An Exciting New Website Discovery

I recently stumbled across Mastering Color by Richard Robinson in New Zealand, which is a great video painting course for any painting medium - oils, acrylic, watercolor etc - it's all about how to see color properly and translate it to canvas. It covers lots of in-depth material in a way that's really easy to understand. I totally recommend this for all painters who need better control of their color - and lets face it, most of us do! Here's the link to the website:

Mastering Color Course

Oh, here's the chapter list too:

1. Color Theory

2. Seeing Color

3. Describing Color

4. Value

5. Mixing Color

6. Manipulating Color

7. Color Harmony

8. Light Effects

You can watch the first chapter for free on the site:

Mastering Color Course

"Rusty 1948 GMC" 20x24" Watercolour

After having driven by this old truck on Beaver Point Road for years, I finally knuckled down and painted it this summer. It was pure joy to find a multitude of colours both warm and cool in this old relic. I decided that it didn't need the forest behind it, so I treated it as a vignette instead.

"Rocky Point at Ingrams" 8x10" Oil

Down at the south end of Salt Spring, this rocky point of land juts out into Fulford Harbour. I love the arbutus trees that grow in abundance here and lament the fact that none grow on my own property.

"Rocky Island No.1" 8x10" Acrylic

It's so great to live on an island and have ready access to scenes such as this one at the south end of Salt Spring. I couldn't resist painting it.

"Lavender Harvester No.4" 8x10" Oil

My student and friend, Margrit, modelled for this painting which was started in acrylics and finished with oils. The fields were at their peak of ripeness. We bought several plants to take home for our own gardens.

"Lavender Harvester No.3" 8x10" Oil

Again at the lavender farm with a student, Janet, modelling. I switched from acrylics to oils to finish this painting.

"Rincón de Frida" 20x24" Watercolour

"Frida's Corner" Another storefront, this time in the city of Colima, Mexico. Lots of Frida Kahlo memorabilia can be found here. See an earlier posting re. using various salts to create texture in watercolours.

"Hollyhocks No.2" 16x20" Watercolour

My first love is painting florals. They naturally provide the colour I would like to put into my paintings. These hollyhocks grow tall in my garden and reappear every year without any effort on my part. Just one of God's many gifts found in nature.

"Glass Bowl & Lemons No.1" 20x24" Watercolour

The second in the Glass Series. I slanted the table to add movement to the painting. I wrote a how-to article about how I painted this for an online newsletter which will appear soon on http://www.currys.com/. Click on Artist Community and sign up for their free newsletter.

"Glass Bowl & Bird No. 1" 20x24" Watercolour

I started a series with glass objects this year and it's been very exciting! Glass is challenging to paint, no doubt about that.

"Orange Wedges No.3" 16x16" Watercolour

A different viewpoint can make quite a difference, can't it? This one was done in watercolour -- transparent and opaque.

"Orange Wedges No.1" 12x16" Acrylic

The first in the Orange Wedges series -- this one done with acrylics. Three in the series were done as step-by-step demos with a group of students. They all designed their tablecloths differently.

"Lavender Harvester No.2" 8x10" Acrylic

The second in the Lavender Farm series, with one of my students as "model." Are you wondering if the fragrance of the lavender was overwhelming? No, not at all.

"Lavender Harvester No.1" 8x10" Acrylic

This is the first in my Lavender Farm series. My summer students loved learning to paint the striking fields of multi-hued lavender.

"Comala Window With Bike" 16x20" Watercolour

This was the second in the Comala series using a variety of salts: table, Himalayan, Kosher and coarse. It's great fun creating amazing textures with these simple tools.

"Méxicanías" 16x20" Watercolour

This is the first in a series of storefront paintings I did inspired by our many trips to Mexico since 2003. A little town called Comala just outside of Colima provided lots of material.
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"Watson" 16x20"

Here's Watson, the second horse belonging to my art student Wendy. It was quite a challenge painting these horses as they are not my forte by any means. I used almost all the dozens of photos I took -- I needed to see all the details in order to understand what I was seeing. Art is so much about seeing, isn't it?

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"CC" 16x20"

CC belongs to Sam, the daughter of a student of mine. As a commission, I painted both CC and Watson in 2005. After taking many, many photos of the pair, I finally painted their portraits with acrylics.

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"Vase of Lilacs" 16x20"

This watercolour entitled "Vase of Lilacs" was featured in Sidney Fine Arts Show 2006, a well-attended juried show held annually in October in Sidney, B.C. The use of salt helped me create the lilac blossoms. My favourite part of the painting is the shadows.

Welcome to My Blog

Welcome to my new Blog! I'm excited to finally have a visual presence on the "web." In February I bought a digital camera and an up-to-date computer. (My old "dinosaur" on dial-up had only 11 GB and that was with 2 hard drives.) It's been quite an adventure with a steep learning curve. I'd appreciate any comments you'd like to make on my paintings. You can do that right on this site. Thanks.

"Arbutus at Water's Edge" 24x30"

Acrylics seemed the appropriate medium to capture this scene at Welbury Bay. Several students and I hiked along a narrow path skirting this property which juts into the water.

"Spring Flowers in a Clear Vase" 20x24"

This is a watercolour that I'm particularly proud of. It was juried into the Sidney Fine Arts Show 2005 and sold there. Here's a good example of back-lighting. It's magical, transforming an ordinary vase of flowers into something truly spectacular. Such is the power of Light.

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