A Wonderful Tribute

I was fortunate to have the chance to be back in Ontario last week to catch one of the last days of a very special exhibition. Three of my former students, Kebbie Gibb of Port Perry, Patricia Lowe of Whitevale, and Susan Typert of Whitby, Ontario mounted a month-long show at the Scugog Council for the Arts Gallery in Port Perry, entitled Three Perspectives: an Ode to Ruth. The collection recognized and celebrated our time together in a student-teacher relationship, but more importantly it showcased the beautiful and varied work done by these three excellent artists. I was touched beyond words to have these three women articulate the influence that my teaching had on their development as artists in the pastel medium, and so impressed by their accomplishments. It was gratifying to see so many of their wonderful works gathered in one place, and as the red sale dots in the photos below attest, others agreed to their quality!

The Scugog Council for the Arts was kind enough to open the gallery on a day they are typically closed to accommodate my visit (thank you Leslie!), and happily all three artists were able to join me there for an hour of much admiration and laughter. We followed up with a delicious dinner at Port Perry's Harp & Wylie restaurant (thank you Susan!!) and parted reluctantly. It was so good to spend time together again, and I'm delighted to hear that the three of them have vowed to continue to meet monthly for mutual support and painting time.

Thank you, Kebbie, Patricia, and Susan, for giving me such a gift. You were the most rewarding of students: willing to listen and learn, but graced with ample natural talent and intelligence. The results speak for themselves. If I was able to help develop your skills into a fuller expression, I am grateful beyond words to have had the experience. I'm sure you will all continue to express your unique visions in future, and I expect great things from all of you!

One of the last paintings Patricia did as my student--what a lovely work!

Patricia's nest series is so collectible!

It was a fun afternoon with three of my favourite people--what could be better?! I am blessed to have been part of their lives and count them among my dear friends.

Summer Dreaming

A recent article on Joaquin Sorolla's work in the Artist's Magazine inspired me to explore the creation of some summer scenes based on photos from last summer at the local Davis Bay beach. I am thrilled that I'll be in San Diego in July, and plan to catch the retrospective of Sorolla's work there at that time--a rare opportunity to see his work collected in one place outside Madrid, Spain! At the same time, I've been attempting working on a larger scale in acrylics. I purchased a Sta-Wet palette (essentially a tray with a flat sponge, a tough paper palette, and a tight-fitting lid) that enables me to mix the colours I need for a large work and keep them workable over days rather than hours.  I used a local paint brand, Kroma paints of Granville Island, for this work and highly recommend them. They are a bit softer in consistency than Golden or Liquitex heavy-body, but the pigmentation is stellar. I had fun with the iridescent gold in the acrylics below--adds a subtle but lovely summer glow!

I enjoyed both working large (though my shoulder is aching from the whole body brushstrokes!) and the beach scenes--I can see doing more in this series!

Hello to Hawaii

One of the bonuses of my new location on the west coast is closer proximity to Hawaii, the favoured vacation spot among our neighbours. We were very fortunate to be invited to accompany new friends recently on a two-week visit to Kona, on Hawaii's big island. This island's unique black lava environment inspired me to experiment with working on a black ground in acrylics. I have worked on black paper in pastels many times, but for some reason have never tried underpainting in black for other media. Here are some results of my exploration. I was quite pleased with the effect and will perhaps work some of these small studies up into larger works this winter.  

First Responses to the West

After many months of managing all the details of moving cross-country (not to mention retiring from my teaching job and building a new house), I am happy to say that my new painting studio is functional! As well, having now spent some months on Canada's west coast, surrounded by many new sights, sounds, smells, and textures, I am beginning to find inspiration in my new environment. In October, a cold fog bank hovered across the strait between us and Vancouver Island for several weeks, cancelling all float plane flights and limiting our view to a swirling mist. Finally one morning there were signs of clearing as the sun rose, and I spent an hour photographing the effects of the rising sun on the remaining fog that lay offshore.  Hundreds of photos, dozens of possible paintings!

Here are two of the first from this series, then. These are painted in oils, which I am enjoying exploring at present (though a new set of Terry Ludwig pastels arrived this week in the mail, inspiring me to do some pastels in the coming days as well).

Morning Mists

Obscured

Obscured 24 x 24 oil on panel $650 unframed

Another inspiration has been the constant dazzle of sunshine on water. I experimented, in this piece, with an highly iridescent acrylic underpainting in an ivory tint . Over this, I painted the scene in oils, and then scraped back to the underpainting to create the ripples and points of light in the water. When viewed from different angles, the effect is similar to the actual sun-dazzle one experiences when looking into the sun, but without blinding the viewer or, I hope, becoming gaudy!

Awakened

And here's my current project, a painting done almost entirely with a palette knife, in oils.  The slow drying time of oils is changing my usual alla prima (in one pass) approach, causing me to slow down and consider multiple sessions and passes on a work. This piece has had one three-hour session, to the point at which the panel was so thickly coated with paint that further work was just muddying the effect.  So, it is drying for a few more days, and then I'll go back in and clarify/soften/adjust with another layer...

Tofino Passage

Now that I have developed some momentum, I hope to begin to post here more frequently, again!  Stay tuned for more posts...

Plein Air Wildflowers

On the ONLY Saturday in July that was rainy, two students (Kebbie Gibb and Patricia Lowe) and I made the trek to the Wildflower Farm near Orillia, Ontario for a plein air experience. Challenging the dire weather forecast, we set out anyway and after pressing on through torrential rain and rolling thunder, we were rewarded with fields of just-washed brilliance.  This establishment grows native wildflowers and has developed seed mixes for naturalistic meadow plantings (www.wildflowerfarm.com).  They were very welcoming to us (there's no fee to paint in the flower fields here, unlike at other establishments I checked with when planning this trip!), and we quickly set up our gear inside a lovely central gazebo that gave us great views across the flower beds amid the clearing drizzle. First we wandered around taking many inspirational photos (which have already been used to generate paintings back in the studio), and then, when the storm fully passed, we ventured out with our easels to capture the fleeting beauty of petals and sunlight. Studio painting is good--but getting out in front of the real thing is always refreshing!

Here are a couple of the resulting paintings, so far!