Artists by the Sea, St. Andrews NB, 2008

Artists by the sea is a fundraiser for the Charlotte County Hospice. Artists paint around beautiful St. Andrews by the Sea, New Brunswick and the paintings are available by silent auction on both days of the event. This year proved again to be successful, both for the Hospice (raising more than $10,000) and for me. I think that I painted better than I have done at previous similar events. This is supported by the fact that of all the paintings I made, I only got to bring one of them home. All paintings below are watercolour and now in private collections unless otherwise noted.

Day One (July 11, 2008)

From the Golf Course 10x 14"

Marina 7x15" Pottery Creek, 10 x 14", collection the artist

Pottery Creek II, 10 x 7"

"Working" 7 x 10" Tobermorry, 10 x 10"

Water St. 10 x 14"

Day Two (July 12, 2008)

Marina II, 7 x 10"

Tobermorry II, 5 x 15"

Tobermorry III, 5 x 15"

July 7 2008

Here are a couple of works that I finished today.

Red Boats, 10 x 29", watercolour, 2008, Private Collection

In Season, 14 x 20", watercolour, 2008,NFS

Somehow I missed this one...

Waking, 7 x 15", watercolur, June 2008, 

I painted this one two weeks or more ago (on the same day as the very similar study) but failed to post it. This was my attempt to capture the foam, froth and waves thrown out behind this boat in its wake.

Strawberry Season

study I, 4 x 6", watercolour, June 2008, NFS

study II, 4 x 6 ", watercolour, June 2008, NFS

Red Boats (study) 4 x 10", June 2008, watercolour

Private Collection

Between the boats of the scallop fleet and the fresh strawberries, it has been an exercise in red here recently. I am now finishing up a larger version of the above small boat picture. Stay tuned for a peek at that soon.

Then I want to paint more strawberries. The season has just gotten started here and should run for a couple more weeks so I hope to get a still life done from life. The two above were just warm ups to get an idea of how to proceed. I am reasonably pleased with them for first attempts but see how I will try differently next time. At least I have had a chance to actually paint some from life. Last year I managed to photograph some strawberries but never got around to painting them.

Finally I have time to paint again

After weeks of running around doing other things and delivering paintings here and there I finally have some time to paint again. Here is what I have done lately:

Wake (study), 4 x 6", June 2008

Private Collection

Lady Slipper, 14 x 10", June 2008

Private Collection

These are pink ladyslippers, they are native to the Atlantic Provinces but they are very rarely seen around where I grew up in New Brunswick. I was delighted when I discovered some here. One does have to know where to look, though; maybe I just did not know where to look in NB. If you are lucky enough to see them in the wild, please leave them (or any other wildflower for that matter) undisturbed. Even picking the blossoms will remove seeds from the ecosystem and disrupt the natural patterns of the plant, leaving less plants in years to come.

Apple Blossom Art Show Awards

I entered 3 paintings in the Festival of Art which is part of the Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival. This is an art show and sale which ran for two weeks at the Greenwood Mall in Greenwood, NS. The paintings were: Blueberry Field, 10 x 14", which won an honourable mention in the Landscape division,

Conflagration (Red Dahlia), 14 x 20", which won Judge's Choice and the third painting was the portrait that I did of my daughter Alice. Alice won both the second prize in Portaiture and the People's Choice award. (I have not posted the photo of Alice's portrait as Google reserves the right to reproduce and save indefinitely any images posted on this blog. If you are interested in seeing the painting contact me directly, please.)

Back again

Here I am back after a longer than intended break. First vacation then the urge to garden has kept the painting time shorter than usual. Right now I am struggling on a large pink peony (am getting tired of pink so I hope I finish it soon) Meanwhile I finished these before vacation but am only posting them now.

Bear Island (again) 7 x 10" May 2008 (watercolour) Cornwallis seen from Digby, 14x21" May 2008 (watercolour)