Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day 25

Well - here we are Day 25.....Hats off to you all who have made it to this point - have been enjoying  all your work!

I thought I would wake up this morning and decide I was going to do something 'different'.....where would the 'paint' take me ....but.....I painted the same thing.....a landscape...this is what appeared on my paper......

10"X10"
Acrylic mixed media on
140lb Arches watercolour paper

.....for me personally ....some of my better work. Only wished I had really taken the challenge and painted bigger!

Thank you to all who have shared your work with me over the past few weeks....has been so inspirational!

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day 16

A busy Saturday at our house! Took the last couple of hours to finish off this painting. Inspired by our summer vacation in the Rock Lake Solomon Creek Wildland. In the province of Alberta '...wildland parks are large, undeveloped natural landscapes that retain their primeval character....'. And yes they are all that and more!

This view is done from memory - looking to the west from the top of a ridge and seeing the landscape unfold up to the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains.

'The Wildlands #2'
12"X12"
Acrylic mixed media on canvas

Apologies for the picture quality, the original is not as dark as this photo shows it.

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day 15

'Flo & Mo'
12"X12"
Acrylic mixed media on canvas 

It was just one of those days when you couldn't take things too seriously.....even painting! I am not sure who is who - but what I am sure of is they are steadfast and true barnyard companions.

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day 14

So - today was suppose to be a 'painting' day other than a visit from the 'cable guy' which turned into a 3 hours later senario! Oh for a studio detached from the house.....that would be amazing!!! Another day of 'it is what it is' and 'there is always tomorrow' and...and.... I am fortunate I do have a dedicated space above the garage - started off calling it the bonus room but in the last year I have started calling it 'my studio'. You gotta claim that space!

Today's offering is not my summer garden but from one that I visited the end of June. This has been the driest summer we have ever experienced. Our water is supplied from a natural spring, so watering flowers was a luxury this season and first priority was for our animals and ourselves. There is always next year!

'Annie's Garden'
6"X6"
Acrylic mixed media on
Canson mixed media paper 

Thirty Paintings in 30 Days - Day 12

I just can't seem to get painting....and I need to. I love doing the thirty day painting challenge - it gets me painting and I can experiment with a lot of things (colour, values, shapes composition, subject matter, etc). I was organized and ready for September but just haven't got into a rhythm.

Today's 'mini' was done quickly.... a bit of collage, limited palette and some graphite crayon. I didn't paint out the collage which I have a tendency to do and I am happy with what is showing. I was thinking of adding a bit more paint and pencil, but I think I will just leave it....for now!

Enjoy your painting time!

'Prairie Red #7'
6"X6 1/4"
Acrylic mixed media on
Somerset printmaking paper

Vancouver Island Art Workshops - Jane Davies Workshop - Part 1

I have just returned home from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. I was attending a 5 day workshop with Jane Davies. The subject of the workshop was 'Monoprint Collage: the Dynamics of Working in Series'. The workshop was organized by Vancouver Island Art Workshops. Mary Stewart and her husband Jim put a tremendous amount of time and effort into this workshop. The facility was well appointed, two big tables for each participant to work on and lots of refreshments and food. Mary also had several prize draws and gave us each a bottle of Dick Blick 'Celadon' acrylic paint (a favourite colour of Jane's) and a tube of acrylic paint from Kroma Artist's Acrylics.

I had purchased some of  Kroma Artist's Acrylics for this workshop. This is the first time I have used this brand of acrylic paint and I really like it. It printed well using the gelli plate and the colours are rich! Have put these on the the 'art supply' wish list.

I had taken Jane's online monoprint workshop so I knew there would be some repetition over the first couple of days and I was looking forward to the idea of working in a series and getting feedback and ideas/suggestions on how to move forward with my work.

Day 1 and 2 were spent making making a variety of collage papers using the GelliArts gel plate. The paper we used is approximately an 80lb  drawing paper. You can get some gorgeous papers layering colour, patterns and textures. We needed a variety of hues, values, high contrast and low contrast papers. We layered tone on tone, pattern on pattern, opaque and transparent. You could go on forever. For texturing - string, corrugated cardboard, texture plates - you are only limited by your imagination! We also started cutting masks and using stencils to create some interesting effects.

The afternoon of day 2 we spent experimenting with printing and collaging on the 80lb drawing paper.

Here is a very small sampling of some of the papers made during day 1 & 2.

Tone on tone

Phthalo turquoise mixed with glazing medium on plate, rolled out with brayer and printed

Patterned paper made with multiple colours of blue and multiple stencils/masks

Tone on tone paper, using texture plates

Some of my favourite papers were those I used to clean my brayer off on and some rolling titanium white out on the residue left on the plate and then printing.

Using titanium white over residue on plate and
pulling the print. The curved shape had been
printed on the paper first using a mask

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!