Monday, June 27, 2005

two hussies

Brown-thumbed gardener that I am, I'm especially pleased to see that these two pretty faces are also tough customers. It seems that hollyhocks and poppies come back year after year in spite of me.


Saturday, June 25, 2005

rainbow smelt

I've been trying to finish this painting amidst the chaos that comes with the end of June each year. We've less than a week to go before the assemblies, BBQs, sports days, concerts, and Gr. 7 "graduation" ceremonies and activities are done (not to mention all the attendant volunteering), then it's off on holiday to Powell River. By then I plan to have finished painting #17 and will be in the home stretch...


Thursday, June 16, 2005

dolly varden

I managed to polish off fish#15 yesterday and I'm quite pleased with it. It's a nice, small size (16" x 16") so I think I'll start another of the same size today. It's the first time I've tried a square format for this series and wish I'd done more now. I'd forgotten how poorly my cheap little digital camera captures purple tones. In this jpeg the image is much bluer than in "real life". I'm itching to get a better digital now as the cheapest ones going still have more mega pixels than this one. Even the screened numbers on the dials are starting to fade. I always get better results when I photograph my work using my SLR and then scan the prints, but I'm getting too lazy to bother.



Thursday, June 09, 2005

bluegill

I've been trying to determine whether or not this fish is a kind of sunfish. I'm pretty sure it is, but there are many varieties of sunfish, so I'll just call it by its variety, "bluegill". It's 30" x 24" and I finished it yesterday.





















I had a call yesterday from the owner of Autumn Brook Gallery. He wants to show the work/series that I'm itching to get going on but for which I have so far ony produced two paintings:












That's because of my commitment to get these fish paintings completed by July. He thinks this work will fill a niche that's missing among the artists who have signed on so far. Since I really want to get going on this series I'm pleased that there will at least be a place where I'll be able to show it. At this rate, I'll be producing quite different kinds of work for each gallery and I'm not sure if that's a wise marketing decision. Marketing? What's that?

Thursday, June 02, 2005

arctic grayling

I finished the 20" x 24" of Arctic Grayling today.

Last night I went to the opening of a new artists' co-op gallery to which I was invited: http://www.autumnbrookartists.com/ It's on W. 4th near the entrance to Granville Island. It's a huge space, over 4000 square feet, nicely finished with oodles of possibilities. I may rent some wall space there sometime in the future but for now I have enough to contend with getting the fish paintings ready for the solo show at Lambert's Gallery, painting some backups for Summer Gallery at the Federation Gallery, and producing a series of four related works for the fall invitational at the Federation Gallery. And wouldn't it be a bonus if Main Street Gallery sold everything I have there and needed more? :o) It all sounds very exciting but so far there's very little money in the coffers to keep up the momentum and I would like to think "starving artist" is only a cliche, especially as I had to finally make The Big Decision and give up my teaching contract on Tuesday. That was one tough decision.

It was very exciting to pick up the summer issue of Preview magazine at Autumn Brook Gallery last night and see my name in three places, one with an image attached! The ad for Summer Gallery looks pretty good and I'm thrilled to have my work featured in a gallery print ad. I feel like things are really moving forward now.

Sheila came with me to the opening, then we headed to Kitsilano where we got a coffee at Starbuck's and headed to the beach to watch the volleyball players, dog walkers and the dusk start falling. Twenty years ago there would've been the occasional cyclist there on a weekday evening. Now it's a busy hub of activity at all hours.