Late June Tulips [oil, 8”x6”]

No, I’m not kidding!  The tulips planted on the northeast side of my house just bloomed a few weeks ago and they will probably last another week.  It’s been a very cold spring around here but today is glorious!  Sunny and warm for the first day of summer!  Enjoy!

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I Miss Biking [oil, 8”x10”]

Lately my daughter Kim has been biking to work along some of the beautiful bike paths here in Calgary.  There are over 1,000 kilometres of paved bike path within Calgary’s city limits.  I enjoyed biking to work until I lost my balance, fell and broke a wrist back in 2004.  The peace of the pathway before and after work was a wonderful contrast to pressured work days.  Since then my health hasn’t allowed me to get back on my bike and I’ve come to terms with that – don’t need any more broken bones, that’s for sure!  But last week I pulled my golf/art cart along a bike pathway in Tuscany and found this little view that pleased my eye.  Enjoy!

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80% Chance of Rain [oil, 8”x6”]

I painted some of this scene plein air but felt it needed a few touch ups at home.  I added the warmer color in the tops of the cloud and underneath, as if it was evening.  It feels like the whole things is working better now.  I have no idea what the rules around “plein air” designations are…  I suppose I should be more curious about that.  Right now I’m happy if I can get a color mixed the way I want, never mind where I painted it.  Ciao!

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Lloyd Leaner [oil, 10”x8”]

There are so many scenes available to paint at Lloyd Park [SW of Calgary].  None are quite as tempting as this gnarly spruce tree which imposes itself in the foreground of many views.  It’s an interesting contrast to all the horizontals in the rest of the land/lakescape.  I struggled with the shapes in the background and although this was painted 90% on site last Saturday, I puttered a bit with it at home as well.  I can see that it’s important not to overdo the studio putzing…  the freshness needs to be retained.  Looking forward to more plein air this weekend at Leighton Centre!  Have a great day!

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Little Falls at Big Hill Springs [oil, 6”x8”]

This little painting was also done at Big Hill Springs Provincial Park yesterday.  After a morning of chatting with passersby at the main falls, I took a rest break and then set up in a more secluded spot.  This little scene was so peaceful and calm.  Relative to some of the views it was quite boring.  However, sometimes “boring” is just restful… except we’ve lost our capacity to rest!  The sound of the waterfall was peaceful in the morning so I didn’t want to go too far away from it.  Consequently, I stood with a smaller waterfall spraying just a bit onto my left foot when I painted this scene.  Refreshing indeed - plein air painting was made for such a day a this! 

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May Showers [oil, 9”x12”

I just had to get out of this house today…  packing and reorganizing seems to be the theme at our place right now.  It’s been inspiring to reorganize my art room and find all kinds of ideas that I’ve jotted.  All are now safely stored away in a much more organized fashion.  My art accounts and invoices are also.  Phew! 

So, to reward myself for all that hard work I grabbed my gear and headed to the park on the ridge in the community of Tuscany.  Set up is so fast with my BestBrella and my Alla Prima pochade box.  I was looking west towards the Rockies and the clouds were rolling towards me.  I expected rain before I finished so I was hustling to get started.  That’s when I discovered that, although I remembered the all important mosquito repellant, I’d left my medium pots at home.  No walnut oil nor thinner to help with paint control. Too late for that – I sketched in quick and grabbed my palette knives.  Consequently, this painting is thick.  I basically slathered the paint on with my knifes and used a bristle brush on most of the sky – it was amazing how fast those clouds were moving!  But, the distinct line of dark was constant like this for a long time.  It didn’t rain on me but it certainly was raining at Springbank Airport.  Eventually the wind picked up enough that I had to collapse my umbrella but I kind of like this painting – LOVE painting with the knives [loved the sale at Curry’s too]! 

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Plein Aire painting & Sorrento III (12"x12")

This afternoon I met Sharon Williams (see http://sharonlynnwilliams.blogspot.com/) at Lloyd Park just south of Calgary and we painted. I learned something very important... there is no substitute for painting outside or, as painters say, en plein aire! No books, photos, magnifying glass, etc. Just your own eyes to take in all the shapes and colors of the great outdoors. What to paint? Good question - at Lloyd park you could go every day and paint something new. Trees, water, reeds, birds, farm yard and/or fields in bright greens and yellows, rolling foothill slopes... and more.

It was a gorgeous day with enough breeze and repellant to keep the bugs at bay. The birds number in the thousands there and they made a lovely, relaxing din for background music. This was all good... and then I realized that I can't paint trees! Furthermore, when I look back on my paintings I think I have actually been avoiding trees as subjects. So you can guess what I'm going to be working on - trees, trees, trees. And from life too... not photos.

If you are interested in learning more about plein aire painting click on the link below and/or check back here over the summer and follow my progress up close and personal. I plan to paint lots of real life trees and landscape in general this summer and fall.
http://painting.about.com/od/landscapes/a/plein_air_paint.htm


Now for today's painting - as promised yesterday I finished Sorrento III (aka "The Last"). This has been a tough painting to work on because it has been 15 months since I took the reference photo and, as discussed above, painting en plein aire provides more energy and more information. I know I'll have another chance to paint this view and I'm excited to do that - some day. For now, this is it... movin' on, etc.

I like this painting better than the one I posted yesterday because it reminds me strongly of the 3 days I spent there with Elaine in April 2007. The values (dark to light) are close to what we saw that day. It was a day from heaven (if you don't count the contractor woes). The sky swirled above and reflected deeper color on the water-mirror of Shuswap Lake. It was a GORGEOUS April day!!! I'm willing to bet there would be at least 20 boats in the photo if you snapped it today - maybe more. It's a busy place in the summer but April was very, very quiet. I felt like painting it on the spot but unfortunately we were heading home to Calgary and the photo had to suffice. Paintings are successes if they bring you back immediately to that day in your life, to the light on the lake and the company of friends. This one does that for me... I hope it does it for Elaine too.

I leave you with a favourite quote: "Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end, or almost to the end, of the day." Sir Winston Churchill, from his essay "Painting as a Pastime" which he published in his book Amid These Storms in 1932. Retweet this