Emergence

About 6 years or so ago, my amazing and talented and visionary sister, Shell LeDrew, did a photo shoot - or two - which captured beautiful and ethereal images of a young girl underwater. Shell had a vision of this, and followed it through. The young girl was dressed in a white dress and swam in an outdoor pool with a beautiful scarf. The images were very successful, and Shell won the Arts and Letters competition one year with one of the images, had three which were juried into an exhibition, had a show at a local successful artsy-fartsy restaurant, and on and on! I tried to capture the images in paint before, but not with a lot of success. Last fall, Shell handed me the box of original photos from that shoot, and I've been picking away at it ever since. I started one last fall in my lessons with Rodney Mercer aka super awesome artist, but it's really this winter that I am getting on a roll with them. Brought some of them to Rodney and Jamie-Lee Cormier last week to have a little look - see and artistic analysis and was happy with the initial response. I have big ideas in my mind of what I'd like to do with them and where I'd like to go, not sure I can bring that dream to fruition but I am really going to put some work in on it. Currently I am working on some small studies (11" X 14") in acrylic. I ordered a bunch of nice oil paints last week - lots of blues to explore the blues in the waters. My hope is that I can continue to work on these smaller studies and as I am learning, begin to re-work them much bigger in oil. big dreams!!!!!! NOW FOR THE BIG NEWS! ;) Shell and I are having a joint exhibit at JL Gallery in Corner Brook in June. No guarantee at the moment, but, if all goes according to plan (or vision, or hope or dreams or something like that!) you may see these studies reworked as bigger paintings as a big part of the exhibit. Shell will be contributing her photography and we are super excited to be getting out there. It's a bit scary to us in some ways, but it is also part of my motivation for painting these days. If the paintings and photos are going to be on the walls for all to see, we want to do an outstanding job.

flowers and birds to cure the winter blues!

I've been painting. I have been focusing more and more intently on my artwork since last fall. I did a few lessons with local artist and instructor Rodney Mercer last spring. Then summer came, and I just was too busy with kids and all to really focus. Once October rolled around, I really got going with my lessons with Rodney again. He's an absolutely AMAZING artist...........here is a link to his website......http://rodmercer.com/ He is also a gifted instructor and can not only give technical knowledge, but lots of inspirational talks. He encourages his students to find their own way, their own style while still giving advice and information. The lessons have been keeping me on track, focused and motivated. the big thing we have been focusing on is getting me to "loosen up" in terms of my brushwork and approach. I've been doing lots of studies and quick little paintings in an effort to get there! Here are a few paintings I did to cure the winter blues!

Watching Alvaro Castagnet paint upside down and the greatest advice I was ever given on painting

In 2010 I discovered Alvaro Castagnet's paintings. One of the mordern masters of watercolor, he paints in watercolor like no one else. I fell in love with the light and the richness of his paintings when I first discovered him several years ago. On his website, I scrolled down through workshops and lo and behold, he was going to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia! Not exactly next door, but considering he is from Uruguay and teaches all over the world, it was pretty darned close! I tried to sign up but the workshop was full........asked to be put on a wait list and found out a month or so later I had a spot! It took a lot of convincing from my husband to get me to sign on..... (Yes, believe it or not HE had to convince ME!)even though I desperately wanted to go ........you see, mommies are not so good at doing things that take time and $ away from their wee ones. Andrew convinced me that this would be worthwhile in so many ways, so I signed on. Getting a little long winded here...... ;) So, 5 days of painting with a watercolor master! I was so nervous to meet him, and more nervous to paint. In particular, to paint "en plein air" - which means paintings on the spot, usually outdoors. I have been more of a studio painter. I didn't even have an easel as I usually paint on my dining room table. I ended up painting on a board propped in my lap and trying to use an old tripod I had adapted (went out and bought a portable watercolor easel afterwards!). Each day Alvaro painted for us, usually twice each day. He at times needed a helper to steady his easel so I gladly helped out, holding the upper corner of the easel. It meant I got to see him paint mostly upside down! I had a very close up view of how he used his palette, the brush, how much water he used, and instead of concentrating on what he was painting (because I couldn't really grasp it upside down), I got to concentrate on how he painted. It was always rather amazing when I stepped around to the front of the easel at the end and saw it come to life before my eyes. I think there was a time or two I almost cried, it was just so beautiful. Alvaro was also an amazing speaker, so motivating and inspiring. I kept a journal with notes and refer back to them , but the thing that he said that stayed with me is "Your Art is your teacher." I didn't quite get that at the time, but I've "gotten it" as time went on. We have to paint a lot in order to grow as artists, and we have to paint like ourselves and not someone else, paint what we love, and learn from the mistakes, grow and go with the great things that happen.......no one can paint like anyone else, you have to find your own way and learn from yourself. Your Art is your teacher. That's the greatest advice I was ever given :)

Impression of a Tree

Fun impressionistic tree :)

Happpy Flowers Painting - sold :)

This is a photo of a painting I sold just before Christmas from the League of Artists of Western Newfoundland, Heart of Giving show. The young lad who sweetly bought it for his Mom was dropping by to pick it up and I had it put in a box to protect it, got a quick snap of it before it left for it's new home! It was title "Happy Flowers #2!"

Hot summer day.....

Getting back into the swing of regular painting lately...........so lovely to do! This is a painting based on a photo that a friend took. The horse was actually outside in winter but I kind of switched to summer heat. He/she looked very relaxed, like a hot summer day.......

Happy Flowers!

Did a few fun flower paintings. I like doing my more "realistic" paintings but I like to do these fun and loose colorful ones as well. All good stuff. :)