Painting a Day 124

Lots going on today!  Gotta post quickly.

Sunrise Coming, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 123

Painting happened later today.  We were out for a wonderful meal with some new great friends last night and consequently I was a little slow on responding to the alarm this morning.  So I figured better to get into the day and have a good day and paint in the evening rather than hold everything up by painting and play catch up on everything the whole day.  Looking back that's rather an awkward sentence, but such is what it is at this time of night.  Now off to bed so I don't do the same thing tomorrow!

Runner, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 122

Today I'm feeling colourful.  And swamped with stuff to do!

Floral, acrylic on canvas board, 9" x 12"

Painting a Day 121

There's something about lone trees, standing all by themselves against the elements that just strikes me.

Lone Tree, acrylic on canvas board, 9" x 12"

Painting a Day 120

Every once in a while we take it in to our heads to rearrange our living space to freshen things up, gain a new perspective and clean out all the old cobwebs that gather in corners.  Today we are in the midst of one of those transitions and so painting this morning was a little different as my usual workspace is "under reconstruction".  Still, it came together, and painting was accomplished regardless.

Mountains, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 119

When I tell people that I am painting everyday, they often say to me "Oh I love painting!  It's so relaxing."  And I politely nod and acknowledge their experience of painting.  However I have to admit that this is not necessarily a sentiment that I share.  Painting is something that I kind of feel driven to.  I feel a need to express myself artistically and to further my mastery of my chosen craft.  I am often trying to achieve specific effects or representations of mood and concept.  And not always successfully to my own mind.  And having set before myself a project of one year it does introduce the pressure to produce whether or not I feel inspired.  And so while painting can be relaxing that is not why I do it.  That being said, today's painting was an act of just blending some of my favourite colours that I find restful on the eyes.

R & R, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 118 and DWF

So I'm just home from the Dynamic Women of Faith conference in Mississauga where I had my first speaking engagement!  Super day put together by some super dynamic women.  I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to the group, and was heartened to see so many heads around the room nodding in identification with what I was saying.  I feel like this may be the beginning of a new leg of the journey and who knows where it may lead.

I normally set my alarm for 5:30 in the am to paint though.  And this morning I was up at 5:00 to get out the door on time for the conference, so painting had to wait until I got home.  So here is today's painting .

Almost Spring, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 117

So today is one of those days where, if I wasn't committed to posting a painting for each day then I probably wouldn't.  It didn't turn out as I had hoped, but it's a step in the learning process.  I will have to look up painting techniques to active the effect I was attempting.

Colour Play, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 116

Well, I have two more days until I speak a the Dynamic Women of Faith Conference.  I believe that I have figured out a workable way to show a slideshow of all my paintings.  However the ironic thing is that on that day I will actually not be able to paint until very late in the day given that I will have quite a drive to get there early in the morning.  Praying for the Holy Spirit to give me the right words that day.

Droplets, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 115

So I don't know why I felt inspired to paint a snowy scene right now, it's certainly not topical at the moment.  In fact from what I've heard this is shaping up to be the first ever snowless March on record since they started keeping track of the weather in any formal way.  But here it is.

Clear Snowy Day, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 114

I'm not sure what it is lately. And I don't really know how to say in words what's in my heart right now, but a number of friends have recently lost babies early in their pregnancies, at the stage where not many people knew they were expecting. I've been blessed in that I've never experienced this myself, but my heart is full for those grieving women and their husbands and so this painting came out of that.

Holding, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

 

Painting a Day 113

March break is over so we're back to the grind.  I am proud to say we appear to be on schedule for a good day so far.  I am gearing up for speaking this coming weekend at the Dynamic Women of Faith conference.  This is my first speaking engagement so I'm a little nervous, but just praying and trusting that the Holy Spirit will move me to speak to the hearts of the people He has brought together that day to hear me.

Warmth, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 112

Technically I suppose it's still winter, but we are definitely enjoying this reprieve!  The kids have been outside in shorts all afternoon, except Nathan of course who insists on playing outside in his winter boots!  There is just no reasoning with a 3 year old boy.

Awakening, acrylic on canvas board, 9" x 12"

Painting a Day 111

Today is day one hundred and eleven.  Of course if you're one of my kids you read it as eleventy-one.  And today I'm back to water.  If I'd been thinking I would have made it greener water in honour of St. Patrick but that's okay.  I keep coming back to the surface of water and the way reflections play on it.  It's something that I find endlessly beautiful and fascinating, and yet elusive in trying to achieve it convincingly.  I will get there.

Surfaces, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 110

I think I'm getting into a phase of playing with monochromatic colour schemes.  It's interesting to see how many variations you can use and how much you can show just by varying the value of the colour and not really changing the colour itself very much at all.

Sepia, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 109

Today I'm feeling slow.  Which is why i'm posting at almost 4:00 in the afternoon.  'Nuff said.

Blues, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 108

I'm definitely enjoying this relaxed pace of March break and getting a chance to catch up on the stuff that goes by the wayside when homeschooling.  I never realized what a luxury it was to be able to do housework in the middle of the day when the mood strikes me instead of having to coordinate it in between lessons and all the stuff that goes along with schooling at home.

Form 2, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 107

Today I become the mother of a teenager!  Happy Birthday Gavin!  Here begins a whole other world, or so I've been told.  Personally I'll take wait and see approach before I press the panic button, and just go on with the job of parenting in as much of a common sense way as possible.

Form, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 106

Today I felt spirally!   Not in any bad way although it could sound that way I suppose!  Just in a fun interesting kind of way.

Sun Spirals, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 105

It's a beautiful day!  Feel free to sing that in your head with the U2 melody going along.  I'm thinking today that the vitamins I've been taking are starting to take effect because I'm definitely feeling energized.

Windy Evergreen, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 104

Well I woke up this morning and was greeted with a world of white.  I knew it would happen that way!  Oh well.

Around the time I started this blog I was also learning to knit.  I completed one project and got halfway through another before I started to paint.  Well, painting started and that was kind of the end of that for a while.   However, I'm excited to say that I actually picked up my knitting last night while some of the kids were out at Aikido, and I had actually had a productive day and the house was respectable enough that I didn't feel guilty indulging another hobby.  I didn't do much of it, but at least I'm feeling that it is not abandoned.

Pier at Night, acrylic on canvas, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 103

So spring is little more distant today, snow alternately blowing with sunny breaks.  I'll try to just look out the window when it's on a sunny break.

Fall Colours, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 102

Today there's definitely a breath of spring in the air.  So good to think that we may escape a harsh winter completely.  I'm not completely convinced winter is gone yet.  I think we could still get hit with it, but I have irises and other things coming up in the garden and I'll take that as a positive.  Looking forward to more daylight hours for sure.

The Dock of the Bay, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 101

In honour of the day I'm taking an idea from my daughter.  Anyone care to guess the reference?  Very simple.  Which is good because we are still battling the spreading of germs that leads to sickness!  No new cases today so far, so I'll take that as a good omen, even though that hasn't proven true on the last few days!

Spots, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 100

Woohoo!  I've now made it to triple digits!  It's a bit of a crazy day, kids still sick, or sick again, I'm not really sure which, but either way it involves rescheduling of dental appointments, and again ... more laundry.  Today I tackle animal life for the first time.  I had considered it earlier, but never really felt the time was right, and I'd never actually considered birds at all as subject matter, but it just struck me yesterday that flight was something quite awe-inspiring.  So here is today's painting.

Soaring, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 99

Day 99 and I'm posting before 9:00!  Yaaayyyy!  Here's hoping for a good week of productive schooling and no sickness in the house!

Untitled, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 98

Well I got painted earlier today but still playing catch up to get it posted at a decent time!

Fall Maples, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 96 & 97

I'm afraid I really need to buckle down to get back in the habit of posting everyday.  This week has been fairly Norwalk-y in the house so I'll give myself a bit of a break there, but now it's time to get back on track.  So here are yesterday's and today's artistic offerings.

Light Through Maples, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Backward Glance, acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10"

Painting a Day 92, 93, 94, 95

Well here is a post to catch up on my backlog!  We went away to see dear friends in London and consequently my routine needed to change, however I managed to keep up with the painting a day DESPITE being struck by a nasty gastro bug in the middle of it all.  This was followed by the children gradually succumbing to the same bug, so far 4 out of 7 have been laid flat by it.  This has meant an exponential increases in the laundry load, and a significant reshuffling of plans for the week, but we are all basically okay and I think God in the midst of it that we live in an age of washing machines and that I don't have to wash it all by hand as they would have done in days gone by.  Really good to keep perspective on that.

So while these are not my most inspired paintings, they fulfill my personal requirement of filling a canvas with colour every day.  All are acrylic on canvas board, 8" x 10":

Day 92

Day 93

Day 94

Day 95