Photos from Frogstone Grill Exhibit

Well I am finally getting around to uploading photos from my Frogstone Grill solo exhibit which runs until June 8. The photos are not the greatest as it was a beautiful sunny day, finally, so there is alot of glare from the open windows. The paintings are hung in the bar area where they have live music and a fire place.

I like this exhibit as it gave me a chance to showcase my work without a set theme which allowed for more variety. A fellow artist that I met through my blog, Andrea Pratt, met there a couple of weeks ago to check out my exhibit and brought along a dog, Mala, she is training as a service dog. Apparently she juried a piece of my artwork for my first exhibit at the Federation of Canadian Artists and stumbled across my blog. We have been chatting online ever since and admiring each other's work. Check out her site at her blog at Colouring Outside the Lines or at her website at Andrea Pratt she does very cool work and her blog is quite entertaining :)

Suite E Exhibit at the Outlet in June 4 - Aug 16, 2009

This exhibit is just around the corner, time is just flying by lately! It will be an exhibit by 8 Suite E Life Drawing members featuring artwork of figures as well as non-figurative work in all mediums.

There will be an opening reception June 4 from 7-9pm with wine, nibblies and the artists at the Outlet. The works will be displayed across and adjacent to the TicketMaster booth where I had my solo exhibit in November of 2008. It is a great location with many other art groups, classes and exhibits in attendance throughout the year. As the exhibit will run for just over 2 months we will be changing out the artwork in July to freshen things up! Should allow for a nice variety of work from each member.

Hope to see you there at the opening!

Solo Exhibit at Frogstone Grill - May 5 to June 8

I just got back from hanging my artwork at the Frogstone Grill in Coquitlam for a solo exhibit. I have eaten there before and love the decor but did not realize they had live jazz on the weekends so I will definitely have to go check it out on a weekend during my show.

We hung 11 pieces ranging from seashells to architectural paintings so it offers a bit of variety while you are sitting sipping your wine :)

Tri-City News Article for Beneath the Layers Exhibit

I opened the paper last night to find a wonderful article written by Janis Warren, a reporter from the Tri-City News. They did a really cool layout with my eyes and then my series of paintings with the veils and just the eyes showing which looked really cool.

The photos were taken by Craig Hodge. The article is at http://www.bclocalnews.com/tri_city_maple_ridge/tricitynews/entertainment/42593117.html

Photos from Beneath the Layers Solo Exhibit at Place des Arts

Last night was alot of fun and I think a success :) We had a very nice turn out at the exhibit. By the time my photographer, aka my hubby, took photos many of the guests had left but this an idea of how the show looked with all the guests. It was a nice mix as there were many fellow artists and friends and I met a few new people as well which is nice. It is such a great venue and the other artists works were very nice and I think all of the artwork worked very well together.

Tomorrow is the 'big night'!

Well it has been a busy week, ok year, but now I can sit back & relax :)I have dropped everything off at Place des Arts for my solo exhibit which starts tomorrow and now I can just relax and enjoy the show! Luckily my hubby is totally a keener and packaged everything up for me and dropped it off so all I had to do was unpack and help set up the artwork to be hung!

The Exhibit Director, Barbara Duncan, actually invites artists to join in at the hanging so they can provide input as to how the show is hung which was really great as it makes you think of things from a gallery's perspective and also helps you to really see the artwork as a whole, which being this many pieces, was pretty cool!

Just when I was feeling ahead of the game...

I ordered my frames and matts for my upcoming solo exhibit at Place des Arts in March and had to take a photo of the work I have ahead of me! This is what fifty 16x20 frames looks like with fifty double matts on top. Don't mind the painting drying on top of the stack, why waste the space ;)

Clearly they do not fit into my studio this way, they are so orderly looking, it is almost a shame to unpack them! I am starting to get very excited about the exhibit now, I can't believe it is less than a month away. So let's see, if I frame 2 pieces a day.... awk :)

Opening Reception for Art Focus's 14th Annual Show

The opening reception last night was a success and I think a lot of fun for everyone. I met some new friend and was happy to see some 'old' friends as well at the show. There was a live 3 piece jazz band that was really good which really added to the atmosphere, the wine did not hurt either ;) It is supposed to be sunny both today and tomorrow so it should make for a nice show as the windows fill one whole wall of the Outlet which makes for great lighting for the artwork.

Watercolor Portrait - Ready or Not

I have been working on this painting at the same time as another one of the same model and I think this one is complete. There are a few minor tweaks I may make but I need to get a bit more distance to be sure.

Watercolor Figure Painting - Walking on Air

This painting is a little different than the previous paintings for my exhibit in March at Place des Arts. I wanted an etheral feeling to her as she just seemed so calm and peaceful yet so full of movement.

Studio Lighting

I am nearly finished two more paintings in my series for the exhibit at Place des Arts in March. I have been really getting a great deal of painting done lately due to late night and early morning painting sessions, who new there were all these extra hours in the day ;) I recently purchased a couple Ott Lights and they have made a world of difference in my lighting set up. During the day my studio has a south facing window so light is not a big issue most days but at night they are a must.

I still need to mount them to something somehow, or should I say my husband needs to. He did offer, he really needs to think before he speaks ;) I am hoping to have the lights set up so that they can be above me and slightly behind me yet still have them mobile so that I can easily adjust them for taking photos of my finished artwork as well as for taking reference photos of still life's.

Watercolor Painting - Ripples

This is the latest of my watercolor paintings for my exhibit, number 20 out of 38, yay more than half way there! Committing to an exhibit is a sure fire way to get motivated and get painting. It has been a really great way to push myself to also try new ways of looking at things both subject matter wise and technique wise.

This is my second painting with water and while I liked the way the water turned out in the first painting I wanted the water to look different in this one and it definitely does. I also really love her hair, it shines across the room even from the opposite end of my studio which is over 10 feet which is really cool :)

Watercolor Figure Painting - Into the Blue

This is a figure painting that I just finished for my upcoming exhibit at Place des Arts in March.

I have never painted water before and I am quite happy with the way this painting turned out, both the water and the flesh tones. I tried to caputure the peaceful anticipation of being engulfed in water, warm of course ;)

Watercolor Painting - Pride

This is the reference photo for the next painting that I am painting for my exhibit. I love the close up on the eyes and the way the scarf surounds her face.

I found the photo on MorgueFile from a wonderful photographer, Luis C. Tejo. More of his work can be seen at MorgueFile, this photo is at http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=53669&

This painting will be in color rather than monochromatic to add a bit more variety to the exhibit and just for fun and a change of pace. It will be 11 x 14" on Arches watercolor paper.

Watercolor Figure Portrait - Lazy Days

This is another painting I started for my solo exhibit at Place des Arts but did not get a chance to finish due to commissions. I had painted it in January but when I was putting the finishing touches on the background I had a major accident!

I had used masking tape to get some nice crisp lines but did not push the tape down enough and the paint leached onto the figure. Only small amounts but enought to totally wreck the painting, ugh.

So I painted the figure again in sepia rather than cobalt blue as I had originally done and left the background light and with a bit of texture, which I think looks better anyway. I liked the cobalt blue but I like the sepia more so it all worked out for the best in the end :)

Watercolor Figure Portrait - Untitled

This is another watercolor figure portrait done with a monochromatic palette of sepia for an upcoming exhibit at Place des Arts.

It is part of a series of paintings that will be on exhibit in March 2009, 7 paintings down, 31 more to complete, haha, good thing I work best under pressure!

Place des Art Exhibit

Well it has been a busy weekend but the opening reception seemed to be a sucess for the Suite E group at Place des Arts on Thursday. The gallery was close to full at times and people really seemed to enjoy the artwork.

It was fun watching people looking at the work and the best part though was watching people press their faces as close to the artwork as they could to try to figure out how it was done :) The exhibit runs until April 19th so please check it out if you are in the area.

Watercolor Nude Figure Portrait

This is another watercolor nude figure painting monochromatic with sepia. I am working on a series for an exhibit proposal for a local gallery in Coquitlam, BC. I have not given this one a title yet as still tossing around ideas:) I really like the monochromatic look and feel whether it be black and white or as in this case sepia.