Saturday

"Elbow Falls Summer", 12 x 12" plein air oil painting

"Elbow Falls Summer", 12 x 12", plein air oil on gallery wrap canvas
SOLD

I love going to Elbow Falls to paint -it is so peaceful there as the noise of any people around is blocked out by the sounds of the water rushing over the falls, which is just below this spot. Quite often I have been startled by someone standing over my shoulder watching me paint while I was in 'painting heaven'.

We are leaving in the morning for a month away from home! First we go to Toronto to visit Dave's family and then we are going with ALL of our four children to our family cottage on Big Hawk Lake, just south of Algonquin Park. The whole family hasn't been together at the cottage for so many years, it will be such a delight.

Then we are heading off to Colorado where I will be participating in Plein Air Rockies, my first plein air competition. It is being held in Estes Park, which is sort of like Banff is to me here. I am a bit nervous about the whole thing, but I have been assured it will be a blast. (send up some good prayers for me please??) I won't have internet access while we are at the cottage, but I will have in Estes Park, so I will be blogging again come the 20th of August. I am sure I will need your support :)

Until then, I hope you have a wonderful summer!!
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Tuesday

"The Riot of Fall", oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"The Riot of Fall", 9 x 12", oil on panel
Click here to bid -beginning bid at $175

I did this painting from a photo that I took last fall at Bowness Park here in Calgary. The fall colours don't last very long here, and when you get something as flaming red as these sugar maple bushes, you really take notice. This was my first painting on the new Raymar Featherlite smooth cotton canvas panels that I bought to take to Plein Air Rockies, and I must say I really liked the surface. I pre-primed it with my red-orange gesso, which laid a nice foundation for all the warm colours, and really set off the green spruce tree and the blue sky.

Enjoy!
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Monday

"The Steep Way Down", new plein air oil painting

"The Steep Way Down", 12 x 7", plein air oil on board
$495 beautifully framed, free shipping and handling

This is the path that I tore my calf muscle on, after scrambling up it with all my painting gear in tow. Another reminder that taking a short cut isn't always the most expeditious approach, in life or in art. I did have fun making the painting though, trying to capture the coolness of the shade in contrast to the warmth of the sun.
And my leg is healing slowly, thanks for asking :)


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

"Riverside Pathway", new plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Riverside Pathway", 12 x 9", plein air oil on board
$595.00 beautifully framed, free shipping and handling

Painting buddy Jan and I went to Fish Creek Park again for another plein air session the other day. It was hot, so we were looking for somewhere to paint in the shade, and in a breeze to keep the mosquitos away. This spot fit the bill. The creek is between the end of the path and that giant cliff. Amazing that such a small creek could carve such a big cliff over time. I had great fun with the colour on this one.

I am off in the morning for a 4 day camping and canoeing adventure in the Castle Wilderness Area. I am taking my paints and my canoe helmet (good sets of rapids on our route), so I will come back with some good stories and hopefully good paintings as well.

Enjoy!

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

"Marsh Light", plein air watercolour painting in new DVD by Sharon Lynn Williams

 
 "Marsh Light" plein air watercolour, 12 x 16"
SOLD

This is the second demonstration for my new plein air DVD. You saw the scene done in oil in my last post, and from that experience, I decided on the value pattern for this watercolour. Unfortunately, much more pre-planning has to go into a watercolour if one doesn't want it to turn to mud. It was fun doing it in oil first, making all the changes that I wanted to on the fly. Then I made a value study from the oil painting to use the next day.

This is the scene as it appeared in the early morning. I definitely had to use a different colour palette than I used the previous day in the oil painting (the oil had a cool dominance, the watercolour has a warm dominance). The lighting was also much less dramatic in the morning as it was front lit. To get some excitement into the painting, what I could no longer do with value, I had fun doing with colour.



This was the camera set-up for the watercolour demo. I used my old full french easel lying flat with the drawer extended as a shelf for my palette. I also put a plexiglass book-holder under the watercolour block so that I had a bit of an angle to work with. There were 3 cameras used throughout the demo so that the viewer could see what was happening in the palette as well as on the paper. The stool was so that Susan could see looking down on my work (she is a shorty like me!)

 Rex and Susan enjoying a final toast at the end of the second day of location filming. We still had to do another session in the studio to introduce the topic with discussion of my materials and plein air philosophy to go at the beginning of the DVD. Then another concluding session to discuss the changes made to the paintings after I had a chance to live with them for a while. I think it will be an excellent instructional video and I can't wait to see the first edits.

Enjoy!

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

"Marsh Light" -new plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Marsh Light #1", plein air oil painting, 9x12"
$595 beautifully framed, free shipping and handling

I did this plein air oil painting at the end of my first day of filming my new DVD as this is the scene that I wanted to paint the next day in filming the watercolour portion of the video. It is just down from the location in my last post, on a quiet gravel road in the foothills. With all the rain we had in June, lots of lovely marshes have sprung up, and I love to paint them. The various birds and ducks that inhabit them, as well as the frogs, make for a wonderful musical score to paint to.

Enjoy!

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

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Friday

New Plein Air DVD filming -Day 1 Oil Demo


"What Could Be", plein air oil, 9 x 12"
SOLD

This is the first demonstration in my NEW PLEIN AIR DVD!! I have finally been persuaded to film another video, this time on the plein air experience and how I handle it. It has a full demo in oil and one in watercolour, (which I will share with you tomorrow). This was a very interesting experience as I ended up changing the colouration and the composition in the actual scene to be more dramatic and inviting, hence the title. Below you can see the photo that I took when I began painting. The DVD talks about the changes I made and why, while I am making them, and gives you a front seat to some pretty major artistic decisions. A very big 'permission slip' for those of you tentative about venturing out to do some plein air painting of your own!

original scene
 This is the WhitePine Productions film crew (friends Rex and Susan Beanland) getting all set up to film my day of oil painting. WhitePine are the videographers who filmed my "Watercolour Workshop" DVD, and I must say, they do an AWESOME job! There were 3 cameras filming my demo, so the audience won't miss anything. I hope that the DVD will be ready in November in time for Christmas gift giving. I will post a preview of the video as soon as it is ready.

Enjoy!
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Wednesday

New Plein Air Oil painting and Carol Marine Exercises

 "Spring Runoff -Fish Creek", plein air oil painting, 7 x 12"
Click here to bid -starting bid at $200 unframed

This painting was done earlier this summer -very late snow pack melt here in Alberta, so the rivers and creeks have been high for a long time. Normally you wouldn't be able to take a canoe down this creek, but you sure could have this day.

I thought I would share some exercises we did at the Carol Marine workshop. We were taught to group our values so that we had a dominant value, a secondary value and a smidge value. We had to plan the value composition before beginning to paint and then execute the plan. We were encouraged to try a different plan with each study. It was almost impossible to do a dark dominant painting without making things up, so I didn't do that one. We began with 30 minutes to do the first one, then 15 and lastly 5. Luckily we were allowed to simplify the composition as we shortened the time!
30 minutes; dominant=mid value , secondary=dark value , smidge =light value
15 minutes; dominant=light value , secondary=mid value , smidge =dark value
5 minutes -that was FAST!; dominant=light value , secondary=mid value , smidge =dark value
 I think I will practice some transparent glazing with these as I like the compositions, and will post again later.

Enjoy!
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Monday

New Plein Air Oil Painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Majestic One", 6 x 8" plein air oil painting on board
SOLD

This painting was done as a demonstration for my plein air workshop at the Leighton Centre. I was trying to show the students how to capture rapidly moving clouds. The key is to find a cloud motif that you like and draw that in. Paint the landscape so it looks like there are clouds scurrying by -ie: show some light and shadow patterns on the land. Then use whatever clouds are present to get the colours and values of the clouds, and then paint the shapes you have previously drawn.

I have just joined Daily Paintworks and they will be holding auctions for paintings for me. I will try to list the starting price of the auctions here on my blog. This is a very good way to pick up some very cool unframed artworks at extremely reasonable prices. Payment is made through PayPal, so it is all very secure.

Enjoy!

Sunday

New oil painting from Carol Marine workshop

"Cracked Up", 6 x 6" oil painting on 3/4" masonite
SOLD

This is my last painting from the Carol Marine workshop. Carol had done a demo of a cracked egg in the morning, so thought I would take the opportunity to try my hand at it. I had the hardest time trying to show that you were looking into the shell on the left, rather than the outside of it, but I think I got it in the end. All a question of values and hard vs soft edges. A lot of learning in this painting. The shells were way harder than the yolk.

I have just joined Daily Paintworks and they will be holding auctions for paintings for me. I will try to list the starting price of the auctions here on my blog. This is a very good way to pick up some very cool unframed artworks at extremely reasonable prices. Payment is made through PayPal, so it is all very secure.

Enjoy!

Friday

Two new oil paintings from Carol Marine's workshop

"Abandoned Beauty #1", 6 x 5" oil on 3/4" masonite
SOLD

I took a photo of an abandoned truck that I passed each day on my way to the Carol Marine workshop in Benalto -when in Rome, and all that. (By the way, I decided to camp nearby in my campervan -there is already paint spilled in there, so future paintings will be good -logic according to fishermen wrt blood in a boat!!) I would have painted it plein air, but it was right beside the highway and didn't trust the situation. So I worked it up from my photo, in my van, on the first night of the workshop.

"Abandoned Beauty #2", 6 x 6" oil on gallery canvas
SOLD

On the 4th day of the workshop we worked from photos, and Carol demonstrated a truck of her own. I thought I would revisit my photo of my truck to see what I could do using some of Carol's brushwork and simplification techniques. This is the result, which took less than an hour, compared to the 2 hours I spent on the first one. It is definitely looser, and was perhaps easier to do on the second try as I was now familiar with the shapes. My hubby likes the first one better -which one do you like better and why?

Enjoy!

To purchase either of these paintings, or to commission your own painting, please email me.
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Thursday

New Oil Painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Lime Sorbet", 6 x 6" oil on board

Click HERE to bid

This is another painting done at Carol Marine's workshop. I found this wonderful ice cream bowl at Winners and just had to have it for the workshop. It was perhaps the hardest thing I have ever had to draw from life, next to the figure. This was done early in the workshop before I 'got' the edges thing, but it was great fun, once I got the drawing in (had to rub it out maybe 5 times). When I was done I gave the bowl to Carol for her collection -so you might even see it appear in one of her paintings!

Enjoy!

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

Carol Marine Workshop

"On The Podium", 6 x 6" oil on board

Click HERE to bid

This is my favorite painting that I did at Carol Marine's workshop last week. The workshop was fabulous! I learned much more this time than 2 years ago -I reminded myself of what I tell my own students: you can only learn what you are ready for. I chose to paint fairly difficult subjects throughout the workshop, just to push my learning level. This is the first time I have painted glass as a subject, and it was great fun to play with the distortions, and trying to figure out why glass looks like it does. The red box is one that Carol gave each of us to put our fears into, so I thought it would be appropriate to have it in this painting.

Enjoy!

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

Winner of the Free Painting Draw!

Congratulations to Murray Elliot Breen of Tigard, Oregon! Please email me your physical address details and I will send out your painting ASAP.

I apologize to all of you who didn't win, but, this draw was so much fun for me, so stay tuned as I think I will have to do it again... Thank you to ALL of you who posted my blog to your Facebook. I really appreciate you helping me to get the work out to an increased audience, and I hope you will continue to subscribe to or follow me.


Have a great day in the sunshine :)
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