When I don't see my surroundings as just a whole lot of work...I guess I'm pretty blessed. A few hazy photos from the beginning of a very hot day here at Little Red Wagon Vineyard and of course home! Stay cool!
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
30 in 30....day 26
A quickie for today!
Bills to pay, walls to mud, kids to chauffeur around and help with homework in just a couple hours!
I have inspiration for larger paintings but to actually complete in one day wasn't realistic so I asked April what to paint. She said "daisies"! So I did!
Bills to pay, walls to mud, kids to chauffeur around and help with homework in just a couple hours!
I have inspiration for larger paintings but to actually complete in one day wasn't realistic so I asked April what to paint. She said "daisies"! So I did!
9 x 6
watercolour
Sunday, January 25, 2015
30 in 30....day 25
Still a little under the weather today so I decided I'd create something really quick and simple out of my head. What I guess I forgot is that my head apparently does not do quick and simple. In fact it's kind of a convoluted mess of confusion which seemingly translates into a tangle on paper.
Oh well! Took longer than planned to but here it is..a simple drawing and watercolour of some colourful and upbeat flowers...done colouring book style!
Oh well! Took longer than planned to but here it is..a simple drawing and watercolour of some colourful and upbeat flowers...done colouring book style!
12 x 16
watercolour
Monday, January 19, 2015
30 in 30....day 19
Today was a mixed up day. There is a good deal of uncertainty in our lives these days surrounding our occupations and the choices we've made throughout the two decades and more that Scott and I have been working together to build our lives. Nothing monumentally critical, we have our health and sanity (most days) and family and love so nothing that we don't believe we can't find the tools to handle, just not the somewhat more relaxed winter days of planning and dreaming with some rest and rehabilitation as in years past.
So, when I went to my easel today I went with an empty cup. Frustration, resentment and not an ounce of desire to create anything new or inspirational went with me. The project I settled on was not started this month, I actually started well over a year ago and just got away from it. Again, not my "usual" style but something I really enjoy doing, when in the mood...I call these pieces my colouring book pages. I had inked out the image before and had done a small amount of filling in with watercolour. I decided that colouring was about all I could handle today.
What really helped is that it is my mom and dad's. My childhood home. With the riotous, very ambitious and yet well tended flower garden and raspberries which took over much of the vegetable patch after we kids left home.
Soon enough I was mesmerized in examining the photo and laying down the colours of the yard where I grew up and the place I will always think of as "home" and soon enough everything fell back into a more manageable place again.
Almost as good as a hug from them both. Or like, snuggling up in the corner of one couch in the living room while dad watches television (likely curling if I'd gone today) on the other sofa all the while offering a running commentary or opinion on the broadcast while slipping in quiet phrases of encouragement and support.
Or flopping across their bed upstairs watching mom doing needlework or knitting in her armchair while pouring out my woes, which would eventually lead to us both lamenting choices made, then recalling better days, then laughing at the so many amazing memories that would not have been made had the choices been different. Finally, that would lead me back to dreaming of what tomorrow may be.
In no time at all I'd be filled up with love to overflowing. Fixed and as good as new for the next thousand miles, not to say that we don't have vast differences in opinions, or that I didn't take completely opposite paths than they would have if they could have chosen for me, but there's something so rare and precious about just going home and being unconditionally supported by your parents. Even when you feel like a complete failure, even when you're supposed to be all grown up....it is a feeling I will always carry with me and always treasure.
Hoping this colouring book painting is a gift that they will enjoy during all their tomorrows no matter where life takes them. Hoping I will have them to continue to support me for many years yet and that I am adequate at supporting them too. I also hope they know that when I think back to my childhood, this is what I see, a picture perfect storybook life, a beautiful home overflowing with creativity and love, a secure and safe haven, that's what they and this place will always be to me.
So, when I went to my easel today I went with an empty cup. Frustration, resentment and not an ounce of desire to create anything new or inspirational went with me. The project I settled on was not started this month, I actually started well over a year ago and just got away from it. Again, not my "usual" style but something I really enjoy doing, when in the mood...I call these pieces my colouring book pages. I had inked out the image before and had done a small amount of filling in with watercolour. I decided that colouring was about all I could handle today.
What really helped is that it is my mom and dad's. My childhood home. With the riotous, very ambitious and yet well tended flower garden and raspberries which took over much of the vegetable patch after we kids left home.
Soon enough I was mesmerized in examining the photo and laying down the colours of the yard where I grew up and the place I will always think of as "home" and soon enough everything fell back into a more manageable place again.
Almost as good as a hug from them both. Or like, snuggling up in the corner of one couch in the living room while dad watches television (likely curling if I'd gone today) on the other sofa all the while offering a running commentary or opinion on the broadcast while slipping in quiet phrases of encouragement and support.
Or flopping across their bed upstairs watching mom doing needlework or knitting in her armchair while pouring out my woes, which would eventually lead to us both lamenting choices made, then recalling better days, then laughing at the so many amazing memories that would not have been made had the choices been different. Finally, that would lead me back to dreaming of what tomorrow may be.
In no time at all I'd be filled up with love to overflowing. Fixed and as good as new for the next thousand miles, not to say that we don't have vast differences in opinions, or that I didn't take completely opposite paths than they would have if they could have chosen for me, but there's something so rare and precious about just going home and being unconditionally supported by your parents. Even when you feel like a complete failure, even when you're supposed to be all grown up....it is a feeling I will always carry with me and always treasure.
Hoping this colouring book painting is a gift that they will enjoy during all their tomorrows no matter where life takes them. Hoping I will have them to continue to support me for many years yet and that I am adequate at supporting them too. I also hope they know that when I think back to my childhood, this is what I see, a picture perfect storybook life, a beautiful home overflowing with creativity and love, a secure and safe haven, that's what they and this place will always be to me.
18 x 12
watercolour
Saturday, January 17, 2015
30 in 30....day 17
I worked on a quick little image today in an effort to squeeze a piece of art in. I used A LOT of acrylic gel gloss medium and mostly a palette knife after first laying down a background. My lesson today is don't overwork things...I took it a bit too far and lost some crispness and clarity in the process. I also think I'd like to take a palette knife course at some point in my existence, will have to see what's available nearby.
The photo, I've used before. A snapshot from our garden, I love the bright, crazy coloured, sturdy zinnias almost best of all...as well as poppies, delphiniums and of course sunflowers...mostly anything bright and gaudy I suppose! (Maybe synonymous with me?!)
The summer flowers are a huge contrast to the very bone-chilling, blustery day we're experiencing here, very grey and sombre. The mood is festive inside though as my oldest son turns 11 today and he has spent the last 5 hours with a handful of friends running around, traipsing in and out of the house and having an all around great and loud time! Thus the reason for the very quick, very small art project today.
The photo, I've used before. A snapshot from our garden, I love the bright, crazy coloured, sturdy zinnias almost best of all...as well as poppies, delphiniums and of course sunflowers...mostly anything bright and gaudy I suppose! (Maybe synonymous with me?!)
The summer flowers are a huge contrast to the very bone-chilling, blustery day we're experiencing here, very grey and sombre. The mood is festive inside though as my oldest son turns 11 today and he has spent the last 5 hours with a handful of friends running around, traipsing in and out of the house and having an all around great and loud time! Thus the reason for the very quick, very small art project today.
6 x 8
acrylic on canvas board
Monday, January 5, 2015
30 in 30....day 5
My painting from today is one I've been working on for a while and I will no doubt tweak a bit more before completion.
This is a commission that is long overdue, my clients have been more than patient with me and I hope they really enjoy the painting when they finally get it! The painting is quite large which is my favourite way to paint...love flowers, full colour and lots of splash, this was requested after seeing a similar sized painting of hollyhocks which I painted. The clients love blue lupines and so here they are!
Might put a bit more highlights and lowlights in but otherwise it's almost there!
This is a commission that is long overdue, my clients have been more than patient with me and I hope they really enjoy the painting when they finally get it! The painting is quite large which is my favourite way to paint...love flowers, full colour and lots of splash, this was requested after seeing a similar sized painting of hollyhocks which I painted. The clients love blue lupines and so here they are!
Might put a bit more highlights and lowlights in but otherwise it's almost there!
16 x 48
acrylic on gallery style canvas
SOLD
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Check out the Gallery page!...
There's a few more to add and I have a show coming up so will have a couple more soon. That happens in October at Café 349 in Shawville.
In the meantime here's a few images of paintings which are already sold that never got posted!
Wanting paintings for Christmas? Order soon! ;) Jen
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| "Spring Bouquet" |
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| "Bullwinkle" |
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| "Valley View" |
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| "Sorority Sisters" |
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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!
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| Changing Seasons |
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Exhibiting soon...
Just putting the final touches on a few last pieces before my next show.
I am exhibiting at Cafe 349 in Shawville starting November 7th. There will be a vernissage on Sunday, November 13th from 1-4 pm...if you're in the area drop in to say hi, I'd be delighted to see you!
Although I would have liked to be ambitious enough to have all new works to display for this; my first solo show outside of the studio, I will have to fill in with some that some of you may have already seen. There will be be well over a dozen pieces that are new though... Hopefully enough to pique your curiosity!
As for a statement about my exhibit...it will go something like this:
I paint what I know. I know beauty in the world all around. In flowers, trees, landscape and sky...the vast open space that is my home and the creatures that inhabit it. The way the light plays on the leaves, the land and the buildings all around, I have not seen much of this great world yet but what I've seen is pretty awe inspiring.
In cows I see old, gentle souls. They could not survive without the help of man and they seem to know it. Together we are partners. Anyone who has ever worked with them and paid attention can feel the trust and the contentment they have with the arrangement. Likewise, when we do something out of routine those girls become scared. We need to reassure, calm and care for them...not so different from people after all! People say my cows have expressions and feelings, I say they're right, because they do.
...I dunno, I suppose a little too out there for some...but I guess I didn't get the reputation for being a bit of an artistic type by thinking like everyone else...can't change how I feel!
I am exhibiting at Cafe 349 in Shawville starting November 7th. There will be a vernissage on Sunday, November 13th from 1-4 pm...if you're in the area drop in to say hi, I'd be delighted to see you!
Although I would have liked to be ambitious enough to have all new works to display for this; my first solo show outside of the studio, I will have to fill in with some that some of you may have already seen. There will be be well over a dozen pieces that are new though... Hopefully enough to pique your curiosity!
As for a statement about my exhibit...it will go something like this:
I paint what I know. I know beauty in the world all around. In flowers, trees, landscape and sky...the vast open space that is my home and the creatures that inhabit it. The way the light plays on the leaves, the land and the buildings all around, I have not seen much of this great world yet but what I've seen is pretty awe inspiring.
In cows I see old, gentle souls. They could not survive without the help of man and they seem to know it. Together we are partners. Anyone who has ever worked with them and paid attention can feel the trust and the contentment they have with the arrangement. Likewise, when we do something out of routine those girls become scared. We need to reassure, calm and care for them...not so different from people after all! People say my cows have expressions and feelings, I say they're right, because they do.
...I dunno, I suppose a little too out there for some...but I guess I didn't get the reputation for being a bit of an artistic type by thinking like everyone else...can't change how I feel!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Just a couple of newer paintings...
A painting I donated to help raise funds for a New Women's Housing Project in Ottawa.
A girl with an attitude?...I think she looks kinda teenagery?!?!
This one is entitiled: "Little Lady" and is presently on display at Cafe 349.
This too...although I cannot remember what I named it just now!
Tulips
My tulips brightening up an early spring day!
Hi y'all...just a few pics of some completed paintings I've done over the last while. Some slightly over exposed...still trying to figure out the new camera.
...Now back to the easel for me. I'll transfer the images to the art page and dream up names and list prices just as soon as I can breathe again!
Take Care...Jen
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