When you hear someone say - - there is something lurking below the surface - my mind immediately goes to a coverup - maybe dishonesty. And yet - that's not always the case. What if what's lurking below the surface - is just a continuation of what's on the surface - it was always there - you just didn't dig deep enough! Well... get out your shovel - because you're going to have to dig mighty deep to find the original image on this piece of canvas. I actually can't believe I saved all the various images - but I did! I had just started to paint - and had attended a 3 day workshop with John Pryce ..read more

I just arrived home from a birthday party....and not just any birthday party. This was a 95th celebration for a woman I have known since I was fifteen. She was the mother of one of my close high school friends. I'm not sure if you are the same - but for me.... there have been a few special women in my life that I have always admired and felt especially close to - outside of my own mother. Mrs. Coyne or more lovingly known as BeBe to her family is this to me. She is a very accomplished artist and I have known that about her and watched her paint many paintings for family, friends and art lovers ..read more

I have been working on a cottage commission that is actually making me long for the summer months ahead when I can get back to the lake. Like my own family cottage - this project is a very special place to a family who has enjoyed summer fun with multi generations, and they wanted a keepsake they could reflect back on with many fond memories. It was decided that the patriarch of the family should be in the painting but the only image they could share with me was one that did not come with the cottage photo. Thus...I had to try and figure out - what size should Mr. B. be? I copied and pasted hi ..read more

I seem to be struggling in recent months...maybe this whole past year. I have a gazillion ideas of what I what I would like to paint - never quite sure of the order … but have a general idea of a "list" I keep in my head. For whatever reason....I paint something...look at it for a while...might even consider it finished and post it on my website and social media. A few days...weeks...months go by....and down it comes...off the wall where I have hung it in my studio and back onto the easel. I can almost hear the song going off in my head..." ,I Can't Get No...Satisfaction...." At first I was bl ..read more

I've been going at painting pretty hard core during the Covid shut down. There hasn't been much we could do...no travel plans - no friends and family to entertain with - no gym or yoga to keep the body and mind enriched. So...I am so very very grateful to have my painting to keep my mind active, my creative juices flowing and my days busy! Though I primarily have been using acrylics and oils for my larger paintings...I have been using watercolours to paint my rice paper flowers and....for keeping a journal. These little paintings are almost like a diary...I see something that I think might mak ..read more

If you are a faithful "Friends" watcher - you may remember when Chandler told Joey - not to do something because if he did...he'd be facing "the business end of a hissy fit!" Grrrrr....I know just how he feels….I feel I am going to be the one delivering the ‘business end of a hissy fit” after having sat here for the past 7 days on my computer instead of painting. I’ve been working on social media stuff.... fixing backend website stuff.... listening to webinar after webinar on how to do stuff...joining free workshops... and reading whitepapers on best practices. I feel like I have started a new ..read more

I attended another art workshop on zoom this past weekend. Lalita (@,lalitahamillartist,) is a wonderful teacher who offers a weekly atelier school in the Vancouver region and like so many - has had to adapt her teaching style to the internet. I found new insight along with the relearning of principles from the previous few years of self-study. I came away with a practice canvas after 6 hours in the workshop that I am still... 4 days later... totally embarrassed by. The main objective was to try to become mindful of every stroke you paint - make it count (make it interesting) and get rid of th ..read more

I've been rather lapse in getting to any social media in the past several months. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and even this blog have been difficult for me to want to reach out and post anything. I have been painting - that I still love - but I'm reluctant to even post finished art to my website. Sometimes the most obvious can be the most difficult to actually see. The old saying of "its plain as the nose on your face" is not always obvious. From my perspective - I was blaming my detached attitude on the crisis we seem to be in and watching the world around us react to horrifying situations a ..read more

I am no Shakespeare... but the name CREINA means everything to me. Though the Gaelic origin of Creina means "beloved or precious"...My CREINA is Love, Memories, Happiness, Special Events, Family and a Location. I have spent almost 4 months this year cocooned at Creina....there is no better place to spend 4 summer months hoping that by the time we have to close up for the season...things might be on a path of Covid recovery. This 83 year old cottage has been a summer home to 4 generations of my husband's family. Its not the fanciest...not the largest and certainly not the warmest - but it is b ..read more

I have several canvases sitting on the side here that I consider subpar...they are "do-overs" or "renovations" that I plan at some point to come back to evaluate. One such canvas has been on my easel for the last few weeks. It was something I started at a workshop I took last year by Canadian landscape artist, John Pryce. Being a true realist painter is just not my thing....I look at a picture for inspiration and then toss it aside and do what ever I want! No natural looking rocks or traditional flora and fauna for me....I like to paint what I see in my imagination and often it ends up on the ..read more