Strokes of Genius 9

I was very happy today to receive a sneak peak of my pages in the new Strokes of Genius 9: Creative Discoveries which will be published by North Light Books later this month. (Two scratch boards this time) One of my drawings of my Labrador, Harry, will be featured on page 20 (He is so excited to see the 4th book he will be featured in) and one of my Teds is on page 65

If you would like to pre-order a copy you can purchase it directly from North light books 

 Or if you live in Canada you can pre-order it from Amazon.ca

IWS Canada

I had the enormous pleasure of being part of the team of 4 jurors for IWS Canada's Canada 150 celebration exhibition. With over 1450 entries it was a task that took us over a week to complete. Since then I have been working on creating this video of the 150 finalists. I hope you will enjoy seeing it.

 You know, as a juror, you are going to disappoint far more than you can make happy and that it won't be possible to accept many excellent paintings especially in a situation such as this when we could only accept 150 out of 1450. It was such a huge pleasure though to look through and study in detail so many beautiful works of art though and it has certainly inspired me as an artist to strive to work more on areas in my own work and improve. What I enjoyed most about this experience though was how the world united and helped our beautiful country to celebrate its 150th birthday. It truly was a wonderful experience.

Schomberg Street Gallery, Rhythm of Life Watercolours and other news

The weather was wonderful on Sunday for the Schomberg Street Gallery and we had many visitors. Thank you to everyone who popped by.

It's such a lottery with the weather at outdoor events that you can never plan what to actually take with you until the day before. As the weather was looking good I decided to take several matted and framed originals with me. I was very happy I did because two of them sold. 

On the theme of sales, my Rhythm of Life series are now back from exhibition and have all been released for sale on my website.  

So what else have I been up to?

As President of IWS Canada I had the pleasure of jurying the Canada 150 ways to celebrate competition over the last few weeks. With over 1450 entries to look through it has taken quite some time. I think all 4 jurors wished Canada was 350 years old so we could choose more finalists! I am currently making a video of the 150 selected finalists. There are some amazing works of art! IWS Canada will be announcing the finalists and winners in just over a weeks time on October 1st. 

I have also been working with several art associations and individuals planning some exciting workshops for the next two years here in Ontario. I have started to put details about them on my website Hope you will all enjoy the topics we have planned.

Hoping to get back to painting soon.

Demo at the Aurora Public Library

My paint brushes and I had a workout today demoing at the Aurora Public Library. Thank you to everyone that stopped by and watched me paint, shared memories and chatted about art and life. Here is my finished demo piece.

Just as my brushes danced across the paper as I painted this, these ballet shoes create art too. They are the dancer's brushes, and the floor is their canvas. This pair lay waiting to create their art.

CSPWC 92nd Open Water International Exhibition Acceptance

I am thrilled to have my painting 'Red Alert' selected for the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour 92nd Open Water International Exhibition.

The exhibition will take place at the John B Aird Gallery in Toronto and will run from September 19th to October 13th 2017

The Rhythm of Life: An Exhibition of Transparent Watercolours

 12 of my music themed paintings are now on exhibition at the Colleen Abbott Gallery, Aurora Public Library, Ontario.

Hope you enjoy this video and hearing about some of my thoughts that inspired the paintings.https://youtu.be/wcWxSoszPXo

It's been a hard days night!

I began this painting in a beautiful woodland garden at the Schomberg Garden Tour a couple weeks ago, worked in it some more at First Friday Richmond Hill yesterday, and put the finishing touches to it at home today. Even rascal raccoons can be peaceful sometimes. This little one is snoozing in the sunshine high up in a tree.

Transparent Watercolour 13.5 by 7.25 inches

First Place Award International Watermedia 2017

I was so thrilled to find out that my painting 'From Little Acorns' was chosen to receive the First Place Award in the Pikes Peak International Watermedia 2017 exhibition. CONGRATULATIONS to all the other award winners and thank you to juror Soon Y. Warren

Citrus Sunshine

Some days, when its miserable and rainy, you just have to create your own sunshine. Painting this watercolour has been my way of finding sunshine over the last few days. Since last Friday its been cloudy and rainy here almost every day so just in case your day is gloomy too I hope this sunny painting brightens your day.

Transparent Watercolour 25 by 16.5 inches

First Friday Richmond Hill

It was our first ever 'First Friday' event in downtown Richmond Hill yesterday evening and I had a lovely time painting in the sunshine and chatting to the people walking around. I think the happy warm sunshine flowed into my painting too. Its not finished yet but this is where I got to by the end of the evening.

Any guesses when type of birds are visiting my painted oranges?

This is a photo of me with our local MP for Richmond Hill Majid Jowhari. Photo credit: Phil Shepherd

Airborne

 Never belittle a child's game of pretend because everything we take for granted today like our computers, TV's, phones and cars and even the airplanes we use to fly around the world in, began in someone's imagination. While reality has defined limits, imagination is boundless. Our imaginations can be used not just to escape reality, but to create it and shape it's future. So be the master of your fate, the captain of your soul. Imagine, Believe and you WILL Achieve!

I had so much fun with this. Steampunk is an eclectic world of steam, goggles, cogs and rivets. It is a playground for adventure, spectacle, drama, escapism and exploration so it seemed fitting that I used this style for this painting. Fitting too the I share the finished painting today as it is Victoria day here in Canada and Steampunk's origins are in the Victorian Era. Happy Victoria Day!

Transparent Watercolour 22.5 by 18 inches

Emotive Expressions Gift Store

You can now buy directly from the Gift Store on the Emotive Expressions website using my newly installed online shopping cart.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars. Happy shopping!

WIP 2

The steampunk style background scene on my paper is done, so today I started work on the child. I think this is going to be my last portrait for a while unless I get any commissions as I want to stretch my wings and try some other things. So I am just going to take my time and enjoy the process of bringing this one to life on the paper.

WIP 1

After a busy couple of weeks it has been nice to pick up the brushes again. I'm having some fun with this background creating a steampunk style Victorian landscape.

I wonder what the city I am creating is called and who lives there. My progress is pretty slow as creating the misty/ smoky effect involves many layers of glazing. I am really enjoying both the challenge of architecture and developing a feeling of scale and distance using a very limited palette though.

Splash 19: The Illusion of light

I am delighted to be among the artists selected to be included in North Light Books Splash 19: The Illusion of Light which will be published next year

'A Penny for your Thoughts' has now officially become my most successful painting so far. It has been accepted into 3 big exhibitions, won 3 awards and now will be published in this book too. You can see the full list of winners here