I've been lazy very very lazy

It's fall and the leaves beg to be painted and all I've done is this little watercolour.
I need to sketch more. My goal for this week is to get sketching again and show you the results of practice.

To Golf or to Paint

I'm sitting at the computer in my studio and wondering if I should take advantage of this beautiful fall day and go golfing. Only trouble is it's only 6 degrees out and  the clouds are coming and that's when the temperature drops.

Yesterday I spent the day at Pynelogs minding the Purcell Mountain Painters show. Not too many people around but a few. It is always fun to watch people look at your paintings and see how much time they actually spend at any one painting. You really do have to achieve that wow factor to get their interest for even a few seconds as they scan a room full of paintings. 

Thank You

Thank you to all who attended my show at Pynelogs. I was very pleased at the results as I made some sales and enjoyed the feedback at the reception. It is a little scary to put your work out to the public. But all of you have been supportive and it inspires me to continue to paint and learn.
As you may know the Purcell Mountain Painters, which I belong to, are having their show at Pynelogs until October 16  so some of my paintings are still hanging. Please drop by to see the work of my fellow painters this week we love your support and comments and for some it is one of the few times  their work is on display.

So far the pieces of art that sold were: Green Tractor, Red Barn, Autumn Pink, Scarlet Apple, Orange Panel Van. and Birch. Thank you.

Here is a link to The All the Painting in the Pynelogs Show

2011-09-05 Pynelogs Art Show 2011

Just click on this picture and you will be taken to the album.

Recent Paintings

Pynelogs Cultural Center Invermere Show

You are invited to my up coming show at Pynelogs

  September 20 to October 2.

 The Artists Opening event is Wednesday September 21 from 7-9pm.

There will be snacks and a cash bar.

It has been fun and a lot of work to put this show together, needless to say I haven't been blogging but I have been painting since the workshop I took with Carol Marine earlier this summer. 

Experimenting With Colour

It was a nice fall day last year and I was admiring the trees near our house and taking a few pictures when this old panel van passed me and I was able to snap a picture.  I didn’t alter the colour of the vehicle; I swear it was the same colour as the  leaves. I tried to capture the shadows using a nice soft complimentary blue.




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This is the original picture.  I think  I made the sky shape more interesting. and featured the van a little more. This is one of the paintings for my up coming show.

Carol Marine Workshop

Sixteen wonderful ladies (not kids Carol) joined together  at the begining of July to participate in a Workshop given by the internationally recognized still life painter Carol Marine . She did a fine job of encourging us to paint more.  I really feel like I need to get down to work. Yet here I am working on my blog. Well it has been quite a while and the subject mattered strayed from it's original intent which was to document one womens journey in the painting world.
I will blog more I promise.
And soon I will blog  about Carols workshop because I feel so inspired. That is definetly how a workshop should make you feel. I am doing this short up date so that the ladies that I met will see that I intend to stay sort of current and they will find something new here when they check in.
Carol gave us so much information about how she paints and markets herself  that I am overwhelmed with ideas and don't want to spend too much time just yet on this blog but will post some pics soon from the workshop and of current work.
I was in very good company too  these two ladies also have blogspots so check them out. Sharon Williams  andCheryl Quist

Hilton Head South Carolina

Here in South Carolina the living is easy. We are at Harbour Town at the Marroitt  practically in the shadow of the famous lighthouse beside the number 18th. green of the Sea Pines Harbour Town golf course. We played the Sea Pines Ocean course leaving 'the' Harbour Town course for the PGA Tour Professionals. Also the $200.00 cost put it a little out of my range. It was a fun course even thought there is water on 10 of the 18 holes.  I managed to stay out of it and scored a respectable 98, two over my handicap.

Did I mention there are alligators on the course. I discouraged Jim from reaching into the water to retrieve balls. Another reason to stay out of the water.

 We have been biking on the labyrinth of trails here,discovering many interesting areas of the Island. The trails snake through the forests of Spanish moss draped trees, its so lush compared to the desert . Like night and day.

It's January in California

Windermere Loop Road in the Fall

Towards Whitetail Lake

Here are two paintings that I did just before leaving home. I hope to get around to photographing some works from California but  golf seems to get in the way. We are having fun catching up with everyone and the weather has perked up so we are all outside more. Next week we are off to Sedona for a couple of days of hiking. It should  be cooler there but I am looking forward to seeing Sedona red rock with a dusting of snow. Did I just say I was looking forward to snow? This cold I have is worse than I thought. I must be delusional.

The wonders of computers

I'm dictating to my computer to enter this text into my blog.  The wonders of computers never cease to amaze me.  This thing can type 100 times faster than I can and if I can learn how to make it recognize my voice correctly it will be a lot easier to enter text into my blog. Once in awhile he gets mixed up.  The example of typing he instead of it is just an example.  Perhaps it was my pronunciation and more than likely it was so if you can put up with a few mistakes and recognize that it may be my pronunciation and not the computer we will get along just fine and I can enter lots text.

Well as usual I'm wasting time trying to learn how to use this computer and not getting down to paint so I better be off now to start a new painting.

December in the Mountains

Winter has arrived in the Columbia Valley and I marvel at the beauty of snow.
I put up the Christmas tree early to get in the spirit. The smell of a wild Douglas Fir fills the house. After getting back from Sedona and getting back into painting with oils November zoomed by.


Mount Chisel Oil on board



My little surgery went well and not only can I see better I look 10 years younger. Well maybe.....
I was surprised I didn't end up more black and blue but it wasn't worse than going to the dentist. Now to get back to painting and ready to go south.

Ok so Sedona up date never happened.

Ok so I have been busy painting and trying to get my notebook so it links to stuff not so easy for a old mind.

Elk on 17th.

We have lots of Elk on the front greens these days.
Hope they don’t come through our yard .
Trying to figure out how to use my new notebook with all the windows 7 features

Sedona up Date coming soon.

Wednesday in Jerome

No time for Yoga this morning. We wanted to get an early start to Jerome the old mining town turned art haven about 25 miles from Sedona. Jerome is truly a painters dream come true. Perched on the side of a mountain, a mile in the sky, old building threatening to fall to the valley and views on this clear day all the way to the Grand Canyon. Galleries of all types are located up and down the streets and I do mean up and down the streets. Painters, potters, weavers and jewelery makers fill the galleries with a feast for the eyes. The artists settled into tiny spots up and down the streets to try to capture the corner of a funky old building or a collection of old signs or just a street scene. We didn't see there completed works since we too wanted to try our hand but we will see their work Saturday morning before we leave town.
Did I mention we had lunch at the Mile High Restaurant. I felt like a local for a minute eating in the Restaurant were the local resident painters hang out. The fellow we met the first day that we were painting in a creek near Sedona has a Studio in Jerome. And on another trip to Jerome I believe that we ate in the same place. Ha, ha like, I felt at home. Lynne liked Jerome and we explored shops and street scenes and photographed it all.
By 4:00 we were pooped and headed home for dinner and then out to hear Stuart Shils talk again about how he got to where he is in his art. From a formally trained artist to the almost totally abstract style he has developed into to day. Once again it was an interesting talk with him not really knowing how he produces his work ' it just happens'. The fact that he almost drank a whole bottle of wine while we listened with not a drop of our own may explain some of his automatic art at this point. Truly his current work is beautiful and mysterious however he gets to it.
Goodnight

Sedona October 26 Tuesday

Secretariat was well worth the money. A movie you could take your children and grandmother to. An old fashioned good story with no body count.
After yoga I positioned Lynne in a spot of her choosing while I went to a pastel painting Demo by Susan Ogilvie. She demonstrated and explained her way to a lovely painting. Even though I haven't done much with pastels I would say that I learned a lot from her. They all talk and explain the same things, value, hue, saturation, soft and hard edges so I think you can learn from any one who is willing to share their knowledge. She was is a very good teacher and taught me some trick of the trade that can be used with any medium.
I picked up Lynne and we had a nice picnic lunch and headed out to paint the mountains again. I actually like the piece I produced and may keep this 'cheerleader'.
This evening there was a Guest Speaker, Stuart Shils, talking about "The Perceptual Moment" I had never heard of him but he is from New York and Philadelphia and is a plein air painter of some renowned. However his work is almost abstract. Lynne was in her glory. The pieces that he brought to show are beautiful and very abstract with just a hint of structure. He has reduced landscapes to the bare bones so to speak. He teaches and seems to be an art history guru so I felt like an art student for a couple of hours. All in all extremely interesting.

Bill Cramer Demo painting.

We had a real treat today as we attended a Demostration painting by Bill Cramer one the plein air painters participating in the Festival this week. Go to his web site to see some of his work. http://www.billcramerpaintings.com/

He started as you see in the photo blocking in the darks and major shapes then like magic the painting appeared.

My attempts seem to fall short after the blocking in process.... Oh well practice practice practice.

We were hoping to paint this afternoon but the weather finally did us in and it was dull all day so we went gallery viewing again and I think now we have done most of them. We are back to our yoga routine again I won't know what to do with out a leader when I get home perhaps I will have to be my own motivater for painting as well as yoga.

We are off to the show to night Secretariat hope it is good.

Sunday In Sedona

We moved back to Los Abrigados Resort this morning and then hit the road to discover another painting spot. Our search took us towards Flagstaff and as we climbed to over 6000 feet the trees took on more and more fall colour. Finally we settled on a spot by a tributary of Oak Creek where there was a red rock face that overhang the creek and created a nice reflexion in the water. It was a beautiful little spot. I tried to capture the scene in paint but the light was ever changing so it is a challenge.

About 2:20 the clouds darkened the light went out and we made a hasty retreat as once again we dodged the weather after a beautiful morn.

This was the evening of the Artists reception, each of the 33 artists were allowed to hang 3 pieces and I must say most of them I would have happily owned. The variety of work and the fact that we are able to be so close and talk to the individual artists is a real treat. To hear their stories and to eavesdrop a bit to hear their exchanges with one another was much fun.

Most of them are well known locally or in other parts of the US and they are all represented by galleries and many of them teach.

Needless to say the prices for these pieces were high but I guess they can get it since they are all well established.

All in all another nice day.

Friday and Saturday in Sedona

Friday morning we tried NOMADICS with Cheryl, a total body conditioning class, which combines a movement series designed to reach every joint in the body; incorporating yoga, flexibility, strength and body awareness. I twisted body parts I didn't even know I had. Once again in the cool down and relaxation portion of the class Cheryl treated us to a lovely flute recital.

We packed to move to the Ridge on Sedona golf course but because we couldn't check in until 4:00 we filled our day by washing the car and going to the goodwill to to buy a cover up shirt for painting in since the weather has turned cool and I don't want paint on my fleece.

It actually rained quite a bit today so spent some time in a few galleries had a lovely lunch at the Wildflower and then spent the rest of the day at the Sedona library. I'm in heaven what a lovely library they even allowed me a visitors lending card for $5.00. We checked out several art books in case it continued to rain and headed for our new digs. After checking in we went again to the bar that we had gone to earlier in the week to listen to jazz. There was music that night too but we were a little early and didn't wait for it. Home and a hot tub under the almost full moon. I was the only one in the tub on the side of a hill overlooking an incredible night scape.

Saturday and the Art Festival started at 1:30 but we needed to get in our painting so found a quiet spot in the far reaches of a subdivision with a view of a field of wildflowers in front of a red rock background. By being away from the tourist spots we have avoided the curious eyes of the tourists. Lunch then out into the bright sunny main street of Sedona to watch 33 painters create in 3 hours some amazing paintings, watercolours or pastel art. I like to think that I learned a lot hopefully it will sink in. Most of the artists were very approachable and were happy to pass on little teaching hints. It was fun to watch the different personalities and how they approached their pieces. Some I thought had a struggle to get their work done. Others seemed to be right at home painting while the public leaned over their shoulder. A couple seemed to choose places where you might not notice them.
Some pallets were neat and organized some were chaotic, very interesting and very informative. When the time was up they all gathered in front of the Sedona Art Center and put their still wet paintings in frames and put a price tag on them. Most were in the $400 to $600 range with a couple over $700 and a couple at $350. Well out of this tourists range but all beautiful and I would have loved anyone of them.