Art Solutions

I finished off with this lovely Hellebore canvas . These were found in my front garden.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine - painting I recreated through the second wave of the Pandemic

The very last of the 20 paintings in my Tribute Project to honor the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson's 100th Anniversary. It is by Fred Varley and is his iconic image Stormy Weather Georgian Bay, painted in 1920. I think it is a great image to reflect how we all are surviving, staying strong and resilient as we go through this Pandemic. It has been a long 5 months for me to copy these 20 paintings and now I have to find a way so others can see this collection, not only to... celebrate these amazing men who left their amazing legacy of paintings but also to celebrate our own journeys during this pandemic. Enjoy Stay safe Stay strong

These painting was by Fitzgerald who was the 3rd artist to join the Group in 1932, just a year before the Group changed it's name to The Canadian Group of Artists in 1933. Title is Dr Synder's House Winnipeg painted in 1939.

It is the 100th Anniversary of the Group of 7 and T Thomsons when they had their first art show in Toronto in 1919. When I first heard of it back in January I decided I wanted to pay tribute to them by copying 20 of their paintings. I started slowly and before long I was in self isolation because of this COVID 19 virus. It has become my saving grace as I move forward painting some of my favorite paintings as well as some I have not seen before. Ive copied one painting of 6 of the artists so far and will be starting on my 7th one hopefully tomorrow. Which one will it be, I am not sure , but stay tuned to find out.

While out for a walk about 2 months ago I saw these amazing blossoms . I took lots of photos and was inspired to start my new project. Again you will see the influence of David Milne. Whole project from start to finish took 13.5 hours.

My grandson, Cody stayed with me for 2 days this week and during that time he made and painted a bird house, with a little frustratd help from Granny and completed his Astronaut painting he started in the summer. So much fun! FYI the bluge in his cheek is not a sore tooth but his bubble gum. Ooops dont tell his Mom.

Came across these letter canvases in the summer and thought they be a fun gift for my grand kids for Christmas. C for Cody painted with some of his favorite cartoon characters and K for Kayla with some of her fav characters. They were fun to do and I think were liked by the kids.

It took 5 weeks, hard work, creative ideas and finally the town became a reality, if only for a day ! Over 75 people came to view the show and all were amazed. The visitors also had the difficult task of choosing their favorite house and business. Finally though 3 in each category were chosen. Congratulations to the 6 winners and yet every child who participated created a winner. It became more than an art project as we discussed what makes for a good neighborhood / community. I asked them all if they would like to live in a small town like Cedarville and most said they would.

This my attempt of making a papier mache of my first home while living in a small town many years ago. In a weeks time I will showcase 25 or more that my young students made as they created their own small town, Cedarville

Who would have thought this baseball player would love to sew. He plays the computer game called Mindcraft and one of the characters is called Steve. So he wanted a stuffie created to look like Steve. So Granny - thats me - spent hours drawing Steve, then making a pattern, then buying the materials, then cutting out the pieces and finally Cody got to help sew. In all I think it took us 12 hours. The best out come is that Cody takes him every where and we even had to mak...e a bag he could put him in to protect him. In Photo #3 he is sitting in front of a boat in a bottle we had to do after he saw a craft show on TV make one. We of course made a better one! The paintng in the back ground he also did. I should mention I also taught him how to blow bubbles , see photo #2. Not sure his parents will be happy about that! But I always say it has been proven that chewing gum stimulates the brain and helps one to focus. All in all it was a very productive week!!

Over the summer I host/ teach a variety of workshops. I keep the enrollment small so each person gets lot of attention. They all have a specific theme i.e painting white, or water or yellow etc. They are designed so the students improve their painting skills and knowledge. All come away exhausted but exhilerated by what they have achieved. Even the little ones, who as most of you know are Cody and Kayla, had a good time when I had them out in the garden painting. This year we had the perfect summer for it!

I decided to hang some of my latest efforts on my own walls in my home. Some tmes I look at them and wonder, " how did I do that?"

Cody and Kayla had a painting day out side last weekend. Cody now 6.5 yr, painted the apple tree and fence and Kayla now 3.5 yr. painted some pink flowers with a red apple. While Mom looked on. Lots of fun!

Two young girls with a passion to paint came to me every day for 5 days for 1.5 hours and created these very memorable paintings. Amazing!

Thought it would be interesting to see what my latest paintings look like hanging on a wall and in this case they are my walls but they could be yours! Enjoy!

Saw these lovely dropping flowers in the back garden and wanted to take photos of them. But as they were so low to the ground , I simply aimed my camera up under them and kept snapping photos hoping something would come of it. Well as luck would have it I got lots of usable photos, of which the following was one. I had a large canvas 36 x 40 that was begging for an interesting painting and so went at it , first with an under painting and then #2 is the final painting. Enjoy!

Theses are examples of what I had my students create over Easter this year. They are real eggs, insides blown out by me. I then have the students paint them and decorate using glitter and sequins to replicate the eggs that were commissioned by the Russian Tsars to give to their wives and mothers at Easter. Fifty were created over many years, now only 43 are still in existence. Unlike the Fabrege eggs are eggs do not open. Inside them was a surprise i.e. a miniature clock, or watch or castle or carriage etc. and as well they were made with gold and real diamonds and emeralds etc. Happy Easter everyone

I recently had an epiphany that all the paintings Ive done of white flowers sell rather quickly. Hmm I thought perhaps I should specialize in white flowers. I do love to paint white, exploring all the colours and tonal values. I started on my new adventure by taking some rather nice photos of white tulips. I wanted to explore how starting the paintings using different under paintings and then using different back ground colours how it all would affect the out come. I tho...ught it prudent to start with 3 smaller canvases ( 16 x 20) to explore these possibilities. I prepped all 3 with Cadmium Orange. Then 2 of them I covered with dark Purple.. No. 1 the one with only Orange, I proceded to paint the opposite colours as an under painting to establish the flowers and leaves.. No. 2 the result of painting over No. 1 as I proceded to paint what I saw , finishing with an off white back ground.. No. 3 Then on to one with the dark Purple, I also did a reversal of colours and then painted what I saw and finished with an off white back ground. But wanting to move onto a larger canvases i.e. 30 x 40 , I prepped them both with Cadmium Orange then covered them both with deep Purple . No. 4 I painted directly over the dark Purple ( no under painting) then painted the back ground an off white.. No.5 I painted directly over the dark Purple ( no under painting) then painted the back ground using Dark Purple and Hookers Green . It might be hard to discern between the images and the different approaches but I like both No. 4 and 5. I liked the idea of applying lots of paint to cover the Deep Purple and then seeing how a dark back ground vs an off white back ground affected the over colours. Enjoy!

I decided back in February when it was snowing to bring some early spring to the school. Plus I wanted to reinforce with the students the ideas of composition and the thought process needed. So we started with everyone drawing the same basic Daffodils, learning that not all flowers need to face forward. Then I showed them how to draw tulips and left it up to each how and where to place them, talking about how their pictures needed balance. Some even added a butterfly. The...n on to colouring. Again each could choose their own colour scheme. Then it was time to discuss back ground colour and again each could choose their own or leave it white. The following are a small sample of what they all did. I now have 33 lovely paintings to grace my art student gallery walls. See more

A few new Paintings - Pears and Sunflower reminding us of warm summer days and one showing the first home I owned in when I lived in the country side in Ontario - makes a nice snowy scene. The other photos reminds us of that #^%$@ feeling as we look at all the gifts and the wrapping paper and bows and then the following 2 that reminds us of the great feeling of relief when all the wrapping is completed. Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

This is one of many new paintings I will be showcasing in my Annual Art Show and Sale this year. Date Sunday Nov 6th Time 11:00 - 3:00.. My place 5649 Blenheim St. Hope you all can come and join me in celebrating my many years as an artist and perhaps take home one of my joyful creations.

This summer our one little old pear tree in the back yard had a bumper crop of pears and so I took advantage of this to take some new photos to work from. This latest image is one of them. I painted on a 36 x 36 canvas and took photos of the 3 stages to completion. It started out being quite a challenge but soon it became something I really looked forward to each day. It became quite joyful to paint. Enjoy!

Over the last two weeks there was some magic happening in the studio and some for outside. Cody age 5 recaptured a Lawren Harris painting, created a paper mache Pokemon - Peek a chou ( sp?) and painted 2 Fairy houses one for his backyard and one for where I live. Hayley and Helveg age 10 and 12 also recreated on large canvases 2 paintings each from old masters. Who says summer is a time for rest, obviously it is a time for creativity and fun.

These little wooden boxes were created by 3 of my older students. They painted their wooden boxes inside and out, drew on paper and painted with acrylics their cartoon characters, cut them out and glued them on top of their boxes ( they had to cut their images to fit over the lids and down the sides) and then one added bubbles and another sea weed. Took them 2.5 weeks to complete.