Polar Bear

'Polarizing', acrylic 36 x 18 inches.

A study for a larger painting. I will be showing this guy at the FCA Calgary chapter on Saturday, May 3rd. This is a one day juried show at the Haysbro Community Center with over 40 local artists showcasing a few of their quality works. So if you are around, 10-4pm, I will be there most of the day, so stop by and say hello.

I would like to thank Tina Nicole for graciously giving me permission to use her awesome photo.
her website

More bears and animals on the way...preparing for Stampede.

Whistler Paintings

What a wonderful time I had in Whistler. A very satisfying, exhausting but productive week. Many thanks to the staff at Mountain Galleries, Liz, Ben and Sharon who took very good care of me and put together an awesome reception. A special thank you to Wendy Wacko for driving all the way from Jasper just to deliver more of my work!

My husband and I love Whistler. From our hotel window we could see the pools, outdoor lounge, mini golf and the ski hills. Lounging in the pool as the snow skiers ski by....love it. We are going back in September ( I'll be doing an artist demo ) and I plan on going zip lining!

Each time I do these demos, I gain a little more confidence and I'm becoming more comfortable painting and talking in front of people. I'm a fast painter normally but in these situations I tend to paint even faster. Two reasons I think. One, I know it's more enjoyable for the people to see the painting emerge quickly as they don't have the time to wait around. Two, during the beginning and 'ugly' stages of my work, I get a little nervous and want to assure  people that it really will look better, as I hurry it along. I managed 10 paintings during the week, usually one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I did a couple I was familiar with , but by the end of the week I was stepping out of my comfort zone and experiment a little. 4 x 18x36, 3 x 24x24, 2 x 36x24 and one 36x36

Luminated Creek

I really liked the light in 'Flicker on Echo', a larger 24 x 48 painting I did for my show and which has since sold. I didn't have a lot of time to live with the painting, and I really wanted to explore it some more. I did this small 20 x 20 study of the same scene and hope it will translate well into a large (48 x 48) square format.  This one, and my previous three, I have submitted to the FCA Calgary branch show in May.

I'm off to Whistler to paint for a week, and then I'll be taking a small break before concentrating on the Stampede art show in July.

More Greys

Nothing against my bright splashes of reds and yellows, but I really wanted to play with some subtle colors and greys. 'Foliage On The Creek', acrylic 15 x 30 inches. I'm including a couple of closeups below if you'd like to click on them.

Waterfall Studies

'Deep Within', 24 x 18
















'Cascading Rhythm', 30 x 15


Sometimes, after working so hard towards a show, and the exhibition is over, I get in a little bit of a funk. I don't feel like painting, I have no motivation, and not knowing what direction I want to go in, I have tons of self doubt. Sometimes looking through my reference material helps. This time it didn't. But what did help was spending time looking at my favorite artists work, ( Tibor Nagy and Richard Schmid to name a few ) and reading a timely blog from Stacey Peterson .
 I decided to go to my studio and paint what I love best...yep, more waterfalls. They give me more freedom to explore without having to rely on a specific place. Without using any one reference ( I used several as jumping off points ), I concentrated on shapes and value. This time I wanted to try and have more of my brushed under painting show through, and less palette knife. I'm a much better frame of mind now.

Magic Moments and Whistler Artist In Residence

It was a great opening and I'd like to thank Mountain Galleries, Aimee, John and Katlin for all their hard work and putting together an awesome display.  I even managed to sell 8 paintings, so thank-you to all who came out on Saturday!

I didn't realize, however, that it would be a one day exhibition, so my apologies to all those who plan to come out to see the show, as many paintings were taken down ( sold ones), and others moved, but there are still many on display for the rest of the week.

Now on to my next venture! I'm excited to be Mountain Galleries, (Whistler location), next Artist in Residence. I will be painting in the lobby the week of April 14-19th inclusive. So if you are around, stop by and see me.

Exploring Dreams

A few little ones I rushed to finish for my show. Again, experimenting with tar gel. 'Exploring Dreams', 12 x 36 inches, came together quite nicely considering the vertical format. No fussing resulted in some interesting marks. A little more abstracted to give more interest, and allow the viewer to figure it out. 'Muddled Calm and 'Entanglement',two little 12 x 12's