The Canada Day 2011 Boardwalk Artists at Alderney Landing is this Friday and I have been busy getting ready for it. If you are in the area, please stop by my table and say hello, I would love to hear from you!

Here is a new acrylic painting I completed the other night. I recently had a birthday and this painting was inspired by lovely flowers I received from a friend.

Acrylic on Canvas, 12 X 12

Have I mentioned how much I love flowers...?

It has been a wet, rainy, spring here in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. We are beginning to see the sun but went many days without it. I guess the weather has inspired me to paint pictures of flowers, since I have not been able to spend a great deal of time in the garden.

I thought I would play around with the acrylics again. I only have a limited palette so it has been a learning experience regarding colour choices. Also the quick drying time has been a bit of a challenge but I think I am getting the hang of it.

Daisy

Acrylic on Canvas - 5 X 7

Pink Rose

Acrylic on Canvas - 6 X 6

I used the same reference of a rose for the next painting. I used oil paints this time and incorporated it into another painting.

Effervescent Rose

Oil on Canvas - 6 X 6

June has been a busy, rainy, month and as a result there have been many opportunities to paint.

I have been getting ready for the Canada Day Boardwalk Artists, July 1, 2011. I will have a table, along with many other local artists at Alderney Landing on the waterfront in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.  Here are two of the paintings that I have completed for this event.

These two paintings are part of a series and go with my previous paintings; Morning Meditation and Moonlit Dreams.

They represent my ideal "go to" place, an escape. This place does not exist...yet. Maybe someday.

Moonlight Sanctuary
8x8 Oil on Canvas

Morning Sanctuary
8x8 Oil on Canvas

I can dream can't I...

"Morning Meditation"

I have been trying to get away from painting strictly from photographs. I have been using my visual journal to sketch out ideas and work on perspective. I really liked painting on the round canvas and decided to do another one.

This one was inspired by my previous painting "Moonlit Dreams" and I wanted continue with the figure of the girl in my paintings.

Using what I had learned from painting previous sunrises, the colour and style for this painting emerged.

Morning Mediation - Oil onCanvas
10 inch round

I have recently  finished the online Strathmore Visual Journal Workshop. The workshop has been great and I have met some really creative artists online. Everyone has been so supportive.

I have done a number of entries and I must say that  I really like journalling. I have found that I can have fun, and try out new techniques focussing mainly on the process rather than the outcome. That in itself is freeing. Not every entry is a masterpiece, but it definitely is a learning experience.

While I have been doing this, my 7 year old daughter has been doing a journal too. I love watching her creativity, the way she just goes for it, not caring if the result is perfect or looks a certain way.
She is certainly teaching her mother a few things!

Rain

"Change" My daughter made the heart 

as a gift for my journal inspiring the rest of the page.

Visual Journal

This week I started on an on-line visual workshop with Strathmore Visual Journal Workshops. I am hoping it will help with developing my creativity.

It will be interesting to see how the pages progress from beginning to end, a bit of an experiment. I plan to post my pages periodically. So far it has been fun especially working with a variety of media.

Here is my first attempt.

Coffee

"It Never Hurts to Ask..."

I have always been told this by my mother, grandmother, friends but for some reason I have hesitated many times, held back by shyness,  or the possibility of no. Well this time I asked.

I have many of my mother's paintings and I have been trying to decide what to do with them. I have picked out my favourites, saved some for family, but there are still quite a few left. Some are damaged as they are 30 years old, but I can't bear to part with them.

My mother was a teacher, and also worked as a guidance counsellor. She worked for a number of years at a  High School in a small town in Nova Scotia. It was because of her work there that she took up painting. She took lessons from her friend and the art teacher at the school. The school now has an Art Gallery named after the art teacher.

I contacted the gallery and offered to donate one of my mother's paintings and they accepted! I am so thrilled. What a wonderful place to hang one of her paintings in a school she worked hard in, in the gallery named after her good friend. So fitting.

Happy Mother's Day.

Artist Gladys - Oil on Panel - 1981