Omega Gallery Show

The Summer Gallery show at Omega is on and was mentioned in the FCA's Art Avenue magazine. I was up at the gallery on Tuesday with two friends who enjoyed the show. The gallery is looking lovely and fresh and everything was nicely displayed. I hope more people can get in to see it. Dunbar Street has it's challenging parts as construction goes on in parts, but there is parking on side streets. In a previous post, I showed one of the two new paintings I did for this show- the one of Burano. This is the other - the Christmas market in Trastevere, Rome. The star-lights are strung across the street. What interested me in this was the contrasts of light and the more shadowy figures and capturing some of the magical feeling of the market. What interesting items might we find for sale?

Getting ready for summer

Lots of things are happening so there will be no "summer doldrums". The "Summer Gallery" at Omega would have started but Dunbar Street is being ripped up for new water mains and access to the gallery is only under difficulty.Jenny Mao, the new owner,decided to take the opportunity to do some redecorating, so when the show opens on the 15th, everything will be new and fresh. Before then, on the 10th, at London Farm, there will be the Fraser River Art Festival. There will be tents out on the lawn and about 25 artists (including me!)displaying. Live music will be provided by Steveston Folk Music. ,,,and we've just been invited, and accepted, to be part of the Maritime
Festival by Britannia for the BC Day weekend. Today is Canada Day but I didn't go out to any events. I had a quiet paint-in, mowed the lawn and did some other garden work. Next week I have to organize what I am taking to the London Farm event and pack up the paintings for Omega. For Omega's Summer Gallery, I will be showing some of the European paintings - and I've done two new ones! This is one of Burano, island by Venice, which is a new painting.

Poppies for Mother's Day

There is going to be a Mothers' Day Show at Omega Gallery - all the artists will be Moms. I thought something floral might work well for this show. This is a new painting from a photo I took last summer- Poppies by the Fence. The poppies were part of a community garden. They are pink poppies with yellow centres- not the red ones with black centres. They were fun to paint - trying to capture the way light fell on them and the almost-rustic fence. I'll be taking the painting up to Omega on Monday but here it is for viewing now.

In Print!!!

Excitement today when the Fed-Ex truck delivered my book from Apple! It is a 20-page hardcover with a printed dust-jacket the same as the book. For this "Paintings Book", I selected all paintings about Europe. This book has only one painting per page. My next book, which will be coil-bound has a couple of pages with two paintings. I kept the book simple as I didn't think there was anything to be gained by having a background of a softer view of a painting or by going for any fancy effects like cast shadows. I wanted the paintings to stand alone and I'm really pleased with how it has turned out. This is the cover painting- one that sold at Omega Gallery.It is rooftops of Cesky Krumlov.

More Events!

Much is happening. I've finished two new paintings for the Art About Finn Slough show and will be taking them over next week to the lecture hall in Richmond Arts Centre. The reception will be on Friday evening, April 9th, from 7 to 9 pm. A lot of planning is now going in to the Federation of Canadian Artists Group Show in which I am to be one of seven selected artists. We are: Bob Araki, Sharleen Hartfiel, Etsu Inouye, Michael Knox, Larry Tillyer. David McHolm and me, Loraine Wellman. We are calling it Brushwork Variety. This will run from April 2oth to May 2nd in the Federation Gallery on Granville Island. We are having a reception on April 22 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm when the artists will be there and there will be refreshments in abundance. Bob is bringing sushi and I'm making butter tarts - and there will be lots more! ... and May will start with DoorsOpen May 1st and 2nd from 10 am to 4 pm, when I will have an Open Studio... more on this later. Last blog showed a Finn Slough painting- so this one will show one from Granville Island - not one in the Group Show, but one that is currently up at Omega Gallery.

Lanterns at Omega

I was up at Omega Gallery today - and noted that traffic definitely seemed lighter. Could it be that more people decided that the Canada Line is the way to go? It certainly makes it easy if you are going downtown but it doesn't work for going to Dunbar with canvases in the trunk! Tien Ching decided to keep five for now. One is "Blink" from a couple of blogs ago and one is "Lanterns" which I'll post here. The miner's lantern is a real one that was actually used by my Dad at Coleman, Alberta. Later, he wired it so it could be used as a lamp. I don't actually use it but I'm glad to have it as a bit of history with a personal connection. Tien is not displaying these paintings right now but a person can always ask to see them! This was interesting to set up - first I had a lighter background because I liked the cast shadows of the lantern plant (Physalis alkekengi ) but then it didn't seem right to have a miner's lantern sitting out in the light, so I re-draped the stand and settled on the darker background. After adjusting the light, I was fairly pleased as I felt it captured the glow that lanterns provide.

Rooftops-

More rain this weekend and all the more reason to think of sunnier times. One painting that I finished of Cesky Krumlov is up at Omega Gallery (27th and Dunbar) and will be part of a group show, opening December 7th. Cesky Krumlov is more medieval and Prague is more baroque but Cesky Krumlov is still like a smaller version of Prague - the river loops around it, the castle is on the hill, the old town is centered on a town square... and the rooftops are mostly red tile . This was fun to paint -including the chimneys with their own little roofs. One of the things I like about acrylics is their layering ability - so getting the sun and shadow on the roof tops was an exercise in glazing as well as building up texture. A lot of the buildings had false fronts added - reminded me of the Old West towns with more important looking facades tacked onto an old building. Because I was looking at the rooftops from the other side, some of the decorative fronts can be seen poking up at the fronts of the buildings. I don't think I'm finished with rooftops yet!