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.