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There is nothing like a pool of water in the middle of the desert. Bizarre: yes, peaceful: incredibly so.
This was painted at the nearby Oasis State Park. Many people are attracted to the fishing hole here. On a busy day families are lined up along the pink stones dropping their lines in for catfish and guzzling sodas. The morning I set up my paints at a shady picnic table the only other people around were a father and daughter fishing quietly from camping chairs.
I’ll definitely be revisiting this gorgeous place to paint more… if only it was a swimming hole!
Oasis, oil on canvas, 8 x 10"
Here is another painting in my new body of work on the theme of merging with the natural world. It is a lot more subdued and calming in person but I needed to photograph it with more light to catch the detail.
On the Pond, oil on canvas, 16 x 20"
On the Pond, detail
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Sleeping Willow, oil on canvas, 16 x 20"
Here is the another painting along the same theme and narrative as the last.
Lake Blanket, oil on canvas, 16 x 20"
I’m working on a group of paintings (well, at least a pair of paintings): sleep-walkers, sleep-swimmers, sleep-paddlers caught in the middle of their dreaming when you wander out with a flashlight to see just where they’ve floated off to. To me these paintings are strongly connected with the paintings Cedar Falling and Desert Girl from yesterday’s post.
Today’s painting is a thank-you to artist Peter Doig, whose canvases fill my dreams on a regular basis. Who has painted many canoes, star-flecked skies and pudgy, dancing pine trees.
Thanks is also due to Canadian musician and poet Gordon Downie whose music and lyrics filter into my mind (and heart) on a near-daily basis. The songs Starpainters and Lofty Pines were particularly influential in the making of this painting, and the next painting that I will aim to post tomorrow.
Thanks also to my brothers who pasted the constellations with tiny glow-in-the-dark stickers on their bedroom ceilings growing up. And who continue to dream big, lofty dreams with white paddles flashing with silver…
Under Star Stickers, oil on canvas, 16 x 20"
And here is a detail:
Under Star Stickers detail
Today I needed cheering up, so I painted myself a picnic. A picnic on a lily pad, because that’s the way life should be some days. With the sun streaming down and flickering off the surface of the water, you crunch a dill pickle between your teeth and listen to the sound of water lapping up around your little luncheon raft.
Luncheon on the Lily Pad, oil on board, 10 x 10"
Today is a sunny yet blustery sunday. The wind has reached a lower temperature today that warns winter is just around the corner. I am planning a long well-lit day inside, warm and with watercolours.
This is a waterfall diptych I completed in October that has gone to live with another one of my bear bather paintings in a private collection.
The bathers III & IV, oil on canvas, 24 x 32"
Spent the Canada Day weekend in Cape Breton… went for a hike… shed my clothes… then realized other tourists had made their way up the path and were getting a bit of a show… apologized… went for a dip (very chilly waterfall dip!)… and a friend took a picture. On the drive back to NB I dreamed up this painting and a month later got the time to execute it using my friend’s picture as a reference.
Here is a detail:
Cape Breton Bears, oil on canvas, detail
I could post a picture of the finished Berry picking painting but that would ruin all the suspense for my late September show in Fredericton. Instead I shall give you a fun watercolour I did recently. It may end up being an illustration for a children’s book I’m working on.
Fish, watercolour on paper, 7 x 9.5"
