Saturday, December 22, 2012

Twelve for 2012



After reading a similar post on Casey Klahn's blog, The Colorist, I thought I'd borrow his idea of choosing 12 of my favourite paintings that I produced this year.   The process of curating and jurying your own work gives you a more critical eye for composition, value and colour.  It can be difficult to step back from your own work and be objective, but whittling down the pieces through a series of slide shows, the same way as any juried work would be selected, helped me make my choices.

So here is my selection, not in any ranked order.  Its a bit of an eclectic bag, but aquatics seems to push its way to the front somehow.  As always, there are other pieces that didn't make the grade, but that I enjoy on various levels. Its a good exercise to go through and I'd highly recommend it.  What you thought may be your favourites may not be once you've really examined them.

Do you have a favourite among them?


Straight Sailing

 Sunshine

Weekend Warriors
 
Dragon Gate

Heat Wave

Lucie Rose

The Edge of Freedom

Shallows

Capelin Season

Fisherman's Cut

 N'or Easter

Remembrance










Thursday, December 20, 2012

Christmas Disguise

Disguise
7 x 11  watercolour

This year, four other members of Arts Northeast and I worked on a Christmas challenge to provide a seasonal image that could be used as a note card or decorative pieces.  A collaborative effort got it all together and with some technology the first of what I hope will be many challenges is on the Arts Northeast blog.  Take a moment to visit the ANE site and see what the other artists have produced for the challenge.

'Disguise' was inspired by some wrapping paper I saw in a shop in late November.  The fairly 'unChristmassy' look of the colours appealed to me and I thought a little fish could fit right in, just floating over the surface.   The colour in the goldfish worked beautifully with the amber in the paper and against the teal background.   I may not want to work quite that much detail in for awhile, but a masking pen is a godsend!

The original for this piece is available for purchase from my website.