Busy... Busy...Busy

Yike, it has been too long since posting.  However I have many good reasons almost all art related.  

- I went and got all my paintings framed that I am putting in my graduation show.  THANK YOU TO Kamena Art and Framing for their awesome service.  They manage to do a great job and help me out when I am in a time crunch too.  My graduation show is occurring in May to June, I will post more on that in May.

 - I started a sketch in watercolour for aFederation of Canadian Artists signature submission, with the hopes of getting accepted.  I need 7 accepted paintings to gain Signature status one day.  So far I have had 2 rejections for other shows, so I gotta step it up a notch!!

 - I have been commissioned to do 2 paintings for an event that will be happening at the Art Gallery of Alberta sometime in May I believe.  Exciting!! I will show those here after the event happens.

-We had a wonderful Easter / Spring break and went to ski and visit the Family for a few days.  It was great.  I started to question my snowboarding skills on one of the icier days and suddenly realized my snowboard is about 20 years old now.  So now I am blaming my issues on the age of my snowboard not the age of my body!  New snowboard next season!!

- I began a painting today to thank my Bro and his family for always hosting us when we go skiing / boarding.  Pictures below of the start of my process.  Full size sketch on brown paper, then I cover it with chalk and trace my sketch onto a black gessoed canvas.  Then I will paint!  I will post that later too.

Whew... I forgot to mention work always get busier this time of year teaching art for the Art Gallery of St Albert, so there is that too.  Feels good to be busy though, love it!

Folky style

When I use acrylics I tend to like the bright colours and am drawn to making them a bit more 'fun' and folk style.  I am attempting a series of iconic things to be found in Edmonton in acrylic paint.  This painting is of the Princess Theatre, I went on my first date with my hubby here.  Also included is the guitar playing, rollerblading, buff dude that can be seen on Whyte avenue in the summer time.  He whips by with hardly a care, makes me smile every time I see him.

Acrylic on canvas - 14x16

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thinking of spring

Thinking of spring today, as the snow flies again.  I keep trying different versions from some photos of our pond.  This is oil on black gesso canvas.  It needs something 'abstracty' in there, just not sure what.  Nice colours but feel kind of ...meh about it right now.  Oh well... next.