my flower painting and brought these white lilies with me to paint. Dorothy said I had picked about the hardest flower to paint! I really enjoyed catching the different colours in the white of the petals.



onion - 5 x 7" - oil on board - sold
grapefruit - 5 x 7" - oil on board - sold
Still Life with a Plum - 12 x 12" -oil on gesso-board - $575
White Lily on Dark - 12 x 16" - oil on canvas-board - $750
White Lily on Mid-tone - 12 x 12" - oil on gesso-board - $750