For the love of painting

No matter what I am going through or how I am feeling, for the most part, I can paint. It is such good therapy for me. I lose myself in it and it doesn't matter too much if it turns out all that great as long as I am messing about with my paints.

I organized my art room but after a few days of messing about in there it is getting a little creatively wild but that is ok because I can close the door.

Painting in this posting:

Title: "Time in the Garden"

On Oval canvas

Medium: Original Acrylic

Price: $45.00

This painting is Copyrighted

Early Rising

Lately I have been rising very early. During the spring, summer and early fall it was 5 AM and I thought, oh my that was too early. Then the time change came and my body didn't change with it, so, I was not able to sleep past 4 AM. For a few nights it was 3 AM that my inner alarm clock went off. Now it is consistently 2 AM, so I have taken to crawling between the sheets around 7 PM in order to compensate.

I have been trying to use the time wisely at this early hour to pray, meditate, catch up on emails, do laundry, paint or write etc...etc... and sometimes all at the same time. Actually, there are a great many benefits to being up 6 hours before my husband.

One morning, however, I was a little annoyed as I lay there wondering if I could try to snatch a few more ZZZZZZZZZZ's or if I should just let my feet hit the floor and grope for those sleepers. Oh well, I finally decided I might as well get up. Eventually seated on the couch I turned on the computer and opened up my email. There was one of Robert Genn's bi-weekly news articles entitled, "In Praise of Early Rising." Well, I guess I have a condition but I am in good company because there are many greats that had/have it too, including "Picasso." It is nice to know that I am not alone and so I will just embrace it for now (even if it is just for awhile.) I really do get a lot more done getting up early then if I stayed up late.

Paintings in this Post:

Title: "Knit Together in My Mother's Womb"

Medium: Original Acrylic

Size: 24" X 30"

Price: $540.00

Title: "We Must Fly"

Medium: Original Acrylic

Size: 24" X 30"

Price: $600.00

This paintings are copyrighted

Country Garden

Medium: Original Acrylic

Size: 12X12 on 2" profile canvas
Price: 190.00

Sally

I just love little girls. This is no one in particular. I just thought she looked like a "Sally" to me. I have 2 girls of my own. Even though they are in their 20's they are still my girls and I have found memories of their childhood when I could dress them in cute little pink dresses.
However, I want to do more people and portraits in particular. I have always been fascinated by people and faces. My friends used to get annoyed with me when I would stare at them or look intently at their mouth while they were talking to me. You can tell so much about a person by their face. You can capture their personality or mood in a portrait. One of my goals is to do just that. Capturing who someone is in a portrait or caricature. That sounds like fun to me because I really do enjoy the uniqueness of each individual.

Medium: Original Acrylic
Size: 6" X 61/2"
With little stand.
Price: $50.00 Sold

Some from the "Life of Jesus" Series

It is this time of year when especially think about the baby that was born in a stable where the cattle were kept. What a Precious Gift that was and still is for the world.

As the story goes Mary was a prostitute and she was so moved by Jesus compassion that she washed His feet with her tears and dried them with her hair then anointed them with expensive perfume. " Kissed by Redemption" depicteds how Jesus feels about each one of us. He loves us enough to not only kiss us with His presence but die for us and thus redeme us from a life of eternal hell.

Medium: Original Pencil Drawings Matted and Framed

Price: Originals "Kissed by Redemption" 1,000.00

"Precious Gift" 1,000.00

Matted Prints: 50.00

These Drawings and Prints are copyrighted

"HARVEST" for Love of the Prairies

I think I have been painting the prairies for years in my mind as I drive along them. I have fallen in love with the beauty of the fields and the ever changing huge skies. We are blessed to have the Rocky Mountains only a couple hours away and so we can see them on the distant horizon. It makes such a lovely view with the prairie fields and the ever changing seasons in the forefront framed by the horizon of majestic peaks of laden snow. I love it and am finally transferring that love onto canvas.

"Harvest" was painted completely from memory. Like I said I have been painting the prairies in my mind for years.

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 24" X 36" on 2" Profile stretched canvas

Price: $960.00 reduced now to $650.00

This painting is copyrighted

Garden Memories

I have been painting a lot of flowers lately with much texture. It just happened one day when I was experimenting with Acrylic paints. I did the background in flat paint by dabbing it with a folded paper towel which is an impressionistic technique. Then I put some gel media or slow-dri medium in my paint. It just wasn't looking right so I keep painting over and over until I got it the way that I liked which made it very textured. Now I have a technique that I been repeating and have gotten some really good responses.

I was pondering why I like to paint flowers so much. As a teen we moved to the beautiful Okanogan Valley from the prairies. I fell in love with the flowers and blossoms that seemed to flourish there. After I got married we moved to the West coast near the Pacific Ocean and I enjoyed even more lush beauty and lovely flowers that seemed to begin blooming near the end of February and last on into the late fall.

When our children were still very young we moved back to the prairies to Alberta. For years I missed the flowers and beauty of British Columbia even though I have fallen in love with the prairies with rocky mountains on the horizon. However, my love for those delicate blooms is still reflected in much of my art as you can see with "Garden Memories."

Country Christmas Art Show at Perrenoud Ranche Art Centre

We had a lot of fun displaying our art at the beautiful Perrenoud Art Centre.
We used every space and between the 2 of us we had a very full show. My husband Dave played live music from his CD "Breaking Free." It was really great to make some new friends as people came in to veiw our creation