Sunday, September 16, 2012

Textured Mixed Media and News

I had a lot of fun creating my last mixed media: The Happy Dance of the Weeping Tree.
The colors are somewhat less bright than they appear on my computer, but you can probably see the various textures on this piece. I have some tissue paper and rice paper on the background and various gels and mediums on the tree itself. 

It's painted on a 16" X 16" birch panel and the sides are painted black. I intend to leave it unframed for the moment: it looks good that way!

I hope that you like this painting.  My objectives with this painting were to create interesting textures and to suggest some movement in the branches. I think that it's a serene, happy painting...thus the title:-) I am falling in love with mixed media and the freedom it gives me,

On the marketing side of my work, I have some great news: my hand painted jewelry on watercolor paper is currently available at the Boutique Gallery of the Ottawa School of Art in downtown Ottawa. They will also be displaying some of my smaller mixed media and watercolors with an Ottawa or Canadian theme. Do drop in if you are in the area - it's a great little gallery!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

New Foyer Gallery Show: Flash

The latest show at the Foyer Gallery where I am a juried member, is of photographic works. I will be showing four of my photographs that I have been offering as prints on paper, canvas and even metal, on my FineArtAmerica website.

However, I don't intend to sell more than 1-2 prints of each photograph in order to keep them really special:-)

Here are three of the photographs in the show:


I meant to paint these three scenes, but sometimes I feel that it is very hard to improve on the photograph:-)

If you are in the Ottawa area, do try to drop in for the reception at the Foyer Gallery on Sat. Sept. 22, from 2 until 4. You will love the artwork!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Parliamentary Dragon: Carving from Canadian Parliament Building



Here is my third watercolor in the series of carvings from the Gothic facade of the Parliament Building in Ottawa, Canad.

This little 8" X 8" dragon is on paper-covered gallery-wrapped canvas and has been varnished for display without glass. It is square, but on my wide monitor it appears absolutely regular...I certainly hope that it will show properly on most monitors:-(

This is my third experiment with the paper-covered canvas and this one is getting close to the results I want: at this point, I can feel a very slight warping of the paper at one spot.. in the middle of the dragon where there is little paint. Strange, since the paper was totally wet before stapling and the paper was tight as a drum while I painted...Perhaps as the varnish dries more, this minuscule hill will disappear. I hope so! The colors are very vibrant, the texture is nice...I like the option I now have even for varnished watercolors: I can wrap the paper around a canvas or I can continue to glue the paper to a wood panel as I have done several times.

This is on Arches 140 lb CP natural white. I think that I now prefer the whiter Fabriano Artistico ..I hope that I am right since I have just bought an 11 yrd roll of the Fabriano SP in extra white.

I hope that you are all doing well and that your month of September will be great!