A Day at Airlie Beach will be up for auction along with a wide variety of other local artists' work at Jamie and Carol Laird's Art Auction coming up soon this month. The two, who have been giving their time and skills all over the world for many years, are raising funds for their six week trip to India where they will be participating in medical clinics, teaching English and purchasing medicine and school supplies to donate while they are there. Check out their Facebook event page here and their Laird's website here! The art auction begins April 12th and runs until the 24th at the Skeena Diversity Centre. Good luck to you both, Carol and Jamie! 

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who came out last night for the opening reception for Collette Goutier Stewart's and my art show "Paint" at the Skeena Diversity Centre. There was a great turnout, we had lots of fun and we each sold something! Once I get good quality photos of all my new works I will post them on the Artwork tab so you can view larger images. Here is a sampling of my new work and the gallery space with both of our works on the walls.

Well, its finished! I am finally posting some pics of the orchid I painted for Jessie's salon called Twisted Orchid Studio. Here's a close up in-progress shot that I Instagrammed on my art account. The filters in Instagram help bring out the colour and contrast that my phone camera diminishes.

    When applied with a small paint brush, the latex paint can be very thin and require many coats to cover an area. It also gets tacky fast, and therefore is hard to blend well to create gradual tonal changes. Next time I think I will lay down a midtone layer or two over all the petals before going in with the shadows and highlights. I tried to do it all at once, but the surface was too large, even for each individual petal sometimes, and it required two coats of paint for each section. 

      Here's the whole thing. Hopefully you can see the scale by comparing with the chair, stool, and outlets in the wall. It's taller than I am! I learned a lot about how to put the colour down because I was using interior latex paint rather than acrylic, which I am more used to working with. 
   We decided not to add leaves at the bottom because some shelving was going there anyways. In the end I added a fresh light green to the tips of the petals to brighten and saturate the image. It was lots of fun!

Preparations are almost complete for Collette's and my art show! It has been a busy week with a few late nights finishing up some new paintings. Come by the Skeena Diversity Centre tomorrow evening from 6-8pm for snacks and art viewing! If you can't make it out tomorrow, visit the Centre in the next two weeks to check out the art. Then check back whenever you are nearby as there is always new art going up! If you can, check out the Red Raven Gallery's new location a couple doors down before the show opening at 6. Hope to see you there!

This is an in progress shot of a painting called Luna I am working on for a show with Collette Goutier Stewart. It opens February 1st at the Skeena Diversity Centre. More info to come but keep that night free so you can come by and check it out!

I believe it was during this year of 2013 that I made a goal to have an art show by the end of December, but I don't think I'm going to make it. I am, however, preparing for a show in February 2014 with Collette Stewart, so that pretty much counts! Stay tuned for sneak peeks and updates of progress here and there. We are doing at least one painting together, and may have a variety of media for your viewing in this show. I'm excited! Let me know if there's anything you'll want to see in terms of materials or subject matter.

Also coming soon: a wall mural for the talented Jessie Porter in her new salon called the Twisted Orchid.

   This weekend I got to help a friend do some silkscreening for a project she is working on for her friend's birthday present. Silkscreening was new to her so as always it was fun to teach someone the process one on one. I think she learned it could be easy and fun, though not without some troubleshooting strategies and a major spillage of screen filler fluid thanks to moi! We printed on two gorgeous colours of jersey fabric which she will later sew up one seam to create two infinity scarves.

I don't always like posting the inbetween stages of an artwork because it seems to take away from the mystery of the process, but this piece ended up having a lot of meaning to it and underwent many changes along the way. Here's a snapshot of how it looked quite a ways down the road (can't find the one of it really early on) and below it is the final piece, currently hanging in the Terrace Art Gallery.

This piece is called "Grace" and it represents my Grandpa's spirit soaring gracefully back to meet up with my Granny's. One would not be complete without the other, and when my Grandpa passed I had a small smile in my heart knowing that they would be together again. 
   You may recognize the eagle design from other artworks I have posted and it is indeed the same one. I originally designed the eagle to represent my Grandpa because I knew I wanted to create a work dedicated to his memory in some form. The bald eagle was one of his favourite animals, and to me it represents an honourable and graceful life lived. I am happy to say that my brother and his wife will be keeping this piece in the family when the show comes down! <3