nature's offering....

Nature never stops giving us beautiful scenes to look at.  Places of quiet beauty where silence is the natural response.

Last fall we spend a few days near Waskesui and wandered a few paths including Boundary Bog.  Love this trail.  Although the boardwalk soon became treacherous due to ice we were able to experience the quiet beauty.  I have tried to capture some of the roughness of the branches, twigs and tree limbs amongst the moss where there are various tiny plants which sometimes give a rusty glow.  Love the moss.  This painting is done in oil.

We also spent a short time at Candle Lake and one warm evening the sky was particularly beautiful.
A larger painting done in acrylic.

River Views:  I never get tired of looking at the river!! Here are a few paintings  - the scenes are from virtually the same spot but looking in different directions.  One from the top of the hills and one looking down into the river valley where there are lots of ravines with various trees.

Small cloud studies....

Clouds have always fascinated me and inevitably I look up to see them when I go outside.  Morning and evening - they give me the weather report!

I realize that the sky is never the same and clouds do not have a "pattern" so, as far as I can see, trying to paint them provides me with a huge challenge as well as great liberty.  I finally rolled out my oil paints and did a few small studies of clouds, trying to capture a small part of their variation.

Fallen Leaves...

While I don't want to think about fall, I do like to rustle through fallen leaves and I know that as the seasons go, fall will surely come.

This watercolour was begun last spring and I have worked on it off and on for the last few months - not as consistently as I should have.  However, I am calling it finished!

Slow and steady...

The new studio is up and running. I have been painting this week and enjoy having the birds keep me company outside the open window.  I'm still getting used to the space and have some items to put on the walls in the far end area - to break up the whiteness of the space, and to cheer me up when I give my eyes a rest.  

I continue to work with watercolour in my inside the house studio - yes,  I now have two spaces which is great!  It means I can work in different mediums without having to put one away before getting the other out.  It is also much less crowded inside.

Below is the "Leaves and Stones" painting in progression so far. See if you can see the differences:-)

slow going...

Some times things move along slowly.  But this can be good and is sometimes necessary. Slow and steady is generally how I work best.

Family commitments this past month have included wonderful times together and included adding one more beautiful daughter-in-law to make 4!!  Parents and grandchildren from afar joined us for a week which certainly livened up our house.  It's so good to have a full house.

We finally finished the floor in the garage studio and I made a window curtain.  I have started moving my acrylics and oils out there.  I will keep the watercolours in the house as I have a great window location to work on them.  I have two larger river views to do in acrylics and then it's back to oils - it has been over a year and I am itching to use them.

The studio is filling up but I have the canvas on my easel and paints set to go...  I hope to work on a painting this next week.

Meanwhile there is the garden!  It seems we have so many garden spaces in our yard and I still haven't worked through them all.  But some of them are shaping up.  This little side garden has a bit more light now since removing a shed alongside it.  I've added a few more perennials but still need to weed an overabundance of clematis seedlings.

I usually spend a few hours working in the garden in the morning before it gets too hot... then it's inside to paint or sew - oh yes, that is another thing - I absolutely must get my material under control so have been working on a few smaller items. 

 
Since taking this photo I have given it a good soaking and added a few perennials.  It's surprising how plants pop up after a good drink of water.  The hostas are finally up - I love to watch their leaves unfurl, and each year they get larger.

The new watercolour of leaves and rocks below is slow going.  My last painting of leaves sold at the April show. It  was one of my favourites [I don't have many favourites which I want to hold on to for awhile, but that was one and it took a few years to finally let it go to the gallery.]

This is slow going and will take quite a bit of time to finish yet.

So lots on the go... but moving slowly with many twists and turns.  :-)

Panoramic views...

There are a number of views I never seems to tire of - one is a river!

The South Saskatchewan River runs through our city and I love being near the river - gazing up and down it or looking at many close up scenes.  Most of the panoramic river paintings I have done have been from a location north of Saskatoon near Petrofka Bridge where my sister and her family lived in a beautiful A - framed house with huge windows and deck overlooking the river valley.

I wondered why they would live in a place which required an hour drive to work and home again each day - but while looking after the house one summer I experienced a huge sense of relief and well-being as we crested the hill and drove into the yard. That helped me to understand. The vastness of the sky, the river spread out in both directions and finally disappearing around a bend, the prairie grasses swaying in the breeze, the shrubs and trees which fill in the dips between the hills - all add up to a wonderful sense of being at home in space and time.

Here are my latest and largest paintings of the North Saskatchewan River valley.
The first two are the scene from the house near Petrofka Bridge and the third is of the same river just west of Langham.
All are 20 x 60" done in acrylic on canvas.