Animals of the Pacific Coast

I just got back from a trip to Tofino on Vancouver Island. There are dramatic mountains, sandy beaches, crashing waves, and misty, cool, drippy constant moisture there making a happy home for so many plants and animals. Here we are rescuing a butterfly that had fallen into a rain puddle. It was flapping its wings by the time we left but probably didn't benefit from its swim.


And here my mother tries to rescue some tree frog tadpoles from a fresh water puddle that looked like it was drying up. We shouldn't have worried. It rained soon afterward. And rained again and again after that.


This little baby bear was beside the road.


On the beach there were orange and purple starfish


and emerald green sea anemones waiting for the tide to come in.


This sea star was huge.


And the biggest barnacles I have ever seen.


My favorite west coast beach animals - my mum and dad.

Baby Peaches

I planted a peach tree last year because I wanted some height in the garden. I never thought it would actually produce peaches. I come from a cold climate and this is so exciting to me. Aren't they cute?

Striped Tulips

A couple of months ago I made some paintings of crazy mice recklessly having adventures in magnolia trees. I was longing for adventures myself and so I made sure that I left the house more than usual and ventured out into the world. Spring is a time for breaking the cosy routines that we develop through the winter months. I have been having such fun that I haven't been blogging much, and even my painting seems to have stalled. The tulips I started to paint a month ago have almost finished flowering now! I'll have to work from photos. These are a couple of details of my still unfinished painting about springtime joi de vivre. It is four feet wide.




One of my adventures was a trip to Manhattan to meet up with some friends and see museums. I even accidentally timed the visit during the Whitney Biennial which was an adventure into conceptual and performance art. Easier to enjoy was this marvelous roller-printed wallpaper at the Metropolitan Museum. It is by Viennese artist Dagobert Peche and dates from 1921. He called it 'Summer", but I associate tulips with the craziness of spring.

Tulip Mania

I am taking pictures today for a painting of tulips. The garden is full of color!

Funny or Awful

From the pet shop. Snakes are pretty but I wish all animals were herbivores.

Can't Stop Playing with Photoshop

More colors! This is far too much fun.

Fabric Fun

I got side tracked today and haven't been to the studio at all. I've been playing with my painting "Reckless" in Photoshop and wondering about turning it into a fabric design. Oh my! It is so addictive. I have to force myself to stop before the day disappears completely. Maybe I will let myself try some other color ways tomorrow.


And if I really want to spend a lot of time I will fix the repeats so that the blossoms match up. So much fun!

Punctuation Cat

This little oil sketch of Huckleberry makes me think of punctuation. Is it the dot on a question mark? Maybe it is the dot on an exclamation point! Or simply a statement of how comfy it is to be a sleeping cat. I guess it changes with my own moods.


It can also be hung in various ways. I keep flipping it over depending on if my day feels upside down or right way up. An adaptable little painting.

It measures 6"x6" and is oil on panel.

After the Opening

The show is hung. The opening was frightening for a shy person like me but so many kind friends showed up that I felt greatly supported. And now I get to keep this beautiful flower arrangement that my mum made for the opening. Parrot tulips and bleeding heart from the garden and white ranunculus from the grocery store. The sun is even peeking out from the storm clouds. Life feels pretty good today. Thank you to all my lovely friends who came and shared the love last night. La vie est belle.

(Can anyone spot Opal in this picture? Crazy cat has to be in every photo)

Show

I have a show of my new work at Fuel Coffee in Montlake in Seattle. There will be a little opening reception on Wednesday evening from 6-8 pm and you are invited! Why not stop by and say hello.

Fuel Coffee
2300 24 ave E Seattle
6-8pm
Wed 7 April

map

The show will run through the month of April and then move to Fuel on Capitol Hill.

Here are the paintings that will be there.

The Visit

Imagine that you are the size of a mouse and you find yourself looking at the magnolia blossom. Wouldn't it fill you with awe? Do we feel the same thing when we see a magnolia blossom...or a whole tree with hundreds of them?
This painting is 6"x8" so the mouse and blossom are life sized.


I have also finished this painting which I started a few weeks ago. I am calling it "Renaissance" since all the plants erupting from the ground are bulbs being reborn. It is a bit disturbing, as change always is.


This gorgeous thing is a lily bulb. Last year I forgot where I planted it and stepped on it, preventing it from looking this wonderful or from flowering later in the summer. I don't care if it flowers this year. It has already made me happy.


My original posts about this painting are hereand here
The lyrics of a Dar Williams song 'Spring Street' remind me of this painting.
I'll push myself up through the dirt
And shake my petals free
I'm resolved to being born
And so resigned to bravery

Huckleberry and Magritte

This is my loyal studio cat Huckleberry. He sits beside me while I paint. I spend a lot of time picking cat fur off my paintings. This painting has no story. It is just a portrait...


...although it does remind me of a Magritte painting.


The most fun part to paint was the eyes.


This amazing photo of a cat's eye is from the internet and was unattributed.

Crazy World

Our vision is incredibly selective. We don't pay attention to most of what our eyes pass over or we would go crazy. Our brains can't acknowledge every grain of sand, every eyelash, every person in a crowd. The same selective thinking applies to the way we live in the larger world. We are only aware of a tiny fraction of what is happening all around us and it is necessarily so.

This painting is about how crazy the world is and how we have to ignore most of the excitement and tragedy. We keep it in the background or we, ourselves would go crazy. This little bunny is doing a good job of staying focussed on the solid ground beneath her feet despite the wildly twisting parrot tulips behind her.

It is a serious image but not entirely sad. Parrot tulips are beautiful- just a little overwhelming.

Reckless

I have had a quiet and pleasant winter. I have read books to the kids by the fire and we watched lots of movies cuddled up under blankets. Nobody got sick. The cats didn't catch any birds. The weather was surprisingly mild. But now it is spring and I have a need for adventure. I have been looking at travel websites. A cottage in England? A old goat shed (renovated) in Crete? Hiking the Grand Canyon? Even getting out of the house in the evening would be a change. I feel reckless. So far nothing concrete has come of my need for mania but I have been living vicariously through these little mice. What could be more wild and exotic than scrambling around these glorious magnolia blossoms? Sure they might fall but they might also have the time of their lives!


Ha ha. I am feeling so reckless that I seem to have forgotten to paint the front paws of this poor little mouse. Don't worry. I'll fix it.


This painting is oil on panel and measures 14' x 11".


This painting was half finished and I was wondering why I had such a strong desire to make the composition flat, instead of situating the tree in a landscape with perspective and sky and overlapping blossoms. The reason came to me suddenly one night as I was falling asleep. I realized I was remembering a wallpaper pattern, torn from a magazine about three years ago. Sure enough, I found the picture in my files. It was like that Agatha Christie story where a woman wallpapers a room in her new home with poppy paper only to discover that the room had been papered with the same pattern years before. Wonderful and creepy! This paper is by Cole and Sons and was featured in an ad for Canadian Tire in Canadian House and Home.

I Want to be a Star

This mouse is recklessly climbing a star magnolia tree. It is precarious, but who can resist wanting to be a star?
This little painting is called "I Want to be a Star" though my kids call it "Mouse Butt".
It is oil on panel and measures a small six inches square.

Mary's Happy Place

My friend Mary has a birthday today and I painted this little sketch for her. She loves daffodils, though I doubt there are any blooming yet in New Brunswick. She lives near the beautiful Tantramar Marshes and I combined them with daffodils to wish her a very happy day. This painting is 6 inches square - the size of a birthday card.