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.

Finished!

I had entered this into the Federation of Canadian Artists Postcard Competition a couple of weeks ago.  Was pleased to know that it was juried into the final judging - final winners are going to be chosen May 1st. Crossing fingers.

36x18" oil on canvas
Spring Thaw

Finally, I have completed my painting of Fernie, BC main street.  This has taken a lot of time and effort, but I am fairly pleased with the result.  It will be one of the pieces in my solo show at the Fernie Arts Station in July 2019.  Check it out in person then.

The Upside of Painting

My most recent effort is a largish painting of my favourite town, Fernie BC.  After some repeated attempts to paint in a more loose, impressionist fashion and having little success, I decided to try something challenging on the opposite end of the scale.  I have been plugging away at this for over a week now.  I was finding it difficult to paint the detail in the close up store windows, so I used the old trick of turning my picture and painting upside down so that I would just see shapes and paint what I saw not what I thought I was seeing. The upside of upside down painting is that it really helps!