Going BIG in a special way!!!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks; I’ve finished one of the commissions and am just starting the second. I have permission to share this next one with you all and I will post more about it in a couple of days

Today though I would like to tell you about another painting I am starting.

Before I tell you about it though, I have to tell you how James Rebecca and I tried to tame the wild beast otherwise known as a roll of 44 inch wide Arches cold press!!! It’s wonderful having the flexibility of size and, as in this case, being able to paint bigger than a full sheet, but wow!!!! The curve on the paper as you unroll it agh!!!! Anyhow, it took three of us and 6 hands plus a couple of elbows and heavy objects to keep it flat enough to cut to size. I wish there had been a spare hand for one of us to take a photo. It must have been a sight to behold!

And now to the painting itself... It is going to be a portrait of Wayne Macdonald. Wayne is a very talented musician and songwriter who became a paraplegic after falling fourteen feet from a roof. He belongs to the same gliding club as my husband James and this club is also the base for a charity called Freedom’s Wings. Freedom’s Wings Canada provides people with disabilities the opportunity to fly and it has a couple of specially adapted gliders so that people with disabilities  can experience the freedom of flight in a glider and, like Wayne, learn to fly. It is well worth spending a moment looking at the Freedom’s Wings website and in particular reading some of the testimonials from disabled people that have experienced flight in a glider.

This is the reference photo I am using for my painting. It was taken last year by my husband James.

  I love the moment in time that the ref photo captures just as Wayne is about to close the canopy with the reflection of the front of the plane and beyond to the horizon in his sunglasses.

This is my outline. I have cropped in on the right but also extended the left to help create the feeling of space before him, of a journey, an adventure about to begin. It doesnt matter what is behind, for this moment in time it is all about what lays in front of him.

  It seemed such a fitting subject for a painting as my first experience of painting larger than full sheet. I hope you will enjoy sharing in my journey and learning more about Wayne and Freedom’s Wings along the way.

Ona