Rural Routes show in Tatamagouche NS

Rural Roots a collection of paintings by Susan Sweet and myself. Opening reception is July 31 at 7 pm at the Fraser Cultural Centre in Tatamagouche. All welcome!

Marian's Place

24" x 36" oil on canvas
This painting is in my current show and will also be in the August show Rural Roots opening July 31 in Tatamagouche at the Fraser Cultural Centre.
It is a scene I walk by often, esp when I take my horses to graze in a neighbour's field. This is at sunset. The fields are overgrown as they are not worked anymore. It is a lovely little farm and I hope some day someone will take on farming it actively again.
The grasses were interesting to do. I was not really sure how I would render them. In the spirit of not over thinking, I just started and here it is.

Cat and Horse at Rest

Oil on Canvas 10' x 10"
Finished this one today for the upcoming show. My old horse Ljomi in this painting still has most of his thick winter coat so he looks very shaggy. He sheds till end of July then starts on his next winter coat. Okay maybe he has a week of summer coat!
It was really fun doing the curvy shapes in Layla the cat. She loves the horses and curls up on their backs when I am grooming them. And purrs.
Thank you to my friend Susan for permission to use her photo as reference!

The Egg

Watercolour 18" x 12" on 140lb Arches
I love chickens. Maybe I watch them too much. I did several versions of this painting before I got what I wanted. I don't want to say how many, my partner thought I was becoming obsessed, me who usually does not usually agonize over a painting. This one just haunted me till I got it right. This is going to be in my upcoming two person show in Tatamagouche, NS, Rural Routes. I am doing this show with another artist, Susan Sweet, who is well known for her luscious painting of cattle and horses. Her blog is www.susansweetartist.blogspot.com. The show is in the Fraser Cultural Centre Gallery and runs July 31-opening night- to September 1, 2009.

Park Bench

Park Bench in Victoria Park, Truro, NS
3 1/2" x 5" watercolour
The last weekend of June the Truro Art Society did their first 'Paint the Park'. It was really fun and a chance to get to know some of the TAS members, plus some folks who came in from other places. It was grand to paint together in such a beautiful setting. Only thing is-so much green! It is so intense. But lovely. I did this one after I came home.

Slow Moving Vehicle
3 1/2" x 5" watercolour
We have all been behind one of these in July when they are bringing the hay home. I know we are always relieved once we know the hay is in and we are set for the winter. I don't want to have to search out hay in the winter and don't know where it came from. So, this could be us...well, actually we can't get quite so much on our little truck. My partner was not so sure about this painting--I did it for fun.

Stitching the Night & Bayhead Farm

Stitching the Night
24 x 36" oil on canvas

Bayhead Farm
24 x 36" oil on Canvas
Today we hung the paintings in the Gallery. A tremendous thank you to Deanna and Susan. They are amazing! Words fail me.
It is profound to see the work properly hung in a public space.
I am thoroughly and pleasantly exhausted!

McGill Farm

18" x 24" oil on canvas
Another damp, rainy morning in the hills. Everything is growing madly, it looks like a jungle. This morning I was awakened at 4:30am by coyotes playing close to the house. We think there is a litter being raised up behind our place. We can hear them at times, especially night. In the winter we hear them howling and yipping. The sounds this am were yipping and snuffling. As soon as I got up to the window, they stopped. I did see one once a few years ago. Mostly we just hear them.
Good thing the chickens are all securely locked up and safe.

This painting is for my July Show. It is the farm up the road. I love the view to it from both sides. Here is early morning late summer.

The Figure Made the Landscape

My new show in the McCarthy Gallery in Truro, Nova Scotia! I am very excited, nervous and finishing stuff up like a fiend. Since I have begun to do oils again, I have quite a few in this show, along with some watercolours. The opening is July2 at 7:00 pm and all are welcome!

Oh the piece on the invitation is oil on canvas and is 24" x 36".

Farmy watercolours..

Red Barn in Spring
31/2 x 5" watercolour on paper

Cow Drinking (SOLD)
31/2 x 5" watercolour on paper

I am doing some larger watercolours for my upcoming show. For some sizes, I stretch the paper, but then have a strip on the side. So I had a little fun with these for my Farmers' Market paintings. They are quite small after the other work I have been doing, but fun to do. The paint is so much easier to control. For these, I did base them on photos I took last spring on a visit to Ontario.

Clouds and Watercolour!

Spring Clouds Racing
Watercolour 4 1/2 " x 3"
The above marks my return to plein aire painting! The clouds were irresistible. I almost had stage fright-what if I forgot everything I had learned? The small painting was not intimidating, and well, I did three at the same time so no one of them got too precious. The above sketch is the one I liked.

From the Clearcut.
12 1/2 " x 18 1/2"
Watercolour on 140 lb Arches CP
This is one of my favourite views. (Of course this morning, I found out the blackflies love it too!) It is a view out over the Northumberland Strait to PEI. I love it because you feel like you are on a level with the clouds sometimes when they are racing over your head as they were on this day. The sky was clearing above but still cloudy over the water. This one is for my July show.

Knitting

9" x 7" oil on canvas
I am working to my show for July. This small painting is a study for a larger work called 'The Figure made the Landscape' as adapted from a Milton Acorn Poem. This small painting was fun to do, I like doing hands I am finding. They can be so expressive. My grandmother taught me to knit the 'continental' style, so the position may look funny to some. I just finished the larger work last night. Whew. Once I get a good photo, I will post it.

Single Begonia

6X6 oil on canvas
A variation on the last painting. I should have posted it yesterday, but I was off to Guysborough for the day to take photographs. A day with magnificent clouds and amazing scenery. The coast is so uncluttered. So back to the painting... I used the phaylo blue again, but more muted. I like it. I saw the red reflections of the flower in the shadow and with some misgivings, put them in. Perfect, it balanced out the composition I think!

Red Velvet

6" x 6"
oil on canvas
Red Velvet is the name of this begonia plant. One of my favourite spring outings is to the greenhouse in our village. I love the rows of blooms as they are massed by colour. Of course a planned colour scheme is out the window as I just can't think clearly in all that glory. Okay, I did come home with some sun tolerant begonias (above). I picked up a few and as I made my way to the cash I heard the ohhs and awes. Everyone wanted them. I guess we were all in the greenhouse spell!
I picked a bloom off the plant and put it in a little glass jar. I used Windsor Blue in the background. It is such a pervasive colour, I am usually reluctant to use it, but really loved it in this, it was perfect for the red blooms.

Red's a crowd!

I could not resist picking up a bunch of these luscious red tulips at a local veg stand, they are from the Valley in NS so are local too! I usually just try to do one or two, but the bunch all together was fun too.
6" x 6"
Oil on Canvas(SOLD)

Study for painting of Nest Lined with Horsehair
10" x 8" watercolour pencil on Arches 90lb paper

I just finished, I think, the painting resulting from this study. I had a black horse living with us for awhile, quite lovely and truly black. One day I found on the ground this perfect little nest lined with long hairs from Disa's mane and tail. The hairs were perfectly swirled and woven into the grass and twigs to line the inside with the warm soft hairs. I will try to get an image of the larger painting. I am finding photographing oil paintings to be a challenge. Not like drawings or watercolours. It is difficult to get an image without the little highlights of the ridges from brushstrokes.

Chick Days (SOLD)

It's that time. The day old chicks have arrived. Really it is amazing how they are just in their own little world out there in their house, the light is on, food and water nearby. Doesn't matter the wind or cold. It's chick world, where they run around sleep, play and eat. I spent some time crouched in the shelter doing drawings...maybe I will post one later(I continue to have computer problems so this is not easy!). Anyway then photos helped me do the painting. The photo is a little blurry I think, but the painting is loose too. They do grow pretty fast and don't stay yellow and fluffy long!

Yellow Tomato

A brief break in painting, a visit home by family interceded...so I found these translucent tomatoes and just could not help myself, I had to paint one, at least one...

Circles

6" x 6"
oil on canvas
Ok, so I say yellow is hard to do...then I paint another lemon! I also decided to just do the circle in the middle. Interesting composition. I finished this yesterday when I took a break from my larger painting, but it was too dark to take the picture then.

Orange Boats

6" x 6"
oil on canvas
Today's painting. Orange is a tricky colour, though not as weird as yellow. I had fun with this one, especially the curvy pulp! Working on larger paintings too for the upcoming show...so back to the easel for me.

Lego Hello

5" x 4 1/2"
oil on canvas
I'm back. It was so hard to stay in the studio today. When I went out for barn chores, it felt and smelt like a summer day! The above is a fun painting I did yesterday of some of the lego still around the house. It was such a present element when my sons were young. I hadn't painted for a few days and this was my way back.
The demonstration day at the market went well overall I think. I was not able to finish something myself. I have not been using the watercolour all winter and felt out of touch even with a little warm up....I also had forgotten that terrifying time at the beginning when you are not really sure you can do it, how to start, etc. When you have to just start. I forgot it would be worse with people watching! It is what happens when you work in the studio for a few months....summers I do alot of plein aire painting and get used to having people stop by. I find folks are interested and also not wanting to disturb my concentration. It is good to push yourself a little I think.

I'm Back!

Brio Toy Memories
7" x 9" oil on canvas

McGill Farm Late Afternoon
18" x 24" oil on canvas
Computer problems solved...for now. Actually I had mulitple issues including the need for a new keyboard. Oh well. Here I am.
The above are two of my latest. The Brio Toy is left over from when my children were small. I think I always liked it more than they did! It is mostly wood and the red egg turns as you pull the little wagon. It is not evenly round, so does funky turns as it rolls across the floor.
The McGill Farm is a larger oil for an upcoming show. I did a small watercolour of this and it wanted to be a bigger painting. So, here it is. I love the late afternoon sun on the fields.
Tomorrow I am doing demonstrations in painting at our Farmers' Market in Tatamagouche. I always feel a little nervous, especially with watercolour as a partner, it can be so fickle! Performance anxiety?

Pamela's Posting Problems...

Well, techological challenges come in groups I think. I did replace my little camera with a new little one I am learning to use. Then my computer crashed, well maybe it is a fender bender-they are looking at it and it is in the queue for repair.
I hope to have it all together next week!
Mean time I am working on a couple of larger paintings and some small ones I will post once I am able.
We still have snow on the ground, but mostly bare ground now!

Welcome back Tulip

This was part of a bouquet welcoming me home as I returned from a trip a week ago. We still have three feet of icy snow in the yard, but the rain and warm rains should help melt it...surely.
I started this small painting and forgot (again) how intense red can be. It took a while before I felt like it was a tulip!
On a different note, while I was away I dropped my little digital camera. It is definitely broken. I can take pictures but the screen is broken. It is about four years old and was 4.2 megpixels. It doesn't owe me anything I suppose, but it was like an extension of me, I carried it everywhere. It creates a problem for this blog too! I can still take some pictures, but may have to save up some and post a bunch! In the meantime, most of this week I was working on a larger painting, and will post it when it is light enough for me to try to get a photo.

Sweet Pepper in Bowl

7" x 5" oil on canvas
My friend still has not come for her bowl. Those swirls are entrancing...and so hard to do! I learned also, grey is not gray is not grey.....Fun though! Today was the Farmer's Market in Tatamagouche. I take my paintings and some of our fresh eggs for Saturday morning. It is important to get out and see people at least once a week. I love a chance to talk about painting and hear some reactions to my offerings. Last episode of The Week the Women Went, so it was some of the talk at the market too.

Waldegrave Garlic

5" x 7" oil on canvas
Today's painting is Garlic from Waldegrave Farm, a land trust where a group of young farmers and others are sharing their lives and work. It is not too far from where I live. Rob grows this amazing garlic. It is quite purple. Really. And very good.