Mountain Park Morning

This is a view from one section of Cypress Hills Provincial Park. My partner and I camped there in our RV the first week of our current vacation. The park offers beautiful scenery and great places to paint. There’s a large lake with rolling hills, a forest, and ponds with tall bulrushes. The day I had in this painting was sunny with no clouds present. It was also quite hot outside with the temperature at 30 Celsius. Luckily I have AC in my RV!  Enjoy!

White Petunias

These Petunias are from a flower pot that sits on a bistro table on my front porch. I painted them from life and wanted to capture only the flowers and not the pot itself, showcasing them against a pleasant teal backdrop. I think it makes the white of the flowers stand out more. I bought the small white easel from Michaels store that compliment and displays it well.  

A very nice piece!

Elbow Falls ~ Late afternoon

This is another view of Elbow Falls in the late afternoon. Such a nice place to spend the day. Lots of walking trails and a great place to set up your easel to paint. One of my favorite places.

Orange Pekoe

I have this lovely porcelain tea cup with lid that I bought some years ago in my travels. Once out of my kitchen cupboard, my idea was to set up a small still life arrangement using an orange and an old table cloth. It soon became obvious as to what to name this piece. Enjoy! 

Garden Irises

Planting season is upon us and these white and yellow Irises would look lovely in my garden, but for now I needed a new painting to hang in my sunroom and it looks great on the wall. It also gave me an opportunity to use my new Holbein heavy body acrylic paints that I recently purchased from an art supply store. I'm quite impressed with the quality and vibrancy of these paints. I'll be using them more frequently in some of my paintings. Enjoy this one!

Dancing Angels

I painted these flowers because I found them amusing by the way in which they danced about when the wind blew on them. Their soft white petals appeared like long flowing gowns tousling in every direction, much like Marilyn Monroe's subway dress scene. That what they reminded me of. 

Elbow Falls in Summer

This is Elbow Falls situated west of Calgary. A popular place to visit for the lovely scenery. I painted it from a different perspective. As most people view falls from the front, I painted it from behind. I started my painting process with a monochromatic under painting using raw sienna and let some of it show through on the canvas. I applied thin glazes of blue green and ocher to the rocks, a technique I learned in a workshop I attended a few years back. I love the effect it produces. It is quite detailed with the rock formation taking the longest to complete. On a bright sunny day as in this painting, the water takes on a beautiful blue green colour against the grey rocks.  ~Enjoy!

My Big Flower ~ Peony

I came across this large peony in a garden center last summer. I couldn't get over how large and how vibrant the colour was. It was in a flower pot on a table and must of stood 2 feet high. The flower itself was huge. My partner took the photo with his camera so I could have a record of it's greatness. I painted it on a large 24x24 canvas as a close up which seems to be most popular these days in floral art. Another fun and challenging piece.

Afternoon Tea ~ Cafe Interior

Last month I took an online tutorial from a prominent British Artist. The course session was about how to paint a sunlit interior room with the main focus on balancing warm and cool light in different parts of the rooms. Here we see a darker hallway leading to the brightly lit cafe showing the differences of warm and cool light. I was particularly attracted to the reference photo presented for the tutorial as it's an actual cafe inside a Victorian townhouse. This inspired me to give it a try. 

I just love this little piece, such joy to paint it!

Southern Magnolia

I painted this magnolia flower as a Christmas gift for a special friend. She loves it and it hangs in a prominent space in her living room. As always it was a joy to paint it!