CLEARANCE SALE CONTINUES

"Poppy Surprise", 8 x 8", mixed media
beautifully framed in a square black frame -retail price $350
SOLD

This is a collage and acrylic painting that I did last March. It began with a loose sketch for the placement of the flowers, and then it progressed from there depending on what happened with the hand painted collage elements.

Enjoy!

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

"Yesterday's Memory", and CLEARANCE SALE by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Yesterday's Memory", acrylic and oil, 24 x 24"
nfs

This is my submission for the International Women Celebrate! show to be held in Ayr, Ontario this spring. You can see some of the submissions if you follow the link. There will also be a book created about the exhibition with the 100 submitted paintings in it. The text for the painting reads: "I have a dried, red rose hanging pinned to my studio wall, left from a rare bouquet gifted to me by my precious husband. This scene struck me as such a powerful metaphor for my heart. Like its memory, the rose’s beauty remains past the celebration, but in a new form. It warms my heart as I remember, yet it is a fragile thing, and this reminds me to guard my heart."

JANUARY SALE ALERT!!!
As part of my New Years resolutions to unclutter my life, I have decided to clear some excess painting inventory from my basement. These works have been in galleries and shows, and many have won awards -they just haven't found their owners yet. So, for a limited period of time, I am putting these works out to the public at 60% off the retail price. Most of the works are framed, and shipping will be at cost to the purchaser. I will add one to each blog post for the month. If you are interested, please email me. Here is the first one:

"Adam", acrylic and collage, 34 x 19" framed size -retail price $1040.00
$420.00 plus GST, shipping and handling for a limited time only!

Enjoy!

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

"Wooded Places", mixed media painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Wooded Places", mixed media painting, 12 x 12"
SOLD

I haven't done a collage painting for such a long time, and it was SO fun to do. I paint and decorate all my own collage papers, and the paintings begin with a random smattering of them. Then I look and look to the painting to tell me the direction to take. This one began easily as the two main trees were suggested in the paper, and off I went painting, covering up, repainting, simplifying and then making busy again until the whole thing began to form a cohesive unit. It would be neat to have several of the exact same starts to see the different paintings they would become.

Enjoy!

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

Mixed Media workshop DAY FOUR

"Gabrielle", mixed media, 11 x 11"
SOLD

This was one of my demos today. We were working on textured grounds, and this one has Light Molding Paste, Garnet Gel and Glass Bead Gel under the colour (thanks to the nice Golden rep who gave me some free samples). I mounted the painting, which was done on archival mat board, onto a slab of 3/4" plywood which I had painted gloss black, in lieu of a frame -looks very nice. It is my contribution to the Series Scholarship fund and it will go up for silent auction tonight during our student show. We are going out for dinner after the show, so I will take photos and post them tomorrow.
PS: they offer several free scholarships to be used towards next years' Series, so check it out and get an application in -hardly anyone knows about it, so the chances are very good you might win one ; )

Enjoy!

Mixed Media Workshop DAY TWO

"Flight Lesson", acrylic and collage, 10 x 10"
SOLD

This is one of my demos from today. We painted papers in the morning and then collaged them into 3 different compositions, then looked to see what they would be. This was a T composition (touches 3 sides leaving 3 differently shaped and sized negative shapes). I couldn't get over how much the side pieces looked like wings, so I gave the figure a head and a hand, and invited a couple of birds in to give him a lesson on taking flight.

Enjoy!

"A Splash of Fall", watercolor and gouache painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"A Splash of Fall", watercolor and gouache, 8x8"
SOLD 

This is a demonstration painting that I did for my Monday Mixed Media class. I began with a colourful watercolor underwash, and when it was dry, I added blue watercolour mixed with a juicy load of titanium white gouache to negatively paint the sky area -making the trees by not painting them. I added some translucent and opaque strokes to set up the bank area and a bit of opaque dry brush to create the sparkle on the water, and lifted the gouache to reveal the underpainting for the sun.

Enjoy!

"Jet Lag", acrylic and collage painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Jet Lag", acrylic and collage, 7.5 x 7.5"
$250 framed in a black floater frame, FREE S&H

I painted this painting just before I went to France, but hadn't titled it. Yesterday as I was preparing for the Calyx show, I knew what it was called! This is exactly how I am feeling right now... although the painting was never supposed to be a face, but there it is. I tried to get rid of it, but it wasn't going away. Today's show was a smash hit for me, and it was the mixed media that was flying out the doors . Thanks to all of you who were able to come out, it was so great to meet so many new art fans.

Enjoy!

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

"Posies", acrylic and collage painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

(see description below)

"Posies", acrylic and collage, 9x9"
$275.00 in simple, narrow, dark blue frame, FREE S&H

Well, I must say it is good to be back home! I had to cancel my Canmore workshop, as I was just too bagged to really show up, and will let you know when it is rescheduled.

I began this painting at a collage workshop this spring, and have finished it for the Calyx show tomorrow. The top image is the way the unfinished painting looked at the end of the workshop. I liked how it felt like a floral bouquet, so decided to take that idea further. The background was repainted with casein, which is a much better opaque paint than acrylic.

Hope you can stop in to see the Calyx show Sunday and say hi. I am praying that I will be able to lose the rest of this jet lag by then.

Enjoy!

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

Mixed Media painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

This is an in-progress painting that I was working on for my mixed media class. It began with some collage elements, many of which are no longer visible, but you can still see some text papers and a nude figure which was from an old nudie postcard I bought at a flee market in Italy. Then acrylics are put on top, more collage, more paint, etc. I am not sure what else I will do to this, but I don't think it is 'there' yet. Any suggestions?

Enjoy!

"The Mentor:, mixed media painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"The Mentor", mixed media painting, 15 x 22"

I progressed this painting over a couple of weeks for my mixed media class. Such an adventure, as it always is when working from chaos. It began with a failed start that I began to collage pieces of coloured magazine papers to. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the start, and it has come a long way since then. The figures appeared so I went with that thought. As it went along, I began to think about mentoring -how we sit at the feet of a master, hungry to learn all they have to teach us. The vessel shape symbolized the well of knowledge, the text representing notes taken so the nuggets don't get lost. I have sat at the feet of several wonderful mentors, including Virginia Cobb, Carla O'Connor, Gerald Brommer and George James, to name a few of my most favorites. Now I have others who are learning from me. And so the cycle continues...

Enjoy!

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

"Winter Twilight", mixed media landscape painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter Twilight", mixed media painting, 15 x 22"
SOLD 

I went back into my painting that I did at the Quiller workshop, posted on November 3rd. I felt that it really lacked some 'oomph', so I went back in and added some opaques into the background, lighting up the distant mountain shape, then added some teal and orange opaques into the snow area in the front, darkened the trees in the middle, played a bit more with counterchanges in the trees, and capped it all off with a moon just coming up behind the mountains. I like it much better now.

Enjoy!

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

"Spokane Evening", mixed media landscape painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Spokane Evening", mixed media painting on 300lb rough watercolour paper, 11 x 14"

I finally got around to finishing this painting I began while in Spokane. It is a memory of the wonderful park that is in the centre of downtown Spokane on the river. We walked through this park several times in the evenings on our way to restaurants in the area, and this view of the clock tower lit up in the starry night along with all the colourful fall trees, really captured my imagination. The clock tower is square actually -I did this painting from memory only, so I guess I missed that part!

Enjoy!

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

"Looking Back", mixed media painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Looking Back", mixed media painting, 12 x 16"
SOLD

This is one of the paintings that I began at the Brommer collage workshop I took in September. I finally got around to finishing it- I was not sure what I wanted to do with the imagery in the bottom of the painting, and how to tie it to the top. The reddish shape in the lower right kept screaming 'person' so I went with it. The painting is about leaving home and looking back through the filters of our subsequent experiences.

Enjoy!

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

"Fall Hillside", mixed media painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Fall Hillside", mixed media painting, 14 x 11"

This is another painting that I produced at the Quiller workshop. It is a take off on his idea and is painted with acrylic, watercolour and casein. It was great fun to do and I just love the juicy opaque casein on the transparent acrylic and watercolour. Cheryl is doing a wonderful job outlining Steve's course on her blog, along with instructions, so be sure to check it out.

Enjoy!

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

New collage painting

"Life's Energy", collage and acrylic, 7 x 8"
This is the first painting that I made with the papers I painted (displayed on this blog Jan 24th/09). The design is one that I adapted from a 'viewfinder design', which is an abstract design found by looking at newspapers or magazine using an empty slide mount as a frame. Design is very personal, and everyone will have their own innate sense of what their preferences are. As I look over most of my viewfinder designs, I find I am attracted to large value ranges and to a dominance of curvilinear shapes, offset by some geometric shapes.
Enjoy!

Painting Collage Papers

This week in my mixed media class, we painted sketchbook weight white papers to make a co-ordinated set to do some collage with. As well as patterned papers, we made a collection of solid papers in varying values to use as quiet areas (not shown). I look forward to see what will come of this exercise, but whatever happens, making the papers was FUN.
Enjoy!

More Mixed Media

"Marie Louise", mixed media, 15 x 21"
This work was done as a tribute to my grandmother Louise Martin, who died just before her 100th birthday. She was a wonderful woman who shared with me her love of gardening and lovingly making beautiful things with her hands. It was done on a monoprinted base and then collage, various types of image transfers, stamps and ink were added. I am not sure if it is finished yet, but thought I would post it anyway.
Enjoy!

Demonstration painting

Untitled, 16x16", mixed media
This is a demonstration painting that I began as a demo for the Calgary Community Painters, and then finished off as a demo at the Federation of Canadian Artists Calgary Chapter show. It is here in two very different colours -the bright orangy photo was taken under the halogen shop lights that were illuminating my work space, and the second was taken in full shade outside. The truth of the colour is somewhere between these two. I find the best colour comes through when you shoot in full, high sunlight (as in at noon) with the painting at a 45 degree angle to the light source (horizontal axis), and 90 degrees perpendicular to the ground (vertical axis). The colour is truest and the textures are most evident. As I donated this painting to the FCA I was not able to bring it home to photograph myself.
Enjoy!

Now for something completely different....

"Returning Home", mixed media painting, 12 x 12"
This is the demonstration painting that I did for my "Paint Creatively with Mixed Media" workshop that I did for Leading Edge Art Workshops the weekend before this one. It's title derives from the fact that it seems like forever since I have done any studio work in abstraction, and it felt really good to return to it after plein air painting exclusively for the last 4 months.
Enjoy!

"Daffodils"

6.75 x 10.25" mixed water media
Tuesday May 13, 2008
This is a demo I did for my watermedia class. The reference was a lovely vase of daffodils one of my students brought to class. I began with very loose colourful strokes of yellows and oranges, and puddled in greens and reds to form the flowers (no drawing was done first -the brush did that!) Then I took a multitude of different watercolour pencils and did some caligraphy around the flowers in places. After puddling in the leaves, I decided to go a bit wild and wash in a vibrant background of scarlet lake, quinacridone rose, ultramarine blue and green. I think it adds a great punch to the piece and conveys the energy of spring.