It's All Part of the Journey

I am very happy to announce that I have a one woman show in North Grenville! As many already know, I lived and worked in Kemptville for 15 years and during this time made many friends and colleagues. In my previous post I spoke about the residency at Geraldine's Gallery, 1505 Hwy 43 in Kemptville, Ontario. Early in August, I enjoyed the experience of focusing on watercolour on the grounds of the heritage home this gallery owner Geraldine Taylor, artist, community activist owns.

Now I present works from my collection of the past 5 years called: It's All Part of the Journey, from August 20 to October 10. There are 18 works in the  encaustic medium I am so fond of. Come drop by, and browse in the large room to experience to rich textural display they offer.

I hope to see you there!

Summer Solace, Encaustic on Wood Panel           $400.

Artist's Residency at Geraldine's Gallery, Kemptville, On

Last week I drove down the 416 from my home in Aylmer, QC with all the equipment for watercolour and encaustics, fully prepared for a week of painting!

Nestled in the growing hub of Kemptville is a little oasis called Geraldine's Gallery in the midst of all the housing and commercial development. It is an art gallery with a remarkable collection of regional and Canadian artists, many of national acclaim. Geraldine Taylor also is a successful curator, gallery owner, real estate agent and community activist well known in eastern Ontario.

She also devotes part of her gallery to an Artist's Residency so that artists may take an extended time to work and be inspired by the art you see everywhere as you spend a week or a month.

I painted plein-air on the large heritage estate finding tiny delightful vignettes and enjoying the view for an hour or so.

October 14, 21, and 28 I am planning plain-air Saturdays during the breathtaking fall season this year. If you would like to join me or get further details, contact me at headwaterfarms@gmail.com

Learning the Basics of Watercolour

I was invited to teach, as I mentioned in previous posts, at Portage du Fort at the Pontiac School of the Arts at the Stone School Gallery in the heart of a picturesque village north of the Gatineau, Quebec. The facility offered large windows in our classroom and a big space to use our watercolour media.
We had 7 participants with varying levels of backgrounds but all enthusiastic about leaning a new medium.
The school co-ordinator for the Pontiac School of the Arts, France Lamarche offered the setup and support throughout the course as we journeyed through each of the experiments I had prepared. It was a 2-day workshop and on the second day we had developed our skills to try out a composition of our own making with some guidance. Here is the group seriously focused on their paintings on the second day. From left to right:

France Lamarche, Louis Morisette, Jim Hancock, Linda Girard, Nicole Lavigne, Ryan Lamotte and Deborah Kilgour, (Tina Michaud, Photographer and participant)

Thanks for your sense of fun, focus and adventure! You are always welcome to stop by at the studio at 20 Eardley Road in Aylmer (Gatineau) to share and learn more. Try painting this summer and continue to enjoy the medium.

EXHIBITION at St. Paul's Church, Aylmer Quebec

In just a few weeks, I will be exhibiting wildflower watercolours and encaustics at the Aylmer Art Association Spring Show. Mark your calendars for the weekend of June 2, 3, 4 and along with my watercolours and encaustics, I will have on hand small prints, cards and small scale original works too. Many talented artists belong to this association so you will enjoy it I am sure. Looking forward to your support.

Teaching Watercolour in the Pontiac

Just a quick reminder that this month, May 20, 27th I am teaching a watercolour course in the Pontiac and hope to see some of you there. The Pontiac School of the Arts is a dynamic place where instructors and students of all ages come and explore new ideas in a rustic stone art gallery/classroom setting in Portage-du-Fort, Pontiac. Spring is the perfect season to learn a new medium and follow it through with a summer series of small watercolour sketches you have learned to create yourself!
Check it out at  http://www.artpontiac.com/artschool-2017/

Teaching Watercolour in the Pontiac!

This spring, learn to paint in watercolours using the simplest of palette, brushes and paper to make lively sketches of your garden or even on your vacation! I am instructing a course in watercolour the last 2 Saturdays in May from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm., so join me by contacting the Pontiac School of the Arts. For more information regarding description, cost, location and materials, please contact the school at:
http://www.artpontiac.com/artschool-2017/
Phone: 819 647 2291

  

Burdock in the Rain    $220. Framed

Meditation 1

My latest work, Meditation 1 is inspired by the Wildflowers of Ontario series begin early this year in February 2017. I hope it achieves the purpose of creating stillness and a sense of peace as you 'meditate' upon it. I will be showing the entire series at the Aylmer Art Association Spring Show June 2, 3, 4 at St. Paul's Church in Aylmer. You are invited to join me there!

I will be teaching a two-part Beginners' Watercolour course this spring, May 20, 27 with the Pontiac Art Association. They have an old schoolhouse they've renovated to make a home for the 'Pontiac School of the Arts' near Shawville, QC, and this course will be the first of the new teaching calendar for 2017. I invite you to learn some techniques and explore the medium along with me.

Join me by contacting me on this blog, leaving your name and phone number, or directly contacting:

Meditation 1                                  $290. Framed

Pontiac School of the Arts

artschool@artpontiac.com


Phone: 819-647-2291

Yellow Pond Lily

Yellow Lillies                          $290.

Today I present the common Yellow Lily (Nuphur Advena) found on all our Ontario lakes. When summer months arrive, we sit in a canoe lazily stroking the water's surface as we drift slowly along. It is always an irresistible urge to pluck the flower off its comfortable pad. Instead, its is best to just enjoy the Lily in this watercolour.

Wildflowers of Ontario

Just as spring is making its presence known with warmer sunlit days, melting snow and wet streets,  I dream of bursts of floral colour to follow in the coming months. Many may already know that I sold the farm in Milford, Ontario where I would take long relaxing walks on the acreage where there was an abundance of wildflowers there to enjoy.

Here is a new series inspired by the warm glow and colours of a summers day on the farm. An early pioneer writer, Catherine Parr Trail in 1868 wrote Canadian Wildflowers of Ontario with hand painted lithographs by Agnes Fitzgibbon. I thought how interesting it would be to revisit that theme of wildflowers but this time pushing toward sprays of colour and texture-Fitzgibbon abandoned!

These became first a series of 18  5" x 7"in. watercolour sketches, some of which were sent to the Pontiac Art Association, Shawville, Quebec.  There they will be part of an 'Artists' Exchange' to be re-distributed to participants who offered their work.

I am developing a series of watercolours from those sketches that will be exhibited together in the coming months in the local area. They represent some new techniques that I am pleased to display here today. Let me know what you think!
Next comes my submission for the Reves d'Automne show that takes place every September in the Baie St. Paul area in Quebec.

Blue Vervain, 14" x 20 in. (36 x 51 cm.)      $220.

                                               Bergamot, 14" x 20 in. (36 x 51 cm.)      $175.

Queen Anne's Lace, 14" x 20 in. (36 x 51 cm.)      $260.

Black Eyed Susan, 4" x 20 in. (36 x 51 cm.)      $260.