International Watermedia 2017

I was delighted to receive notification yesterday that 'From Little Acorns' has been accepted into Pikes Peak International Watermedia 2017. The exhibition will take place at Cottonwood Center for the Arts, 427 East Colorado Avenue,Colorado Springs, CO 80903 from June 2- 24th.

Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors

I was delighted and very surprised to receive notification that my paintings, 'Leaf me Be' and 'Watch Over Me' have both been accepted into the Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors. Thank you to everyone at the View Arts Center and to Juror of selection Ken Call.

An Egg-xtra special Egg-xercise in Glazing

 With Easter in just a few weeks time I couldn't resist doing this, so here is an Egg-xtra special Egg-xercise for you all to have fun with.

 Using just 5 colours you can create an illusion of depth on a flat piece of paper, and also develop the shape and form of the eggs. Have fun!

If you are receiving this blog post via my e mail subscription, please click on the following link to watch the video
http://emotiveexpressions.ca/paint-along-with-ona/an-egg-xtra-special-egg-xercise-in-glazing/

Music http://www.purple-planet.com

Brand New Look to my Website!

Very Excited to announce I have a brand new website design! 

I hope everyone will enjoy taking a look around the brand new www.onak.ca  with its gift store, interactive galleries, paint along videos and much much more! Let me know what you think!

RED ALERT!!!

It has been such fun painting this, just capturing that expression and playing with some really bright colour.

I have always struggled in the past when painting predominantly red/orange paintings because I feel colour as emotion and emotions as colour. So for me to use a predominantly orange/red palette makes me much more daring, determined, energetic, powerful, impulsive and slightly aggressive than usual.  It is a highly visible colour that makes me make spur of the moment rash decisions which is so unlike my style of painting and, in the past, has led to me making mistake after mistake. My saviour in this painting was Dawn's green eyes. when I started to get overwhelmed by all the orange/ reds I would just focus on the eyes and add a little more detail to them until I felt calmer again.

Do you find you are affected by the colours you paint with?

Red Alert WIP 2

I am so slow painting hair. After 2 days work I am still not even half way around. To me the WIP photo below looks just like she is saying " really??? I've been waiting here for days and you still haven't finished???

It's fun using all the bright oranges yellows and reds I don't usually use much though with some purples  and greens thrown in too. This photo above shows just a section of the full painting. It doesn't capture the intensity or the variation in colour in the actual painting but at least it gives you an idea of my progress.

Red Alert WIP

Say Ahhhhh!

 It's so good when you get an obliging model as you paint, especially when you are painting an open mouth.(grin)

 Doing big portraits is a lot of fun. This one has a long, long way to go before it is done ( the teeth are still masked out, there are no proper eye brows or eye lashes, my subject is decidedly pale and she has no hair ) but I just had to share this moment as I finished blocking in the main features and my subject starts to 'interact' with us as I paint.

Dear Angel

 Life is full of quiet moments that only you and your angels share. Times when you  ask  for their guidance or just need a moment to gather your thoughts and seek reassurance that you are on the right path. Times when you feel remorse for something you know you could have handled better and want to find the best way to say sorry.

Transparent Watercolour 30 by 19 inches

Having a guardian angel with us can be an enormous comfort. Some people believe that their guardian angel is a spiritual being who looks out for their well-being, many believe it is a deceased loved one who offers guidance during times of need, a few, like me, believe it is your own inner conscience, within you always, if you just allow yourself to listen. Whatever you believe, it is good to feel you are never truly alone.

I am still pondering over a title for this painting. Any ideas will be very gratefully received.

News

I had two exciting pieces of news this week. 'Chocolate Chipadees' will be winging its way to Kenosha this spring for the 2017 Transparent Watercolor Society of America's 41st Annual Exhibition (Jurors, Jean Pederson, CSPWC, AWS and Bruce Handford TWSA MS, NWS)

The exhibition will take place at the Kenosha 5500 First Avenue, Kenosha, Wisconsin from May 6th to August 6th 2017.

 My painting 'From Little Acorns' was also awarded an Honourable Mention in the International Watercolour Societies online contest.

The contest had an overwhelming response and received 1452 entries. To be chosen as one of the top 31 paintings is such an honour. I hope you enjoy the slideshow of all the winners. 

Just Ducking Out!

I have always loved the idea of painting outside, capturing the scene as it is right at that moment in time, but I am such a slow painter it just so hard especially when I do love to paint animals. This Watercolour illustrates what I am sure would happen if I tried!

 Ona the amateur plein air painter searches for a suitable subject to paint. Aha!!! a nest of baby wood ducks high in a tree....a captive subject. I can paint them! They look so adorable waiting for mom and dad to return with food. I can take my time and not rush. So each day I returned to the same spot,  set my easel up and paint while the light allowed. I thought... do the babies first and then I can paint the nest around them. I worked hard to make them look as real as possible and was so pleased with how they turned out but before I could finish the nest around them.... well, just look what happened!!! My little painted ducklings fledged and started leaping out of my painting!

I guess I am just not cut out to be a plein air painter am I! (grin)

Exhibition News

I was honoured to receive an e mail from the President of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour to inform me that my painting 'Artist at Work', which is part of the National Diploma Collection, had been selected for a special exhibition to be held at the Peel Art Gallery and Museum, Brampton, Ontario.

My painting (on the left) is of a very special person who sadly died a few years ago. He believed in me as an artist long before I did and encouraged me so much in the early days. When he saw this portrait of himself he encouraged me to apply for  CSPWC elected membership.  I was elected shortly before he died and when I told him the painting of him was the one selected to be part of the National diploma Collection he was thrilled, He said he would now live on forever. You still have a very special place in my heart Denis.

Richeson 75 Small Works Exhibition Finalist

I was pleased to receive an e mail yesterday afternoon to say that my painting 'Incarcerate-Ted' had been selected as a finalist in the 2017 Richeson75 Small Works Exhibition.

Now I need to package him up so he can safely be transport-Ted  to the exhibition. It opens on February 22, 2017 in Kimberly, WI and runs until April 18th.

Happy New Year!

I just want to wish my readers a very Happy New Year and to let you know about some events that will be happening this year. Firstly I was honoured to be asked by the President of the International Watercolor Society to be part of the leadership team for IWS Canada.

I met with Atanur along with the president of CSPWC this week and we talked about building a stronger relationship between the two organisations here in Canada. I am looking forward to working with both presidents to make this happen.

I also wanted to let you know that this year I will be participating in the King Studio Tour in April rather than the Richmond Hill one in the fall. The dates for the King Studio Tour are April 22nd and 23rd. More details will follow soon but save the dates!

From Mid July until late in August I will also have a solo exhibition at the Aurora Public Library. More details will follow for this later this spring.

Ona

Feed the Birds

Seeing the world through the eyes of a child is the purest joy you can experience.

I really enjoyed painting this. I think the child's joy must have been contagious. I love painting both children and animals so having both in one painting was a lot of fun to do. I used  5 different reference photo's to create this. The Chickadees were actually visitors to my feeders over this past summer. It took me many attempts to get the references I wanted. The cookies are  a pile of my husband's favourite chocolate chip flavour that I photographed and the child is from an old photo I had.

Can anyone help me out with ideas for a title?

Paint Along with Ona

My Holiday gift to you all this year is a paint along with me. In this video you will see how I create realistic folds in fabric. I hope you will enjoy following along and painting your own version of this simple Holiday themed watercolour using just 6 colours. If you don't have the colours I use, just substitute for ones you do have. You need a neutral colour,  a purple/red, a pink, a warmer orange/red, a mid brown, and an orange/brown.

If you have subscribed to my e mail notifications or you want to see the video full screen please click on the link to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/q04gZvRFLEk