Monday

"Holly's Lillies"; plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Holly's Lillies", plein air oil painting, 8x6"
$350 beautifully framed, FREE S&H

Did this one sitting in my friend Holly's backyard. She is a lilly-o-holic and I think she is getting me hooked as well.

I am sitting in a pub in Anstruther -just for you! The hotel I am staying at doesn't have WiFi, and the pub does, so I am having a wee pint on you. :) Scotland is just beautiful. Our room overlooks the ocean. The sun has been shining but the wind is brisk and strong. Having a great time, and hope to post some photos tomorrow -if I am thirsty enough!!

Enjoy!

Saturday

"Incoming Clouds" plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Incoming Clouds", plein air oil painting, 9 x 12"
$595.00 beautifully framed, FREE S&H

This is the first painting I did on my recent trip up to paint in the meadows at Sunshine Ski Resort. They offer a yearly expedition to painters to attend one day with a free bus ride up and a show to go along with it, and this was the second one I have attended. When we got there this is the first beautiful thing we saw, so I stopped my fellow painters and suggested we should get right to painting -you never know where that cloud is going and what it is bringing with it! We managed to get this in before the rain came -JUST.

I am sitting at the Heathrow airport in London, England, catching up on my email during my 5 hour layover. I will be in Edinburgh tomorrow so will be able to post once more there, but not sure about what will happen after that. So stay tuned...

Enjoy!

Thursday

"Yellow Dahlias" , plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Yellow Dahlias" , plein air oil painting, 6x6"
SPECIAL LIMITED TIME SALE $125.00 with FREE S&H

This is one of my potted dahlias that I picked up for a song this spring. I hope to save and overwinter the tubers, but I have had limited success with that, so wish me luck!

I am off to Scotland on Friday for a whole month. I am taking a plein air watermedia course with my hero Stephen Quiller for 10 days in Anstruther, which is just 10 minutes from the famous St. Andrews Golf Course. Dave will meet me at the end of the course and then we will travel throughout the UK until the end of September. I will have sporadic access to the Internet while I am gone, but if you want this painting, just email me and it will be first come, first served. I hope to be able to post some of the paintings that I do while I am in Scotland as I have the ability to do so. But otherwise, I will see you at the end of September.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Wednesday

Another SPECIALLY PRICED painting!

"Sally's Poppies", plein air oil painting, 8 x 6"
$175.00 unframed, FREE S&H -limited time offer until September 25th!!!

Another painting from Sally's garden. I just loved the variety of cool greens in the poppy, I had to try to capture them. This painting will cheer you up on the gray winter days ahead :)

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Sunday

SALE Painting and plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Forest Light", oil painting, 9x12"
SOLD

I did this from a photo on one of our many rainy days this summer. I run around at last light taking all kinds of photos of wonderful subjects that I just don't have time to paint, but can't resist the light. This was one of those beautifully backlit aspen groves.

"Sally's Geraniums", plein air oil painting, 8 x 6"
$175.00 unframed -after the end of August the price will be $350 framed. FREE S&H

This is one of the limited time sale offers that I promised earlier in the month. I did this sitting in my friends' garden while her lovely dog (who I would have loved to paint if only he would have stayed in one spot) sat at my feet. It will bring some summer joy into your home during the seemingly endless winter days ahead!

We are off to go camping for a couple of days, so will talk to you when we get back.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Friday

"Foothills Longing", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Foothills Longing", plein air oil painting, 9 x 12"
$595.00 beautifully framed, FREE S&H

Another evening in the foothills painting with the long shadows and low, warm sunlight that I love so much. The contrast at this time of night really gets me going.
Tomorrow I will post a 'sale' painting, so stay tuned.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Thursday

"Gap Lake Road", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Gap Lake Road", plein air oil painting, 8 x 6"
$350.00 framed, FREE S&H

I just love old gravel roads with telephone poles -probably has something to do with childhood memories, it is kind of hard to find any of them around any more. The wild flowers this year are wonderful and seem to grace every ditch and coulee. Blessings just waiting to be received...

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Wednesday

"Fire Sky At Ghost Lake"; plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Fire Sky At Ghost Lake"; plein air oil painting, 9 x 12"
$595.00 framed, FREE S&H

Lately we have been getting a lot of smoke from forest fires burning to the west and north of us, and it has been doing funny things with the way the mountains look in the distance -you can't even see them from town sometimes. This was painted from Ghost Lake which is quite close to the Kananaskis range. The day was so lovely and hot, I was sorry I didn't have my bathing suit along.

I have just been accepted into a new online group of daily painters called Fresh Paint Daily Painters. The other artists there are really top notch, and I am thrilled to be a part of them. Please check them out and subscribe to their daily posts.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Tuesday

"Ingrid's Flowers", oil painting from life by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Ingrid's Flowers", oil painting from life, 12 x 16"
$695.00 framed, FREE S&H

I painted at Ingrid Christensen's new studio on a super yucky day, and we painted from a bouquet that she ran out and collected in the rain. I have never tried this ambitious a project from life before, but I am really happy with the way it turned out. The vase was sitting on a table, but it just didn't look right in the painting, so I have played around with it quite a bit, and finally decided to only suggest its presence. I just love orange and blue together! You can see two of Ingrid's versions of this same set up on her blog here.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

"Drifting By", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Drifting By", plein air oil painting, 8 x 6"
$350.00 framed, FREE S&H

Another evening in the mountains try, this time the clouds were less dense and heavy, but still cast neat shadows on the mountains. Speed painting once again.

I will post a sale painting tomorrow, so stay tuned : )

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Sunday

"Summer Rushes", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Summer Rushes", plein air oil painting, 6 x 8"
$350.00 framed, FREE S&H

Another painting from Lloyds Park, a multifaceted place full of magic. I was entranced by the variety of pure vs. neutralized colour that presented itself in this scene. The strangest thing was the lack of birds in the park this time. Usually you open your car door and are just amazed by the sound of thousands of water fowl and sea gulls of all types. I don't know where they went, but our weather has been very up and down lately. I hope they haven't gone for good.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Friday

"Mountain Twilight", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Mountain Twilight", plein air oil painting, 8 x 6"
SOLD

I painted this in Canmore with Liz while she was doing her 100 paintings in 100 days challenge. It was another evening painting and the clouds were so beautiful, yet they were playing havoc with the light and shadow patterns on the mountains. The first thing I did was to get the mountain in the light in as I knew that was going to change rapidly, and then stick to that plan. I love the peachy evening light as it hits the mountains.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Thursday

"Soft Evening Light", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Soft Evening Light", plein air oil painting, 9 x 12"
$595.00 framed, FREE S&H

This painting went down like a dream. After a day of painting on the landscape, my senses are so heightened to colour that I see things I would never have seen otherwise. The sun was just going down so I had to work quickly to get this one in. At that time of evening, the light is changing SO FAST that you are on auto-pilot, bypassing your left analytical brain and leaving your creative, receptive right brain to connect to your hand. I live for moments like these!

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

"Canola Skies", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Canola Skies", plein air oil painting, 9 x 12"
$595.00 framed, FREE S&H

This is the second painting that I did in the canola field, same field as yesterday's post, just turned 90 degrees to the west. I tried to capture some of the the same energy in the sky as I got in the close up canola on the last painting. Great fun.
My friend Liz posted a lovely and moving video of Texas artist Virginia Vaughan (for some reason I couldn't copy the code for the location, but you can visit Liz's blog and get to it from there -and enjoy Liz's work at the same time!). Virginia painted her last 365 days on her family farm, before the developers moved in to turn it into more of suburbia. It could not have been more timely, with my postings of these paintings of the farm which is about to suffer the same fate. It really touched my heart, and resonated with why I love to paint on the land. It gets into your soul when you paint it -almost like a lover.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Tuesday

"Canola Farm", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Canola Farm", plein air oil painting, 9 x 9"
$495.00 framed, FREE S&H

I have always wanted to paint this farm, and this time of year when the canola is in full bloom is its most lovely look. I went painting with Jan and he took his big truck right into the field so that we could paint this scene. I absolutely love this painting because of the vibrant brushwork and the feelings that I have for this farm -it is up for sale now andit will probably be made into a housing development; its beauty will be a real loss.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Friday

"Peachleaf Bellflowers, plein air painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Peachleaf Bellflowers, plein air painting, 8 x 10"
$495.00 framed, FREE S&H

This is the last painting from Reader Rock Gardens. I was working on a sand coloured ground, and liked how the background colour read for the negative space, so decided to leave it that way. Once more I gave myself the challenge of painting growing flowers from life, which is hard to do with the speed that the light changes. However, there is a freshness in the swift handling of paint that is hard (for me at least) to capture from a photo. I will persist!

PS: I made a mistake on the sizes, and therefore prices, of the previous two garden paintings. They were 8 x 10" in size and thus are $495, rather than $595 -now if you were thinking of owning them, you just saved yourself $100!

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Thursday

"Mr. Reader's Rock Garden", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Mr. Reader's Rock Garden", plein air oil painting, 9 x 12"
SOLD

This is actually the first painting I did at Reader Rock Gardens. The gardens are built on the side of a very steep hill which gives an interesting perspective when you are standing at the bottom looking up. The peonies at the top were the very last ones of the season, so I was very lucky to catch them.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Wednesday

"Mr. Reader's Path", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Mr. Reader's Path", plein air oil painting, 9x 12"
SOLD

I went painting at the lovely Reader Rock Gardens with Cheryl and Lins (2 of my wonderful students and good friends) a couple of weeks ago, and this is one of 3 that I did there. You know how some days are 'good' days, and the 'painting angels' are all around? Well, this was one of those remarkable days. I just loved how the light was sparkling on the pathway, revealing the lovely cool of the shade.

Enjoy!

To purchase this, or commission your own painting, please email me.

Monday

Mixed Media Workshop finale... and a painting

At the beginning of the workshop I asked all the participants what they wanted out of their week with me. I combined all their desires and made them into a motto which I posted at the front of the classroom. In the end, they all agreed that they got what they wanted!

This is our class: top l to r -Joanne, Lynda, Michelle, Karen, Debbie, me, Kirsten and Pat. My kids are all holding their favorite painting from the week. It was a blast and I hope to be able to do it again next year. Michelle was the successful bidder for my painting "Gabrielle" from my last post -the silent auction over it was quite vigorous. I am really glad that she got it. I understand that she has some cool plan to hang it from a large metal wall piece -would sure love to see that.

"Spring Bouquet", oil painting from life, 8x6" on 1" thick panel
SOLD

I did this painting before leaving for the the workshop. As the weather has been variably crummy, I decided to not let that stop me from painting from life. These are some of my flowers from my garden, which have managed to miss all the hail storms so far -fingers crossed.

I have decided to paint the flowers from my garden, from life, for the month of August, and put them for sale here on my blog at a really inexpensive price. If people respond and purchase them, I will continue to do smaller than gallery sized paintings (8x10 or larger) and post them for sale, getting a Paypal button and all that good stuff. As this is a market test, if you are interested in purchasing one, please email me and I will make arrangements for the sale and shipping.

Enjoy!