day and night

day: plein air painting at Sibbald Creek





night: Hallowe'en antics

our old shower curtain transformed with black paint and taped over the living room window

the lady of the house

how to make ghosties from plastic bags

you will need bags, scissors, string, a large-eyed needle, black marker

cut the bottom, handles and logo off the bag - keep these bits

open up remainder of bag and cut into two pieces

lay the two piece one atop the other, ball up the bits you cut off and place in the middle

tie with string, then thread long end through large-eyed needle

push threaded needle through to the top of the head

if you like, draw a face with the marker

a gaggle of ghosties!

and again!

A friend of mine is also interested in plein air painting, and today we went up the Kananaskis to Highwood Crossing. Beautiful day, temperature hovering around 0ºC and windy skies.

first one happened really fast

second one took longer - struggling and fudging the mountain

As usual the size is 10x10", oil on canvas.
This was an excellent plein air day - lovely views, lovely company, lovely hot soup shared after an hour of painting in the snow. What more can I ask of life?

- break -

I have been taking a break from working in the studio, specifically from making stitched city paintings... but somehow find myself still compulsively painting other things, haha!

Doing the plein air stuff has been really fun, but now the weather quickly becomes too cold, and after 90 minutes' work I return home chilled and stiff. Lucky me : we have hot water, a furnace, dry cosy sweaters and blankets. Luxurious life.

Oct 23, 6pm
painted until the sun went down

Had to be at the studio today to ship the works for my November show in Edmonton. Sending the accumulated work out is like taking off many layers of sweaters - aaaahhhhh, feels like I can move again!

Afterwards I had a couple of hours to fill, so I revisited this portrait of Kim:



Angel
oil on panel
20w x 16h

Thinking about Kim, about her life and personality, about the insides and outsides of people... I really like this portrait now, to me it is her.

Soon my studio break will be over - I can feel new things wanting to come out. Need to continue with city-ish works for a couple of shows in the next 18 months, and having some ideas about how to keep it interesting, continue to make my living without it becoming endlessly repetitive.

Then there are some divergent projects - I have now a small list of paintings I would like to make, and intend to not lose sight of that list.

Feels like I may be learning how to do this artist thing...!

Oct 20/2011, 1pm

Did another plein air painting today. This one is 9x12". Water is very difficult to paint! - but I am determined to keep practicing until I get it.

Forgot to bring the camera with me so took this pic afterwards, at home.

one night after work...

... I invited one of my co-workers up to the studio. Here are the portraits I made of her:

First the requisite drawing on paper, which I gave to her.


The beginning of the oil portrait - actually mostly drawing with a China Marker


The model poses with her portrait.
Somehow this portrait looks like a mixture of her and me! Interesting.

Those photos were taken with her iphone - I worked on it some more after she left but have yet to photograph the results. Next post - stay tuned!

this morning

A beautiful morning for plein air! My landscape paintings are still very much hit-or-miss, but how enjoyable to spend some time painting outdoors in these last days of autumn.

I like the top part of this one, but that big green shape in front has got to go. Maybe I will crop it and re-stretch... maybe.

portrait of Ola

Yesterday Ola came up to my studio and I did her portrait.

First a pencil drawing, then an oil painting.

plein air IV

9x12" canvas this time... I think I prefer square format

digressing and digressing

Urban Spaces series #3
mixed media on panel
11 x 14" each:

US 3.1

US 3.2

US 3.1


And another portrait:

Angel
oil on panel
16 x 20"

plein air III

Did two today. Pulled my dolly of painting supplies a little further afield and found some lovely spots. The overcast weather made for interesting skies.