Plein Air Inspiration

Kirkland, Washington... art opening at Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery
[He carries some dynamic artists' work... REALLY worth a visit]


The road trip I took to Kirkland on Wednesday was fabulous. The day was sparkling on the lake, on the people, and I think a little on me too. I plunked myself down under a tree here and did a small pen and ink sketch of this scene:



The water, trees, sunshine, boats... all things that inspire me and make my spirit feel calm.



These two painters below really inspired me for my upcoming plein air painting weekend in Whistler with my artist friend, Lori.


I had a short chat with these artists about my fears of people looking over my shoulder, making comments (positive or negative) and how they handled these remarks when painting in public. Their response to me (another "intruder"!) was that they just keep on doing what they love to do. From some of their stories, they have received some rather strange criticisms and tips from "know it alls", but generally they said that you just have to let it run off your back and keep to your vision of the moment...

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Whistler Weekend


We drove up separately because we filled up our vehicles with a lot "just in case" materials and paintings. I remembered the cooler of food and my hat too...





The traffic was pretty smooth flowing seeing it was a Friday and the fact that they're doing construction. I know this photo isn't the greatest, but I love the Howe Sound view while driving up the Sea to Sky Highway.








We got up early on Saturday and walked up to the Upper Village... a little nervous at first for fear that we would get "kicked out", but people loved us being there... we loved it too!

This is the view across from where we were painting... we had a little lunch there. I thought it looked so European with the flowers and umbrellas.

Heading home on Sunday, I stopped in at the Lions Bay Art Gallery. I've wanted to visit last time I was up that way, but the timing didn't work out. The gallery is run by artist Michael Tickner's wife, Alice Tickner. I have always been a fan of his colourful, cheerful work and have seen a lot of cards and prints of his paintings on Granville Island.



Seeing as I had my truck full of art, I decided to show Alice. We chatted for about 2 hours or so about art, art careers, spiritual matters, artists... lots of stuff - she's so easy to talk to. She loved what I showed her and decided to represent my work. I'm pretty excited about it!

"Long Tall Sally" 24"x12"

Lions Bay Art Gallery

Out and About with Art

On Wednesday, I'm going on a quick jaunt to Kirkland (just outside of Seattle) to visit Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery. It's the gallery that I show at and I just love meeting up with all the artists. Gunnar is very generous and also puts on a good show that everyone enjoys. Great networking and socializing.

I love the road trip down there and being close to the water again. I'm going early on Wednesday morning... after my Valley Business Networking group meeting at 6:45am (we're reading a GREAT book right now: "Eat That Frog") and after teaching piano to my summer student (she's such a young, confident girl!), then I'm hittin' the road down south with sketch book, pencil and watercolours in the back seat.

I'll take lots of photos.

Next art trip: back to Whistler this weekend where my artist friend, Lori, and I are going to "set up shop" somewhere on the grass or something, paint and display our paintings. I can't wait to go and enjoy the mountains again.

I'll take lots of business cards and promotional materials - looking forward to meeting lots of people and getting to work outdoors, "plein air" painting...

Until then... happy art adventures once again!

A Day at the Show

My friend Tracey and I went to the Abbotsford Air Show on a gorgeous Friday summer day. She received some tickets from a friend for the VIP tents - an all inclusive kind of day. We arrived there at about 11:00 am all fresh and ready to start what was about to become "our adventure"...



Here we are with our lovely host, Shakuntla, from the Pacific Newspaper Group.


The show started out with parachuters garishing Canadian flags and one jumper with an American flag.


After the opening ceremony, we decided to go "walk-about" and check out some of the other tents. We didn't go too far as we saw that directly to the right of us was the Snowbirds' and Thunderbirds' tent. We mustered up some courage and walked in. Well well well... we found a volunteer to take a photo with us. I took a picture of Tracey with her phone, so I don't have it here.

After speaking with Thunderbird pilot, Kirby, for a while, we spotted Major Charla... the totally amazing OBGYN surgeon and F16 pilot! What a personable, accomplished young woman - we were so impressed and asked her every question we could think of.

The Thunderbirds getting ready to display their talents:

After their show, the Snowbirds were up:



Hmmm... we decided to stay close to "home" and wait until the Snowbirds were finished to get their autographs. I found one here and asked him to sign his autograph on my skin (he he he). No go... apparently they don't do that - or sign flags either... So, he signed my name badge. (awe... c'mon!)


As the afternoon progressed, we became mission oriented and were having a blast seeking out the men in uniform for photo ops!

ALAS! A man brave enough to ink my skin with his autograph! Too fun!

Tracey had her thigh autographed! He made our day... apparently we made HIS too!

OK...next mission: see what other tents we can get into! We went to the President's Club tent and tried to walk in like we owned the place.

Good try, but we were asked for ID pretty quickly (darn!)... shoed away like common people! (lol) Next... why not try the Executive Club tent.

Again... a no go.

Well... we tried. One thing that was a "for sure": we had a great time! We're looking forward to more silly, youthful adventures - hopefully we'll never stop being young!

Pemberton Festival

Thanks to the media's mega coverage of all that went wrong with this event, I'm sure we're all a little "Pemberton-ed Out", but this is MY little story...

[I have quite a few fotos and a few videos to show you, so let me know if you had trouble viewing this blog.]

I was invited to go at the last minute for the last day (Sunday). When I was young, I didn't go to a lot of concerts and never to a biggie outdoor one, so how could I say no?

The photo above is how is how I've always seen the Pemberton/Whistler area in summer... beautiful, green, pristine...

I really had no idea what to expect but I certainly didn't expect this:

(yikes! a garbage mine field - some plates still full of left over food which left for some squishy steps if you weren't looking.)

Yup... it was a mess and yup, the traffic was crazy. We all heard a lot about it on the radio and TV, but that is ALL I am going to say about the negative stuff. I have to give the organizers kudos for putting together this HUGE event for the first time...

My friend and I were REALLY there to see Cold Play and the rest of the bands were a bonus. Sunday started off with Vampire Weekend - they were fun, trendy and had some great tunes. [I am not a very articulate music critic, just basic and to the point!]

After Vampire Weekend, N.E.R.D. was up. As one concert ended and the next began, we had a chance to move further to the front to wait for Cold Play. The crowd grew restless as N.E.R.D. showing up became less of a possibility. It was kind of neat as the crowd spontaneously started to sing "O Canada" as we waited [and waited and waited].

N.E.R.D. finally came on minus 2 band members - uhh... great excuse guys: "we were stuck in traffic". How about preparation and wouldn't they be travelling together? Whatever...

This was a totally new experience for me, especially seeing as the crowd was oh...maybe between 18-26 years of age and my friend and I are in our 40s... clearly strange fish in this pond! This band really got the energy of the crowd moving - amazing how a small group can have such control over the masses. In my naivety (being so close to the front), I was all of the sudden in the midst of "slam dancing" and "surfing". Wow! I had 3 guys land on my head and got bounced around like a rag doll!

I was actually having a blast in this new youthful experience!

Death Cab for Cutie was up next and at least I knew a bit of their music. They were more on the mellow side, a little break between the rappers.

Here's a little clip of Jay Z. It's really tough to take a proper video when you're being shoved and bounced in every direction... but you'll get the idea.

All in all though, I've gotta say that it was a good crowd... everybody was truly enjoying themselves.

Ok... so now my friend decides that he's gotta do one for the "bucket list" and try to crowd surf. Oh heck, why not! All the college kids were totally egging him on and before I knew it, he was on his way... RIGHT to the front...

Lost him... but now Cold Play was next and I was corralled closer to the front of the oxygen deprived stage area. It's tough to get some air when you're so short!

Here a shot of Cold Play's arrival on stage:

AND... a wee clip of them starting out...

I finally found my frient by the bus shuttle line up, and by that time, the line up was unreal and the traffic, crazy. We decided to walk back to the airport (like a lot of other people) where the car was parked. I just had to get a snap of these trees... don't really know why... maybe I liked the fence behind them.

Made it back to the car eventually and the next day, took the long way home through Mount Currie and the back roads of Lillooet Lake through to Harrison. A little dusty, but GORGEOUS!

Anyway... there's always lots of stories and I'm not much of a writer. I'm learning to write and express myself through blogging - a great exercise so far!

Meeting on Kits Beach

I Meet Up with an Italian group in Vancouver once or twice a month to keep up with speaking Italian. We're a chatty group of people that love panninis and espresso. Usually we meet at Cafe Rustico on Main Street, but this time we did something a little different... Kitsilano Beach. Seeing as I don't live by the ocean and love it so much, this a meeting that I was definitley going to attend!



It was a perfect evening when arrived yesterday. Just look at that sky!

I couldn't find 'il groupo' in the place we were supposed to meet, so I kept walking up to Starbucks on Cornwall to get a latte and sit by the water. All was ok as I was so totally in the moment!

This is what I like about the city... so many people gathering by the ocean and sand... outdoors, playing sports, visiting, eating, drinking... enjoying themselves.

I finished my coffee and continued my walk around what used to be my beach neighbourhood about 10 years ago.

As I'm walking along I see a bunch of people sitting/lying on blankets on the grass under a big tree. They were playing guitars and singing and having a great time...

HEY... wait a minute! That's my group... singing Italian songs! I sat down and joined them - some new faces - always nice. I got so involved that I forgot to take a picture of all of us. We sang some more, talked about art, music, Italy, food, wine, travelling, we all have a lot in common. We are meeting again soon to continue this spectacular evening - more singing, guitars and possibly a few more 'refreshments'! Then I MUST remember to get a shot of us all.

As we said our 'ciaos' and 'arrivadercis' we soaked in the last of the sun's rays of the evening and headed home...

...can't wait till next time...

Follow up, Recap and Updates in a Photo diary...

FOLLOW UP 1:



In my very first blog *"How Long Does it Take to Paint a Painting" [June 8, 2008], I mentioned how I'm struggling with my giant (96"x48") tree painting. As promised, I've uploaded a snap shot on how it has been progressing.




I feel a certain sense of satisfaction of how it has evolved these last few weeks, but I still need to work on the water area...

FOLLOW UP 2:
[from "Whistler Art and Adventure" June 30, 2008]

I finally received the rafting photos in the mail from when my girlfriend, her son and I were in Whistler. After voraciously ripping the envelope open and looking at them, it got me all jazzed up to do it again!









Update 1:

I set my mind to making some small (6"x4") samples to send send out to galleries ["Painting Samples" July 2, 2008]. Below is a photo of the sample - I made 11 of them, all the same-ish and






enclosed them in this folder. I also included my CV, artist's statement, personal statement, business card and pricing list.

I've sent out three packages so far and have a few more in mind that I will address shortly.

Update 2:
The Art in the Park event happened this Saturday in Abbotsford. It was a lot of fun meeting new people and seeing their work. I'm back at it again on Saturday, July 26.



These two photos are the of the nice shady space I had. I have a tent, but really didn't feel like setting it up! The shade looked just fine and what a gorgeous day too!

Last Update:

A few friends and I (and their dogs, of course!) went on a hike up past Chilliwack Lake. We hiked up to Lindemann Lake:

the colours of blues and greens in the lake were spectacular!



AND... of course, more tree photos! I had fun taking this shot at an angle... looks kind of weird!





Here's the "normal shot" of the above photo...

This is the last leg of the hike up to Greendrop Lake.
All together, the hike was just over 10k. We all had a great time and have a few aches and pains, but it was all WELL worth the enjoyment and inspiration of the day!