Summer is definitely over and the bustling that comes with fall is in full swing. September has been a wonderful month so far - with the Kaleido series doing well, my first vernissage (thank you to those who came!) and the sale of six paintings. I have been creating a lot as well - which brings me so much joy. So much so that when I go a few days without touching my paints, I actually start feeling it and I start to long for it. It is crazy to think that I repressed this joy for so many years by not taking the time to do what I love. Easy to say in retrospect, but it is a good reminder for me to no longer get caught up in life’s busyness and to be purposeful with my time.
I received wonderful news this week when I heard that the online gallery Gallea chose three of my paintings to be in their Autumn Collection (v=https://www.gallea.ca/en/gallery?subject[]=autumn_367). Given that I haven’t dedicated a blog to my creative process, I thought it would be a good idea to provide a bit of the behind-the-scenes inspirations for each of these paintings.
I Left Everything Behind
My tree series started with You Have Come a Long Way when I redid a painting I had completed years ago. From simple orange colours and white trees came about a colourful rendition of the same painting. The title came from me realising how far I had come from an artistic and creative perspective. It took me a long time to step outside the box and now, every time I paint, I think about it. I Left Everything Behind Me came soon after. Colourful and even more daring, the purple trees are a statement that anything is possible and that we shouldn’t limit ourselves by what we see on the surface. I decided to call it I Left Everything Behind Me for two reasons - to leaving past (mis)conception behind but also the fact that when you immerse yourself in nature, our heavy loads seem to stay put. Have you ever noticed how lighter you feel when you are hiking or being out in nature? The present moment takes over and brings about a sense of peace. I could have called it Leaving my Sh*t Behind, but I decided to be politically correct :)
Foggy Morning
I painted “Foggy” late this spring and it was not going well. Sometimes, I add a colour to a painting and it throws everything off (it is often a reddish colour for some reason). It was loud and something was not working with it. At times, when this happenes, I just paint over it and start again. This time around, I coated it with blue and then used a spray bottle to wet it and then I began to wipe off some of the excess blue. The trees softly emerged, as when the fog lifts early in the morning. From a disjointed loud painting, it became a soft and subdued depiction of nature
Fall Hike
Fall Hike was completed after I painted my triptych A Day at the Lake. It was truly an exercise of depicting a scene with richness yet limited colours. I really like the outcome of this one - it has depth and texture that render fall quite nicely, while hinting at a colder and more monochronic season.
I will be doing more tree paintings - in fact, I have one on the go that I plan to get back to this weekend. November is coming and I am thinking of also going back and adding to my poppies paintings, so stay tuned for more art dropping in the coming weeks.
News about Bjorn the dog
In closing off this blog I really want to thank everyone who enquired about my sick puppy dog Bjorn. As you may recall, he went for a biopsy and I finally got the results today - chronic hepatitis and some copper accumulation in his liver. Looks like a new diet and ongoing medication will help him live a healthier life. I am stressing about changing his diet - I can’t imagine a hepatitis diet being that tasty… and am looking forward to talking to the vet next week to get more information and answers to my 100s of questions.
