A Trip off the Back Forty and Something New

Ah yes, the 'back forty'....we really are off the beaten track, can still see some of our neighbours homes but with an acreage we are well insulated and can choose how much interaction we want to have with others.  I am not sure if it is the spring weather but I have felt a need to connect with other artists and for me the best way to do that is in a workshop. I signed up at the spur of the moment for a one day workshop with Calgary artist Connie Geerts. I wasn't really clear about what we would be painting, I was more interested in the workshop description - I know, I know....so was a bit surprised that trees were the subject matter. Don't get me wrong I really do like trees - all that they offer to nature and what they represent but I just don't like to paint them. Remembering to keep an open mind and focus on the learning of new techniques it ended up being a lovely day. Connie works with colour - straight from the tube colour, lots of underpainting and layering, stressing variation in spacing and shape, and the use of pixelation (she worked as a video editor in a past career), lots to think about.  Not only is she a talented artist but a very giving one as well! When I returned home with my 'masterpiece' and showed my husband - his reaction was exactly what I expected. The phrase 'you painted that!?!' was repeated several times - the fact that it was readily identifiable as 'trees' and not something more abstract was the appeal. I have actually stopped asking him what he thinks about anything I paint now - but remember we are painting for ourselves....right!!

10"X20"
Acrylic on canvas

'Workshops are not about making paintings - workshops are about making progress'

                                                            Canadian artist - Brian Buckrell


On another note we have a forest fire burning (out of control) approximately 16km from our home. Seems a certain irony after spending a day painting trees to come home and find out they are burning not that far away. We are separated by a river from the burning area but are expecting high winds and unseasonably high temperatures today. We have had a few years of below average precipitation in the winters & summers so it hasn't been a matter of 'if' but 'when' a fire would occur. We are situated next to a large area of provincial recreational land - campers, off road vehicles, hikers, bikers, etc all make good use of the area and for the most part are respectful of the regulations, but unfortunately it only takes one to start a fire. Rain is in the forecast in the next few days so optimism is high. We are extremely grateful to the fire crews that are out there working in dangerous conditions to get the fire under control and protect our homes and community.

Robert Burridge Workshop - Abstract Acrylic Painting and Collage

It has been a couple of weeks since I attended Robert Burridge's workshop in Calgary and I finally have some time to take a look at my notes.

This was a great workshop - think 'BobBlast' only in person. Bob is an extremely generous person. Loved watching him paint - he is confident when making his choices but also extremely thoughtful. He writes his goals down everyday, always starts the painting day off with several small warmups -practice, practice, practice - 'the more you practice the better you will paint' - sound familiar!

Bob has 4 C's that he refers to when he starts a painting. These will find a prominent place on my bulletin board and will help keep me more focused on my painting.

Bob's 4 C's

1. What is the 'concept' (Always titles his paintings first)

2. What is the 'colour combination'. Follows his colour wheel and only puts those colours on the table

3. What is the 'composition'. (horizontal, cruciform, cantilever, etc)

4. 'Continue' the series. Do more than one. If you only do one tightens you up. Doing multiples gives you a better chance off getting it 'right'. You will stay looser.

We worked with Bob's colour wheel during the workshop. It is straight forward, and simple to use. Line the diamond pointer (4 sided) up with your choice of dominant colour (this will be 80% of the painting) and the other three colours are picked from the other three points of the diamond pointer - focal colour (10%) and two spice colours (each 5% of your painting). Bob uses Holbein acrylic paints but he does provide comparable colours for other paint brands. I struggled a bit with this at first but after practicing with a few smaller paintings it really did become easier. He will refer to his paintings as the 'red' painting or 'blue', etc, depending on the dominant colour.

There were lots of demo's, Bob brought along a portfolio full of samples of his work for the class to look at and we had time to paint. As usual though there is never enough time to do it all.

Now that I am home and getting back into the painting routine I will think more about having a theme for my work - Bob feels this brings more meaningful intentions to your work and it will make your work so much better. Another sage piece of advice is your painting is about you. You won't get approval from family  or friends so don't justify what you are doing. Paint for yourself!

I did some paintings of subject matter that I never would have tried and experimented with a more limited palette. I found Bob's comments about being an artist/painter very insightful and encouraging. I had waited 2 years to attend a workshop with Bob and I wasn't disappointed.

If you haven't checked out his website it is worth a visit. Lots of artwork to look at and he generously shares his favourite studio supplies and has a colour comparison chart for the Holbein acrylic colours he likes to use and lots more!


These are a couple of paintings started in the workshop. I am not a figurative painter, but I sure had fun painting him! The 'cherry blossom trees' were done painting the negative space out around them. It does help to start with a background that has lots of colours, textures and marks.

'Mr Button Down'
12"X12"
Acrylic mixed media
on gessoed canvas

'Cherry Blossoms in the Fog'
5"X7"
Acrylic mixed media
on 140lb cold press watercolour paper

Painting and More

Life has been busy here. I just finished a 4 day workshop with Robert Burridge and I am tired but excited to get back into my studio and painting. Thanks again to Leading Edge Art Workshops for organizing this workshop.

Just before this workshop started I received news that two of my paintings have been juried into the Leighton Art Centre's 15th Annual Juried Members show. I submitted three paintings and was so excited when I received the news.

I find myself at a good point in my art. I had stopped painting in 2010 and returned to art making in 2013. It was a struggle. I didn't return to printmaking but instead started using acrylics. Steep, steep learning curve and at times my level of frustration and disappointment at my results made me think about quitting. A few things happened between 2013 and now. I read Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Outliers' (you know the chapter - '10,000 hours of practice' - I liked the whole book) and reread 'Art and Fear' - if you haven't read this book do! And also read Steven Pressfield's book 'The War of Art'. Lots of food for thought in those books. In 2016 I took my second workshop with Brian Atyeo  (big breakthrough during that workshop) and signed up for my first 30 Paintings in 30 Days with Leslie Saeta in September 2016. None of this was 'luck' (I did have a couple of people tell me that I was 'lucky'). I have been committing myself to practicing my art and continuing to take workshops and grow in my art. I am starting to develop my own style and having a great time doing it. Yes, there are days where nothing seems to be going right and I am struggling and 'uncomfortable' with what I am painting. But I find if I stick with it and push through it I am making some big breakthroughs and growing as an artist. So after saying all of the above I want to tell you not to give up - continue to explore, take workshops, practice, practice, practice and enjoy this journey. At this stage in my life I can't think of anything I would rather be than an artist. It feels great when filling out forms to put under 'occupation' - ARTIST!




Here are the two paintings that were accepted to the Leighton Art Centre Show. The prairies and foothills are images close to my heart.

'Across the Valley'
14"X18"
Acrylic mixed media on cradled birch panel

'Prairie Fields Spring Thaw'
12"X14"
Acrylic mixed media on cradled birch panel

Preparing for an 'Open Studio' workshop in August

I don't know where the time is going - and I just don't seem to have enough to do all things I want to do (versus 'have' to do)!

The workshop with Brian Atyeo was wonderful. I will do a short writeup as soon as I go through my notes and photos. Brian is coming back to the Calgary area the end of August and I was fortunate to get the last available space. He will be doing a 5 day workshop at the beautiful River Rock Studio near Cochrane, Alberta. It will be an open studio workshop - lots and lots of painting in a small group (12 participants) with daily discussion and critiques. I have started thinking about what I would like to paint and doing some research into my subject. This was suggested by Brian - you don't want to show up without some ideas and pre-planning. The subject I want to explore is 'abstracted/interpretive landscapes'. I am leaning towards the prairies - uncultivated native grasslands and cultivated 'scapes' - although I think the Foothills will probably appear as well. I will be working large - again at Brian's suggestion....30"X30" and larger! Now that is a little scary, but could also be very freeing. I will be starting a journal filled with sketches, small landscape studies, colour swatches and some favourite artist's thoughts on painting and subject matter. I am a bit of a research junkie so this will be right up my alley. I am looking forward to lots of painting between now and the workshop and at least a couple of trips to the prairie grasslands. I will leave you with some inspiration from some of my favourite artists.



**These paintings are done by the artists listed under the images**

*Kurt Jackson*

*Richard Diebenkorn*

*Barbara Rae*

Workshop: Abstracted Still Life with Brian Atyeo

*Brian Atyeo

*All artwork is by Brian Atyeo

I am very excited to be attending Canadian artist Brian Atyeo's workshop in Calgary next week. I have attended two of his workshops and have learned so much! I am using more layers of paint, mixing and using more neutral colours, designing better compositions and becoming more confident in my painting. I am starting to understand the principles & elements of design and slowly but surely applying them to my painting. How can you not like that!

The subject for this workshop is Abstracted Still Life in acrylic and collage. '.....layering of paint and collage paper will be the prime focus of this workshop.' I am looking forward to being inspired by Brian's painting and the other participants and I will be seeing painting friends that I don't get to see as often as I would like.

You can read a complete description of the workshop here.

I will post a short write-up of the workshop after the dust has settled or the paint has dried! Happy painting to you!

Here are a few more of Brian Atyeo's paintings...

*Brian Atyeo

*Brian Atyeo

*Brian Atyeo

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!

Vancouver Island, BC

I am spending the next 5 days in a workshop with Jane Davies in Saanich, Vancouver Island, BC. Having taken all of Jane's online workshops I wondered if I would ever be able to attend an in-person one. Well, here I am, and yes, very excited and a bit nervous. Came a day early so I could spend a day visiting a couple of favourite spots. Spent the morning at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. Saw the Mammoths, Giants of the Ice Age exhibit, the First Peoples Gallery, and some of the natural history dioramas. Then on to Butchart Gardens. Over 55 acres of gardens, with beautiful fountains and statuary, a merry-go-round and much, much more. My favourites are the Sunken Garden (an old quarry site), the Japanese Garden and the Florentine bronze statue of Tacca, the boar. It is said if you rub his snout it will bring good luck. And yes I did rub his snout! The workshop starts tomorrow and I hope I will be able to post images over the 5 days. In the meantime happy creating!

Coast Salish Woman
(Photo circa 1918)

Woven Hats

Japanese Garden statuary

Tacca, the boar with his finely
burnished snout!

Painting - Brian Atyeo Workshop

Have been so busy with 'art' and haven't had time to post. Would consider that a good thing. I was at  Brian Atyeo's workshop in Calgary the beginning of April (April 2-5). The workshop was hosted by Leading Edge Art Workshops' - if you live in the area they offer great workshops with great instructors!

This is the second workshop I have taken with Brian Atyeo (hope to have the opportunity to participate in more!) and this one was right up my alley. 'Layers of design in acrylic and mixed media'. Lots of layering of paint as well as removal - scratching in with palette knives & x-acto knives. Adding line with crayon, graphite, etc - just about anything you want to experiment with. It isn't just a 'free for all' - it is about responding to marks made and challenging the emerging composition. Nothing is preplanned and instead it is the use of imagination and allowing the evolution of the process to take its' course. Below are some of the images created during the workshop and a couple that are still in the 'process'. I appreciate any comments and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask! Am very excited with the work started in this workshop and as we speak am working on more images in a study format to develop into more finished works! Happy creating to you all!

16"X12"
work in progress!

12"X12"
Considered this finished, but..can't you see this 'large'!!
Stay tuned for a larger version

12"X12"

8"X8"

For a long, long time I have had a vision/idea of how I see the landscape around me - not every blade of grass or leaf on the tree, but shape, lights and darks and colour. This is a real break through for me to create these images and to celebrate them realized!

18"X14"
Work in progress

Started this in the workshop and have been working on it at home. Apologies for the picture quality!! Will post a better image once finished. I am really enjoying the painting process as I work on this image. This reminds me of the view to the west from the top of our hill - one that I never get tired of looking at. 

Will post some of my work from my '100 Drawings on Cheap Paper' workshop with Jane Davies in my next post - just not enough time!! In the meantime happy creating to you all.