Child's Desk Table

Another piece from the "Peaceable Kingdom" series. Not my ideas but adapted to this little desk table.

Santa Newell Post

One Santa that doesn't show anything about the true meaning of Christmas.

Not that easy to paint with a new baby. I know, try and figure that one out. I guess that's what Christmas is about! "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life." Heard that at a performance of "The Messiah" on Tuesday evening-beautiful!

Stargazer Lilies

This painting has been hanging in the family room for months and I decided it needed some fine tuning. Sometimes it's more fun to rework something than to create new! Can still smell those lilies which remind me of the artistic atmosphere of the basement room at DVSA last winter.

Rudbeckia one of three

Bright and cheery-exactly how I feel this morning! lol. The flowwers that remind us of the heat of the summer's sun. Enjoy! The third in the set.

Thank you, all you who showed an interest in the Saturday Open Studio. It's amazing when others show an enough interest in your art to purchase a piece or just to come out and look. Thank you!

Echinacea-Three

Bright and cheerful, these beautiful flowers tempt us in many ways. We love to pick them for bouquets, paint them, or take them in a different form for some of our many ailments. Happy Sunday! Praise God!

single Echinacea

This is the first of a set of three coneflowers and or echinacea.

Santa Spindle Manger Scene

Another spindle! This one is painted with a manger scene to show the real reason for the season! This one is reminiscent of the Dutch "Sinterklaas".

Rope Bed Spindle

This is a really old spindle from the bottom of the support for a rope bed. Found this piece in the barn when we were looking for more spindles to paint. Since it didn't have any of the interesting turnings of the top part, it was discarded in a corner of the haymow. The ridges from the hand turning are still visible and there are two holes where the sides of the bed were screwed into the wood spindle. No metal parts on these beds. The cows coming out of the barn are an idea from a "Lang" Christmas card.

This is one for the dairy farmers out there!

The Ark Series #1

These are two spindles of an original set of five, Noah and his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth. People liked to buy them individually so the set was broken up. The animals on the bottom represent the denizens in the ark. There is also a little desk table to match.

Two Spindle Santas

These two were spindles from a staircase or porch in their first life. The one with the barn was sold on Saturday and is very old. Nice turnings on the one on the left.

Santa with barn scene

This is just the best shape for a Santa. The top of the bedpost from a cannonball bed. This one sold yesterday to a lady who likes to get one every year. This gives new meaning to not leaving "your chewing gum on the bedpost overnight" Have a good Sunday.

Santa Bedpost with Carollers

This post is the bottom of a very old bedpost-the piece that sits on the floor(imagine the santa upside down). Reuse, recycle!

Tall Newelpost Santa with Chapel Scene

Today, I thought to show a sample of my annual Santa spindle paint-a-thon. One really comes to appreciate the beautiful turnings on wooden spindles. table legs and bedposts. This one started it's life as a newelpost. The bottom is painted with a chapel scene and the top a tree with a cardinal. Lot's of fun to try for different Santa expressions!

Pink Crabapple

A sketch done from a photograph in preparation for a larger painting.

Old Cedar jn the Grove

Wanted to try to do a diptych. The cedar painting, still unfinished, lent itself to that, according to the instructor. It was an interesting exercise to get the two to match and yet let each have it's own compositon etc. This is a huge cedar in a grove of old trees. The light there was surreal. The tree had a glow to it even though the day was dark and cloudy.

It reminded me of the old furnaces people used to have with all the pipes jutting out hither and thither-extremely massive and like an octopus.

ConeFlower-sign

The other side of the large sign.

Single Poppy, Large sign

This is the large sign, made for my Saturday Open House.(Just the one side) The sign is about 4 1/2 feet in height. It's fun to go that large on that smooth a surface. Acrylic paint has been really forgiving for me outside. Some of my sketches on plywood have hung on the inside pool fence for several years,suffering the abuse of sun,rain, snow and chlorine water spashing from the pool. We can see them from the kitchen window-like an outdoor gallery-and ponder about where they were painted and what time of year. They've stood up well!

The Evening Garden-August

The summer garden is just a memory. Ahhh, but did we appreciate all that beauty enough? This is what's makes one want to paint. The sun was setting and leaving it's light on the corner of the garden. Sweet Memories! Soli Deo Gloria! Enjoy your Sunday!

Sandwich board- Hydrangeas

The other side of the one sign which is at the road today. There have been a few visitors which has been great! There is still lots left for any interested people! My best patron left with a number of paintings which always leaves me with a bit of separation anxiety!(just kidding) Have a great weekend! God Bless.

Studio Sign-small sandwich board

One side of the sandwich board for the sign which is going along the road on Saturday.

Floral Line-up

An array of floral art ready for the discerning customer. Why buy a poster when you can have the real thing! Artists need to make room for more art if not to pay for supplies and other costs! For the love of painting!

I am so thankful to have the opportunity to pursue this craft at this time of life. There is no end to the possibilties and stuff to learn! It could become obsessive-let me know.

Three Wise Men

Painting spindles for a Christmas Open Studio. Will be open for the Saturday's before Christmas. Come and visit!

Hydrangea Greens

This is rhe last of the season(famous last words) Trying to match one for my daughter-in-law, to a peony painting done last spring.

We have no painting class today because of rain. This will be the last one of 2010. It's always a great thing to look forward to.

Anemones

This little painting was done before the big anemone canvas. Had a lot of fun with these. They are so delicate looking but appear at a tough time of year. Frost can affect them any night and theykeep displaying their glory till then.

Fall Hydrangea-Blue

There is a wealth of colour in the end of season hydrangea plants. Leaves and blossoms are giving a final gasp of beauty before the winter. It is well worth the effort to look at what's left of the shrubs and perennials-especially the grasses and admire the lovely shapes and colours that appear in this season. The landscape is not dull-still vibrant and there for us to enjoy!

Fall Hydrangea

The fall hydrangea leaves are a thing of beauty. The colours of the almost spent blossoms are hard to catch.

Minter Gardens Anemones

This is a largish painting done from a photograph of anemones taken on a trip to B.C. this fall. They are such a beautiful flower.catching our eye in the garden because of their late fall glory!

Fletcher Creek Conservation Area

Does this give the impression of wind and cold? Took the painting and worked on it last night. It had blown off the easel twice and got paint smeared all over it and everything else! The water in the pond had the blueness and clearness of the Caribbean. A fellow artist had her pastel picture end up with half of the it on her coat. Not quite what we were there for but maybe added to the ambience?

Art show and sale

Art show held at a home in Elora. It was fun but not much traffic.

Painted outside this afternoon. It was terribly windy and cold. My fingers were freezing. Hard to be inspired, whatever that is?

Will post the result when I am happier with it. It's pretty demoralizing when it's so cold and windy you just can't seem to do anything right.

Rock Wall #2

Here is the rock wall again, reworked. The colours on the computer aren't too great but the tree on the left has been removed and now we can see another part of the wall. Try to imagine the hands that collected these boulders-some of them huge. There must have been a good reason to separate the one field from the other even though this wall wouldn't have held any animals from straying. Now it is hidden amidst great old cedars, with the fresh new green from the younger trees hugging the wall and eventually will move it again!

Limestone Rock Wall

We've painted at this location a number of times and this old stone wall has often beckoned but because of the bugs or the light I left it for another time. Tuesday needed to be out of the wind and there were no bugs so tried to tackle this subject. The viewpoint from which I was painting was up a little higher so it looked down on the wall. Found it quite a challenge and it was Brrrrr! cold. Catherine the instructor suggested to remove the greenery on the left-will try that and show you the result.

Cedar

This painting was started last Tuesday before the heavy rainfall. The woods were gloomy and cold although I was protected from the wind. Still need to do some work in the upper areas of the painting. There did still seem to be a glow about the trees in this cedar grove!

Last Dhalias

Have a show tomorrow and have had little time to take pictures of some of the work. Will post some of the display tomorrow.

Late Fall Bulrushes

A close up of the exploding bulrushes which were definitely challenging me to get the right colour and impression. It felt like you would just have to blow on them and the seeds would disperse all over.

Cattails

T'was a beautiful day to be outside painting. Really enjoyed the experience even though this painting had some frustrating moments. The saying "time flies when you're having fun" was really true this afternoon.

Flowering Crab

I love working from the real thing, especially outside but at this time of year a photograph gives the time and opportunity to examine the subject carefully.

White Anenomes

These beauties graced our garden with their loveliness this fall. Late bloomers, they give you that needed punch when everything else is done. Too bad I have trouble spelling anenome and too bad the frost has finally finished them. Have a wonderful weekend and God Bless!

Distant Bush Paddy Green Road

This was my first painting on Tuesday afternoon. My hands got very cold even though the sun was shining. Pretty hard to stick with it. There was plenty of raw material for painting-lovely old maples and distant hills.

Before the Frost Hydrangeas

I worked from a photograph to paint these hydrangea heads. There are so many different tones of colour in the leaves and blossoms at this time of year.

Fall Hydrangeas

I took some pictures of the hydrangeas in late fall and the combined colour of the leaves and flowers are pretty wonderful! Just had to try and paint my impression in the comfort of my kitchen. No worry about cold fingers!

Sun through the trees in the fall

I made some changes to this maple painting to get the effect of the sun shining through the trees. I think it's better but wonder whether it would work as two paintings.

Red and Pink Roses in a vase

I started this painting when the roses were just finished blooming. Played around with it to try to make an interesting painting since the roses have long gone.

Crabapple

Here is some colour for an otherwise blah day! Crabapples in detail!

Sun through the trees

Worked at Christie Conservation Area yesterday while there was a highschool crosscountry run going on around me. Kept me from feeling lonely. Workked on it again last night. Will post the revised edition later. This maple had all it's limbs reaching toward the East, and some leaf left along the bottom. The Fall colours are wonderful!

White Pine -Christie Conservation Area

Went out painting this afternoon and finished just before the rain started. White pines can develop so much visual character when they age. This one is a very good example of that kind of tree. There is still some work to do on this little painting.

Path to the water

Last Wednesday it was very windy and this spot gave some protection but still had a view of the water. Had a struggle with the path that went down to the water to get it to go down! Will have to tackle many more on this theme.

Middletown Road Corn

This was a quick study and close up of the tangled corn and resident grasses done in an hour of speedy brushstrokes.