Children's book project

For the last few days I have been working on a children's book that was inspired by a dream my son was having when we were toilet training him. In his dream there was a shark living in our toilet. I have been mulling this idea around for a year and started the pictures in pencil and watercolour. I was never quite satisfied with them and a fellow Toronto artist and teacher - Ed Shawcross had a look at them and suggested that I am an oil painter and should paint these images in oil. Well Ed - I could kiss you because this little idea I have been tossing around has now turned into 20 rocking little paintings. (Ed is currently working on a website and just wowed me when we met for coffee a while back. He can draw the human figure from his head with outstanding accuracy - I was in awe watching him work out my drawings and show me where I could improve them.) Thanks Ed!

I will post more on this book once I am finished. I am pleased with how it is panning out and my son is so excited now that he can see the pictures.

Carly

Carly posed for us last night and I really enjoyed painting her. I also tried out a new support. It is a canvas board by Raymar and I absolutely loved it. I cannot wait to use these supports again. If you live in the States you probably already know about this product, but here in Canada it is new to me. I highly recommend the supports; I ordered them directly from Raymar.

Border Crossing

I have been working on this painting for the last couple of weeks. I took the photo of it outside and ended up with a lot of glare, (the sky is really more blue than green) it must be all that snow outside reflecting back on it. I found as I worked on this painting that the more details I edited out the happier I was with it. It was a difficult composition to work with because the overpass split the painting in half. I may go back to this piece after it has sat for a bit.

Cory

Last night at my portrait group, the daughter of one of the painters modeled for us. She is a gorgeous girl and I am not sure I quite captured how striking she really is. I wished I had just a little more time on this one. I felt it was just starting to come together when our session was finished. Hopefully Cory will model for us again sometime.

Toronto Skyline

This painting is of the Toronto Skyline. I used a really limited palette and resisted the urge to include too much detail. I am quite happy with the result. I may play with this image again, just changing up the palette to see what happens.

Sunshine Blog Award

I want to thank Trish Seigel and Carolyn Finnell for giving me the Sunshine Blog Award. Once you receive this award you are to post it on your blog and then pass it on to 12 other bloggers with links to their sites. Here are my 12 fabulous nominees:

1. Lisa Daria

2. Catherine Jeffrey

3. Last Cup of Coffee

4. Robin Cheers

5. Dreama Tolle Perry

6. Julie Hill

7. Karen Appleton

8. Ann Gorbett

9. Judy Mackey

10. Tony Allain

11. Leslie Saeta

12. Claire Kayser

Portrait of Karin Jurik for the Thank You Project

This is my portrait of Karin Jurik for the Thank You Project that Jill Polsby organized. Jill contacted as many of the 180 artists that participated in Karin's Different Strokes for Different Folks year end portrait challenge as she could and supplied each of us with a photo of Karin. We were all sworn to secrecy and asked to paint Karin and send a photo of the painting to Jill. Jill compiled all the portraits into a book that has been sent to Karin. Please check out Jill's blog for a link to see all the fabulous portraits that were produced.

Study of Bernie

This is my effort from last night's portrait group. I struggled with this one. There was a light right over me that was causing a lot of glare. I found when I removed my painting from the easel what I had looked different once that light was gone. Not sure about this one - but I did enjoy evening and the process of painting so I guess that makes it a success.

Untitled Portrait

Here is my effort from last night's portrait group session. I found this fellow a real challenge to paint, but finally ended up with a fairly good likeness of him.

Highway Series #1

This is actually the third painting I have done based on this subject matter, but the first since deciding it would make a nice series. Most of this series I see in a larger format, but thought I would get the paint flowing on a smaller scale first before I start tackling my larger supports.

Quick Study

At the end of our session last night I had just enough time for a quick study.

Man in a Beret (working title)

Last night I joined a group of local artists that meet on thursday nights to draw or paint portraits from a model. There is no instruction, just a group getting together to do what they love. The atmosphere was inspiring, the model superb and everyone made me, the newcomer, feel very welcome. I had a great painting night and could barely sleep last night because I had so much fun. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the gentleman who modeled for us, so just a working title for this painting for now.

Evan and his Great Grandpa

This is a painting of my son and his Great Grandpa. I wanted to capture my Grandfather's quiet contemplation as he watches the bundle of energy and life that flows out of his Great Grandson. Sounds corny I know but I find the contrast between the two of them fascinating. Looking at it now I see that I need to adjust the hand that is behind Evan's head, but other than that I am quite happy with this attempt.

Just Sitting

I struggled with this one to get the figures just right and it took longer than I thought it should. The background changed 2 or 3 times until I finally realized that the painting is about the figures and I needed to simplify everything else. The reference for this painting was a photo I took of a motley crew ( I mean my family) enjoying a warm day at the beach.

I Have It Right Here

Sandy Shadow

This is one of my Uncle Rick's grandkids. I think it is Haley - but I am not sure. In the photo I took there were kids everywhere and there she was in the middle of all this activity in her own little world.

Race You

This painting is based on a photo I took of my son chasing after his friend Noah at the beach this summer. They are both 5 years old and were racing into the lake before I had even set down my chair and the sand toys.

Orange Scoops

After seeing the paintings of oranges by Ed Cooper I was determined to try and paint an orange. I have never painted one to my satisfaction. After 2 wipe offs and feeling like I had forgotten how to paint during Christmas holidays I came up with this. Not the best painting of oranges I have seen, but not my worst attempt. (Ed you make it look effortless.)

Painting by Kim Rempel - Sunshine on a Grey Day

I never win anything - ever, so I was so surprised to find out I had won a painting by Kim Rempel. It arrived at my doorstep just before New Years and I already have it hanging on the wall. I just love it. Please check out Kim's blog, she is a daily painter from Ontario, Canada who often features a draw for a painting of your choice from her site. Her paintings have a sensitive touch to them that is really lovely.

Portrait of David Te - DSFDF Portrait Challenge

Update: I found out that the artist I was paired up with for the DSFDF Portrait Challenge was David Te. Please check out his portrait of me - it is really wonderful and I think he captured me beautifully.