Aspens...Completed

30 in 30....day 12 & 13

I'm not absolutely sure that this 30 day painting challenge is bringing out the very best of my artistic talent!

I decided to participate for various reasons, one which includes my continued involvement in the Pontiac Artists' Studio Tour.  The tour runs during the middle 2 weekends in June and my oldest in her 14 year old wisdom ( last year) informed me I would be so much less stressed before the tour if I just got my act together much sooner in the year.  So, Emma, I'm placing any waste of paint and supplies and time this January very firmly upon YOUR shoulders!  ;)   Just kidding.

I do have a collection of paintings in various states of completion and I am truly far ahead as compared to years past and yet I find myself rushing a little too quickly a little too often to get my link up on Leslie Saeta's blog...so the quality may not always be right on, however experimentation is happening which wouldn't have otherwise so I'll chalk it up to lessons learned!  

Next, there is the predicament of after I link up my art to her site of perusing through 400+ other artists' daily masterpieces...and they truly are, then I start to doubt and worry and wonder....

then, in an effort of self preservation (or ego preservation at the very least) I quickly go do something else that doesn't involve art at all....and then...

my next predicament:  I fall behind!  Payroll for Glad Crest Farms is in fine shape, I'm proud to report, but I failed to post yesterday at all...so today, a 2 for one!

The 2 missing seasons from my little experimental series.   Summer had many challenges, Autumn was much easier.

Enjoy!

each 12 x 16

acrylic on canvas board

30 in 30....day 11

Completed the second board for my seasons series this afternoon.  A bit moody, a bit darker, definitely more "in season" than my spring canvas done on day 6.

I think it will go well with the other though.

I am thinking if I matt this series on black (or at least something relatively dark) they will really pop out and be dramatic...but who know!  Two more still to paint and I'm a little fickle while deciding what to do!  :)

12 x 16

acrylic on canvas board

30 in 30....day 8

Some days life gets complicated and it's a little hard to fit in enough time to paint an entire completed painting.  I have a feeling that at the end of January I will be faced with at least a dozen canvases which need varying degrees of touching up!

Today was such a day.

However, what I did complete in the time I had feels successful to me.  Back to my favourite subject, my beloved bovine!

Sure, there's lot of anatomy corrections to make, the foreground and background to develop but all in all I like the direction this one is taking.
 
I took this picture travelling around on the back roads one early spring day last year. Obviously early as there's not a stitch of green anywhere to be seen, but somehow the cattle looked like they were just breathing a sigh of relief, as was I, after a very long winter.

I imagine if I were to take that same drive today I'd find some of the same girls huddled side by side tight to the round bale feeders with a layer of snow and ice caked on backs and the air heavy with fog as their breath steams up the entire yard. I'm not tired of winter yet, but I know that day will come very soon, and I suspect even the cows will long for the day when they can again loiter around a dry yard and soak up the first weak rays of spring light while watching the world come slowly back to life.

  

24 x 18

acrylic on canvas

30 in 30....day 7

Confession:  This was not painted today.  But recent-ish.  I spent the day putting away Christmas and just didn't get around to pulling out my paints.

This is a very large painting I did early December when I should have probably been doing about a dozen other more pertinent things.  I have wanted to paint a reindeer for about 3 years and never took the time.  I finally decided to be selfish and stubborn and ignore all responsibilities.  This is the result.
My reindeer.  "Waiting for Santa"

The photo quality is poor.  Actually, all my photos are not great.  I've been using my I-phone and our home has a lot of bright, warm walls and generally by the time I'm done painting for the day I have lots of lights turned on so colours are distorted.

I will need to take some time to pull out my good camera and set up on a bright clear day and retake all my images, but particularly this one.  It is sparkly and kind of magical.  This does not do it justice....but here it is anyway, I'd rather post a poor picture than none at all.  When I take on a challenge I generally stick to it, stubborn like that!

See you tomorrow!

  

48 x 24

acrylic on gallery canvas

30 in 30....day 6

Again trying a slightly different style today, I will eventually get back to my tried and true method to painting but I do find it really weird how no matter what I set out to do when experimenting I get completely different results than what I was actually aiming for!  I guess that's a sign that I'm no true expert...or at least not a very good fake!

What I had in mind was that I was going to create a series of seasonal paintings...I've done the same concept before but another style that time too...I was thinking of a painting made almost entirely of circular organic shapes, with extra colours and circles within circles....inspired by the likes of Norval Morrisseau, bright bold colours, very graphic...and so on.

What I ended up with was something very different. Mr. Morrisseau would no doubt NOT be impressed, but in my defence I abandoned that concept almost immediately after beginning.

My head was in the clouds today. I've been thinking of a couple people who've lost those very close to them in the last couple days, considering spirituality, mourning, grief, letting go and such.  So perhaps that's why this ended up looking like it did.   I "think" I like it but I don't consider myself much of a romantic and this looks like that to me.

(I also so hope that heaven is a little more rockin' than this too....assuming I'd be admitted that is...and that this isn't my subconscious giving me a window to the great hereafter!)

Perhaps it ended up like this only because it was my spring version??  A little sticky sweet, perhaps I can make a winter storm next or a really miserable autumn day...more matching to my volatile character!        

I do like the globs of paint, it created a bit of texture which is hard to see in this image but pretty cool when the board is in front of you.  I will continue the series for the remaining 3 seasons and hope when they're all together it looks cool.

12 x 16

acrylic on canvas board

30 in 30....day 4

Today I did a quick research on painting with palette knives before experimenting on canvas.

I have used one a bit in the past but have never covered an entire canvas with just the use of a knife. Not easy to manipulate when I'm more familiar with the dynamic of a brush.  I have also spent the last 4 days working on relatively small canvases when I really have a strong preference for large.

What I can say is so far my preference for brushes and big have not waned but I'm pushing myself to try new styles and techniques and even if in the end nothing changes I will know a little bit more about my shortcomings, strengths, limitations and such and I guess that's a good thing!

This was a photo from years back which I took at my childhood home, snapped on a day not unlike today, when the trees and entire world around here are caked by heavy snow.  A good day to stay inside and stay warm!

 

10 x 8

acrylic on gallery canvas

Just Breathing

I don't know about you, but I think for many rural individuals the seasons set the pace of our lives. 

In spring the urgent rush to prepare and plant the fields seems not unlike a long distance race where results are never immediate but the outcome is imminent and the only way to cross that finish line is to invest copious amounts of time moving steadily forward one foot in front of the other and never ever giving up. The list of tasks seem endless and urgent and yet there's a celebratory note in spring because we've just survived the winter, that enthusiasm propels us forward, has us take on things we'd otherwise never make time to do, we are energized and refreshed by the smell of earth as it thaws, the gentle breezes, the warm rain and the reappearance of life, first little bubbles appearing in the earth as it drinks up the melting snow, then tiny blades of strong lime sprouts push through last year's dead, dried grass.  Finally the song birds return home for the season and the land erupts and the season that seemed like it would never quite come is upon us and explodes chaotically all around.  Plants grow so quickly the daily results are measurable and never, ever cease to amaze. 

Then quickly and quietly summer arrives.  She comes in a blast.  One day you are working in the garden, a gentle breeze on your back and the next you are stifled with a wall of heat so thick that it takes your breath and streams of sweat run down your back.  Flowers bud and explode.  One day a garden plant bears a tiny blossom and the next long, crunchy beans, squash or peas appear.  The world becomes a buffet but the work is harder and hot. Still we adapt, the icy waters of spring quickly warm and become our playground, we alternate between basking in summer's hot rays and thick dappled shade to plunging into it's warm refreshing pools.  Summer stifles with her intensity but all too swiftly just when we wonder if we'll ever need the blankets on our beds again or if a breeze will ever ruffle the curtain, if those peepers in the pond will ever stop their incessant night time chatter she gracefully bows out and gives center stage to Fall. 

Autumn comes with a change of clothes from green to yellow.   We welcome his cooler days and are reinvigorated once again to tackle jobs that Summer's heat just couldn't inspire.  We cannot help but pause and marvel at all his splendour, he simply amazes with his riotous brightness from leaves to crops, to the squawking of flocks as they fly over beginning their journey to warmer places but he's a fast one that Fall...in a shaking of his robes the brightly coloured leaves swirl and madly whirl around encircling us with a frosty promise that work will soon slow down.  First, we must hurry, we have things to tidy, harvests to collect, jobs to finish because Winter is waiting.

Sometimes Winter sits impatient on the doorstep and she can be harsh and merciless and we don't want to be caught unprepared.  She blows into every corner sending chill everywhere.  The trees become lifeless statues frozen in her stillness, buried deep inside themselves as they set up a long vigil against her icy madness, swirling blizzards and deep cold.  She is also beautiful this winter, with her long, thick robes  that glimmer on moonlit nights and blind on sunshine days, but for me winter is a time to breathe, regroup and reorganize as the world around lays blanketed thick and white.  A time to rest and plan for the cacophony of spring that is sure to follow.  A time to not wish away but to enjoy and breathe because all too soon the cycle will start again.

Already the days are longer and I know my rest is coming to an end.  I am trying to collect myself, my thoughts, my ideas and organize them in a way that they won't spiral madly out of control at the first sigh of spring.  For now I plan and slowly I will begin again just as the seasons unfold, I guess time will tell exactly what that looks like and what the world has in store for me but for now I chose to simply be and appreciate all this world has to offer us if we only just open our eyes and see! 

Changing Seasons