butterflies and deer mounts

I must say at times I do get to be in interesting exhibitions. Donalda Gallery for the Arts held a taxidermy exhibit this fall and amongst critters, artists works were displayed.

This way to the show!

 This painting done by Susan Dahl with a Whitetail deer mount.

 My watercolor nuthatch paintings.

My water-colour paintings and a Mule deer mount.

Two more of my works.

 Atypical White-tail deer; Alberta record holder. A magnificent rack.

Cross White-tail-Mule deer.

Now I know there are those who are against hunting, but in all reality hunters wholly support conservation measures to ensure wildlife for all to enjoy.

For those who love to see wildlife in its natural habitat here is a very live momma Moose and young-un that we saw on our way to retrieve my paintings. Personally I find seeing and photographing wildlife thrilling.

I now take leave with a dusky view of Donalda's large lantern with rising moon. Photo taken in Oct from  Donalda Gallery for the Arts landing.

still waiting

Still waiting for my camera to be repaired and returned. I sure miss the speed of the D50 compared with my old Rebel. The Rebel takes good pics but is soooo slow that its difficult to use for birds or any movement. I had to laugh as at my attempt yesterday of capturing bees at the entrance of a rose, by the time the camera registered the image the bee was no longer there.

Gerald drove me to Donalda on saturday. I delivered the just completed mini-paintings to the Donalda Gallery. I like supporting the gallery, its pretty cool as its situated in a heritage bank building. Its run by the Donalda Arts Society which I know takes a lot of commitment for the small group that persevere to keep the doors open to the public and showcase rural artists work. A grant covers the wages for a  summer student to man the gallery during the summer. Presently there is a wonderful exhibition of Glenda Beavers paintings showcasing fifty years of painting.
Next stop, Heisler, and Mrs Potts Tea Bar and Fine Gift Emporium.  Its quite the happening place that Donna Lynne has. While we were there many people came in for ice-cream being as it was a hot day. Mrs Potts has quality consignments from jewelry to antiques as well as fine art. While there I purchased two circular cut and polished shells to use in a future Retablo. I just cannot resist pretties.

Then onward to say hello to Dave and see if he could spot me a meadowlark down the lane, but the meadowlarks were elusive; not even calling. We saw sheep that went to school, I don't think they were Mary's lambs though.

Later in the day homeward bound touring along gravel roads I spotted a meadowlark. Excitement meshed with frustration due the slow camera speed. But grace was accompanying and I was granted a few good shots that are workable for painting reference.

Meadowlark

Savannah Sparrow

Saw many of these sweet little birds on the barbed wire and fence posts.

I believe this is a Vespers Sparrow. Its amazing how it blends into the road gravel.

Another Cute Goat Painting

This is 'Stanley the Goat" a 10x14 acrylic painting, I absolutely love goats, they have wonderful character and are so much fun to paint with bold abstract art backgrounds. Gerald took me out road-tripping last weekend looking for a farm to photograph goats for future paintings. The farm where we had previously seen goats we could not get into so we wandered a few gravel roads, stopped at a country garage sale, bought a few books and found out where to find goats; jackpot. We found the farm and the farmer was home and willing came out with us to photograph her goats, so cool, she had fainting goats, billy goats, some goats with nice long ears, ah being an artist is a wonderful adventure I think next I will do a big ole billy, or maybe a doe and kid. just keep viewing to see what I paint next.

Tomorrow my solo show comes down in Donalda though I will be re-hanging some of the paintings in the upstairs part of the gallery so that those who missed the main exhibition will still be able to view a sampling of my work. The next place that "Wings of Creation will be showing is in Edmonton in the Atrium of The Kings University College from Sept 9th till end of Nov 09. This monday I deliver paintings to Cochrane for a July 1st opening at Westlands Gallery. This is a pretty exciting time for me. I will post later in the week about how the road trip to Cochrane and my fabulous opening goes, so have a great week and see you in Cochrane.

hanging the Donalda Exhibition

Well its been a busy few days with finishing off paintings, wiring the backs of the paintings, making sure my name and titles were on them, packing them up, transporting to the gallery in Donalda, unpacking, sorting, figuring out what hangs where, putting up tags, whew, now I can relax a few days then get back to painting for my next show.  This is the historical bank building in Donalda where 32 of my bird paintings are on exhibition. 

All I can say is thank you to my wonderful fella who did the transporting and the hanging of the show, he has gotten to be quite the expert at this job. It was so good to see the show up.  People come through to view the art while we were hanging it and two precious young ladies about eight years old came through and had such wonderful comments about the paintings, they made my day so much fuller.A glimpse of the show. You can see the bank vault door on the left and the safe behind the desk. What a unique and wonderful building to be invited to have an exhibition in. The gallery is open on the weekends from noon till 5:30p.m.