Simple Pleasures #3 AWAKENING

Awakening

This sunny painting is my tribute to how the beauty of nature can at times overpower the most negative state of mind. When I was a young woman (represented here by the figure seated on the bench), I was in the depths of despair when I sat outdoors on a day much like this one. It gives me shivers to this day to remember how gently yet persistently, nature intruded on my black thoughts - to the point where I felt my heart fill with joy.

My life turned around on that day.

This Dad and his little girl were enjoying this spectacular fall scene at Puntledge Park in Courtenay, BC.

Awakening watercolours on 140 lb rag paper 30 X 22" painted November 2010

Simple Pleasures Series #2 Salt & Pepper

SALT & PEPPER

This pretty still life is seeded with objects that have special meaning for me. The salt and pepper shakers lived in my mother's kitchen on the back of her stove for many years - they now live on mine, and remind me of her every day. The metal basket sat atop her refrigerator and acted as bread basket for family dinners. Mom passed away on April Fool's Day, 2009 and her legacy lives on in these things that were part of her life. This watercolour is 19 1/2" X 12" and painted on 90 lb. Papier d'Arches rag paper. (SOLD)

Simple Pleasures Series #1 KD

KD

This watercolour 30 X 22" represents a momentous occasion in my life. After years of losing weight (over 70 pounds total) and coming close to dying because of the collapse of his esophagus, surgery enabled my dear husband Dan to eat again and regain his health fully. One of the foods he was able to choke down back then was overcooked Kraft dinner, hence the title KD. This painting acknowledges how precious the little things in life - like simply eating - become when you are near to losing them .

Fog On Gabriola Island

The Subject:

The action of the wind creates these fabulous sandstone shapes on many of the beaches on Gabriola Island. In the foreground, you will notice my watercolour painting on the easel.

The Painting:

I used M. Graham watercolours on a 24 X 18" block of 140 lb. rag paper. (SOLD)

Porlier Pass

Sailors in and around the northern Gulf Islands in BC are well familiar with the fast tides in narrow passages between the Islands. Porlier Pass depicted here is one of the main narrow lanes through which ships and pleasure boats pass when the tide is still. This view of Porlier was painted on an early fall morning with the mist just burning off the water as the sun is rising. Painted in watercolours on 9 X 12" 300 lb paper in about an hour.

Gabriola Farmhouse

As part of the Federation of Canadian Artists' Gabriola Island Plein Air Workshops, I was privileged to have access to this tumbledown colourful farmhouse for a morning. I love the rich rusted colours and crumbling shapes of this relic of a former life. It was painted with watercolours on 140 lb paper

24 X 18", in about 2 hours (with a few minutes of studio touch up).

Entrance Island from Gabriola

Sitting on the rocky shore at Berry Point on Gabriola Island, this gentle view of the Lighthouse at Entrance Island cried out to be painted. Using watercolours on a 24 X 18" block of 140 lb. Papier d'Arches, this was captured in about 2 hours.