Housekeeping

Greetings to those of you who find this blog.  I realize that a lot of the paintings posted here have prices posted for them as they were once available for sale.  I will over time go back and clean this up.  The paintings that I now have available for sale are listed on my website and you can read about them on my new blog.  This blog is painfully out of date.  Ouch!

So, please note that paintings listed here as if for sale may actually no longer be available.  Please accept my apologies for the confusion.  I will make an effort to clean this blog up.

Many thanks for your understanding in the meantime.

Moving to a new blog

Greetings all of you.

 I have mentioned my new blog before but now I realize that I cannot keep posting regularly on two blogs.

I do not want to lose my blogger readers so I encourage you all to move on over to my new blog which can be found at www.poppybalser.com/blog   I will be posting the same sort of content but it will be much simpler for me as it will be linked in with my website (http://www.poppybalser.com/) 

I will occaisionally still post here as well but am finding it too much to maintain both of them well. 

For now I shall leave you with a teaser... 

This painting is a copy of a portrait by J.S. Sargent whose work I admire greatly.  I set out to copy his painting to learn more about how he depicts his subjects...

To read more about how I made the copy and to see a photo of the Sargent original, please visit my new blog here.

Thanks for following along here, I am glad that you found me and hope that you continue to enjoy what I have to say in my new virtual digs.

(You can always keep up to date on what I am up to by subscribing to my Paintings by Poppy newsletter, too)

Warm Surf, 7 x 10", watercolour, Oct 2010

I have been working on making pictures of waves.  I want to show the movement of the water in its changing shapes.  To do this, I have focussed on just the wave itself, ignoring any other elements that might add to making an interesting image.  This gives me some challenges, in that I have to manufacture or find darks to set off the lights of the foam.  This wave was actually quite sunlit, from the viewers right-hand side.  I need to set off the white crest without making the background so dark that I lose the feeling of sunlight shining all around. 

Frozen Wave, 7 x 10", watercolour, Oct 2010

This is another one where I have made the background significantly darker.  This gives it, to me at least, the look of a stormy dark even angry ocean.   Not the look I was going for in the first one!

There are much fewer warmer colours in the first painting than in the second painting.  The reds and oranges change the sense of temperature of the water.  At the beach where I captured the photos for these paintings there is a stream which empties onto the beach, carrying amber coloured peat-laden water.  This mixes into the ocean water and changes it from the pure clear ocean colours to warmer, tea like water.  Makes for a great picture though.  

Feeling Foolish

Happy Halloween!  We have survived the excitement for another year.  Now just to enjoy the mountain of candy.  One thing about living in the country is that our neighbours are so pleased to have trick or treaters that they make up a bagful for each kid who lives here!  Yikes!  Good thing our dentist does not read this!  But really, I am not complaining.  Our neighbours are so generous to us in so many ways, and it is fun to do the rounds with the kids.  Before I know it, the idea of going around with Mom on Halloween will be scarier for my kids than any ghost story!  So until that time, we have a blast!

Back to painting...

I recently upgraded to a newer computer, with a different operating system and lo and behold, discovered that somehow I could no longer upload pictures onto Blogger.  Or so I thought....  Here I am now figuring it out!  Hooray!  How silly of me!

So what have I been up to in the intervening time?

I have added a new collection of paintings to my poppybalser.com website, with the self explanatory title of Small Works under $100.  Check it out, there are some new works there.

Foggy Morning at the Marina, 5 x 7", watercolour

I also have started a new blog within that website, click here to access the blog.  You can read about the wave paintings that I have been working on and a little bit about New Brunswick herring weirs.

Leave a comment on either spot, let me know what you think.  Is there one format that you prefer over the other?  Will you be likely to visit two blogs to read what I am up to?  Or does it seem like too much bother?  I am curious to what your response will be.

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October 2010

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Painting Contest by


BoldBrush


Sponsor:

FASO

Artist Websites

Here it is, contest entry time again.  If you would like to see this painting at the top of the list of popular entries, please click the "like" button.  And, in the category of breaking news, my entry from last month has qualfied as a Favourite 15% Finalist in the September Bold Brush Competition.

FAV 15%

Finalist

BoldBrush Painting Contest

September 2010

Sponsor:

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Guess Who Painting

Deer Island Weir, 5 x 7", Sold

This painting is a watercolour on paper, mounted on a canvas and varnished for protection with UV protective varnish.

It is my donation to the (now past) Guess Who event at Sunbury Shores arts and Nature Center in support of children's art education in St Andrews NB.  Click here to read more about the event (which was a lot of fun, by the way!) 

More red rowboats in the Bay of Fundy

Red Rowboat sketch 6

Red Rowboat sketch 7

These are the two small (5 x 7") sketches that I prepared for my client.  She chose the lower one for me to go on with.  I scaled up my drawing, manipulating the horizon a bit, and painted the final version:

Red Rowboat in Racquette Cove, 14 x 21", Sold

It has been approved and delivered.  The recipient expressed pleasure, and the artist is happy!