Autumn Colour Week-Play Along with Poppytalk

Trio 18x18 Acrylic on Canvas
sold

October Colours 36x48 Acrylic on Canvas
sold

Moonlight in October 36x48 Acrylic on Canvas
sold

I'm playing along with Poppytalk's Autumn Colour Week and today is Orange. For me orange is THE colour that is Autumn. It's everywhere from leaves to dried grasses to pumpkins. Just look around and you'll see it everywhere. It's such a warm and cozy colour, but it's a strong colour. Artist Kim Hambric uses the colour brilliantly in her quilts and mixed media pieces. This one's my favourite. I've shared with you three paintings where I've used orange as the main colour. These have all been sold but I do commision work and can create a painting for that perfect spot in your home or office. Feel free to drop me an email.

Tuesday is Green

Solitude 5x7 Acrylic on Canvas
Click Here to Purchase

Pastoral 10x10 Acrylic on Canvas
Click Here to Purchase

Day 2 of Autumn Colour Week. Poppytalk is celebrating the colours of Autumn and I'm playing along. See the original post here. Today is Tuesday and the colour is green. I paint many landscapes and green is a colour I use often. I find that the green acrylic paints can be very harsh and almost artificial looking straight from the tube, so I always dull them a bit by adding a touch of a red or an orange, sometimes even a burnt sienna or umber. Mixing greens can be a lot of fun and I can spend hours mixing various shades of yellows and blues together. The two landscapes above are both available at Artstream Gallery and Studios

Autumn Colour Week-Play Along with Poppytalk

Quiet River 6x6 Acrylic on Canvas
available here at Artstream Studios

Summer Sheep 18x24 Acrylic on Canvas
sold

Peaceful Vista 24x30 Acrylic on Canvas
sold

Poppytalk is one of my favourite Canadian design blogs and is on my "must Read" blog list. This week is Autumn Colour week. I thought it would be fun to participate, so I'll be posting some of my work in the suggested colours. Today is yellow. Tuesday is green, Wednesday is Orange, Thursday is brown, and Friday is red. I've always found yellow to be so bright and in your face so it's not usually a colour I use often. It is very easy to use in paintings depicting late summer or early fall so it was a good choice for the above paintings. (I think). Why don't you play along. You can find Poppytalk's original post for Autumn Colour Week here.

Nuit Blanche 2009

Nuit Blanche 2009 is quickly approaching. Toronto celebrates this all night event with numerous art happenings throughout the city. This year I'm pleased to announce that I'll be participating in "Vis-a-Vis". A group exhibition, the first of it's kind for Artist's Toronto, at Arta Gallery in the historic Distillery district. The opening reception is October 3, 5-7 pm. Please join us.

New Paintings Available Soon.

Marsh and Sky 36x48 Acrylic on Gallery Canvas

Hi There. Did you have a great weekend?? I'm just taking a quick break from painting. I stopped to fix myself a green tea and I thought I'd pop in and say Hi. I won't be around much this week as it's a busy time for me in the studio. Lot's of paintings are half finished and I'm taking the week to finish and varnish them all. Actually, I'll be popping back in at the end of the week with a new show announcement. Have a great one!!

An Artist's Life.

Downtown Acrylic on Canvas 18x18

Oh my, I've certainly been neglecting this little blog of mine this week. It's just been one thing after another and I haven't been able to get to it. I've been in the studio painting. Forcing myself to get to the easel and start new paintings. Perhaps it's with the change in season but working at home has been tough this week. I keep finding things that seem more urgent than painting. Laundry, cleaning, organizing, purging old magazines etc. Things that get done anyway but seem more important now. I guess I'm starting to "comfy" up the place for colder days on the way.

I have 4 new landscapes on the go and have just started some new "urban" landscapes. Above is Downtown, finished earlier this summer. Have been working on new "smalls" as well. Updated my Etsy shop with 6x6 landscapes. You can also see smaller landscapes here at Artstream Gallery and Studios. The to do list keeps getting longer. Many projects on the go at once. I'll also be working on my last book in the Inner Works round robin altered book project.

It's going to be a beautiful weekend here in TO. Sunny and cool. Perfect weather to go and check out the Queen West Art Crawl. I've got friends exhibiting. And I might even get into some baking. I've been wanting to try a recipe (I'm not the best baker!) for a plum tart. What are your plans for the weekend?

Art Interiors and Style at Home

Spring's Promise
Acrylic on Canvas 30x40, Sold.
As seen in Style at Home Magazine, October 2007

Birch Series II
Acrylic on Canvas 12x36

I dropped off 4 new paintings in my Birch Series to Art Interiors yesterday. I've noticed how these new smaller panels have evolved from the larger original painting seen above in a past issue of Style at Home Magazine. I've added more texture to these pieces and they have a much more abstract feel to them. It's through Art Interiors that I've been fortunate enough to have my work included in Style at Home Magazine 3 times, including the cover. Thank you Art Interiors and Style at Home. Major gratitude here!!

And yesterday I was re-introduced to Style at Home Magazine's online version. (Thanks Natalie!!) These Are A Few of My Favourite Things has been added to my daily must read blogs. Yes, I've visited the site many times before but couldn't take the time to really get into it. Besides, one of MY favourite things is taking a break from my studio and heading to my nearest Indigo. I purchase the newest issue of Style at Home Magazine and my usual latte from Starbucks and spend a good hour or so flipping through the pages. There's so much in every issue and the eye candy is the best. So now it looks like I'll be curling up with my laptop and and catching up with Style at Home online as well. I think I'll enter the makeover contest going on right now. Check it out here. I'd love to win a $2000 gift card from The Home Depot. OK, so now I'm visualizing how my studio would look after a makeover. I'm thinking built ins on one wall and my own sink so I wouldn't have to use our kitchen sink. New lighting. New storage, new flooring, hmmmmmmm......

Urban Inspirations

Hot Summer Night

Acrylic on Canvas 18x18

I've been going back and forth for the past few months painting urban inspired landscapes and then landscapes. City then country then back to city again. My recent trip to New York has inspired a whole new series of urban landscapes and now I'm busy going through plenty of photographs and making preliminary sketches and small paintings. I'll be part of a group show this fall with Artists Toronto in the Distillery and will be showing these new urban landscapes. Details to come soon. I was surprised and delighted to read Gabriela's blog today as she featured a mixed media painting I did for her. We both love New York so much and in looking at her photos of New York, I was inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge. Thanks for the press Gabriela! Now it's back to the studio for an afternoon of painting.

Summer's End

Summer's End 36x48
Acrylic on canvas

So here we are just about at the end of summer. The long weekend before us, one last hurrah in the season. I was hoping to maybe get away this weekend and do something "vacationy" but there's too much to be done around here. I'll be working on a small commissioned painting similar to Summer's End. It's been awhile since I've painted grazing sheep so this will be a lot of fun. Whatever you have planned for your long weekend, I hope you enjoy. See you after Labour Day.