Viridian Earth Contracts Ltd
3852 Gordon Avenue V8A 2T5 Powell River, BC, Canada

Artique Artists' Cooperative art gallery is open again. We've had a whole week at practicing the sanitizing procedure and keeping physical distance from customers. So, come on in and have a look around...we may have just the thing you are looking for! Located next door to Ecossentials on Alberni Street, Wednesday through Saturday 11 am to 4 pm.

"Living on the Edge" 12 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas. Back in the winter, we had a tremendously stormy day out here on the coast, and the waves were wild. They weren't particularly large, but they crested and crashed, and if it wasn't for the wind making my eyes blurry, I would have stood watching for hours. This is a compilation of different scenes, put together to create an intertidal zone reminiscent of the west coast of British Columbia. Definitely click on the picture to open it up, as it is a long and skinny painting.

Artique is currently closed to regular traffic, and so one of our artists has taken photographs of each artist's work and posted them to the Artique Facebook Page. Here is the section about my work. Even though the gallery is closed, I continue to paint and my art is available for sale. If you are interested in asking anything about my art, or perhaps interested in purchasing any of it, please PM me and I will respond. And, just so you know, although about six pieces are shown here, I have about 30 more and add a new piece monthly. Thank you :)

"Heading Home" is 28" x 22" acrylic on canvas. It is my latest painting and is currently in the window at Artique Artists Cooperative in Powell River.

It is important for artists to inspire other artists. While painting, I listen to podcasts and one of the channels I enjoy is Chase Jarvis's interviews with creatives. Today, as the snow has been falling on our beautiful landscape, I have listened to an interview with Chris Burkard. Just like Chase, Chris is a photographer and he has pushed himself to experience the wild places hardly any of us will, or are willing to, go. This interview is not about ego, it is about understanding passion and making that work so that it is possible to live, eat, breathe while following that drive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpdV3raeTfE

I am so excited! I have found a good youtube channel to share. Swarez Art. This is all to do with the art business, so keep that in mind. I like the straight-forward answers to questions, and I like the meandering walk through the gallery. I like being able to see the prices this artist has on his work, and to see behind the scenes on where he creates. I have the next video cued up, so will watch that next. What this all does is increase my interest in reaching out beyond Powell River, creating a better website than my current one, upon which to host my art, and to see what happens. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvPk9ySU3xw

Some years ago, I took a photo while in Vancouver. It was a reflected image on a glass building. I framed it and hung it in my bathroom for years, and recently it was slated for the garage sale. It didn't sell. Instead, I decided to paint it. So, the first image is mostly accurate. The mirror image screws with lines and makes an otherwise solid set of buildings look fluid. Then, I added raindrops. Hope you like it! Acrylic on Evolon paper. :)

These two pen sketches of scenes around the Broughton Archipelago are being added to my display at Artique Artists' Cooperative today. They are a little different for me. Travelling with sketchbook and pens is easier than a whole box full of acrylic paints. Both are around 12" x 8" in clip frames, $75 each.

My stepson works in the BC Wildfire Service. Last year he took a photograph of a colleague, and showing me the photo he suggested I try painting it. So, I did, using acrylic and a 20" x 20" canvas. It is called Wildfire Worker.

One of the artists I have been following online is Andrew Tischler. He was recently interviewed on a podcast Your Creative Push. I listened to this hour-long recording as I baked a cake and finished my painting (Calm Day in Desolation, in the post below). It truly was inspiring to listen to this young man who has really been an artist all his life, his goals, and his philosophy. Here it is for you to see how it might move you to be more creative: http://yourcreativepush.com//interview-with-andrew-tischl/

When I started this Facebook business page, I wondered how to capture imagination through editing. Well, this is the first post in about six months, so that tack doesn't work. What does work, when looking through the other posts on this page, is to upload my paintings. That's where my passion bubbles to the surface and recently, now five years into my artist's journey, I have been taking longer to create. In a while I will post more of my recent paintings, but this one attach...ed is painted entirely using palette knives. Almost every other painting I have done has been created using brushes. With the knives, I have also added more gel medium, which allows the paint to be sticky and textured on the canvas. It is also possible to see the knife strokes, something I try to avoid in my art using brushes. So, here is Calm Day in Desolation, acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20", and it will be at Artique Artists Cooperative gallery once dried. I hope you like it :) See more

To all the creative souls out there, perhaps tormented by the "need" to create something "perfect," take a look at this 19-minute Ted Talk featuring Elizabeth G...ilbert. She is the author of Eat, Pray, Love. She speaks of the fear of writing a follow-up novel, of being always spoken of as being past her best, and that anything from now on will always be measured by her runaway success. See more