IT'S TIME : DENISE IN VENICE - entered in a FCA show

 

                                                            Denise in Venice

                                         21.5 x 14 in.

It's time. I started this painting several years ago. It is base on a photo I took of my sister when we visited Italy and Greece. This has always been one of my favourite works. And it is one of those paintings we all create, and when finished, wonder "How did I DO that???" I have a few others like that, and I'll post the images below.

I feel that lately, I have not been pushing myself, not growing in my art. So it's time to change that, too!

Some day I'll have to try doing fog again.

Getting the darks behind the geese, and insinuating more geese in the background took time and patience.

                    Bruno, my Sweet Baboo. I love painting animals, but they all have their                                                    challenges.

Thank you all for dropping by. I hope you enjoyed the paintings and a bit of their history. If you'd like to know more, please send me a note.

Love you ALL!!!

     

The Emu

I am living on what is called an environmental farm, in the southwest end of the Fraser Valley. There are dozens and dozens of fairly exotic animals and birds here - cranes, pheasants, peacocks, and eagle [no longer able to survive in the wild], four emus, chickens, pigs, a donkey, two mouflon sheep, two sheep with three recent lambs, and a Nigerian [Nubian?] miniature goat. When I moved here a couple of months ago, the emus in particular fascinated me. They are taller than me when stretching their necks, and have some very distinctive behaviours and sounds. So of course I had to draw and paint one.

 One of the emus in their very large field. 

My drawing

For some reason, I wanted to start with a bright phthalo. blue spatter and spray.

The eye done, and some light washes ...

A wet-in-wet wash over the head and neck ...

And some added texture and darkening. I could have gone darker, but wanted the focus to be the eye. 
The size is about 17 x 20 cm. and if you have a thing for exotic birds, the painting is available. Please just leave me a note.

Thank you so much for dropping by!

 

OK ... I'M BACK - A ROOSTER'S PROGRESS ...

Maggie, sorely in need of entertainment and exercise, has resorted to  caving in the hay shed.

She finds a slot between the bales, and dives down, looking for rodents.

Sometimes she completely disappears, and I wonder if I am going to have to excavate her from the hay!

Second start on the BIG rooster. The finished size was about 25 x 30 inches.

Looking quite handsome and rooster-ish.

Now the background ...

Finished ... finally! Picked up, and ready to fly off to Hong Kong to his new home.

I disappeared off the radar, as I was having a lot of trouble with pain, arthritis, muscle spasm - I was not a happy puppy. I barely felt like doing anything, just forced myself to take care of the animals as best I could, and teach my weekly watercolour class.  I was even on synthetic opioids for six weeks. That is a nasty drug. I have weaned myself off, and am now being much more proactive  in taking care of myself. I still visit with my yoga therapist weekly - she is a god-send! And I regularly see a physiotherapist to help with eliminating muscle spasm, and getting some proper strengthening exercises done at his clinic. So I am feeling much better physically and emotionally. I am sketching and painting again, and riding Bruno every other day, and getting out with the dogs again, too. Lordy, I missed being outside in Nature!!!

The rooster was commissioned by a woman, in August,  for her husband's birthday [and I am sure I missed the date]. But she picked her painting up on Friday, and was so happy with him - I was thrilled. So Señor Rooster is off to Hong Kong in December to settle in his new home.

UNO ... A ROOSTER'S PROGRESS

Once upon a time, there was a rooster named Uno, who lived at my vet's small hobby farm. He was a very handsome and proud bird ...

Drawing , with a few scribbled notes

First washes - aureolin, quin. sienna and quin. burnt orange

More of the oranges, with some new gamboge to brighten the yellow. His comb is a mix of burnt orange and alizarin crimson.

Still more gamboge. The tail feathers, both brown and blue, are mixtures of burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone.

Starting to give the body feathers some texture with more of the same colour, or mixtures made with complementary colours.

UNO

Well, winter weather is here, and for this area it means soggy, grey, dark days. Yup ... the winter megrims have set in! So I am motivating myself to paint by working on BRIGHT. Chickens and roosters suit my needs perfectly, so expect to see more colourful birds!!!

Thank you for dropping by!