Back in the saddle!

Hello friends, I realize I haven't been here for 3 years -wow that went by really fast! I have decided that in this time of Covid sheltering at home, I would like to connect with you all again. I hope that you and all those you love are well, and are finding your way through this strange time. My hubby Dave and I have been healthy, physically and mostly emotionally, although I personally feel like I am on a bit of a roller coaster, tossing between sorrow for those less fortunate than I am (think single mothers with little kids, women in abusive relationships, etc, etc...) and elation at how beautiful the weather is becoming and that I am SO grateful to be alive and have all of my needs met, and then feeling a bit guilty for that, rinse and repeat!

So I decided that perhaps I can bring a little colour and joy into your inbox. That was my answer to the question "What do you have in your hand that could help others?" So I hope you will receive it in the spirit that it is being sent!

I am not going to try to fill in what has taken place over the last 3 years artistically, but I will share my recent work. Over the last 2 years I have been on a search to find a more contemporary expression for the landscapes that I love painting so much, searching for a unique and authentic voice that I loved and also captured the hearts of people. So below is some of that new work.

This painting is a sort of summary of my new work.  "The Red Makes It", now in its forever home, captures my new approach to the landscape. Over the past 7 years of painting in oils 'en plein air' (outside in front of the scene) I have grasped an appreciation of how the sun illuminates all the objects it falls on, giving each part its own individual identity, as if each one has a solo part in a choir full of beauty. Words fail me, that is not my gift. So I take my brush and paint how I feel about the things I see. My adjectives are radiant, intense colours, my nouns the form that are devised to play and dance with the other shapes on the canvas. This is not the world you might see with your eyes, but hopefully it expresses what you might feel if you were standing in my painting.

I did "Embrace Of Nature" purely from my imagination this winter. I began with a ton of colour and texture, having the idea of wanting to paint a forest, and eager to see what would reveal itself. The yellow and blue bands felt like arms to me and as I 'painted away the parts that weren't trees',  I began to see the importance of Nature, enfolding everything in its arms, giving order to the seemingly wild and untamed.

And this last piece, "Rundle's Song" was an attempt to put my new philosophy into practice with landscapes that I have painted many times in somewhat more representational, 'realistic' ways. I think it expresses the joy I feel standing at the side of Vermillion Lakes, gazing up at the power that is Mt Rundle.

I hope that you enjoy these images -please let me know if you do!

Blessings
Sharon
(You can see more of my new work on my website at http://sharonlynnwilliams.com)


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"Fall Remnants", encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Fall Remnants", 12 x 24" encaustic on panel
$895 beautifully presented in a hand crafted frame

This is my latest encaustic painting, which captures the scene on one of my daily walks. Here, the weaselhead area of the Elbow River is seen through the large aspen trees growing on the cliff above. 

I am planning some encaustic classes for this spring to be held at Swinton's Art Supply here in Calgary. I will let you know the details as they are finalized.

Enjoy! 
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new encasutics First Snow i & ii

"First Snow i", 12 x 24" encaustic on cradled panel
$895 beautifully framed

So now that it is winter and it is too cold to paint outside, I am back in my studio working with the wax. I painted this in my friend, Tracy Proctor's beautiful encaustic studio. When I brought it home my hubby said "I REALLY like this -wish it was bigger!" He immediately went out to the lumber store and bought me a 24x48" piece of baltic birch and made a cradle for it so it wouldn't warp while painting. It took me 16 hours, but I just completed it, the largest encaustic painting I have done to date!

"First Snow ii", 24x48" encaustic on cradled panel
$2895 beautifully framed

It is really different working this large. I found I needed to make small containers of a bunch of colour variations so I had enough of each colour to cover a large space. My usual practice is to have one griddle with large containers of a few key colours that I use to mix other colour variations from, as well as a large pot of clear medium and a container of soy wax to clean my brushes in. I use the other griddle as a mixing palette, where I put out small amounts of colours from manufactured or home made wax pigments and then add small amounts of other colours to get a huge range of colour options. In my work I love to have a range of lights, mids and darks of equal value so that I can get colour variation =life. If you click on the large painting image, you can hopefully see what I mean. For example in the snow shadow area there are 5 different values (light to dark) of blue grey. I bought some small stainless steal condiment cups at a local restaurant supplier, so I could have a container of each of those values. Add to those multiple cups of lights including creamy whites, yellows, greens and blues that appear in the sky behind the trees, as well as multiple mid-value cups containing yellows, oranges, reds, blues, greens and violets. But I think all those colour variations is what brings pop and life to the painting, so it is well worth the work. I was thrilled to find some silicone mini-muffin cups at the store, so now I can put the colours that are left over into those, allow them to cool and add the blocks to my collection of colours, rather than having to throw them away.
My son commented that I need to do a series of these, so I think I will take him up on that idea -stay tuned to see more .

Enjoy!
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Painting at Big Hawk Lake, Ontario

"Hawk Lake Shoreline", 12x12" oil on panel
$575 framed

My hubby and I spent the last two weeks of August at our family cottage on Big Hawk Lake, which is about a half hour south of Algonquin Park in Ontario. This is a small slice of heaven, and I love to take my paints and set up a floating plein air set-up in our paddle boat with an anchor (tried the canoe but it was too tippy and subject to wind drift!). This year the weather was cool, windy and often rainy so I had to resort to taking photos to paint from in the protection of the cottage. This was the first one that I did -the spot is just around the shore from our place.

"The Island -Big Hawk Lake", 12x12" oil on panel
$575 framed

My second painting was done at one of my favorite spots on the lake, that I call "The Island". I have painted this island many times and it always looks different. You can see the scattered showers advancing here. The water was quite high for this time of year, usually much more rock is visible.

"Feldspar, Moss & Lichen", 12x12" oil on panel
SOLD

This is the directly across a little path of water from the painting location above. I am always struck by the coral-pink feldspar in some of the rocks on our lake, which is particulary prominant at this spot. I love how it contrasts with the yellow-green moss and the blue-green lichen that share their glory here.

"Colours Of Hawk Lake", 12x12" oil on panel
$575 framed

This is another view of the same spot, just from a little further away. All the rain made the colours just sing! No chance of forest fires getting out of control in this area of the world. While in Ontario I kept reading about how the smoke from forest fires was keeping my friends in Calgary locked up in their homes. I really didn't mind the rain!

Enjoy!
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"Creekside Winter" encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter Colour", 10x14" encaustic on cradled panel

$450.00 framed 

I have been on a real roll with my encaustic painting. I have been working from old paintings, and this one came from a really old watercolour that I loved -so glad that over the years I have always taken the time to document all of my work! I made a large version of this painting because I was so pleased with how the smaller one turned out, and it is posted below. 

"Creekside Winter", 18x24" encaustic on cradled panel, sides stained
$1050.00

I am happy to announce that this painting was one of 5 accepted into the next Federation of Canadian Artists' show coming up (please see invitation below)

Hope to see you there!

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"Bend In The Elbow", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Bend In The Elbow", 8 x 10" plein air oil painting on board
on DPW auction beginning at $80, click here to bid

This is another of my 'last of fall' plein air oils. I have painted at this spot on several occasions, always in the fall. It is interesting to see how different all the paintings are. That just proves to me that I have different artistic concerns every time I go out to paint. I just need to tune into what impresses me about the scene on that day, and try to show that in paint.


Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, commission your own painting or contact me to do a workshop in your area, please email me at williamsdotsharonatshawdotca (insert characters for the dot and at!)


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"Bands of Autumn" plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Bands of Autumn" 8 x 10"plein air oil painting
$395 beautifully framed

Sometimes when I go out painting, I am just struck by the abstract in the landscape. This was one such time. I loved the linear layers: the tall trees against the distant mountains, the bushes with their interesting shapes (and my colours!), all with the newly harvested fields in between. Yummy!

By the way, if I may be so bold to brag, my fabulously talented son Evan recently starred in the movie called "The Fortune Theory". If you are interested, you can watch the trailers here. Click on the blue circle on the upper left to see the menu, with the trailers.


Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, commission your own painting or contact me to do a workshop in your area, please email me at williamsdotsharonatshawdotca (insert characters for the dot and at!)

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"Leighton Trees", plein air oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Leighton Trees", 8 x 10" plein air oil
$395 framed in a espresso plein air framed, click here to purchase

This is the first painting I did after I tore my achilles tendon. These are the wonderful trees outside the Leighton Art Centre that seem to take on very unique characteristics depending on the day. Don't ask me why the trees on the right are different colours than those on the left as they are the same species, and I have never seen them so different before.

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, commission your own painting or contact me to do a workshop in your area, please email me at williamsdotsharonatshawdotca (insert characters for the dot and at!)


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"Sunlight and Shadow", plein air painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Shadow and Sunlight", 8 x 6" plein air oil on board
SOLD

On our second day into our Jasper trip I found this view as we were scouting for painting locations. I was fascinated by the patterns and colours and tried to quickly get it in without too much analyzing -just reacting to what I saw. I really like this little painting!


Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, commission your own painting or contact me to do a workshop in your area, please email me at williamsdotsharonatshawdotca (insert characters for the dot and at!)

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"Winter Sun" acrylic painting demonstration by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter Sun", acrylic on canvas, 14 x 14"
$695.00 framed

I did this painting over the holidays, trying to bring some life into this winter cold we are having. I have been tremendously impressed and inspired by the watercolours and acrylics of Scottish artist Chris Forsey. They touch on a way of painting that I explored several years ago, and had forgotten all about. I thought I would show you the steps so that you can see how it was done.

Step 1: First of all, I need to tell you that I had no idea how this was going to turn out -I love the challenge of working from chaos!! The painting begins with a random mess of fluid acrylics, quin gold, quin burnt orange, and Perm Violet dark with a touch of dioxazine violet. The paint was put on wet-on-wet and dry brushed, with splattering, stamping with hand carved stamps and scraping. While this underpainting is warm in colour temperature, the final painting will have a cool dominance, bringing attention to these lovely warm colours.

Step 2: Some translucent and opaque blues were begun to get the feeling of snow and sky. I was careful to keep all the edges soft at this stage, as I wasn't sure where I was going.

Step 3: More stamping was done with transparent and opaque colours, and hints of trunks laid in. The edges of the stamped patterns began to suggest a tangle of branches.

Step 4: Tinted opaque white mixed with modeling paste was added to the bottom area with a palette knife in a loose fashion to begin to model the snow.

Step 5: Splatter was added to the bottom snow as were some suggestions of cast shadows. Trunks and branches were added in darks and lights weaving throughout the brush. A suggestion of the warm sun breaking into the coldness was added. Also at this stage the tree tops were further suggested by negatively painting them with the sky colour. Some faint distant trees were added and the sun was softened further to suggest a haziness that I felt expressed the frostiness of the morning.

Step 6: I needed to change the size of the trees on the left, so I sponged in some white paint and let that dry with the intention of glazing all of it with the warm 'brush' colours. In the end, I only glazed some of the white and kept the rest as I thought it looked like snow caught in the branches amongst some yellowed leaves which remained on the trees.

Enjoy!

PS: I will post another clearance sale painting tomorrow. Please note that Poppy Surprise and Iris Garden have been sold. Glad that this clearance sale is working!!!

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