Shellmouth Artists Retreat

Well, another Shellmouth Artists Retreat has come and gone and I am, like all the other participants, suffering withdrawal. It happens every year, you spend a glorious 6 days painting and communing with the other artists and before you know it the fun is done. I completed a half a dozen paintings and worked out of doors quite a bit, something I enjoy very much. The painting above was the first one I completed. Hope you all enjoy it!

Home Sickness

I was browsing through some images of paintings I have done in the past and I came across this one, which is a view of Rocky Lake, MB. My family had a cottage for many years here and we spent many wonderful days here swimming, boating, fishing and all the other things people do at the lake. My family has all moved from northern Manitoba now, we just moved my Mother down to a little retirement village south of Winnipeg last weekend and she is the last to leave. Its a kind of funny feeling you get when you drive out of town, will I ever be back?

Painting from memory

Quite often I paint from memory. I find that painting in this manner is much more playful and spontaneous. The painting above is an example of that process, it is what I call a remembered landscape. Eastend, SK has many wonderful viewpoints and the pastel painting recalls one of those vistas. I plan on doing some larger canvases at our Shellmouth retreat, which is coming up very soon now. One of the canvases is 5 feet x 4 feet, one of largest I have personally worked on. Should be fun!