exhibition at Wildbird General Store

Out of the Reeds, Blue-winged Teal

Art now showing at the Wildbird General Store in Edmonton

http://wildbirdstore.com

The show is hung with love and care for all to enjoy. It is so good to see a new show go up. This is smaller venue than the last so fewer painting are displayed though. Gerald has done a wonderful job of hanging 16 in a small space and has it looking fabulous. Its such a great venue to show my paintings as people who come there love birds and nature. Opening night is Dec 3 from 7-9 pm. I am all excited about this new venture. As I realize the beauty and fantastic variety in life that surrounds us daily it fills my being with joy and I pray that my work will bring joy to others.

looking for the colors

Fall has been a rather dreary assemblage this year. The leaves froze on the trees stunting their colorful sky dances; leaving instead curled brown wind beaten leaves that cling still-desperately to the trees. So it has been a matter of searching out the small ofttimes hidden spasms of color amongst the gray-browns of decay.

I liked the play of the shadows silhouetting the fruit upon the fence.

purple greens, such a lovely pause

This is Skitters, he is the new resident squirrel. He's a wee bit shy and timid, though he tends to be curious about my camera he keeps a fair distance between himself and I. Which I can tell you is quite fine with me. The memories of two previous encounters of psycho squirrels is quite enough for me. Years back on a mid winter walk along the Bow River in Calgary I had one run up my leg which led me to screaming as it climbed towards my face. it must have been quite a sight as my companion buckled over laughing as I crazily danced about attempting to shake the rodents clutches. The next experience was last summer at my friends house. I was watering the flowers when a squirrel ran at me from behind, pounced the back of my legs, ran up and onto the wall of the house. At once I turned the water stream upon the critter who in turn did an about face and charged again, causing my rapid retreat into the house.

Sunflower lovers
I kinda missed posting for a bit so heres to halloween past, I like the "important" tag hanging off the house cable behind. My daughter loves halloween yet has missed it two years in a row by being in Oz. So here's to you my dear.

Young Crow and Pretty Sparrow

Where does the time fly to, seems it was just spring and now there is frost on the ground, and yesterday I woke to a sprinkling of snow. This young crow found the sunflower seeds that the finches toss all over in their gluttonous feeding sprees. He did not seem to fazed when I opened the window to take his picture. I quite like the pose.
Then as soon as I had put the camera down I heard a sound at the side window and peeked out, here was a little sparrow, such a sweet wee thing. I just love these little birds, and I haven't even painted one yet. He was doing a cute little survival of the fittest jump hop an drag of leaves to shuffle them aside to unearth bugs and seeds that have fallen.
Having a rest from all that work, paused but a moment for me to get off one good and two bad shots in succession then back to his jump-scratch-hop-peek methods which enabled me a lot of blurry shots.
And to sum up the morning I shot some color, which we did not get much of this year as the leaves froze to the trees, turned mostly brown and dropped off. Have a beautiful day.

The Art Connoisseur

The Art Connoisseur

This little pretty is for sale at Westlands Art Gallery in Cochrane Alberta. I just loved painting this one, doesn't he just look like he would enjoy viewing a colorful art exhibition.

I have a Great Blue Heron painting on the drawing table thats waiting to be finished. My studio has new wood flooring installed, thanks to the wonderful hard work of my son and Gerald, thank you my dears, it is so nice and warm on the feet compared to lino. Now I need to haul in my old painting rug to protect the floor under my easel. I have a cabinet coming on sunday to display my odd assortment of still life articles that I have collected for themed paintings, bird ornamentation and a variety of vases. I am so looking forward to having all my things in one place. Hugs to all, have a great weekend.

Summer dreams

Summer is but a dream away. Feeling a bit down, I miss the vibrant blooming colors. I was going to post a blossom but decided this was a cheerful shot, ahh the lazy hazy days of summer.

Snows have come

Time just spins by and I know not whereupon it travels. The snow blew in with the cool winds and birds huddle by the feeder. And I impatiently wishing my finger to heal so that I can get back to serious painting. I can't even take photos as its my right pointer that I slew with a jagged broken needle, ouch. Hurts thinking about it. Foolishness begets injury. I went for x-rays as the needle broke in two inside my finger and it seemed as though there may be a piece left in, but thankfully there is no metal embedded in my finger. It only needs time to heal.

So I am posting a little sparrow of sorts, don't know what type, but its so sweet its begging to be painted. The photo was taken in Kananaskis in the sweet, sweet summertime. Ah how I miss the flowers already. The frost and snow killed them off about a week ago, sigh. Winter is such a sad time for me, too cold, and it pains my body dreadful. Yet it is during the winter I buckle down and paint steady. Painting is meditative. I have a large Blue Heron painting on the easel waiting to be completed and a whole aviary of birds on the brain scratching, chipping, squawking in a flap to be set free on canvas.

Kings University Exhibition is up

Here is a shot of the beautiful Atrium at The Kings University College in Edmonton where my paintings are presently on display till mid Nov. You can see some of my paintings on the far wall, they continue through to the right of where I stood and took the photo from. On the upper level is Daniel's show and some of Kings students work.My lovely daughter came to give me loving support and a few laughs.
A couple of show goers admiring the swans. These are portraits of four of the Camrose resident swans. The swans were fantastic to paint, as each upon close scrutiny were all different from one another in face and stature. Its pretty amazing that all beings have their own personality and looks, even creatures I falsely thought were all alike. Like wow, life is amazing with its abundance of variety in species. Its to bad that mankind is the worst species for causing the downfall of birds, animals and each other. Maybe some day everyone will realize that we must think generations ahead and not just for the day.

Caughtcha with hand in the chip dish. My most trusted chauffeur and assistant Gerald. He delivered the art and helped Daniel hang the exhibition. This was his time to relax, get to chat with people and take photos for me, but alas he got the chatting part down to a tee and had a wonderful time.... and I did not get many photos of the people looking at the paintings but I tell you I could not ask for a better assistant, he's tops!
A joyful touch to the afternoon was of having Brenda show up rounding off the afternoon with more excellent company. The show will be up until mid november and then some pieces will go to Canmore and some to the Wildbird General Store in Edmonton for Dec.