Soul Searching.

Sometimes you just have to get back to the basics.

Pencil to paper. 

It's honest.

It's real.

Arts on King Presents "Potpourri"

My newest paintings are being featured at Art on King, June 1-30. Why "Potpourri" you ask? I chose "Potpourri" as a title because this showing is an ecclectic grouping of paintings of my favorite themes of late. Birches, blossoms, and birds.  As well as continuing with my birds on a wire series (with an urban twist) I've completed five paintings of pigeons. I watch the pigeons from my studio window on the sidewalk and the rooftops. I find them oddly comforting, and remember feeding them often as a child.

Potpourri-Artist Statement

I carry my camera with me at all times as I find inspiration anywhere and everywhere. I use the photos I've taken as inspiration and reference, but it is my personal interpretation of the subject that appears on the canvas rather than a replication of the photograph. I strive to make each painting a soft focus moment in time. A recent move to a new home/studio in downtown Toronto has ignited a passion to paint the things I see around me. But rather than capturing the noisy, ever changing movement and high energy that is the norm for most large cities, I paint the hidden quiet moments. My intent is to transport the viewer to a softer place where the hard edges of the world have been removed, replaced by romance, peace and innocence.

If you can, please join us for the opening reception at Arts on King. 165 King Street East. Toronto on Saturday June 4 from 1-4 pm. Hope to see you.

More event details here. Rita Vindedzis Fine Art on Facebook.

New Paintings

I've been away from this blog for what seems like ages and with good reason. I've been focusing 100% on painting new works for my June show here. 

Last month, I also received a request for new landscapes and I've completed five. I'll be delivering these new landscapes to XC Art Restoration sometime next week. Here are two of the larger ones.

 Mountain View  40x40x2  acrylic on canvas

Beautiful Nature  24x48  acrylic on canvas

Painting and Home Decor Part Two.

Here are the after photos of our newly painted master bedroom. It took two full days of taping and painting and I'm very satisfied with the results and the final color choice. I went with CIL Pewter Grey. Now all that's left to do in the room is add my artwork which I will have framed with black floating frames. The black frames will enhance the paintings and work well with the sliding panel doors that are also black, and give a nice finishing touch to the room.

Kimberley Seldon, Cityline, and Dabble.

It's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since my  wonderful experience with Kimberley Seldon on the set of Cityline.

It really seems like it was just yesterday that between a few tweets and emails I found myself down at the studio before the taping with my artwork, nervously waiting for Kimberley to arrive.

The topic for the segment was toile and I just happened to have two small paintings where I combined my take on toile with my birds on a wire series. Being the wonderfully kind and generous person that she is, Kimberley offered to include my paintings in her segment.

Not only did my work get shown and incorporated into the design segment, Kimberley pronounced my name beautifully-my last name gets mispronounced often. I also got to sit in the audience and experience what a taping of Cityline is all about. Many of my fave designers were on hand. You can read about it here.

Here's Kimberley chatting with Tracy and showing one of my paintings. This was really a big event for me and my art. Major gratitude here!!

Gossip  10x8  acrylic on canvas

available at Art Interiors

dabble

Have you heard all the buzz about Dabble??? Most recently Kimberley Seldon launched an online magazine-Dabble. I've been spending every spare moment reading through its beautiful pages. Check it out right here.

Paint, Texture, Mixed Media

The Black Crows  12x12  mixed media on canvas.

sold

Today I'm sharing with you my second entry for the Square Foot Show. "The Black Crows" 12 x12 mixed media on stretched canvas is on of my newest works. This piece took quite some time to do as I'd work on it and put it away for days at a time. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out and even though it's different then my usual painting-it's still me. There are layers and layers of paint, over acrylic molding paste. There are also 5 leaves embedded in the background for extra texture. I did the drawing of the wire and the crows first with a sharpie marker, wanting to keep it quick and gestural. I then painted over the crows with acrylic paint using a lot of dry brush to achieve my signature "soft focus" look. I've really been inspired by birds lately. I've taken lots of photos of them on our long drives in the country, and throughout the city. When they're all lined up along the wires like that it just says "summer" to me.