World Wide Blog Hopping

The idea behind World-wide Blog Hopping is for us to introduce and promote one another as artists and be able to follow the links and travel around the world and look at art.  We are all asked to answer the same four questions.

My friend Sharlene Stushnov-Lee who is a wonderful painter asked me to join her in this who was in turn asked to join by her good friend Alice Saltiel who's work you can see here.  Sharlene paints a variety of subjects including still life, florals, a stunning driftwood series and tropical leaves in a very strong style with vibrant colours.  Here work can be seen at her blog and website.

Here is an example of her painting:

I have invited my friend Sam Boehner to join me as the next link in the journey.  Sam paints luminous still life in transparent watercolours on paper, a deceivingly difficult medium to master.  Sam has been awarded a signature status with the CSTWP and is also an active and award winning member of the Federation of Canadian Artists.   You can find more of her work at her BLOG  at her WEBSITE or her facebook page

Here is an example of Sam's painting:

I paint mainly in oils right now for my larger work although I dabble in watercolour and ink for a change.  I mainly paint landscape, but also still life and some figurative work from time to time.  

1. What am I working on?

Right now I'm working on a couple of things.  During the day I work on an oil painting.  My current one is a street scene from the village of Cumberland on Vancouver Island, where I visit my son and his family often.  I love this little community, and have down quite a number of paintings and sketches of the area, the town itself and the forest, rivers and lakes in the area.  

Here is a painting of my son and grandson walking in the forest right behind the town.

2.  How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I try to paint the light and atmosphere that the scene impressed me with.  Often people find an  emotional connection to a painting, that it strikes some memory or feeling in them.

3. Why do I create what I do?

I think I'm a visually motivated person.  For as long as I can remember I was moved by colours, shapes and sights that I moved through.  I guess this prompt me to try to create the mood or feeling in visual art.  I don't think I'm an intellectual painter since I only paint well we I paint something that stirs me in some way. 

4.  How does my creative process work?

This is a difficult question. I often paint from photos, but the photos are only a twig to a memory of something that I have seen that I wanted to paint.  I have long lists in my mind to thing for paintings so when I start a new painting I will browse a group of photos that I have already lined up to be considered for paintings.  I only paint from my own reference not only for originality reasons, but because my own photo will take me back to a feeling of the place as I felt it when I was there.  

I will work mostly up from a canvas tinted with transparent Burnt Sienna and sketch directly with my brush.  I tend to work directly trying to get the colour or value right the first time.  This may not always work so in that case I can go back in and correct and change as I go.  I usually save the darkest darks and the brightest whites until the end though.

Just for interest, this is a watercolour and ink sketch of an old house in Fernwood, and area of Victoria.

Hope you enjoy Blog Hopping and you can see more of my work at my website,    

 www.barbaracallow.ca

or my facebook art page:

www.facebook.com/BarbaraCallowAFCA

Upcoming Workshop

This may make a great Christmas present for an aspiring artist, yourself or...?

I will be teaching this two day workshop on painting in oils later in January at the beautiful Coast Collective in the old Pendray mansion on the Esquimalt Lagoon.  Have a look at the link below if interested.

http://www.coastcollective.ca/art-class.php?id=26

A recent oil painting.  24x18 inches.

This is a brand new blog that I am creating with hopes to publish my paintings and other artwork as I do them and hopefully document a bit of my process, thinking and impressions along the way.  

I normally paint daily in my studio in oils, mostly landscape or still life, but sometimes take the painting outdoors for a more direct approach.  This teaches me to paint quickly with less fuss to get the impression of the light, shapes and colours down quickly before things change to much.

The last couple of months, I've been working on small watercolour and ink sketches in a small watercolour book I have while watching tv in the evenings.  This is simply pure fun, but I have been pleased with the results and it has helped my drawing immensely, as any dedicated practice will do.

Here are a couple of them: