Goldfish Painting

Lately I've been experimenting a bit with watercolor and oil painting. I've been doing a few small quick pieces, mostly to try out different materials or techniques. Here's one of them, a watercolor painting of a goldfish.

Painting in progress, plus the art supplies I used. 

Goldfish done!

Watercolor Workshop with Lin Souliere

This past weekend I had the privilege of being able to participate in a 3 day plein air watercolor workshop with Lin Souliere. She's an amazing Canadian artist, and a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, so I knew I was in for a real treat! She also happens to be my mother-in-law, and I've been wanting to participate in one of her workshops for years! :D
 
On the first day we all went for a hike on the Bruce Trail just outside of Lion's Head to find our painting spot. This is one of my favorite trails on the Bruce Peninsula, everywhere you look is absolutely beautiful and inspiring! Having never done plein air painting before, I wasn't quite sure where to start and what to paint. Fortunately Lin did a lesson and talked us through how to approach finding an interesting subject matter without getting completely overwhelmed by our surroundings. Our main focus for the day was to get comfortable and confident while sketching in the forest, and to start introducing watercolor to our sketches.

I mostly did some very small pen/marker/pencil drawings at first, and then started to introduce a bit of watercolor. I also ended up focusing primarily on closeups of plants since I didn't think I'd have time to complete any large landscape sketches/paintings. In the end, the day was a perfect warmup for the next 2 days of the weekend.

A couple of plant sketches.

On the second day we went to Tobermory, and Lin started things off with a watercolor demo. She painted the light house just off of Big Tub Harbour, and made it look quick and effortless! After that, we all set up our equipment and spent the rest of the day painting the gorgeous landscape around us.

Lin doing a demo and making it look easy!

Here are a couple of the paintings I did while in Tobermory:

Paintings of Big Tub Harbor, Tobermory, ON.

And a picture of my painting supplies:

On the third day of the workshop, we all went to Barrow Bay and painted the old general store. I discovered that I'm pretty slow at painting with watercolors, so I didn't get a chance to finish either of the paintings that I started. I'm happy with them as works in progress though! Even though I did take reference photos, I don't think I'll go back to either painting and I'll be leaving them as-is.

The old general store in Barrow Bay, ON.

Close up painting of peeling paint on old door.

For more info on Lin Souliere, check out these links:
http://www.dragonflyridge.ca/the-art-of-lin-souliere.html
http://www.dragonflyridge.ca/workshops.html

For info on the Bruce Trail, look here:
http://brucetrail.org/

Art Brownies RAINBOW 2012 Exhibit

The official site for the Art Brownie RAINBOW 2012 exhibition has just launched as well as their shop. Last I checked not all the artwork was up yet, but it should be in the next few days. Both my pieces are up and for sale :)

Official Site

http://artbrownie.com/

Art Brownie Shop

http://artbrownie.com/shop

My Art Brownies
http://artbrownie.com/shop/shop_detail.asp?item_id=5830&artist=Heather%20Souliere
http://artbrownie.com/shop/shop_detail.asp?item_id=5829&artist=Heather%20Souliere

If you're in Toronto from July 28 - Aug 31 go and check it out!

It's at INDEXG at 50 Gladstone Ave.

Art Brownies II

I finished the art brownies I've been working on. Now I've got to spray them and then send them off! :D

Here's some in-progress pics as well as the final image.

Art Brownies

A little while ago I signed up to participate in Art Brownie RAINBOW 2012, an exhibition at INDEXG in Toronto. All participants get 2 3"x3" wood blocks to use as a platform for their artwork, and are able to use drawing, painting, mixed-media and photo-based work. More info can be found here http://artbrownie.blogspot.com/

I picked my blocks up before Christmas with the intention of getting them done right away, but with my recent move I've had to put them on hold. Now I'm not sure I'll be able to get my paintings done in time. And if I somehow manage to finish them, I'm not sure I'll be able to get them shipped in time to meet the submissions deadline. I'm going to try anyway though. Best case scenario, I'll get them finished and submitted with time to spare. Worst case scenario, I end up with 2 little paintings to stick on my wall. Either way I'm in a good spot. :)

Here's my initial drawing on the first block

Some colour roughs

Starting to add paint to both blocks