Winter - I love it!

A little cross country, downhill ski on the Family Day long weekend

I am an unashamed lover of winter and snow!  I grew up relishing those cancelled school days when it dropped below -35 and we would go outside to play.  We cross country skied, tobogganed, ice fished, curled, skated on ponds & outdoor rinks and pretty much enjoyed any winter activity available.  If you are going to live in a cold climate you MUST dress properly and get out and enjoy it or it could be a LONG six months of darkness for you.  

Right now I am enjoying attempting to paint various scenes that have snow, the most challenging for me being the partially snow covered coniferous trees.  Have a Google of  Lawren Harris' fabulous winter trees or check out Clarence Gagnon's cozy, nostalgic scenes of Quebec in winter - beautiful!

A bright, sunny winter's day provides the best shadows and highlights imaginable for painting.  I am attempting another one today of a buried camper van, waiting for spring to return.

Biking and blogging

Summer usually means a slow down in my art creation. I am off work and more time is spent ‘Momming’, visiting, gardening and holidaying.  This summer I have been able to do a lot more mountain biking, now that I am in actual mountains every day.  It’s been great for the cardio and the soul.  So of course that has led me to my recent bike painting theme.  Occasionally I will get on a tangent and paint several paintings on one idea ( see cheeky prime ministers https://tessastanley.blogspot.com/2017/04/oil-and-acrylic-dont-mix-you-hoser.html ) I know that many artist spend months or years on a theme, painting just trains or flowers or abstract fruits.  I find I need to switch fairly regularly to maintain my interest.  

 So this is a view from one of the bike trails last week. Fabulous! Below  are some of my bike paintings and progress paintings.

What is art?

Starting to add some colour

As an 'emerging' artist I am always interested in learning new things and trying to improve my art.  I was looking up a residency program in Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan when I came across the following:

"Have you always wanted the intensity of a day or 2 (or 3) in a large earthen hole with one other person?

In the Hole is a short-term residency located in an earthen hole on Treaty 6 territory in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. Each resident will spend 6 hours each day in this hole as a participant in this residency. Residents can come for one day up to a maximum of 3 consecutive days. There will be one person at a time at the Residency.Have you always wanted the intensity of a day or 2 (or 3) in a large earthen hole with one other person?"

You can check it out yourself by clicking residency in a hole.  I admit I did laugh, thinking that this was a joke and I pictured a camera being set up to take pictures of whatever unsuspecting sucker came along who actually took it seriously.  Trying not to judge.

Anyhow..back to the ongoing struggle.  I am working on the larger version now of my smaller study of Cypress Hills.  Trying to use lots more paint and make it more 'impressionist' in style.  I found the beautiful paintings of Erin Hanson to inspire me.  We shall see if this larger one turns out.

Poutine

8x10 oil on gesso paper

Talk about suffering for one's art - I had to eat all of this poutine after I photographed it.  Wow, I did suffer later, but it was delicious.  Poutine is another very Canadian thing, but ironically I bought it at NewYork Fry's. What's with that...  Anyhoooo... poutine is VERY challenging to paint.  It is one big mess of greasy delicious, fries, gravy and cheese curds.

Nanaimo Squares - MMM Canada

Nanaimo Squares

This was a quick 1.5 hr painting.  Nanaimo Squares are very Canadian and a Christmas favourite - especially my Mom's homemade ones.  I am falling behind due to work and taking a couple days off, so I am going to have to get 2 paintings a day started.  Below is the family recipe - missing some detail - I tend to cook the base over a low heat for a few minutes because of the egg in it and I usually 1/2 the icing part because I can't hack an 1/2 inch of frosting on my squares.  Enjoy!

the struggle continues...

I have been picking at this landscape painting, trying to paint it fairly realistically.  It's been a couple of weeks now and I find I get to a point where I am just sick of a particular painting and need to put it away for awhile.  In fact it can almost be a few months before I can look at it again with fresh eyes to see if it is worth trying to save and work on some more.  Tomorrow will try something a little looser and more fun.

Old Fort Point Bridge
16x20 Oil on Canvas

The proof is the proof

Proof 6x9 Oil

He has been working hard to show his proof.

The actual quote "A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven." Jean Chretien.

Today too busy for clever portraits of Prime Ministers.  Instead it is a quick painting of bannock.  Sticking to painting Canadian themed things - bannock to me is very homey. Most Sunday's after church we would head over to my Granny's for her homemade bannock with delicious homemade jam.  I cooked up this bannock and slapped on some saskatoon jam, snapped a photo and then before eating realized the jam was from 2013.  Yike.

Bannock with Saskatoon Jam
6x8 oil on gesso paper

There are those who argue that Fry Bread is bannock.  To me they are 2 different things but equally delicious in their own way.  Fry bread is like a donut for dessert, bannock is breakfast.  I have included recipes for both so you decide.  The bannock is my great-great grandmother's recipe and the Fry Bread is from some Metis sisters in Saskatchewan who shared it with me.

Pierre-ouette Trudeau #6

So this one was challenging and I plan to tweek it a bit more in the future, but here is today's effort as I have to call it quits for the day..  Pierre Elliot Trudeau - when I plan my paintings I of course hunt out photos and get ideas from the Google.  Mr. Trudeau senior had not one but 2 pictures, pirouetting in his cheeky manner, near the Queen.  He is a tad more graceful in this painting and he never did wear this outfit - although he did have some great disco era outfits man.

Meech and Chong

Meech and Chong
8x11 Oil on Black gesso paper

All those who remember the 80's may get a kick out of this one.  Took me longer cause there were 2 faces instead of one, I am usually averaging about 4 hrs/painting, either in the evening, or if I am not working, during the day sometime.  I haven't watched any t.v. since this thing started - kind of missing Netflix.

DeifenBaker - #4

DeifenBaker
8x11 oil on black gesso paper

Painting #4, I am having lots of fun with these.  This one was a suggestion from my friend, Rick. Many thanks to my son who posed in his chef's gear so I could get the hat, apron and whisk done accurately.

Oil and Acrylic don't Mix you Hoser!

I suddenly realized last night, that in order to paint 150 Canadian paintings, I have to do at least 1 painting every 2 days (1.7 days to be exact).  I guess I didn't think that through very well, but I will give it a try.  Anyhooo... below is the start of painting #2.  It is John A Macdonald with Doug Mackenzie style toque and a beer in hand (when its all done).

John Eh Macdonald - the Original Canadian Hoser
8.5 x 11 oil on black gesso paper

This painting is just 8 x 11 ish and was supposed to be a quick acrylic for fun.  Unfortunately I learned a lesson today - I had all my oil paints from yesterdays work, on the same table beside my acrylics.  Accidentally grabbed the green oil paint and wondered what was wrong with it when it wouldn't mix in with yellow properly.  Since you can't layer acrylic on top of oils, it is now going to be an oil painting.  What was going to be 1 hour will now probably be about 4, cause I am repainting everything, plus I am kind of enjoying this painting and decide I want to keep him around.