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!

Day 4 - return to beach

Today I attempted a quick one hour painting for Day 4 of 30 in 30 days challenge.  Had a major disaster and it was wiped off after a spill of turpentine, so I am posting a very recent quick painting - the beach in Hawaii instead.  

8x10 oil on panel

I got a start on the next painting in my winter series and am feeling good about it.  Once it's dry will start with some colour tomorrow.

11x14 underpainting

Repeats

I am working on a little painting experiment right now.  I have not used watercolour paints, aside from my travel sketchbook, for a long time.  I hope to have a series of these done early in the New Year.

Watercolour sketch 9x12

Acrylic sketch 9x12

Serious Work

colour sketch on paper

Having decided that I will take this painting job seriously; I am reading, researching and listening to information on how to do this, whenever I get a spare moment.  While I paint I love to listen to Podcasts and one of THE BEST podcasts I have come across for artists is the Savvy Painter.  Antrese Wood, who is also a very good artist, hosts weekly podcasts with some superb and interesting artists  / artsy people and they discuss all things arty.  LISTEN to it, it's great!