Emily's Garden ~ 10 x 12 Acrylic on Canvas

A few years ago, I visited the Emily Carr House in Victoria, British Columbia. Emily was a famous Canadian Artist and Writer. Her home stands as a museum and as one enters the property, you first notice the impressive yellow Victorian house and then the grounds itself, which has lovely flower beds all around. While I was there, I took the opportunity to take photos of some of the flower beds. Among them was this fenced area off to the side of the house. It caught my eye because it was late summer, the beds were in full bloom, with some being overgrown with an abundance of foliage. Along with the house, this became my main attraction, allowing me to wander off and contemplate. 

French Cafe 16 x 20 Acrylic on Canvas

And now for something completely different,..That is for me!

I've been watching some online painting courses lately from well known and prominent artists and painting a French Cafe was one of the courses being presented. Since I didn't have an image of my own to use, I didn't want to use the same image as the instructor, so I looked one up on the net. I found this one, which is a real cafe somewhere in France. I couldn't resist painting such a lovely place. I was immediately drawn to paint it mostly for it's bold colours and pleasing composition. It required a lot of colour mixing and much looser brush strokes, which was something I'm not so use to doing most of the time. Because I hadn't painted buildings before or a street scene for that matter, it was a good experience to give it a try. Painting lessons on the Internet can be interesting and worth trying out for the experience of learning something new from the comfort of home. I'm pleased how the painting looks, it reminds me of a page out of a children's story book, you know the one's. Enjoy!