Ettie , 8×10, Encaustic collage
This piece is inspired by the black and white photos of convicts taken by Australian police in the 1920s. They are not your typical mugshots. Each face tells a story and Ettie Sultana’s is one that seems to me to be more of a book.
This piece is 8×10 in. and the medium is encaustic collage….hot molten wax and papers in other words. It is my attempt to tell one chapter. I think there might be more. I love her face.
Sunny waves for Canada
The daily news is making me wonder about those Sunny Ways that our perpetually perky prime minister is promising for this country. Looking out the window with forecasts of more grey skies and storms is also less than uplifting. But hey, although the political climate may or may not improve, we know that winter will turn to spring and spring to summer and sunny waves will come again to the lake.
That’s why I painted this. Takin’ a trip without even leavin’ home. I’m listening to Huey Lewis (always a pick me up), turning up the thermostat and planning another summer trip on canvas.
If you are interested in purchasing this small 8×8 in. oil on canvas, this will be among others for sale at the Open Studio this spring. I’ll be posting dates once they have been decided.
So, I’m still putting ‘miles on the paintbrush’ and cabin fever took me out on a rare sunny day recently to look for signs of spring. The wind was strong and bitter so I grabbed this quick photo and retreated back to the warmth of the studio to interpret and paint.
The title could be ‘The March of the Saugeen’. I don’t think ‘flow’ when I see this river but rather a relentless presence that has at times carried me, dumped me, flooded me out, fed me and always reminded me to ‘march on’.
24in x 36 in, oil on canvas pear
So, I’m told a ‘change is as good as a rest’, and this is definitely a change from painting small. The canvas is 24in x 36in (don’t know what that is in metric offhand) but it makes a great space filler in my kitchen. I painted it quickly and altho’ the photo has intensified the blues (my camera seems to do this a lot), I like it.
I will make the small adjustments before I put it up for sale at the studio tour this summer but in the meantime, it is a great ‘decorator’ piece and I am going to enjoy it. I have a true affinity for pears; eating them and painting them. The colours on this little specimen were so luscious that I had to paint it quickly before I devoured it. Mmmmm…mmmm..tasted as good as it looked.
