Vanishing Fast!

UNTOUCHED WETLAND 4X16 Oil on Board ($210 Framed)

I cannot count the times I've heard farmers and developers say, "There was nothing there. It was just a swamp!" Until recently we didn't know the value of wetlands and filled them in, build over them or converted them into farmland. Today we know that they are thriving ecosystems and vital water purification filters. We may think ignorance is the architect of destruction - sometimes it's need, but sometimes it's nothing less than greed.

This painting is a small section of a much larger piece. A student wanted a demo of how to use black Gesso as an under-painting. I did this section and liked it enough to whip out the saw, cut it off and frame it! I don't think the rest of the painting made it, so thanks Tanya!

According to Origen of Alexandria

The Petrine Cross

22x30 Conté on 400 Series 4 ply Bristol

Life Drawing

ACFC Show

ARTS AND CULTURE FOUNDATION OF COCHRANE Christmas Art Show

COCHRANE RANCHE HOUSE

1 & 2  DECEMBER 12 noon - 4 PM

This is turning into a busy time! The Seasons of the Foothills show is still on at Hughes on Tenth in Calgary, but I'll be at the Cochrane Ranche House show this weekend. 

Here are a few of the paintings I will have there. 

 High Above the Oldman River 

Plein air, 11x14 Oil on Linen

It's Quiet Out Here in Winter

11x14 Oil on Linen

Snow Fence

18x20 Oil on Board

I Saw These and Thought of You

10x10 Oil on Linen

Gala Evening: Seasons of the Foothills

A steady crowd moved through from the beginning to the end of the show last night. It was great to see old friends and made new ones. These are 3 of the four paintings that found new homes

                                                                 Elbow Melt

The Devil's Head

After the Storm

Bow Valley Parkway

After "The Figure in the Landscape" workshop Dan Schultz taught for me a few years ago, we joined Liz Wiltzen for a day of plein air painting at Lake Moraine. It started raining lightly mid afternoon so we headed home along the Bow Valley Parkway. We rounded a corner and this stunning scene of low cloud over the snow capped peaks and a sea of blazing color halted us in our tracks! 

 Early Fall, Bow Valley Parkway 
17"x36" Oil on Board

I'D LIKE TO INVITE YOU TO MY ART SHOW!

For all of you within reasonable proximity of Calgary i.e. 2 - 3 days driving or flying distance - with storms like Sandy, I don't suggest ocean crossings at this time.

THE SEASONS OF THE FOOTHILLS is a representation of landscape paintings by myself (oils) and fellow artists; Nancy Hughes (Acrylic) and Caran Magaw (Mixed Media) depicting the changing seasons on the prairie side of the Rocky Mountains.

Come! We want to share this beautiful place.

Making it Right

TANYA'S ROSES 8x10 oil on primed paper mounted on Gator Board.

Anything can happen...

 

 

I have come to expect the unexpected when out plein air painting. Yesterday however, I was bow hunting with my friend Darin. The sun had already set. I was walking back to the truck, bow slung across my shoulders. 
Earlier that evening, I had a pack of howling coyotes all around me. Some were as close as 50 meters. A little later I bumped into a bull moose and two of his love interests. I have no concern for coyotes. A bull moose with two big spiky satellite dishes on his head on the other hand is of great concern to me - especially when you only have a bow and no tag.
The extra 30 pounds I carry – that’s not hunting equipment - doesn’t make for a viable arboreal escape option – what with the first branch 25 feet off the ground and all! Thankfully he was more interested in chasing his leggy girls around than me. When he moved, I moved – backwards until I was safely behind the knoll I first came around!
I'm pretty sure this was the same gang of 4 moose - minus one bull - that chased me across the open pasture 2 years ago. Talk about clearing a barbed-wire fence and diving into the tree line with no problem! Luckily I only lost my cell phone.  
Anyway, like I was saying… it was almost dark. The path was narrow. Suddenly something moved at the base of the twisted bush about 3 meters in front of me. I stopped dead. The dark shadowy object stopped dead. And for a few seconds we eyed each other. Now you must know that I’m not scared of too many things. I mean I grew up in Africa. I know there are only a few animals here that are not worth bumping into… cougars, bears, and maybe a rutting moose or elk or a wolf or 2.
I can walk through the Canadian bush in a state of relative calm, enjoying the experience. I know I’m not going to step on a Puff Adder lying in the path or get chased by a Black Mamba or struck in the thigh or spat in the eye by a Mozambique Spitting Cobra. I’m not going to be stalked by a lion or a leopard. There are no marauding packs of hyenas or Cape hunting dogs. I won’t be charged by 1000 lbs. of rock hard – stinkin’ mean Buffalo or a snorting Black Rhino with a meter long horn. I won’t walk into the web of a spiky orange and black Orb spider with a leg span 5” across or pick up a rock and be stung by a scorpion or bitten by a Black Widow spider.
So… there at the base of this bush was the dark shape staring at me out of the corner of his eye.
It was a porcupine! I whipped out my camera and with a dying battery I got right up close and took a video (WHICH BLOGGER NEVER LETS ME UP LOAD!) and some pictures. He crawled up the trunk. When I moved around the bush, which was only as high as my head, I noticed its 2” long claws! But his face – what a cute little face!
You’d imagine a tree-climbing porcupine to be a slow and cumbersome thing. Imagine again. The second I reached out to touch its cute little foot it spun around in a flash bearing a butt-end of short, sharp, black and white quills. I am convinced that had it not wedged its porky little self into the branches, it would have backed up right off the bush at high speed and pinned it’s spiky end to my face. Now imagine that!
Okay – maybe I can add one more Canadian animal, which when at face level, and threatened could do an African face some damage.

 The sun was back-lighting the grass and thistles and the sky was a soft yellowy orange. 

PLIEN AIR IN WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK

Blakiston Creek Waterton Lakes National Park - Plein Air - 11x14 Oil on Board (Sold)

 
I spent a very windy morning painting this scene. I had one visitor with her baby and a long row of outriders on their horses who passed by in silence - except for hooves knocking against the loose rocks.

The next morning I stationed myself next the creek at the entrance of the Crandell Mountain Camp Ground. That day I had a lot of visitors including 2 wildlife photographers who took a bunch of pictures of me, lights and all. 

  On the first day of his 3 week vacation, a man named Kelly came to chat. While I was painting the scene that was before me, he liked the Blakiston painting and summarily bought it even though it was not quite done. We agreed that I'd finish it off and send it when he got home. Well, he's home and the painting is done. It's is already packaged up and will be mailed to Edmonton tomorrow morning.

I think this was the fourth time we've been to Waterton Lakes NP with the same friends. We've always been told about the wind but never experienced it. Well, this time we had wind! And thunder and lightening and rain. I tried to pitch the gazebo to no avail. In fact, it almost blew away and suffered some permanent damage. Thankfully it lasted only a day and a night. The rest of the time was splendid. I did a paining a day for the next 4 days.

CANADA HOUSE GALLERY DEMO'S

 

On Saturday August 11, four of us went to Canada House Gallery in Banff. We took in an exhibition of six artists who each also did a demonstration. Our favorites were Mike Svob & Nikol Haskova. 

 Mike Did this painting in around 1.5 hrs.

 

16x20 Acrylic on canvas

 

Nikol Haskova painting with Laura eagerly looking on.

 Mike checking out Nikol's progress on her crow paintings.

EYE LASHES!

At the Vale's Art Show in Black Diamond earlier this summer, I was told that a young lady by the name of Sierra would help me haul my paintings from the car to my spot. Sierra was super nice and very helpful. She desperately wanted the little painting I did of the fox that frequents our garden, but it sold to someone else. I will most surely paint many more foxes, so I advised her to keep an eye on my blog and FB. 

The thing about Sierra is that she has the longest, thickest eyelashes I've ever seen! I noticed them immediately, but thought I'd better wait for the relationship to mature before I ventured to ask whether I could take some pictures and make a small painting. Well, since she is so very nice, the relationship progresses rapidly and before the end of the show I had my photos. Well, here is a small painting of Sierra's incredible eyelashes. I made them slightly darker and a little SHORTER than they really are! Thanks for all the help Sierra.

  

 SIERRA'S EYELASHES 5x10 Oil on Paper

Apple & Pear

I taught a one and a half day "daily painting" workshop at Cochrane Arts Central. I used the top one as an example and demo'ed the bottom one using a shadow box and directional light. Two happy paintings.

Anything can happen when you're out plein air painting!

We were painting Mnt. Rundle from under the gazebo I pitched because of intermittent rain when a beautiful bride, her groom and their photographer hopped out of the truck that had just pulled up behind us. Apparently the couple had visited Banff from the US and loved it so much that they came here to get married. It was great fun and a special moment for us as they made their way through our little setup and took their pictures. We all asked permission to take some of our own. Expect the unexpected when you're out plein air painting

Coyotes Howling!

Coyotes Howling: 9x12 Oil on Board (Plein Air)

This was a winter plein air experience to remember! It was so cold, setup, painting and pack up all happened within an hour. By the end the paint started freezing - forming grains like coarse sand on the painting surface. I have 6 short video clips of that morning on my Face Book wall if you care to take a look. 

I call this painting "Coyotes Howling." Half way in, 3 packs of Coyotes started howling all around me. They were not visible, and since humans aren't on the coyotes preferred dinner menu I was in no danger. Had it been a Grizzly or Cougar, I would probably have had a slightly shorter painting experience. 

I am very happy with this painting. Maybe because of the limitation of cold. The morning sun was burning away the low mist in the foothills and casting long cool shadows over the road. 

I would say the biggest challenge an artist faces is knowing when to stop. In this case, the decision was made for me... now how can I make this decision in every situation?!

The Devil's Head

                        The Devil's Head - 11x14 oil on board.

There's nothing quite like sunshine. In the winter we're up long before the sun. In the summer it's the sun lighting up the sky at 4 30 or 5 am that taps me on the shoulder and I love it. In the quietness of the early morning, comes the promise of what a new day may bring. 

The Devil's Head is the most recognizable landmark on the Calgary side of the Rockies. The First Nations across North America apparently revered any outcrop that resembled a head. They believed that such formations embodied a or several spirits. The first white explorers, who used the Ghost Gap as a passage to the west reported finding peace offerings on the cliffs of this mountain, which were made to appease the spirits. 

It is the proximity of complementary (not complimentary) colors representing warm and cool color - temperature that gives so much life to a scene like this. When I look at this painting, it feels like I should see my breath!  

"Easy Like Sunday Morning" 11x14 Oil on Board

(Sold: Donald & Erica MacKenzie, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK)

It was a very cold morning; but as is typical of Alberta, the sky was clear and powder blue. The rising sun was reflecting in the windows of the house across the road. The warm light was inching down the snowy mountains trying to push back the chill. I wanted to catch the contrast between the warm light and cool shadows.