In the Windmills of Your Mind

I am always fascinated how creating art doesn't happen in isolation. Other things in our world spiral in, influence our thinking, our approaches, the way we work and what ultimately we create.

'Like the Circles that you find in the windmills of your mind'

Transparent Watercolour 17 by 22.5 inches painted using QoR Modern Watercolours

Earlier this year I was approached by Bryce Lampe, Brand Manager for QoR Watercolors and Golden Acrylics who asked if I would like to try a selection of their watercolours. So, I selected a key few colours that, to me, evoked a soft dreamy, far away feel an a couple more warmer tones to create balance and to help me create skin colours.

The QoR paints when used have all the subtlety, transparency and flow of watercolor, with colors that have strong vibrancy even after they dry. I am used to seeing the vibrant colour when you apply the paint wet but many brands, become less vibrant as they dry. This isn’t the case with the QoR colours. There is also much more pigment held within the mixture and the combination of these two properties make the colours simply glow on the paper even when dry.

 I am a curious soul and my mind was certainly spinning wondering why- so I did some research. The exceptional color strength of the QoR range of Watercolors is apparently achieved through the use of a unique binder called Aquazol®.

'Conservators have been using Aquazol since the early 1990's as an adhesive, consolidant, and inpainting medium. The properties that make it ideal for use in conservation also make it a great binder for watercolor paint. It is highly soluble in water and remains re-soluble over time. It remains stable after accelerated light aging tests with no significant change in color, and it is very safe to work with. But what is really exciting is that Aquazol can hold much greater amounts of pigment than the same amount of gum Arabic, while retaining a strong and flexible paint film.' 

(https://www.qorcolors.com/science) 

When working with people in other disciplines– it can sometimes seem like everyone is speaking a different language as our mind circles round and round trying to understand why or how. But collaboration between disciplines is crucial for coming up with new ideas. Our minds may circle round and round as we play with fresh ideas but by allowing this circular thought amazing new products are born. Thank you QoR for your circular thinking.

It was a lovely surprise to see my painting 'Just Ducking Out' featured in the latest 'Art of Watercolour'  Magazine. 

My little wood duck painting was created in response to people saying I should actually paint plein aire and not just sketch. I am such a slow painter that the baby wood ducks would fledge before I got a chance to finish the painting.

Honorable Mention Pennsylvania Watercolor Society 2019 Member's Exhibition

I was very pleased to receive the news today that my painting 'Bah Humbug' was selected  by Juror Yachiyo Back from over 200 paintings  as one of the 15 award winners in the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society 2019 Members exhibition. Congratulations to everyone in the exhibition. There are some beautiful paintings.

Click on this link to see the award winners  and the complete exhibition.

We took our Christmas lights down inside the house at the beginning of January but still have our lights up outside. It brightens up a cold snowy winter and is a welcoming sight when you come home of an evening. I had to laugh though. We have a switch on the floor just by the front door which got covered in snow a couple evenings ago during our last snow storm. When I took our dog out first thing the next morning I wondered why half the lights were not working. I checked the main power socket, the power adapter, the fuse lights and still couldn't work out why they were not working. I probably had a very similar expression to this until I suddenly realized my husband must have stood on a switch that was buried in the snow and accidentally turned it off the night before. Luckily it was an easy fix and our lights are now working again!

The Skaters Waltz

I am still continuing to embrace Winter this year! 

The other week a group of ducks  landed at our pond just behind my garden so I togged up and rushed over with camera and sketch book in hand, plus a bag full of duck friendly seeds, fruits and vegetables. The ducks were very appreciative and keen to eat the food but some areas of the frozen pond were VERY slippery!  I lost count of the amount of times the ducks ended up on their bottoms with legs splayed out beside them in their attempts to rush for the food! My poor camera battery gave up after just a few minutes as it was VERY cold  so I only got a couple of photos but not deterred I sat there with my pencil and sketchbook and quickly sketched the ducks in various positions for about half an hour until the food ran out.

Back at home with hot chocolate in my hands to warm up I started composing this painting using my sketches.  I painted it using the White Nights 36 pan palette I reviewed earlier today. I composed the painting so I could illustrate the vibrancy of colour you can achieve with these paints but at the same time show how you can also achieve smooth subtle soft glazes.

Skaters Waltz: Transparent Watercolour 21 by 9.5 inches

White Nights Paints Review

 At the end of last year I was sent a sample 36 pan palette of the White Nights Paints by Nevskaya Palitra, St Petersburg. I have really enjoyed experimenting with them. In Canada you can purchase them via Amazon.ca. They come from Russia so do take about a month to arrive.

The paints are very creamy in consistency and very rich in pigment. This allows you to get highly saturated colours very easily in your work. It also means that a little paint can go a long way when doing thinner softer glazes. 

Before using any new paints I like to check them for transparency and light fastness as these qualities are very important to me and to the way I work. Overall the light fastness is pretty good. I have done my own testing over the last few months and there is only one colour, the violet, that noticeably changed and this is the one that they stated on their box had a low light fastness. It has been over the winter though and it has been a pretty dull winter so I will continue to keep the colours up in the window for a few more months to see if any others change.  

There are 3 cadmium paints and a white in this set that I have not really used other than to test as they are opaque and I prefer transparent or semi transparent paints. That is just personal preference though. A couple of the semi-transparents are more semi opaque too so if transparency is important to you it is worth using the ones that are listed as pure transparent or applying them as the first glaze. I have included a scan of the back of the box so you can see the transparency and light fastness details of each paint colour. 

The 36 pan palette comes in a plastic box which is excellent, light weight  and easily folds down to transport or pack away. It also has 2 main areas for mixing colour with  dividers so you can keep your colours fresh and clean. 

Overall I really like the set. I will probably swap out the opaques and some of the semi opaques and pop in some other more transparent colours instead but I will certainly use the set again especially if I am out and about painting. 

I am working on a small painting using these colours and will post it later today.

A rose... with love

This was my demo piece yesterday evening at the Toronto Watercolour Society. It is created using just 5 colours: Perylene Green, Perylene Violet, Sap Green, Quin Coral and Quin Gold deep. I have put a new paint Along video on my website of the process. Maybe you would like to follow along and create your own rose to send to someone special this Valentines Day.

https://emotiveexpressions.ca/paint-along-with-ona/free-paint-along-videos-for-everyone-to-enjoy/with-love/

Oh Baby It's Cold Outside!

Sometimes there is a painting that just makes you smile when you are working on it. This was one of them. I just loved bringing his expression to life and making him look and feel really cold by playing with colours on his face and giving him dragon's breath.

Transparent Watercolour 15 by 22 inches

Do you think I ought to let him in to warm up now?

A Glimpse into my process of Creation:

 I guess when you paint pretty realistically, a lot of people presume you just copy a photo. With me, this is so far from the truth. I love taking photos but if I am happy with them as photos I personally feel no need to paint them because I am happy with them as they are. What I enjoy painting is something I can't capture easily in a single photo. So if, for example, I see an expression I love or an icicle that looks super awesome shining in the light I capture these small aspects and file them away in my 'one day....' folder. They aren't great as photos in their own right but the potential in each one is there. Every so often I look through this folder and sometimes when I do an idea for a painting just pops into my head. This usually happens because of something YOU have all written about or said, or something has happened in the world to trigger my idea. So Thank you all. You might all think you are just flittering away hours posting on facebook but you all help me by doing so. Keep it up folks!

With this painting I used a photo of Garry I took at a photo shoot about 15 months ago now, back at a time of year it was a lot warmer than it is now. I had no pre conceived thoughts of a painting when i took this photo. I merely asked Garry to convey a series of different expressions/feelings. In this one I asked him to look a bit pissed off. I had a LOT of work to do adapting this photo and making his expression into someone who was cold but the basics were there! I really accentuated his nose... I wanted to make it feel ultra 3D to really show the cold blues I was going to put on it. I also changed his lips a little (and yes, I did wander around the carpark at Walmart for a good half and hour pretending to look for my car LOL to see peoples expressions in the cold. I also changed his eye brows a touch... it's all very small changes... millimeters difference but enough to adapt his expression to suit what I wanted the painting to say...

... and yes... in -20 I did go outside and actually paint part of the painting there. Why??? because water freezes in these temperatures and so as I was painting the background the watercolour froze and formed ice crystals. Its only subtle because I didn't want it to detract from his face but if you look closely at the background you can see tiny ice crystal patterns. How cool is that!!! (pun intended LOL) So there it is... from start to finish. Realistic... YES but very different from what I began with ... such fun to do!

❄️ Saturday Sneak Peak ❄️ Method Painting?

It's Bitterly cold here in Ontario this weekend (Temperatures with a high of -16 and dropping down to a feels like of -30 Celsius) Someone in my painting looks less than impressed with these temperatures!

A technique of acting known as 'Method Acting' in which an actor aspires to complete emotional identification with a part they play is certainly similar to me creating this painting in these temperatures. Doing this outside, albeit briefly, did help me to empathize with the emotions of feeling cold though. Maybe we should call it 'Method Painting'  or 'Pain Air Painting' (grin)

Big painting aside, I am also having fun experimenting to see what effects you can get painting watercolour in cold temperatures. When you paint in really cold temperatures the water crystallizes as it freezes. This creates really cool effects. It was -17 when I  did this test below. Not sure yet if I will incorporate this effect into my painting as I want a much more subtle effect but it's been fun trying it out.

I will keep practicing to see is level of wetness and temperature will create different effects. If anyone has any other ideas for creating fun effects in cold temperatures please let me know.

Waiting for Santa

Holiday Silent Auction: If anyone wishes to purchase this original piece of art, I will donate all profit to the Guelph Humane Society to help make this Christmas a special one for the animals in their care.

Like many dogs in animal shelters and human societies at this time of year, Bentley is waiting for Santa. He would love a new toy or a good bone to chew on, but more than anything Bentley hopes someone with a loving heart who is willing to give him a forever home will arrive.

Sweet Bentley was found wandering around Guelph on October 1st, 2018. He had a limp when he walked, and it was a struggle for him to move​. Even though he was in a lot of pain, Bentley still wanted to play, jump and run just like any other puppy.  Early in November Bentley had surgery on his left leg to remove the tip of the leg bone, so he would have full range of motion in his hip again. He was then fostered by my son Chris while he recuperated.

Thanks to generous Donors, this puppy got the medical care he needed, is on the road to recovery, and will hopefully soon get his wish for a new loving home. While you wait for Santa this year, maybe you would consider donating to help other animals get the medical help they need so they can find a new loving home. https://guelphhumane.ca/get-involved/donate

Waiting for Santa: 8 by 10 inches Airbrushed Watercolour and Scratch board on Ampersand Museum Quality clay board. Contact ona@onak.ca if you want to bid. Start bidding price $100. Bidding will remain open until Midnight on Christmas Day. Ona will contact the person with the highest bid on Boxing Day.

Bah Humbug!

It's time to decorate your home for the Holidays. You get out the lights and check each one...all are working beautifully so you carefully hang them up. Then you gather the family to watch the magic 'turning on of the lights' only to find one light not lit up. Bah Humbug! 

I usually work with a very limited palette when I paint so tackling this painting was a huge step outside my comfort zone... so many colours so close together EEEK!!! for someone  for whom colour and emotion is so closely intertwined it was a challenge not to get overwhelmed as I painted it. It was fun to do though. Thank you Garry for allowing me to take the photo that inspired this painting.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it. Remember, it is the light within you that is what your friends and family like about you. So don't stress about all the external trimmings.

Transparent Watercolour  17. 5 by 12 inches.

10th Annual International Signature American Int’l Watermedia Exhibition

I was very happy to hear yesterday that my painting 'Tigantai' has been selected to be part of the 10th Annual International Signature American Int’l Watermedia Exhibition which opens on February 10th next year and runs until April 21st at the Fallbrook Arts Center in California.

Reflecting on 2018 and Planning for 2019

November is my time both to reflect on the current year and to look forward to the next year. I have just released for sale a few of my smaller demos. These are just 3 of the 5 now available. when I look at them I see not only the story behind the paintings themselves but also the memories of the fun had while painting or sharing them and the friends I made doing it. Thank you all 

I am also currently preparing for my workshops and demos for 2019. I am working on a series of videos for them too so although I have been painting this month, there is nothing I am able to share with you all right at this moment. I am very excited to be planning for several new workshop themes though. Anyone who has taken one of my workshops before we know we have a fun time and learn heaps (and yes, I say we because I always learn things too). In 2019 we will be exploring the Psychology of colour in Cambridge,  playing with textures in Sudbury and learning how to paint a portrait in Burlington. So If anyone is interested in signing up for one of them you can find more details HERE.

Tigantai: The Butterfly Effect

This little Huaorani girl is Nemonte. She is named after her grandmother the eldest woman in the village who is 80 years old.  Little Nemonte, much like her grandmother, has grown up with the forest, and already knows which fruits to eat and what insects to stay away from. Nemonte shows us a butterfly (Tigantai in Wao). This butterfly is only small, just a tiny living being in a huge world, but when it flaps its wings the movement it creates in the air can change the course of the universe forever.

In other words everything we do matters. Every move we make and every action we take matters, not only to us but to everyone and everything that’s part of our life and our world today, tomorrow and even long after we’re gone.  One single action we take can have a resounding impact on our world for years to come.   So be kind, be tolerant and look after the beautiful world we live in so that others in the future can also enjoy it. 

I was so lucky that my son Chris was able to spend some time with Nemonte and her family recently. As soon as I knew he was going  I knew I had to capture the above idea in a painting. Once I had familiarized myself with her appearance I put the photos away and sketched from my heart to create the image I wanted to paint. The background is purely from my imagination.

Transparent Watercolour 21 by 26 inches on arches 140 lb cold press paper.

Dorothy J Corson Award

I was honoured to receive the Dorothy J Corson Award yesterday evening at the opening reception of the CSPWC Open Water International Exhibition.

The exhibition is open until October 26th at the John B Aird Gallery 900 Bay Street Toronto.

Ona's Pumpkin Spice Trio by Da Vinci Paint Co.

  Da Vinci Paint Co. approached me and asked if I would select a trio of their colours to create a special set which I could name. I have called it the Pumpkin Spice Trio. This trio is available from Da Vinci Paint Co. beginning today. The three colours I selected are Quin Red, Raw Sienna and Indanthrene Blue. They are gorgeous colours on their own but together they create magic.... beautiful fall oranges, muted greens, shadow purples and AMAZINGLY rich darks... just perfect for capturing fall colour, pumpkins, ghords or cozy fireplaces.

 Hope you enjoy this brand new Paint along with Ona using these three colours